Editorial courtesy of Jack Tymann:

We must not be defeated by nor surrender to recent government actions. Instead we, the silent majority, must find a way to raise our voices and spread the truth. Each of us must do our part, however small, to educate our neighbors, co-workers, friends, children, and grandchildren.

We must avoid anger or despair over decisions which are destroying wealth in a flawed attempt to create a more perfect society. While saddened by how misinformed and misguided so many are, frustration and fear are NOT the correct responses. We must unite and inform others on the fundamental principles that have made America the most productive, most prosperous, most selfless, and most generous nation in history.

Millions of "silent" Americans support these principles. But they don't know where to turn. They feel "leaderless". They see the nation they love slipping away. The great silent majority must NOT stand idly by and allow this to happen. They need to unite, and then reach others currently misinformed about what America is all about.

Many suggest that what we need is a new national stand-out leader to emerge. But we are not going to find a single leader. We need a new coalition!

Voices of reason today are fractionalized, limited, and thus ineffective as they speak out in a variety of disconnected ways. Key movements and the silent majority must COMBINE efforts under a single umbrella - before it's too late! We will fail if we remain disorganized and just continue to worry, complain, or do "our own things". A sizable majority of Americans, who clearly agree on key core issues, must come together. While this solution is somewhere between extremely difficult to impossible, WE HAVE NO OTHER CHOICE.

This union must include conservatives, moderates, centrists, libertarians, independents, and yes perhaps some left of center. Together they would search for and find common ground. They would collectively promote a path very different from today's dangerous slide toward socialism.

Once united under a single umbrella, this alliance might morph into a massive grass-roots movement to save America. We could call this group the Un-Silent American Forum: the USA Forum.

Various national leaders would support this movement and invite their current followers under this single umbrella. Their collective goal would be to educate, inform, and "turn-on" that vast silent majority. They would reach out to all concerned about today's direction, including those on college campuses.

They would create a single, powerful, national web site, and sign up millions and then tens of millions in a national campaign to save/restore America. They would combine financial resources to educate millions via national TV infomercials. And perhaps via a one hour weekly TV program, the "USA Weekly Forum", each show providing thoughtful dialogue on two or three key topics of the day.

This education would focus not on specific solutions, but on understanding the challenges and setting broad common goals, behind which a sizable majority might unite. Currently we are leaping to flawed solutions before reaching national consensus about the realities of the problems, without agreeing to long term national goals. We need solidarity on macro-goals like: enabling private sector investment and growth, securing America against external threats, and fixing seriously broken entitlement programs. Such broad national goals simply DO NOT EXIST today!

Once understanding is reached and goals are set, this alliance might organize an independent centrist equivalent of a "million person march".

Who might lead such an effort?

It cannot be a single individual. Newt Gingrich's American Solutions is perhaps the closest initiative out there, but the leadership must be shared. There are a variety of other organizations and movements underway to preserve and restore American values: Heritage Foundation, Acton Institute, Alliance Defense Fund, Cato Institute, and more. But they tend to focus on "their own things" and they are currently acting like scattered pieces of a puzzle that needs to be assembled.

These pieces will not somehow miraculously come together to offer Americans an alternative to the well organized, highly focused march of today' followers of Saul Alinsky. There are tens of millions of good Americans calling out NOW for leadership and organization and a platform for their collective voices.

So how do we organize NOW to focus and educate and begin the work of assembling the parts into a single clear vision of the America bestowed upon us by our Creator? A group of national figures, along with the great silent majority, must join forces. We need a new USA Forum.

Who might join and/or support the USA Forum? Well, there are dozens of good folks with broad access who collectively could reach a wide spectrum of currently "silent" Americans. Folks like Bernie Goldberg, Steve Forbes, Laura Ingraham, Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal, Mitt Romney, some Blue Dog Democrats, Brigitte Gabriel, Ollie North, Phyllis Shafley, Jack Welch, Michael Steele, Joe Lieberman, Bill Kristol, Charles Krauthammer, Thomas Sowell, Cal Thomas, Victor David Hanson, Karl Rove, David Brooks, Jim Cramer, Fred Barnes, and others could join forces. They could invite Brit Hume, Greta van Susteren, Glenn Beck, Neal Boortz, Sean Hannity, and others to support them; to give them air time; to create a much needed positive, constructive, informative national dialogue, void of vitriol or personal attacks.

No more complaints about Obama or Pelosi - - this accomplishes NOTHING! Our threats are not about personalities, but about ideologies.

We would not directly address certain vital moral and social issues - taking the position that these are best dealt with at State levels, in the courts, by individuals like Chuck Colson and James Dobson, and by organizations like the Alliance Defense Fund. The USA Forum would acknowledge the critical importance of these issues, but declare that this group will not address them! We would announce: "we're not chartered to talk about abortion or the sanctity of marriage".

Instead the USA Forum would create a platform based on other domestic and global threats to our way of life. We'd educate and focus 100% on capitalism VS socialism, threats from beyond our borders, the US military, Homeland Security, illegal immigration, energy independence, fair and open trade, and the survival of the private sector as a national security mandate.

We'd encourage the vision of that "city upon a hill" which has been so strong, so prosperous, and so compassionate, for so many years.

We won't denounce or demonize individuals with opposing views, but speak out against their philosophies, and on what we must do instead to re-energize and restore what is currently broken.

Since the economy is appropriately the #1 issue, the USA Forum would start with that. We'd inform the public about ways to empower the individual. The entrepreneur. The worker. The doer. The achiever. We'd promote that God-given right to pursue one's dreams; the opportunity to succeed; with a bare minimum of government involvement; and with the understanding that failure is both possible and allowable.

We would ask: Which America do you want? An America in which individual citizens and entrepreneurs are free to pursue happiness? Or an America in which politicians dominate and take charge of our lives?

We would make Americans aware of the strengths of free markets and the undeniable weaknesses of collectivism. We'd help folks understand that concentrating more power in DC means bureaucrats dictating future choices for individuals and businesses, rather than giving "we the people" the freedom and incentive to make our own choices.

We'd explain that corporate America is an essential albeit imperfect institution, and that the vast majority of corporate executives are good and talented and critical to America's survival. These business leaders should not be demonized, nor stereotyped as evil or greedy, nor called on the carpet and threatened with punishment, nor told how to compensate their employees. Instead, our government must do everything possible to enable private companies to grow, create new jobs, and stay in the USA.

We'd inform Americans that while Ireland taxes corporations at 12.5%, and Canada is moving its business tax rate to 15%, America taxes businesses at a whopping 35%, with many states piling additional taxes on top. We'd show how America's competitiveness is hampered with hidden energy taxes, overly burdensome regulations, government intervention re unions, and how our government is now talking about increasing these. And we'd show how this combined reality forces some US businesses to shift jobs overseas, with some $13 trillion in US business interests out there right now as potential candidates for return to US soil.

We'd explain how private sector growth, new jobs, and profits are the ONLY solutions to our current nightmare. We'd propose a national goal to dramatically cut business tax rates as the single most effective step toward restoring investment and economic growth. We'd suggest other actions by which our government could make life easier for those Americans who are willing to take risks, start new businesses, and create wealth.

If you believe such a new consolidated effort is needed, spread this message. Try to reach others who perhaps can reach and ask those named in this commentary to consider this approach.

Jack Tymann retired as the President of Westinghouse International, and is currently Chairman of First Florida Biofuels, LLC. Jack is a guest commentator for NewsBalance.com and for the Naples Daily News, and a regular guest on WGUF Talk Radio. He is a frequent lecturer on national security issues in Florida. If you have comments on this oped, email Jack at: commongoals2009@aol.com