4th of July Ruminations - 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011 at 04:44PM I was watching the Antique Roadshow the other night and saw the most wonderful story. It seems that during World War I, the United States Navy was in need of binoculars to keep an eye on the seas and the call went out for citizens to donate their binoculars and telescopes to the Navy for the war effort.
The binoculars that were on the show were loaned to the USN and the Secretary of Defense, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, sent her a receipt, a dollar and a thank you note.
Now comes the most amazing part of the story. After the war, the binoculars were returned to the woman who had donated them. What amazing organization and integrity.
What a wonderful country this must have been back then, I thought. So much better than we are now.
But that thought was thankfully short lived. The next program was about gliding falcons and how at exactly the same time they were sending back one woman’s binoculars, the same US government was offering a bounty on every hawk shot. People were shooting them in the hundreds at every chance.
How awful, how un-green, how sad and terrible. And then it hit me.
This country; this United States of America is an experiment into the question of whether a people can govern themselves. It was never attempted before (unless you count pre-Britain Ireland—but that’s another story, see “How the Irish Saved Civilization,” a wonderful short read) and it has been going on for only a couple of hundred years.
What we have is a work in progress and it swings back and forth between the rich calling all the shots and a government by the people and for the people and OF the people.
It will only work if all of us get involved, and the downside is that it’s always a compromise, which is not a perfect solution. A compromise is a best case scenario where everyone involved gets some of what they want.
This has been happening for centuries, and right now the top five percent of Americans own fifty percent of the wealth.
The last time this happened we had the trust buster, Teddy Roosevelt, to go to bat for us. The same guy that was shooting every bird in site.
See? It’salways a compromise. But what we are doing is a slow, glacially slow, refinement of the laws that will allow for free enterprise and protect the citizenry simultaneously.
So on this day, the celebration of the founding of our country, I salute all who have gone before and I suggest and encourage all those around now and those to come, to get involved.
A democracy can only work if we are all paying attention. Whatever you believe in, it is not safe as long as you are indifferent to protecting it. And there is always an opposing view.
Here’s the United States of America, land of great com-promise. Don’t let the right wing or the left wing marginalize or alienate you. We are all a piece in this puzzle that is America.
Reader Comments (3)
I can't believe it took me this long to find your blogs here. I had forgotten how much I like your writing voice. I'll be sure to come back. xoxox Cloud
This is such a beautiful image! Is that what you call Digital Painting? It looks stunning. luqyet luqyet - North Face Denali.
Great post very interesting topic thanks for sharing it
pharmacy reviews