I have read a few articles that made me wonder, what are we all about?
Quite an opener, eh?
Think about this, people – when Brown won in Massachusetts, there was a rolling wave of applause, cheering, and partying across America. In every state, city, and town, there was celebration by those in the conservative party and the Tea Party movement. Why should this cause me concern? The same thing that caused me concern when I read the president's alleged response to Coakley when he called her after her loss in the election: "we cannot win all the time".
"We"? I thought this was America, folks, and that Americans played on the same team. When did Americans become divided against each other? When did it become "us" and "them"?
I am not even really concerned about the possibility of external exploitation of this division – as History has shown, Americans are entirely capable of casting aside petty differences to unite against the common foe. Ask the Germans. Ask the Japanese. Ask the combined might of the Communist world. No matter what the issue dividing America – race, creed, even sexual orientation – one nation has galvanized, time and time again, to meet the threats offered it. And it has triumphed, time and time again.
How is it, then, that we come through these crucible events – not only married by the forced mobilization, but alloyed by the pressure that compels our company and heat that burns away the chaff of irrelevant and immaterial misconception – only to fall back into such behaviors that divide us against our fellow Americans?
What would be wrong with taking the approach that Americans work hard and do what Americans must to see that the right (not the capital "R", but what is invariably right) triumphs – that evil is defeated – and when the battle is won, just. Go. Home. No rubbing noses in the defeat, no reveling in getting our way, no building a power base to further our ends. Quietly accepting the fact that the job is done, and then going back to our lives as Americans who know they did what they had to – FOR AMERICA.
Does a parent cheer or celebrate when they must impose their will upon their child? Is it right for one sibling to exult when they have prevailed in a conflict with their brother or sister? God forbid! How, then, is it right for any American to take pride in the performance of a needed task, when such reveling is at the expense of the dignity of their fellow Americans?
We have another common foe, my fellow Americans. Sadly, it is not from another country, or even another planet. It is the "parents" that we have placed in government over us. They keep us divided against each other with talk of "civil rights issues", "management versus labor", any part of America pitted against some other part of America. While they keep us divided and distracted – with trash programming on TV, divisive media, and occasional tweaking of the other wedges they have driven into the American bedrock – they continue to consolidate their power base and prepare us for the day when we will be little more than the "coppertops" of the "Matrix" or the blood harvest of "Daybreakers". I use "will" instead of "shall" because I believe that this is an issue of our voluntary choice to walk silently into the wood chipper that has been prepared for us. As long as we allow the government to yank on our shorthairs – our lives, our fortunes, our sacred honor – and pull us back into conformity with their plans, we are surrendering our freedom willingly. Power cannot be taken; it is only given. They can kill you, but that does not take your freedom – just your life. After that, there is little more they can do but explain why they killed you – and so many others – for no other reason than that you refused to surrender your freedom. Would you rather live in a world without your freedom? Then return to your masters and lick their fingers, accept the scraps from their hands; bear your chains as any slave does, and dream of the freedom that was once yours.
When the time comes, enter the fray willingly - roaring like lions and wielding the sword with a will to destroy the enemy. Win the battle; failure is not an option, for it entails the surrender of freedom and every indignity that follows. Do not fear death, for there is no freedom like it – beyond even the basest ignominy, death renders all fixed and beyond defacement.
When the battle is won, let the living be like the dead – silent and satisfied with the results. Let there be no exultation, for it is only born of pride – that greatest sin from which all others spring.
I love you all, my fellow Americans, and I pray the grace and peace of God Almighty be with you all.
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