America is like she always has been, a democracy held in tension by the various streams of opinion and thought. Every generation laments her failings, but we need to also celebrate her strength, vitality and perseverance.
While America is not a Christian nation in the sense of a theocracy, we are a nation where Christianity, faith and open worship flourish. Our disagreements aren’t behind closed doors, but out in the public arena. We don’t convert by the sword, but by persuasion of ideas in an open dialogue. America doesn’t have ‘prostylizing laws’ that prohibit this free expression that most other “religious” countries have on their books.
In the political arena, our views are polarized, but our heated debates are public, open to the voice of the people and subject to our free and open voting. We peacefully transfer power every four years, have never had a coup or an overthrow of the government, and only once did we try to split, and the results were so bloody and horrific that hopefully it will never be tried again.
America is a nation that is a personification of her people. We play hard, finish our fights, carry our burdens with grace, give of our resources and ourselves sacrificially, are a people of faith and are always willing to stand up for the weak and the persecuted of the world as well as stand up against those who persecute. We have many disagreements, but the processes are in place to resolve them peacefully. Our young men and women serve in the military, the Peace Corp and as medical volunteers here and abroad, always counting the cost and accepting the responsibility that goes with the freedom America offers. From the Colonists at Lexington and Concord, the volunteers under General Jackson at New Orleans, the 20th Maine holding Little Round Top at Gettysburg, the Buffalo soldiers charging side by side with Colonel Roosevelt’s Rough Riders up Kettle Hill in Cuba, the D-Day landing, the Marines fighting at the Chosin Reservoir in Korea, the 101st Airborne defending Hamburger Hill in Vietnam, The civil rights marchers standing up for their Constitutional rights on the Edmund Pettis Bridge, the 3rd Infantry division liberating Iraq, or our Special Forces in Afghanistan … Americans have always answered the call when her country needed them.
So this July 4th, while you watch fireworks or cook out, remember the words written by Lee Greenwood in his song “God Bless the USA”
“If tomorrow all the things were gone I'd worked for all my life,
And I had to start again with just my children and my wife,
I'd thank my lucky stars to be living here today,
'Cause the flag still stands for freedom and they can't take that away.
I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free,
And I won't forget the men who died who gave that right to me,
And I gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today,
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land God Bless the U.S.A.”
Happy Birthday, America……..and many more!
Jeff Henning
1 comment:
This is a very good blog Jeff. I will pass it around
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