America the beautiful
I very distinctly remember the 1976 Bicentennial celebration. I was six years old and could feel the excitement of an extra-special 4th of July. My family spent the evening with friends in State College, Pennsylvania. We sat on the edge of a lake/pond and watched fireworks over the water (fireworks are even better over water, the reflection and all, make it more than spectacular). That was the beginning of my patriotism. The pride I have in my country, the way I cry at every single playing of the National Anthem, America the Beautiful, and Proud to Be an American. The way I stand for a flag being raised and put my hand over my heart to say the Pledge of Allegiance. The way I am angered when another American burns our beloved flag, or speaks ill of the country in a generalized way. It was the start of my love for and realization of the varied land and people that make up the United States of America.
This country was started by its indigenous people in an informal way, of course. Then people arrived who wanted to escape injustice and who also wanted to explore and exploit. We were started by people wanting freedom, after all our founding document is called the Declaration of Independence.
I am awed by the first people here, the native Americans are a creative, strong, proud, determined, beautiful people. They were joined by the pioneers and explorers. I don’t know about you but if I had reached the Badlands in SD in a wagon train, I would have been like “I’m good, I do not need to go any further,” and Montana would never have been discovered. I would have stopped at the foot of the Rockies or on the eastern side of the Mississippi. Those were tough, strong, fiercely determined people driven by a dream for their own land, for the new, and exciting. Innovation and discovery have driven people from sea to shining sea since.
I have been lucky enough to be from sea to shining sea across this great land. I’ve been on the prairie and high on the 14,000 feet peaks. I have splashed in the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Gulf, and rivers and lakes in between. I have marveled at God’s work and man’s ingenuity. Sky-scraper buildings, Niagara Falls, Mt. Rushmore, bridges, tunnels, rock walls, deserts, dams, and battlefields.
America is a beauty. But it isn’t just the land and the man-made things in it, it is its people. This country is full of rich and poor; educated and un-learned; glittery and plain; it is full of hard-working and lazy. It is a land of variation in nature and its people.
We are at a time where we just cannot get along AGAIN. That isn’t new. Although much the same, at our core, we have put on dressings that separate us like prejudice, hatred, lawlessness, blaming, intolerance, and blindness. It is interesting to listen to both sides of events say the exact same thing about the other side. No trust among us.
Despite that, the little patriotic girl inside me will be celebrating July 4th with the same vigor she always has since she sat by her daddy in the dark year after year waiting for the skies to light up. I love this country. I love her past and I love her potential. I love her people. My opinion is that if you don’t, go on and go somewhere else or shut up about it and vote or make some other difference in the world. Leave the flag, the patriotic, the military, and our freedoms alone. After all, if you didn’t live in this free country you wouldn’t be able to bitch about her without consequence.
Happy 4th of July…America surely is beautiful. May we all fight to keep her that way.