I'm looking out my home office window at a brilliant fireworks display my neighbors are doing with their kids. And I realized -- this is the first year I've ever actually FELT a patriotic stir come the 4th of July. For the first time in my life, I looked up and said thank GOD I was born in America!
Where did that come from? Not from my public schooling, where the Pledge of Allegiance was drilled in by the same empty rote as anything else -- "we don't care what (or if) you think, as long as you do what we say." Not from my Liberal Arts college education, where patriotism was hardly spoken of, and almost a relic. No.. it came from men and women like you. People who still believed in the old ways of responsibility, of self-sufficiency, and of strength.
I understand now what Jefferson was speaking of when he said practice with weapons strengthened the mind. I understand viscerally now the old adage "a man with a gun is a citizen -- a man without a gun is a subject." I finally understand and appreciate why the Founding Fathers did what they did.
I know it's hard to see amidst all the bad news and worse laws out there -- but keep the faith. Heck, if a starry-eyed liberal chick like myself could be brought over the fence, there's hope for the country yet!
Thank you.
-K
Where did that come from? Not from my public schooling, where the Pledge of Allegiance was drilled in by the same empty rote as anything else -- "we don't care what (or if) you think, as long as you do what we say." Not from my Liberal Arts college education, where patriotism was hardly spoken of, and almost a relic. No.. it came from men and women like you. People who still believed in the old ways of responsibility, of self-sufficiency, and of strength.
I understand now what Jefferson was speaking of when he said practice with weapons strengthened the mind. I understand viscerally now the old adage "a man with a gun is a citizen -- a man without a gun is a subject." I finally understand and appreciate why the Founding Fathers did what they did.
I know it's hard to see amidst all the bad news and worse laws out there -- but keep the faith. Heck, if a starry-eyed liberal chick like myself could be brought over the fence, there's hope for the country yet!
Thank you.
-K
