“The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” Patrick Henry
The card simply read, “Happy Birthday, America…for 241 years old, you’re looking pretty good.”
Inside was a small scroll. On it read these words:
Dear America:
My, how you have grown. From a few stout souls to what, over 315 million now? My plan seems to be working, even though I continue to keep my fingers crossed.
Frankly, I’m surprised you’ve lasted this long, given the red and blue political divisions. You seem to have another civil war seething inside. It’s confusing to me. But I have not abandoned you yet, although that thought has occurred to me more than once.
Your body is showing the strains of wear. It’s hard to recognize you from your baby pictures. Lesser mortals and countries would have folded their tents and ridden off on their camels. But not you. You’re of hearty stock, chiseled by conflict, raw-boned, with a tough hide and courage of steel. Perseverance is your nature. A national Spirit lives within you. It’s my gift.
You were born of a Higher Power for a Higher Purpose…Liberty. For that worthy cause you have strived. You were born by the shedding of blood, not by cunning words crafted from philosophical dictates. You were given a Manifest Destiny, a calling to create something new…a new nation, a nation under God, whose cornerstone is Freedom. That Divine Destiny still lives within you.
Freedom costs. Every generation must earn it. The blood of your patriots, your martyrs, your fearless founding fathers cries from their graves even today. Their collective hearts still beat for freedom beneath your feet as you walk the dust and dirt of battlefields everywhere…from Bunker Hill to Ft. Washington, from Atlanta to Gettysburg, from Europe to Viet Nam, from Korea to Iraq.
America, your soil is stained from 384 battles in a Civil War waged to preserve this Grand Vision of a United States. Some 625,000 of your countrymen perished in this endeavor. The wound remains fresh, the scar permanent.
Lately cracks are eroding your former staunch resolve. Ice is forming in your soul. The work ethic once instilled in you is flagging. Ease and prosperity sap your strength. You’re getting soft, fat and satisfied. Idleness is rewarded; creativity punished. Your taxes and your laws are balls and chains. You sing songs with lines, “God shed His grace on thee,” but you ignore ‘grace’ and enact laws and tolls that load your citizens with burdens grievous to be borne.
America, allow me to remind you of this wisdom, “When the will fails, so do the hands, and you live at the expense of life.”
Grab yourself by the neck and shake off the innate laziness that so easily besets you. Stir up the vision and determination that sustains your life. There is no free lunch here. Your destiny is not written by lines in the palms of your hands but in the toil and sweat of your collective efforts. These are the marks of your greatness.
July 4, 1776 commemorates the birth of America, something new and bold, a noble experiment in the belief that all men are created with inalienable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Was it an illusion? No! From the compost pile of these ideals emerged your great nation.
Will you remain great? Will you embrace this gift of Freedom, preserve its heritage, protect it and pass it on? Or will the grit of discontent grind away the grace you have been given? Will the flag still be there for the next generation? The choice is before you every day…Yes or No.
But for now, let’s celebrate your birthday. So strike up the bands, march in parades, grill up the hot dogs, slice up the watermelons, scoop up the ice cream, break out the beer and crown it all with traditional fireworks. Have fun!
You are a beacon of light to nations. As your fireworks explode and light the night’s darkness, then sing praises for your flag that’s still flying there…flying over the Land of the Free!
Happy Birthday, America
from The Spirit of Freedom.
Bud Hearn
July 4, 2017