From: Mike Jones <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, February 23, 2026 12:00 PM
To: Silvia Jaquez <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Website Inquiry
Thank You for your email and the attachment. As it often happens something has come up to preclude me from attending the city council meeting this week.
My son is coming into town from Colorado on Wednesday, so I will be unable to attend. My apologies. I would like to send you (please see attached) my written comments and if it is deemed appropriate, could I have these comments made available for the city council members to read.
I am a Navy veteran and consider myself a very patriotic American. It bothers me greatly to see all the division in this country. Please consider my attachment as my request for the council to make efforts of unification in the coming 250th celebration of the birth of our country, based upon principles passed down from our founding fathers.
Very Respectfully
Jerry M. Jones
LCDR US Navy Retired
Comments toward Unity
Our Country is on the verge of celebrating 250 years as a nation. History reveals the average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations progressed through the following sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith, to great courage, to liberty, to abundance, to selfishness, to complacency, to apathy, to dependence, and finally back into bondage”. By my observation I imagine us somewhere in the selfishness/ complacency/apathy period. I believe many Americans have lost the great desire to march forward in unity toward a single purpose. (Call it patriotism, love of God and country etc.) Instead, we have drifted more and more toward self, a “what’s in it for me” type of lifestyle and attitude. We have steadily departed an attitude of putting others before ourselves or “loving our God with all our heart, soul, mind and might.” I ask myself and I ask you, is it too late to save us? Are we on a path in which there is no going back?
Our forefathers largely believed that God is the indispensable foundation for a functioning society and a purposeful life, viewing Him as the source of unalienable rights of life, liberty, and happiness—and essential to public morality. They emphasized relying on God for the protection, guidance, and the success of the nation.
• The Declaration of Independence identifies God as the "Creator" who endows humanity with rights that cannot be taken away.
• George Washington declared it "impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible," while Abraham Lincoln stated that the nation’s safety depended on a foundation of morality and religion.
• The founders frequently referred to "divine Providence," placing their reliance on God for the protection of their lives, fortunes, and the nation. • Early American leaders often called for days of fasting, prayer, and thanksgiving to ask for God’s guidance and forgiveness.
In short, they viewed faith not as a private matter, but as a public virtue necessary for sustaining a free republic. In five short months we as a nation will celebrate 250 years, The math is easy, we have already passed the 200-year mark, and we are far from the United (Emphasis on United) States of America we once were. We are in desperate need of healing and unless a great number of our nation awaken from their slumber, I fear we are soon beyond help.
I ask you to consider taking this event (250-year celebration) to instill patriotism, build unity and yes return to the basic tenants and principles that made us a great nation. Bring prayer back into schools, bring community, relationships, morality back. Restore goodness, welcome godliness rather than trying to stamp Him out. I beseech each of you to treat this great honor of serving as City Council members as an opportunity to build up, restore and rekindle fires that once burned brightly.
Thank you for your time. May God continue to Bless The United States of America.