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On this July 4th of 2018, I give you this from the archives (July 4th 2016) right in the middle of the ‘battle for America’… Just how prescient do you think it was with regard to the State of the Union (SoU) in this year of July 2018? …
As I wrote at the time:
A year or so ago I came across a remarkable piece by Gerard Vanderleun in his wonderful blog, American Digest titled “How Beautiful We Were” as a tribute to July 4th., and I present it to you here (with a little editing and additions of my own)…
“Make America great again”, need go no further than re-instituting and re-visiting the founding documents of the United States and holding accountable those politicians duly elected by We The People under the principles embodied therein – “so help me God” being the final imprimatur and promise to the God of nations towards strengthening the Union, not forever weakening it.
The age-old dictum of “Christianity is always just one generation away from extinction” could just as easily be used as a warning on the survival of Constitutional Republics, particularly when one witnesses the slow slide to tyranny into which the United States has been slipping for the past 25 years.
The time of action is fast approaching, and by learning the lessons from “How Beautiful We Were”, we can take heart that “Make America Great Again” is right within our grasp. Perfect for a July 4th backdrop.
HOW BEAUTIFUL WE WERE
We told our children that any child could grow up to be President. And then we made it come true. We had car shows, boat shows, beauty shows and dog shows. We ran robots on the surface of Mars by remote control. Our women came from all over the world in all shapes and sizes hues and scents. We actually believed that all men are created equal and tried to make it come true.
Everybody liked our movies and loved our television shows. We tried to educate everybody, whether they wanted it or not. Sometimes we succeeded. We did Levi’s. We held the torch high and hundreds of millions came. No matter what the cost. We saved Europe twice and liberated it once.
We believed so deeply and so abidingly in free speech that we protected and honored and, in some cases, even elected traitors. We let you be as freaky as you wanted to be. We paid you not to plant crops and not to work. We died in the hundreds of thousands to end slavery here. And when that was done, continued for a century and a half around the world. We wrote the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Gettysburg address.
We invented Jazz. We went to the moon to see how far we could hit a golf ball. We lifted a telescope into orbit that could see to the edge of the universe. When people snuck into the country against our laws, we made parking lots and food stands off to the side of the road so they wouldn’t get hurt, and we let them use our hospitals for free, and we made their children citizens. We didn’t care what God you worshipped as long as we could worship ours.
We let the People arm themselves at will. Just to make sure. We gave everybody the vote. Just for fun, we built Disneyworld. We had a revolution so successful it was still going strong two and a half centuries later. We had so many heroes, even at the end, that we felt free to hate them and burn them in effigy.
We electrified the guitar. We invented a music so compelling that it rocked the world. We had some middling novelists and some interesting painters. We had some pretty good poets. We had better songwriters.
We ran our farms so well we fed the globe. We made the automobile and the airplane. We let you get rich. Really, really rich. And we didn’t care who you were or what you were or where you came from or who your parents were. We just cared about what you made or what you did. We had poor people who, even at their most wretched, were richer than any other poor people on the face of the planet. We were the most noble nation the world had ever known.
We had so much freedom that many of us voted to just throw it all away. Towards the end, as we dissolved into the petty bickering and idle entertainments that come with having far too much leisure and money, many among us were still striving to make it higher, finer, brighter, better and more beautiful. Even towards the end, the best of us declined to give up and pressed on.
As one of the original Founding Fathers put it .. A Constitutional Republic, if you can keep it. ~ Benjamin Franklin
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Then there’s this powerful insight from another Titan, Carl Sandburg:
THE PEOPLE YES
The people will live on. The learning and blundering people will live on. They will be tricked and sold and again sold. And go back to the nourishing earth for rootholds. The people so peculiar in renewal and comeback. You can’t laugh off their capacity to take it. The mammoth rests between his cyclonic dramas…
…This old anvil laughs at many broken hammers. There are men who can’t be bought. The fireborn are at home in fire. The stars make no noise. You can’t hinder the wind from blowing. Time is a great teacher. Who can live without hope? In the darkness with a great bundle of grief the people march. In the night, and overhead a shovel of stars for keeps, the people march: “Where to? what next?”
Continues… Where to? What next?
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THE CELEBRATION – Let the fireworks begin!
And now, something that has to be the most American thing ever. “Top Shot” champion Chris Cheng brings us a unique gift on America’s birthday: a rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” played with a suppressed Ruger 10.22 rifle and musical targets. “Let’s go shoot some freedom!” Cheng says as he starts sending rounds down range. What a better way to celebrate our country and uphold one of our responsibilities this holiday weekend, right?
Happy July 4th y’all!
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H/T Gerard Vanderleun and his American Digest…
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Soli Deo Gloria!