God Bless America

Wow.

Two-hundred thirty-six years old. The Republic of the United States of America is still around and doing fine despite ourselves. There is debate, and I’m not absolutely sure, but the longest reports of the existence of the Roman Republic were about 400 years – the shortest around 250 years. I invite my more learned friends to weigh their thoughts.

At one point, our Constitution allowed us to count some citizens as 3/5 of a person; we added an amendment to outlaw alcohol; it took a while to allow women to vote. Yep, we sure screwed a few things up.

I, for one, am very willing to forgive these boneheaded decisions as long as we’re committed to learn from them. I’m confident that some current decisions we’re making may also need forgiveness.

But, here’s my point. We live in the greatest nation in the known history of our planet. Yes, we do. Tomorrow, July 4, 2012 is the birthday of our nation. That we can so adamantly disagree, that we can publish our distemper and opposition, that we can vote – these are the things we should celebrate. I have no naiveté that things are not perfect but nor are they that screwed up. . . I truly believe that through constructive debate we’ll continue to prosper.

God bless America.

American Flag art courtesy of:

http://karenswhimsy.com/american-flag-clipart.shtm

Kate Smith video from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r26_CSzk3Xw