« Mt. Soledad War Memorial - Execution stayed | Main | NY state court: No right to same-sex marriage »

July 04, 2006

Celebrating the American experiment

I put my flag out this morning in honor of our 230th birthday. I've written and rewritten in my mind what I could possibly post today that could accurately convey to you the profound love and pride I have in my country.

I know that is "old fashioned" and there have been any number of sneering, mean-spirited posts from the Order of Lunar Chiroptera about how awful America is, how even hearing the song God Bless America causes them physical pain. I feel pity for them and I am ashamed of them. They are the spoiled child, surrounded by ten exquisite gifts, screaming and cursing because they don't have fifteen.

I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him. ~~Abraham Lincoln
When my girls were in high school they all were members of the band. And each year the band put on a joint concert with the Marine Band, usually the one from Camp Pendleton, once the one from the Recruit Depot in San Diego. The concert was billed as Music Americana and the closing was always both bands jammed together on stage performing Sousa's Stars and Stripes Forever. The packed audience would be on its it feet, clapping along, cheering the piccolo section and tears would flow freely. How could someone not be moved by such music, especially when performed by the country's future and its defenders?
Patriotism -- An abstract word used to describe a type of behavior as harshly practical as good brakes and good tires. It means that you place the welfare of your nation ahead of your own even if it costs you your life. ~~ Robert Heinlein
As I was growing up, public schools were partners in teaching good citzenship. Organizations, like Scouting (and I was a Girl Scout) also reinforced American values. We internalized them. Did we fully understand them? Not as children, anymore than children understand why their parents make them eat vegetables and restrict desserts. However, it created a foundation, a touchstone, that we could look back on and say "Hell, yes, that does make sense! I believe that, too!"
Duty, honour, country: Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn." ~~ Douglas MacArthur
Does patriotism mean blind loyalty? No. One of the Ten Commandments is "honor thy mother and father." Note that it doesn't say "love" them. Even if your parents become "unloveable" it is your obligation to honor them and the fact your existence is because of them.
And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God. ~~John F. Kennedy
Ethical monotheism has a practical side. It assumes that certain rights are inviolable, beyond the reach of any man. Certainly, totalitarians of all manner might actually suppress these rights, but they don't disappear. Human beings are not basically good or evil. Our morality, our destiny of heroism or villainy, is entirely in our own hands. So it is vitally important, and we owe our fellows and our children, the tools to identify the moral and the traditions and expectations to reinforce it. Duty cannot be imposed by rule or statute. It, like fidelity in marriage, is a promise one makes to oneself. And the willingness to internalize that promise, to desire it as the measure of a honorable person, can be helped or hindered as proper watering and fertilizing yields a bumper crop of life sustaining food.
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. ~~last line of the Declaration of Independence
We are not aware of all the details of the lives of the 56 signers of Declaration of Independence. Some may have been prone to tippling, or bursts of anger. Some may have cheated a neighbor or broken their vows to their spouse. Some may have been prone to violence, brawling in a public house or raising their hand to their children. But in that one moment, that one fleeting instance when they risked all they did have for an ideal, they put their moral bank account in the black. They exceeded the vagaries of themselves and their neighbors and passed on to us, their ideological descendents, a priceless gift.

May we all strive to be worthy of them.

Happy 4th of July and our good wishes and prayers for the brave men and women of the United States Armed Forces.

Technorati: ,

Posted by Darleen at July 4, 2006 10:29 AM

Comments

Happy 4th to you Darleen, excellent post. It's always nice when traveling thru the blogosphere to find another who holds the same values and isn't afraid to say so. Please keep it up, the only true weapon we have against the sickness of the left is to speak up and speak up loudly.

Posted by: darwin at July 4, 2006 03:05 PM

Today is the one day of the year that I decide consciously to put aside the never ending work of exposing, and discrediting, the tendentious self-hate anti-Americanism of the cockroaches among us, who lack any sort of respect for themselves and the sacrifices of all the others that have come before, yes, but even more lack tyhe maturity in ontrospective tyo think beyond their own narrow self issues. I find comfort in the knowledge that their's is a self defeatism that is it's own reward, and pity to them for a life unlived.

Instead I join with true Americans like Darleen, in wishing our proud, strong Republic, a happy birthday, and hope that in His infinite wisdom the Maker of all things, will see fit to guide her through the desperate waters of history.

"Though it be true, from such words of our enemies, that we stand here today, at disadvantahe from numbers and strength of arms, yet can there be any doubt as to the outcome of such a true and noble cause." - (George Washington - 1777 -Letters to the Contenental Congress)

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation....

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness....

...And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock


Posted by: Big Bang Hunter at July 4, 2006 04:20 PM

Yeah, when we see the fireworks, remember that it represents "bombs bursting in air" and we can recall how many innocent civillians thousands and thousands as we celebrate the mammoth firepower we possess to take anything we want worldwide. Gee, aren't you proud of causing so much death, especially when you fill your gas tank, thank those poor damned troops and all the babies born in their families with birth defects from our use of depleted uranium, as well as the cancer endured by the many soldiers as well as all the Iraqis who endure all of that, when all they did was to have a goddamned dictator that did business with US defense contractors (recall the famous photo of Rumsfield and Hussein shaking hands).

Otherwise, hope you had a nice fourth.

Posted by: blubonnet at July 6, 2006 03:01 AM

This Bush regime dishonors our country. I love my country and the bravery of the troops, but I hate that they have been exploited for corporate interests and lies.

Posted by: blubonnet at July 6, 2006 03:05 AM

blu

Your first post belies your second. Thanks for making it clear.

Posted by: Darleen at July 6, 2006 06:31 AM