The Fourth of July

Today is the Fourth of July. For most of us, it means at least a partial day off work. Often, it means beautiful summer weather, although this year it’s a bit soggy  on the east coast so far because of Hurrican Arthur. Terry opened up the doors and windows early this morning. It’s delightful to have cool breezes clearing out the house after several days of very hot temps.

 

I love Thanksgiving and Christmas, but there is something so special about the Fourth. I love the true history of our nation, not the garbage that’s being taught today. Political correctness has destroyed the pride and honor, and the trust in God, that marked the true establishing of our nation. We have a President who made a world-wide apology tour for our very existence, yet he has stated he will not apologize for ignoring the Constitution and going around Congress with his pen and his phone.

“In God We Trust” has become the target of those who hate freedom, hate God, hate the concepts on which our country was formed. Remove God, they say, because there is separation of church and state.  There is no room for religion in government.

And I say, there is no good government without God. The fable that separation of church and state means removing God from government is a complete misinterpretation of that concept–which, by the way, appears nowhere in our Constitution, Bill of Rights, or Declaration of Independence. When Mr. Jefferson talked about the “wall of separation between church and state” he was not advocating the removal of God. He was advocating against the church, as a human-run organization, having control over the government and over the people. Read your (true) history. Take a look at the Federalist Papers, for instance, or at Jefferson’s own writings. If we remove the cloud of obfuscation that political correctness has spun around our history, we’ll see things in a completely different light.  Here’s a site that shares some really interesting history for this holiday:

http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/july-4th

I’ve heard that there’s a new movie out called America. I’d like to see it. The premise of the movie is what the world would be like today if there had never been an America. It bears thinking about. Contrary to what Mr. Obama seems to believe, America is not responsible for every evil in the world  since our founding.  I can think of a few evils in the world that are, however, directly attributable to the religion he seems to favor.

America has never been perfect.  It is a place run by humans, after all, and none of us is infallible. There has been great evil perpetrated by greatly evil men in our country, and in every other country in the history of the world.  History is, after all, simply the record of man’s inhumanity to man. Long before white Europeans landed on New World shores, the Native Americans were busy killing each other, enslaving each other, and pushing each other from one area of this continent to another. The evil that the American government did to the Native American is indisputable, but it was no different than what they had done to each other for centuries prior to America. And I don’t hear them demanding apologies from each other.

I love America.  I love it because it has indeed been the land of opportunity for countless influxes of immigrants from every nation.  I love it because the poorest of the poor have the opportunity to find a better path, to improve their condition, to become educated and skillful and to have pride in their success. I love America because this country is always at the forefront in sending help when there is a disaster somewhere else in the world.  I love it because we still do, for now, have the freedom to worship as we please and to raise our voices in the political arena. For now, we still have some degree of influence over those who no longer represent us, but rule us–or try to.

I’m counting on the seemingly latent spirit of Yankee independence to turn the tide, to keep us from becoming a nation of sheep who willingly go behind those who would lead us into complete dependence on the whims of the government.  I’m counting on the strength and the courage that has marked our military to protect us from tyranny rather than to support the tyrant.  I’m counting on my God, Who works in the hearts of men, to open the eyes of all, believers and unbelievers alike, to what we’re very close to losing.

I’m praying that we won’t be looking back one year from now to regret the freedoms we didn’t realize we took for granted simply because they’d always been there.