" Home Improvement?"

I live in an area known as the "Lincoln Corridor" in Illinois. We are surrounded by Lincoln historical sites; we even have a small museum in town where one of the "Lincoln-Douglas" debates took place. Our town has been around a very long time.

My house is one of the oldest in town. Each year I must do my annual spring maintenance. My home is about 160 years old, Abe probably drove by it on his way to his debate with Stephen Douglas. Let me tell you that any house as old as this one takes a lot of care and attention. Over the years we have done some upgrades, yet we are careful not to change the integrity of the house. We replaced all the windows and have steel doors, front and back, but for all intents and purposes the house is close to the original structure. We take care to make sure the house is regularly sprayed and inspected to protect it from those pests who could do damage to the house or its foundation. I am about to embark on my regular quest with my caulking gun to seal any possible leaks around the windows and doors before I install the air conditioners for the summer. I've repainted the front porch already, as it usually needs a new coat about every two years. I could buy a new house that doesn't need all this care, but I appreciate this house and its history. Each of us are fond of our homes, even though at times they need expensive repair to keep them standing. I do quite a bit of my own repair, I'm the type of a person who likes things done my way, so most repairmen don't appreciate me. I believe my home is special to me and my family and I have a duty to keep it in good repair.

Over two hundred and thirty years ago we were given a "national" home to take care of by our founding fathers. They broke the ground, shaved the wood, and put in the stone foundation of what became the United States of America, the greatest nation in the world. They gave us the principles of the freest society ever conceived on this planet, structured through a document that still functions today as the blueprint for freedom to the rest of the world.

We have been given the "keys" to this house. We have been entrusted with the care of this great bastion of freedom. It is our responsibility to watch over every attempt that is made to change this "residence" by any "repairman" and make sure the integrity of the "home" is not compromised. The structure of America is sound, as long as we don't tamper with its "foundation", the Constitution, as it is written. Our country has a "stone" foundation, we cannot remove any of those stones without destroying the structure; it will collapse.

We must be wary when making changes to our "home", quick fixes always come back to haunt you later. Let's make sure we are careful about our repairs, or we could damage more than we fix!