Before their demise, the average of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. If you believe that United States history is impervious to this simple fact, you are simply wrong.

Those failed civilizations all had a birth and death story. Ours is no exception. Look closely at the procession of our history. We struggled to escape bondage through believing and living spiritual faith. We exhibited great courage, celebrated and defended our liberty and reaped the abundance it enabled only to forget why and how we evolved. We slowly accepted complacency and then apathy and are now in the middle of clear dependency and we seem prepared to condemn ourselves to a return to bondage not from without but from within.

Our journey of roughly 244 years is clearly hanging in the balance. We are going to determine the life or death of a nation. The sand in the clock of our history continues to drain. When the sand empties, the clock will stop. The clock only requires someone to turn it over to begin. Civilizations are a completely different story.

Choose wisely and commit your support of personal and national liberty when you vote on Nov. 3.

DELBERT BEYER,

Alpena