America RIP Born
July 4th 1776- died sometime in the last few years
America
passed away quietly this year while most people were at home going on with
their everyday lives not even taking note of the passing of this amazing giant.
This was not a sudden illness or accident that brought about her untimely
death, but she had been sick for many years and had suffered from a multitude
of ailments that chipped away at her heart and soul. It’s strange how some do not now even
recognize or mark her passing as they go on with life thinking that coming to
the point of her passing would never be possible because she had withstood so
much and for so long.
With the coming of
her birthday on July 4th, some will still celebrate her birth with
pomp and circumstance while those who have watched and taken note of her
passing will solemnly commemorate a second memorial day this year. Many songs and anthems have been written about
her during her long and storied life.
Some of those will still be appropriate as a remembrance of the life she
gave and the opportunities she provided for so many.
We will
remember what she stood for and the principles that she espoused- those things
that brought her and her people to amazing heights where just about anything
was possible. She was not perfect, but
she was good. When she viewed the dark
side that was a mar on her birth, she and her close friends stared down that
evil and paid a tremendous price to rid her of the cancer that surely would
have taken her life much sooner. She
accomplished more, than any like her had previously done, in her lifetime
bringing liberty, prosperity and protection to untold numbers of people.
We will
remember liberty that she held so dear- the liberty to think, speak, and
worship as we choose. With that liberty,
having the freedom to enjoy the fruits of our own labors; to engage in
commerce, or not; and if we choose not to labor, well she let us live with the
consequences of our own decisions. She didn’t hold our hand to protect us from
dumb decisions (the protection she provided was from our enemies, not from
ourselves), but she gave us the freedom to spend our labors for whatever we
desired- for good or bad; for success or failure.
Along the way
some thought it unfair to have such freedom which included the freedom to fail!
Such a freedom means that some people would inevitably fail, so while so many
people still reveled in freedom those who were afraid of such freedom started
planting the poisons that would eventually take her life. Of some it is said “she lived great and she
died great,” but sadly for her it can be said that she was born and lived
great; she came in with the roar of a lion, but to our dismay the poison pills
she took over such a long time transformed her until, at her last breath, she
was a hollow shell of the greatness she once embodied.
I will shed
tears on her birthday this year, but not those tears of the heart swollen with
thankfulness and gratitude for the many opportunities and blessings that she
passed on to all for so long, but tears of true sorrow and sadness for the
passing of one of whom there was none other like her and will not likely be
another. Can she be brought back from
the dead, resurrected to her former glory- I don’t know- maybe, but God bless
America! I am glad that I had the
opportunity to know her well and I will remember and tell her story to all that
care to listen.
