Since we’re at that special day where we
celebrate the birthday of my beloved country, I wanted to take this opportunity
to address something that’s been bothering me since the Clinton presidency. Something
that has been enhanced and blown up to unimaginable levels since the advent of
the information age. The attempt to divide Americans. For Clinton it was a cheap
political trick to garner support. Others have taken this and run with it. Our
enemies, the Russians and the Iranians, have certainly noticed as they are
engaged in an ongoing war for the soul of America through the internet. We are
better than this.
I know we have a complete buffoon as president.
He isn’t the first and he won’t be the last, but he is our duly elected
president. Of all Americans. You can’t only love your country when you agree
with the political party in power. We have been and will continue to be a force
for good in the world because we are one of the few, if not only, countries in the
world where the station of your birth doesn’t define you. I wore the unfirm of
this country for twenty-seven years and in doing so certain aspects of life in
America were brought home to me in no uncertain terms. We are that shining city
upon the hill that Ronald Reagan spoke so eloquently about.
One of the things I did in preparing to
write today was search the internet for quotes about America. It reinforced my
core beliefs about my country. I ran across Reagan’s farewell address as he prepared
to leave the presidency. I know revisionists have tried to cast aspersions on President
Reagan but I lived through his time where he reinvigorated America by reminding
us who we are. My fervent hope is another great communicator will emerge from the
political rubble that Trump will leave behind.
We struggle with immigration issues because
people want to come here. While I know that is simplistic, but it is a bone
deep truth that has existed for more than 200 years now. People come here
because they believe in a future for their children. I know there are smarmy social
justice warriors (especially Western Europeans) who exist solely to criticize
and point out our shortcomings. I still believe in America, not only as a
country, but as an idea. Yeah, it’s a messy place, currently tearing at itself
as political differences are constantly invigorated by the relentless internet traffic
(a lot of instigated from Moscow and Tehran). They will fail eventually because
we are Americans first, before all our differences are taken in account. Enemies
throughout our history have mistaken our internal arguing as a weakness and
have paid the price when our glowering, united attention focuses on them.
If you have friends who you have
distanced yourself from because they do not agree with you politically, then
you need to take a long look at yourself. I have a bunch of friends I do not
agree with about everything, politics and otherwise, but that doesn’t mean I don’t
cherish them as friends. Ask yourself if you are better off hearing only from
people who agree with you about everything. People are not unworthy simply because
they don’t agree with you politically. Of course, this does not apply to the fanatics
on either end of the spectrum but they are a noisy, self-important but still
small percentage of the population that will eventually be shouted down by the majority.
I believe in this as I believe in the promise that is America. I wouldn’t have
worn the uniform as proudly as I did for all those years if I didn’t. Happy Birthday
America, I love you still.
As I said, I was searching for quotes
and decided to include a bunch of them that speak to the America I believe in a
lot more eloquently than I ever could:
“People in power are trying to convince
us that the villain in our American story is each other. But that is not our
story. That is not who we are. That's not our America. Our United States of
America is not about us versus them. It's about we the people!” - Camila Alves
From President Reagan’s farewell address:
“The lesson of all this was, of course,
that because we're a great nation, our challenges seem complex. It will always
be this way. But as long as we remember our first principles and believe in
ourselves, the future will always be ours.”
``We the People'' tell the government
what to do; it doesn't tell us. ``We the People'' are the driver; the
government is the car. And we decide where it should go, and by what route, and
how fast. Almost all the world's constitutions are documents in which
governments tell the people what their privileges are. Our Constitution is a
document in which ``We the People'' tell the government what it is allowed to
do. ``We the People'' are free.”
“An informed patriotism is what we want.
And are we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and
what she represents in the long history of the world? Those of us who are over
35 or so years of age grew up in a different America. We were taught, very
directly, what it means to be an American. And we absorbed, almost in the air,
a love of country and an appreciation of its institutions. If you didn't get
these things from your family you got them from the neighborhood, from the
father down the street who fought in Korea or the family who lost someone at
Anzio. Or you could get a sense of patriotism from school. And if all else
failed you could get a sense of patriotism from the popular culture. The movies
celebrated democratic values and implicitly reinforced the idea that America
was special. TV was like that, too, through the mid-sixties.”
“I've spoken of the shining city all my
political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I
said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than
oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in
harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and
creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the
doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I
saw it, and see it still. And how stands the city on this winter night? More
prosperous, more secure, and happier than it was 8 years ago. But more than
that: After 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the
granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm. And she's
still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the
pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward
home.”
And the rest:
"America was built on courage, on
imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand." - Harry S. Truman.
"Where liberty dwells, there is my
country." -
Benjamin Franklin.
"The price of freedom is eternal
vigilance." -
Thomas Jefferson.
"No man is entitled to the
blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation." -Douglas MacArthur
"America is not just a country,
it's an idea."
- Bono
“This is your democracy. Make it.
Protect it. Pass it on.”
- Thurgood Marshall
“Duty, honor, country. Those three
hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what
you will be.” - Douglas MacArthur
“Those who expect to reap the blessings
of freedom, must, like me, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” - Thomas Paine
“I am an American; free born and free
bred, where I acknowledge no man as my superior, except for his own worth, or
as my inferior, except for his own demerit.” —Theodore Roosevelt
“The essence of America—that which
really unites us—is not ethnicity, or nationality or religion - it is an idea -
and what an idea it is: That you can come from humble circumstances and do
great things.”
—Condoleezza Rice
“Americans never quit. We never
surrender. We never hide from history. We make history.” —John McCain
“The fate of America cannot depend on
any one man. The greatness of America is grounded in principles and not on any
single personality.”
—Franklin Roosevelt
“I love America more than any other
country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to
criticize her perpetually.”
—James Baldwin
“I say to you that our goal is freedom,
and I believe we are going to get there because however much she strays away
from it, the goal of America is freedom.” —Martin Luther King Jr.
“This [nation] will remain the land of
the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.” —Elmer Davis
“We’re blessed with the opportunity to
stand for something—for liberty and freedom and fairness. And these are things
worth fighting for, worth devoting our lives to.” —Ronald Reagan
“Let every nation know, whether it
wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any
hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the
success of liberty.”
—John F. Kennedy
“Democracy is worth dying for, because
it’s the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.” - Ronald Regan
“Patriotism is supporting your country
all the time and your government when it deserves it.” - Mark Twain
Four movies fell in the A-Z watch, all
keepers: Pulp Fiction – Tarantino’s magnus opus, probably most quotable movie
ever, one of best movies ever made; Punisher (2004) – weak effort by making hero
seem too sensitive; Punisher War Zone (2008) – all that is fixed in the reboot
with Titus Pullo tearing heads off; Push – interesting take on superhero powers
with Chris Evans playing against type.
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RECURRING CHARACTERS:
ABFA – Amazing Best Family
Athlete – my daughter
in law; BR3 – Blog Reader #3 – granddaughter
#3; BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel -
second granddaughter; Cantankerous
Friend – friend since grade school who likes to argue about everything,
poses as radical leftist to attract women; CRC - Connecticut Riverboat Captain – another close friend from high
school, renowned sailor of the big river; Curbside
Girls – close friends of my daughter acquired during her single days in
Brooklyn; Czech Connection – Czech couple who’ve become good friends
along with their daughter (the Czech Shadow); Deckzilla – our backyard deck which grew to monstrous dimensions
once my wife got involved in planning; Favorite
Panamanian - the wife (of course); FBR
- First Blog Reader - first granddaughter; First Friday – celebrations to mark the First Friday of the Week; Great Aunt - my elder sister; Keene Friends 1 & 2 – friends since
high school from my home town of Keene, NH; Kindergarten Friend – friend since kindergarten whom I reunited
with after many years; Maine and
Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my
wife is the 3rd Musquetera (musketeer); Namesake Nephew – son of Great Aunt and Soxfather named after me; Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close
friend and Panamanian mafia member; PanaGals
– female relatives /friends of my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin Mafia – inevitable group of Latino friends my wife
accumulates wherever we have lived & their spouses; PCR - Pittsburgh College Roommate – high
school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; PCR+1 - Pittsburgh College Roommate’s wife; Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy,
son's dog; Seis Amigos - two couples from our condo complex and my wife
and I; Soxfather – my brother-in-law
(whom I miss more than I can ever explain); Tia Loca – wife’s younger
sister; Wingman – my son in law; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course
