Today is our country's 234th birthday.
That's not a very long time, as countries in general go, but it is an extremely long time when it comes to a country that took on the radical experiment of being a democratic republic.
In fact, there are only two republics in the world older than ours, San Marino (which once made Abraham Lincoln an honorary citizen) and Switzerland. England's parliamentary government preceded ours and has been an inspiration of democracy to the world, but the British system, with its 'rotten boroughs' and purchased seats based on patronage was very different than our idea of a democratic republic. The monarchy retained major control over Parliament until the Reform Act of 1832, and the supremacy of the popularly elected House of Commons was only really cemented with the Parliament Act of 1911.
As the world's most powerful democracy, we stand as a beacon of freedom and hope for what is mostly an unfree world.
Whether we like it or not, we really are what President Reagan called the last, best hope of mankind.
There are those today that say that America is nothing exceptional, just another country among many others, and that our best days are behind us. I beg to differ.
We are the only country who was founded not on ethnicity or on class warfare but by a creed, an idea. It was the radical belief that men are endowed by Almighty G-d with freedom to live and prosper and enjoy ordinary life - the pursuit of happiness - without the boot of tyranny on their necks. And the fact that we have become what we have become, that we have ascended to the leadership of the free world is a product of that lineage, not a mere accident.
And at the core, we still are that country, in spite of a minority of our own citizens who seek to deny it and change us into something else. I've been hanging around long enough to remember other times when the same kind of people - in fact, in some cases, exactly the same people - said the very same things when we faced great challenges. They were in grave, egregious error then and now, and time, once again, will prove it.
It is the American people who still rule our beloved Republic, and it will only fail when we decide that it has.
Let's never forget that America is a special place as we enjoy celebrating our nation's birthday. Below are the words to our national anthem, written by Francis Scott Key after witnessing the heroic defense of Fort McHenry from the British invaders. Take a minute to really read the words (especially the last three verses) and think about what they mean..because their message to us is contemporary:
The Star Spangled Banner
O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O thus be it ever when free-men shall stand
Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust!”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
No comments:
Post a Comment