HILL: Word revolutions 

Far-right Brothers of Italy's leader Giorgia Meloni votes at a polling station in Rome, Sunday, Sept. 25, 2022. Italians are voting in a national election that might yield the nation's first government led by the far right since the end of World War II. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Revolutions don’t “just happen.” 

In modern times, there is always a written document ― a book, a speech, a pamphlet or a constitution ― which has been widely circulated and read before a revolution has taken hold of the attention of the public and changed their world. 

Words have consequences. Well-written speeches and constitutional documents strike at the heart of people with universal truths that are self-evident but need to be reinforced over and over again so they will not be forgotten. 

Martin Luther, a Catholic monk living in a German monastery, struggled with the concepts of salvation through faith and not by works in the New Testament. He nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the cathedral in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517 and proceeded to write copious amounts about his views on salvation by grace which conflicted with official papal doctrine. He famously concluded his defense at the Diet of Worms on April 17, 1521 with his famous quote: “Here I stand. God help me. I can do no other.”  

The Protestant Reformation which Luther’s words helped ignite, a true “revolution” towards individual autonomy and self-worth, is still saving souls through Christ around the globe today. 

Thomas Jefferson penned the immortal words: “All men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence for the American colonies in 1776.  Those five words rang out like a shot in the night against the backdrop of monarchial rule for millennia and the institution of slavery since the beginning of time. “All men are created equal” has been used as the basis for democratic revolution on every continent ever since. 

Thirteen years later, 55 Americans adopted the U.S. Constitution with three words in the preamble: “We the people”. Those three revolutionary words helped codify freedom principles embodied in the Declaration in a document which established government based on self-rule for the first time, again which has been copied the world over. 

Giorgia Meloni of Italy delivered a speech at the God and Freedom Conference in Rome on February 3, 2020 which no doubt led to her recent election as Prime Minister of Italy.  

Her speech, “God, Homeland, Family” is revolutionary because it strikes at the heart of European socialism and their 29-year experiment with the supra-national entity, the European Union. She quotes historian G.K. Chesterton, novelist J.R.R. Tolkien, British philosopher Roger Scruton, Polish Pope John Paul II and Ronald Reagan, all promoters and purveyors of freedom and the rule of law through democratically-elected government throughout the world. 

Her detractors are already labeling her as a fascist in the mold of Benito Mussolini. Progressive liberals fear anyone who opposes their “One World/The Great Reset” agenda based on centralized socialism. Giorgia Meloni is no fascist ― she has just recognized what Reagan said was true in his 1964 Republican National Convention address: “Freedom is never more than one generation from extinction.” 

Her words to the Italian people may one day be remembered as revolutionary as any words which have sparked freedom revolutions in history.