Land of the Free, Home of the Brave
This is America, damn it! This is our country out there, from its central heart in stand-up-for-the-National-Anthem middle America, all the way to the crowded, beaten down edges of our coastal shores.
We were born here, and we were raised with a dream; a dream written down more than two hundred years ago by some folks who got out of a pretty bad situation, just about like we’re in right now.
They knew about living under a government in which you can’t have any say. Where the elite group makes all your decisions for you and beats you down when you don’t follow their rules. Where deals are made and favors are given and you can’t do anything about it … even if it harms you unjustly and ties you down and keeps you from being who you can be.
They knew about taxes and fees and none of it coming back to the people who earned it. And they knew about yearning for a better life where men and women are free to determine their own destiny, their own place in the world.
And they decided to do something about it, so they got together and came up with a near perfect document stating a set of rules that were on the side of the people, instead of the power brokers and the powerful. And with a lot of determination and sacrifice, they made those rules the law of the land … and that’s worked pretty well for a long time.
People were free to better their lives, to choose their own paths, and to live their own dreams. A united, free, God-fearing nation of Americans, sharing a dream with others who came to the land and were willing to live by those same rules.
Now, it seems that too many people have stopped living that dream and following those rules. It’s hard to even recognize our country anymore. We are just about where those other folks were way back then. It’s time for the people to get back in charge.
Maybe we ought to adopt those same rules again. They worked before, for a long time, the best time in the history of the earth for people who cherish their rights and their freedoms.
But the rules have slowly changed, the dream has slowly weakened accordingly, and fewer people are willing to give while more people demand to take.
God-given rights have disappeared, freedoms have been curtailed, societal classes reestablished, and education controlled and managed by “elitists.” The belief in one God has become discouraged and ridiculed. Self-reliance and self-worth are quickly becoming things of the past, as people become wards, cared for by wardens, with fewer and fewer moral and spiritual beliefs to teach them the right ways to live free.
The founders are looking down at us in horror. The dream they fought for and died for and protected and defended has been assaulted and badly wounded. The dream became a wounded eagle, knocked to the ground with too many feathers plucked out to fly any more.
It must be raised up again, nurtured, and given strength and renewal if the dream is to survive … if men are to live free, as one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.
It’s our turn now. Our chance to be heroes.
From the book "Twisted by the Wind" written by Tom Hays
