A Moment's
Reflection
We take
a lot for granted in the USA. Some of our children think it their due to have access to Mom and Dad’s credit cards and
our culture is too materialistic. We think nothing about walking into a grocery
store filled with food and making our selections from shelves overflowing with their abundance. We casually stroll through shopping malls and big box stores in search of the latest and greatest
items to buy and take home with us. For years, Americans have been apathetic
to voting. It didn’t matter if it was a local, state or presidential election,
so many just sat at home thinking – mistakenly- that their vote didn’t matter.
And
then Florida and the year 2000 happened. People started to get angry at the flaws
in our election system and the politicians and lawyers who appeared to be pulling the strings.
Every day this week as I have driven by the local library in town with lines coming out of its doors even after the
precinct officially closed, I cannot help but think how pleased our Founding Fathers must be to see Americans ACTUALLY
STANDING IN LINE to exercise their right to vote!
And while our economy
is falling down around us, Americans are hurting and falling through the cracks and suffering.
And yet, for so many of us who have tales of struggles and treading water to share, we have it so much better than
so many people, who, through no fault of their own, were born in some other country.
And why do you think, the Joe the Plumbers of the world, that those of us born to modest, even destitute means, have
the ability to study hard, work hard and rise above the station in life in which we were born?
I hate to break it to you, but it is because our country, just like so many others, has included some of the best theories
found in socialist thought into our government.
Sadly,
we still have people living and dying homeless and on the streets in this country. The
truth of the matter is that there are people tonight and tomorrow and the next day that you may see thinking they seem “normal”
to you that will go to bed hungry. While these things should not happen in this
country, in any part of the world, for that matter, they do and they will.
Yet,
if you listen hard enough to the tizzy some Republicans have gotten themselves worked up into over spreading wealth they seem
to feel that their good fortune should be horded for themselves and their children only,
you could forget "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." I got mine,
so to heck with you they seem to be saying. Doesn’t the Bible teach a lesson a bit differently about this very issue?
But even with all of the vitriol in the language and the people trying to pull off political
hate hoaxes and people that are too angry to care about the law while they spray paint elected officials property, this country,
that flag and all that it symbolizes is the very best that CAN be found within a people and their government
when that good is what people seek to extract from it. Our nation still stands
as a beacon of light for all that is good and just in a democracy and a republic. Its citizens just need to take the time
to stop and think about that first.
