So, I awoke this morning and walked out into my front yard, stood on the porch, directly under the flag flying in the breeze, and felt my eyes fill up with tears. A little history may be in order. Personal history. The flag that flies from my front porch once saw duty as a drape over my father's coffin. Dad was a patriot - a different kind than his son, but a patriot of the highest order. A simple man, he believed in "my country, right or wrong" and could never get his mind around "My country, right or fix it". And I realize that the blind acceptance of "my country" for so many of our parents' generation and indeed even today's generation, has been largely to blame for where we are. I do not fault them. They had no reason to believe that our greatest danger lay in the very halls of the government they had elected. The idea was unthinkable. But here we are. The current administration has harnessed Congress like an old well-broken team of mules. They have re-constituted the Supreme Court into a rubber stamp for the executive branch on all but the most bizarre cases. The president actually believes he has a right to change laws as written by the Legislature before signing them, with no one's approval but his own. He is, after all, "The Decider". He can order anyone who ever worked for him or his corrupt administration to refuse to testify before the United States Congress. Now, think about that! There are three co-equal branches of Government established by the United States Constitution. Not "A Decider" and his lackeys. And the Supremes, the only check on his powers, simply nod sagely and refuse to hear cases that would curtail his excesses. In the past, no administration could have presumed to usurp the power of the Congress and the courts. That great defender of truth and honesty, the Fourth Estate, the American press and broadcast media, would have exposed this usurpation in a minute. Who can imagine Edward R. Murrow, Lowell Thomas, Cronkite, parroting the President's lies, just because he is "a good ole boy" and "fun to drink a beer with". Who can envision these reporters pretending that distorted claims of national security really carry weight, or that "temporary" suspensions of Constitutional and Civil Rights are sometimes necessary evils in this dangerous world. It has been said that once there were giants. Churchill, DeGaulle, Roosevelt, Stalin and Hitler were, in fact just men, thrust into the spotlight of history- a spotlight so bright that their silhouettes appeared as giants Where are the giants today? What will the spotlight of history expose? Where are the historians today? Have they - like the honest and fearless news correspondents- become an endangered or even extinct species? One of the truest of all maxims is that those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it. Returning to my premise, it is a day to be sad for what America is no more. It is a day to be aware of what she can be again. It is a day to remember the words of Jesus, and of Mohammed, and of Confucius, Dr. King, Schweitzer, Zoroaster, Gandhi, all the great moral leaders in our history. Unanimously they stood for the responsibility of every person to have concern for every other person. "Whatsoever you do for the least of these...you do for me". "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" . This is why I have a garden. My neighbor likes cucumbers and lacks money, so I grow the abominable things and take them to her. That is why I am a substitute teacher, even though it interferes with my retirement activities (sitting and occasionally rocking). That is why I care about our poor pathetic political system and lose sleep over it, even deluding myself into believing that Alabama will eventually decide to join the 21st Century. So, I wish you all a Happy Interdependence Day. I have no desire to be independent of you. I will not permit you to be independent of me. When I see you in need or in distress, I will be there When you are thirsty, I have water. Hungry? i have,,..uh.. cucunmbers. Desolate, I have a word of cheer and a prayer for tomorrow. And I know that you have the same for me. Happy Interdependence Day, America! And a better tomorrow for us all. |
