Happy 4th

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.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------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 3^rd 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