O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
Well friends, we came to a crossroads and chose which road to take. And our choice grieves me to no end. I never thought I'd see the day when America would choose free stuff over liberty. We have forgotten who we are. My own state of Virginia has gone blue now for two presidential elections in a row. Virginia, the home of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, patriots who believed in a country where men were created equal and their status in life was not based on what family they were born into or what country they were from. Where people should have the chance to make of themselves what they dreamed of. No country had ever believed in ideals such as these before. Life to the original patriots was what you chose to make of it, not what the government told you was best. That use to mean you work hard if you want success. Now it means you take as much as you can get from the government. It use to mean you search for the truth and do the research. Now it means you either listen to what the mainstream media tells or you live under a giant rock and are happy not knowing what is happening in the world. And it's not as if these men always agreed with each other. Jefferson and Adams would have been hard-pressed to be more opposite from each other. But there is a difference between those two men, who differed on how the Constitution that they helped write was to be interepreted, and the huge worldview differece between traditional American ideals and the policies we have come to accept in recent years. God has shed his grace on this great nation, but we have squandered it. We have made government our god instead of Him.
O beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife
When once and twice,
for man's avail
Men lavished precious life!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!
But do not give up hope. Do not forget the fires we have been put through in history. We survived the Civil War and came out of it as one nation. Americans weathered the Great Depression and went on to help the allies win in WWII. The riots of 1918 and 1919 led many to belive America was over then. We are not beaten yet. But it will be a long, up-hill climb out of this mess. I believe God has a reason for the outcome of this election and I believe part of that reason is to make America stronger under fire and tyranny. He did it before, before 1776. The colonists begged the King for years and years and years before they finally decided to declare independence. They did not want to turn their backs on their Mother country. It may be years and years and years before we finally say as a nation they we have had enough of the liberal and socialist lies and tyranny. But we must hold out, as they did. The colonists knew something had to give, something had to change. And it wasn't going to happen unless they worked for it. God can't use us if we give up. We have to be willing to fight to be used as soldiers. Because this is a war. The election was just one battle. This is a war about freedom, about religious and economic liberty. "Till selfish gain no longer stain the banner of the free!"
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till nobler men keep once again
Thy whiter jubilee!
My favorite verse of this anthem: the patriot dream that sees beyond the years, that doesn't ever give up. The cities that will one day gleam again despite our fears and sadness in the wake of this election. Christians are the salt of the earth. Salt preserves, that's its job. Christians are called to preserve biblical values and to spread the truth. America was once the hope of the world and can be again if we fight for it. Whatever is suppose to happen will happen and we must have peace in that, I know. But if we have a chance at bringing about a change for the better, why not strive for it?
So what can you, as an individual, do about all this? First off, get informed if you aren't already. And that means stop solely watching MSNBC and CNN and other news networks because they aren't telling you the truth. Do your own reserach without the assistance of the media. Learn what Obama's healthcare law actually contains now that it will be implemented. Learn who it effects and how you can prepare for it. Learn about the Benghazi debacle. I can't tell you how many people I've talked to that don't know anything happened in Libya. So figure out why it is a bigger scandal than Watergate or the Lewinsky affair. Think through the potential consequences of having a president who finds partial-birth abortion perfectly acceptable and who believes everyone should have access to free birth-control, instead of just buying it at Walmart with their own money. Know what true liberty is and why being constantly dependent on the government isn't freedom. Basically, learn how to articulate your values. We can't win unless we teach people why Obama's policies are so ruinous. And if Conservatives themselves can't articulate it, who will? Second, get involved. Fight for something. Don't be a silent bystander. Not being interested in politics is no excuse to not take action. And third: help your neighbor. Teach people by example the difference between being "saved" by the government and getting a helping hand from your neighbor. It doesn't matter what you do, but it's important you do something. To continue being a united nation, we must be willing to help each other. And here's a piece of good news: Obama did not win by a landslide. 49% of us didn't vote for him. We are not alone. But we must unite.
America is a beautiful experiment. Land of the free, home of the brave. The place where people have the courage and the freedom to take a stand for what they believe, especially when they don't know if they will be successful. But if we do nothing, we will fail. If we continue to accept ignorance and lies, we will fail without a doubt. If you weren't involved before, now is the time to act.
"I wish none of this had happened," said Frodo. But Gandalf's replied, "So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
(Get ready to see blogs from me pop up more often. I think it's time for real education to return to America.)
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