I am an “American”. My status as an American carries no prefix. I am, plain and simple, an “American”. It is only by virtue of chance, luck or any number of variables that I was conceived and born on the shores of the greatest nation on earth. I did not choose to be American. However, based on observation and education, had I been given the choice that choice would be, to be an American.
As an American I have guaranteed to me certain rights. These are not “God” given rights. Were they “God” given rights, every human being on earth would be accorded the same rights as we, who are “Americans”. No, the rights I have today are “fought for” rights.
The rights that I have as an American are the end result of mans struggle through the years to define just what are the “rights” of man. The rights that I or any other Americans have were bought and paid for by the wisdom, courage and blood of persons who were not Americans. By persons who through an intense desire for “freedom” and “liberty” made a decision to throw off the yoke of tyranny and declared themselves, “Americans”. Persons who believed that “all men” had a God given right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They believed this so intently as to risk all that they had including their lives.
These brave “individuals” fought bitterly among themselves to insure that if not in their time, then someday, equality would be available to all who came to these shores and became “Americans”. That no government, religion, or majority would ever supersede the rights of the “individual”. That it was the collective strength of individuals that would define the strength of America.
Primarily “Christians”, they wisely separated religion and state. Fierce fighters, they wisely separated the military from political debate. Men with a common goal, they wisely encouraged dissent. In fact their belief in the “rights” of the individual were so strong they intentionally set up a government that could not be ruled by majority thought. Primary to insuring these principles were the guarantees of free speech and a free press that would insure that free thought could not be suppressed.
There was no dictate handed down as to what could be “spoken.” That free speech would be regulated by it's political, religious or social appropriateness. There was no litmus test designed to measure an individuals “patriotism” or “Americanism” based on what party they belonged to, what God (if any) they chose to believe in, what they thought about abortion, race, sexuality or any of the multiple social issues that today have somehow become politicized and a yardstick by which which men judge each other. In fact, they went to great pains to insure that men might discuss and debate these issues freely and openly so that all persons might rightfully argue for their freedom.
These men were not burdened by concerns of the sensibilities of the weak minded who would bite their tongue for fear of incurring retribution of kings and princes. These were men who fed on the soles of their boots and tempered their will by walking barefoot in the snow and ice so that you and I might live in a land they could only dream of.
And because of their will and determination they gave birth to a country so strong that it has been called on, more than once, to save the world. And save the world it has done. However it was not our government that saved the world. For a government is nothing more than a reflection of the will of the governed. It was the collective effort of “individuals” who despite individual differences had a common bond. They were Americans. Part of a grand experiment that has made many mistakes and in doing so has shed blood and wears the scars of internal battles over issues such as discrimination, sexism, racism, religious differences and ill conceived wars. And as Americans they would fight to the death any encroachment upon their hard fought for liberties.
Until today.
Today we face the greatest threat to our liberties we have ever faced. Today we face the greatest enemy we will ever face. Because today, the threat, the enemy, is us.
Today we would restrict the speech that we fear may violate the sensibilities of those who do wish to hear the free speech of uncommon ideas. Today we would condemn those that do not believe in a “God” of “our” choosing. Today we divide ourselves not only by color, ethnicity, sex, economic status or religion. But we further divide ourselves by “left” and “right”. And today we are all to willing to elect representatives, not to uphold the ideals upon which this country was founded, but who would push for our own personal agendas, even at the cost of another's freedoms..
Today we have grown soft and look to the government as a dog to it's master to have our wounds licked. We have lost the taste for the boot leather of our forefathers and are to comfortable to temper our will barefoot in battlefields of snow and ice. We allow the media and the government to censure the atrocities of war so as not to be exposed to it's horrors and our responsibility to care for those we throw into the fray. As unlike World War II we do not yet have a casualty on every block to mourn and can still distance our selves from “our” responsibility and accountability. We turn our heads and pretend not to notice the street side casualties of another war from whose wounds we have not yet healed.
Today we have allowed our government to become very much like the government from which our forefathers broke ranks with. We have allowed our government to engage in the same totalitarian actions we condemned and went to war to save the rest of the world from.
Today we have become so focused on our differences that our government is at danger of having no effect other than the furthering of restriction of liberties as a result of it's incompetence at addressing the issues of our times. A government whose spinelessness in governing by virtue of the Constitution of the United States of America must resort to government by suppression. Of government for sale to corporations who would pit the economically disadvantaged against each other lest they focus their attention on the real enemy. Those who divide us to keep us weak out of fear that united we may rise up and reclaim that which our forefathers fought to bequeath to us.
Today we have become so focused on differences we have forgotten our true strength. That we are all “Americans”. Or at least we were. Because the Americans of our forefathers time would call us to task for for allowing their vision to become so corrupted. I am an American. I will not stand down. No compromise, no retreat, no surrender. I am an American.
In every persons lifetime comes occasions by which we define ourselves. Not in the eyes of others. But through our own eyes. If that occasion has not yet occurred for you. Make it. rc
RIDE HARD, RIDE FREE, STAND FOR SOMETHING!!!Add to Technorati Favorites
