America. Land of the free. Home of the brave.
A child, old enough to vote but still a child, told me not so long ago that he was a proud Democrat. I thought at the time, and I still think the same, that it was a stupid statement. That thought didn't run through my mind because I am not a Democrat. That thought was there because we have, Republican and Democrat, a seriously messed up government. We expect our elected officials to lie every time they open their mouths. We expect this because we have been lied to for a long time. Even so, though we know we will be lied to, there is a sizable group of Republicans and a sizable group of Democrats who will vote a straight ticket. And that is the biggest part of our problem. People who are not really sure of who is even running for the various offices will vote for the R or D.
Now, some of you will be getting angry at me right now, so let me say, I have no loyalty toward any political party. People divide along party lines. Several years back, one of the men who worked with me at the funeral home, got all fired up at me because I shared this view with him. Actually, he brought it up. He kept getting louder and louder and, since there was a funeral underway, I had to drag him outside. According to him, I was disloyal to the cause. So, I asked him, what does the Bible say on the subject. That stopped him cold. I showed him that those that have charge over us are placed there by God and we are to pray for them. Being a good Catholic, he didn't know much about the Bible, so he could not even begin to try and refute me. You see, that is how I judge candidates, by how they stand for the Lord. And during campaign season, all of them are Godly, family candidates. At least according to their words.
My allegiance, my loyalty, is first toward the Lord. Second, it is for my country. It is not now, nor will it ever be, given to people who will say whatever it is they believe I want to hear. My loyalty to the Lord led me into a lifetime commitment to His service and my loyalty to my country led me to the Federal Building in Cleveland and where I took the oath and joined the armed forces. But if the Republican or Democrat national conventions were held across the street from where I live, I wouldn't cross the street to attend.
But I love this country. This America, flaws and all.
History lesson: The Revolutionary War pitted the British colonies in the NewWorld against the most powerful nation in the world at that time. A group of men gathered in Philidelphia over July 3, 4 and 5. They signed a document that declared independence from England. In so doing, they signed their own death warrants. Some lost their lands, some lost their families, some lost their lives. Why? Because they loved the very concept of their new country. What led the rag-tag colonists to fight a hopeless battle? They loved the concept of their new country. They loved it so much that they died for it. And they won. They wrested control away from England against all odds.
But it wasn't over, even after the treaties were signed. For years, the British navy harassed American cargo ships. They would run down an American ship and force them to stop. Then they would board the ship and inspect the cargo, sometimes taking the cargo but almost always taking abled bodied American seamen to serve on the British ships. This led to the second war between the two countries, known here as the War of 1812. Again, the Americans came away victorious. But again, soldiers and sailors died to secure that victory.
When you read these histories, especially those written at the time or shortly thereafter, you see the passion of the combatants, the undying love of country that drove them forward. Those in political power considered it a privilege to serve in that capacity, rather than the current feeling that it is a cushy career.
In 1814 the British launched a naval siege of Fort McHenry, the fort that protected river that led to Baltimore. To have seized Baltimore would have gone a long way to have secured a British victory and probably returned America to a colonial possession once more.
A young lawyer by the name of Francis S. Key had gone aboard a British ship, the HMS Tonnant, to see about the release of an American physician who was falsely accused to harming British prisoners. Key managed to secure the release, but they were detained by the British because they had heard the plans for the attack on the fort. So it was that Key stood at the rail of a ship and watched the 25 hour bombardment of the fort. 1,800 shells and some 700 rockets were fired at the Americans and the Americans fired almost as much back. When the bombardment ceased as darkness came on the scene at the end of the second day, the outcome was still not known. But as dawn broke, a massive American flag with stars and stripes flew above the fort and the British ships were forced to withdraw. Key was so moved that he wrote a poem of four verses. A few more verses were written later by different people, but the words that Key penned expressed his pride and love. Most of us just know the first verse of that poem. It became our National Anthem. But these are the four verses that Key wrote (Just a quick note. Verse 4 is not to be sung in schools since it mentions God. We sure have come a long way, haven't we?);
1.) O! say can you see by the dawn's early light,What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through 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 through the night that our Flag was still there;
O! say does that star-spangled Banner yet wave,
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
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed 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,
Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation,
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land,
Praise the Power 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,
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