Restoring Honor. What does that mean? Ask many different people and you’ll likely get many different answers. Perhaps somebody wants to restore their own honor after committing a blunder of some sort. Or perhaps that person would like to restore someone else’s honor that was undeservedly taken away.

In many parts of the world, and particularly in Eastern Asia, honor is often seen as something a family has earned, and is something that can be lost if a family member makes a mistake. In that case, honor can be difficult to restore.

Honor is often spoken about on a more personal level, but the virtue can also expand to and be lost and earned on a national level. When honor is lost on a national level, it’s can come from two sources: the government or the people.

When the government is the problem, it is because it’s done something to harm either its own people, or that of another nation, and you can expect that one or more bad policies is to blame. Harmful governmental policies are often long-term, and are difficult to amend, so when the government is the cause of lost honor, the damage is either permanent, or at least around for the long-haul. If the term of suffering is the latter, then there is hope to restore that honor.

When people are the problem, it is because they have supported either the government policies described above, or else they have gone under a change in values that have brought about a dishonorable position.

As said above, if government policies are involved, you can expect damage to last for a while, but that doesn’t mean the policies themselves have to command long-term support. Any change is the law always starts with the people, so even if it takes a while to actually change or reverse the bad legislation, the process can theoretically begin not long after people realize the damage that have been caused.

Where values are concerned, a change in those can lead to government action, but not always. In the United States, for example, sometimes an evoution of values has resulted in policy change (e.g. womens’ suffrage, divorce, sodomy), but in other cases it has not (e.g. the devoutness of the Christian population, our tolerance for the practice of other religions). The term of duration for a change in values can extend from only a few years, to a generation, or even permanently. Values themselves are much more malleable and vulnerable to the winds of time than is legislation, so they are easier to change.

Where am I going with all this?

Well, like Glenn Beck, I believe the United States has lost its honor in a number of areas. Some of it has been caused by government policy, and others by the actions of the people. Throughout the week I aim to cover some of the areas where I think we have lost on our honor.

I’ll explain why I think these problems have occurred and what both the people and the government (where applicable) can do to restore honor in those areas. Put together, improvements of the things I’ll discuss will result in America regaining a lot of the honor it has lost over the years.

I don’t think the job will be easy, but for subjects I’ll cover, the probability of success is great. However, the people of the United States need to be willing to meet these tasks head on, and not shy away from them. If we do, the problems we face may become permanent ones.

I believe we are ready. I know I am, and I know many other people are. It is no fluke that there are dozens, if not hundreds, of buses heading toward the Lincoln memorial on Saturday. And that doesn’t count the people arriving by plane, train, or automobile.

The time to act is now, so let’s restore honor to America.

Michael Merritt is in Washington, D.C. this week for Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor Rally on Aug. 28, featuring Sarah Palin, Ted Nugent, Alveda King, and other speakers. Throughout the week he is discussing areas that he feels have brought dishonor to the U.S. Then, on Saturday, he will be covering the rally live from the Lincoln Memorial. Follow him on Twitter at @MikeWMerritt during the rally, and then here on RATA for a wrap-up article.