Independence Day, a day to celebrate and to be so grateful that we are all Americans! Independence Day is more than just fireworks and flags! It is more than Super Patriots who raise their flags and then leave them out in the weather and the dark of night in disrespect! It is first and foremost a a celebration, as well as a successful world experiment in justice and in humanity!!! A wonderful experiment, with all its flaws and foibles, that continues!
As Abraham Lincoln reminded us so many years ago in the Gettysburg Address, “our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Further, our “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Please God!
When I first spoke last fall about my ideas for Musings to Donna Webb, the editor of the San Saba News and Star, I said I wanted to write about government and about civics, about the incredible beauty and luck of being American. I have written every week since then about government, politics, and history from my very personal viewpoint both as an American and as an individual.
I am traveled, perhaps not as well traveled as some, but still well traveled locally, nationally, and internationally. I speak, read, and write two languages. I read widely and, as a good American, I try to respect others’ beliefs. That being said, I do not respect criminals and criminality, and I do not respect individuals and groups who work to undo our American Democracy, which includes majority rule, the right to vote, the U.S. Constitution, and the Rule of Law. The current trend of voter suppression is un-American and despicable!
Historically, the United States of America has been jeopardized by movements connected to economic and other issues like those that led to the Civil War whereby the Confederate States of America seceded in order to continue the abominable practice of slavery. Slavery was and is an abomination which continues even today with human trafficking.
When I was in high school in Texas, we were taught the Civil War was because of States’ Rights! Yeah, right. . . more like States’ Rights to justify slavery! Oh, well! Supposedly “The South shall rise again!” Please God, I pray not! The Stars and Bars of the Confederate Flag are a disgrace! I am a life-long Texan and Southerner, and I still weep because of man’s inhumanity to man!
The January 6th Insurrection was and is another attempt to undo our American Democracy and to move to an autocracy. Thank God, Good Republican Vice President Mike Pence and other responsible Americans voted to confirm the legitimacy of the fraud-free 2020 Presidential election.
We are a nation of immigrants, black, brown, Asian, and white! Native Americans are the only group who could perhaps claim non-immigrant status! July 4th, we celebrate our U.S. independence by fireworks, flags, song, and appreciating Lady Liberty. The huge Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France in 1886, is recognized as the universal symbol of freedom and democracy.
In the words of Emma Lazarus and her poem, The New Colossus, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Well-said! God bless America!