As many of us, myself included, are not the most proficient with computers sometimes when programs seem to be going in the wrong direction we find ourselves pressing the reset button to start over.

I use this as an example to compare with suggesting a reset of our nation today. In the last 15 months we have witnessed further steps in the ever expanding role of government in our daily lives. While many are pleased with the steps that have been taken it is good to see that many are not.

I am proud to say that I am one of the latter.

Sensational headlines fight to grab our attention on a daily basis with the ridiculous acts of athletes, actors and actresses, and this combined with our hectic schedules in trying to keep our life on the right path, we miss the fact that our nation’s founding principles are slowly eroding underneath us.

We cannot say that this has started with the current administration, as it started long before, though we can say that the current administration has rapidly increased this erosion with the policies being put in place.

From enormous initiatives such as the government bailouts for private business, the health care package, and arms reduction treaties to what is seemingly lesser though still very important concerns, a Census drive including invasive questions that were never intended, additional taxes for those considered high-end earners, our government has become much more involved in our lives than was ever intended.

And it seems that a large percentage of Americans are fine with this.

With the points set in motion and the plans for others, carbon tax initiative, check card (unions’ attempt to end the secret ballot), the ever deepening deficit our nation, our principles of limited government are being turned upside down.

The founding fathers were followers of free market principles, John Locke precepts promoting “life, liberty and estate,” which set forth the formation of civil government for security, ensuring individual rights and the right of private property. They structured checks and balances with the separate branches of government that were designed to protect us from ourselves.

These principles were held near and dear (and still are by some) in the early years of our nation and as progress goes we have become a society of mixed feelings concerning these principles enough so that in a recent poll many polled thought socialism sounded like a good form of government.

Our schools are turning out students that have very little understanding of our government and the intentions under which it was formed. Normal everyday people of all walks of life and race participate in Tea Party rallies celebrating the right to protest and bring attention to these facts. They are either ignored by the mass media or discredited for being something they are not.

How did we get to the point where citizens reminding us of our founding principles are called racist and bigots? There was an early warning when Benjamin Franklin mentioned that the Congress had given us a republic if we could keep it.

Can we restore it, returning our nation to where it belongs or have we already lost it? Press reset.