I once looked forward to the Fourth of July. Of course, I once believed in the Easter Bunny. Lately, it seems the independence that defined this great nation is as mythical as that Easter egg laying rabbit.
Our Founding Fathers would not recognize America today: They would emerge from their graves to find an over-governed nation lacking in unity, purpose or hope.
The America we once knew and revered is gone, lost amid discord, lingering hate and political agendas that put greed and control above what is best for the nation and its people.
The notion of a government of the people, for the people and by the people died long ago. America today is controlled by fatcat lobbyists, powerful communications moguls and politicians who personal ambitions outweigh their love of country.
We’ve become a nation where the President of the United States decides who runs the nation’s largest automobile company, a nation where phone calls are monitored and our every move in captured by an ever-growing army of video cameras and monitoring equipment. Every day, the government monitors our finances, our travels and our habits. The government feels it has a right to know our health information, our gun-buying habits and whether or not we watch porno movies on DirecTV.
We laughingly try to export democracy to other countries when, in reality, we do not have true democracy here at home. We should be charged with false advertising.
In many ways, we did it to ourselves. In the primary elections last month, just 3.5 percent of Floyd County’s eligible voters turned out to vote. A public hearing on the county’s budget brought out only a handful of people.
Maybe we no longer care what happens to a once-great nation called America. For the first time in my life, I’m wondering if I do. On this 4th of July, I’ll probably climb on my motorcycle and find a lonely back road to ride for the day.
Tonight, some will gather at the high school to watch the fireworks. Others will climb a hilltop on Thunderstruck Road to watch more.
But are they attending a celebration or a wake?
I wonder.
I was reading today about what our Founding Fathers had to say, this is some of it, all fact, you can look it up…George Washington said ” It would be impossible to rightly govern without God and the Bible”
John Adams said “It would be impossible to govern without God and the Ten Commandments”
Andrew Jackson said ‘ The Bible is the Rock on which our Republic rest” All of these being Presidents of The United States
Now with that said…this is whats wrong with our nation..We took God out of it and the Bible tell us that a nation with out him cannot stand. We need to get back to the basic’s. Now I didn’t post this to start some kind of war on this site, it is my opinion and I’m sure others have their own…but think about it…with out God in our country look at the direction we have taken, we do need Change, I’m just not sure we are going to get it without putting God first.
Again please no bashing…that was not the intent
The founding fathers said a lot of things, but they made a point to not mention God or religion at all in the U.S. Constitution (except for the 1st amendment. The Constitution is used to govern us-not the Bible. The Bible and Christianity have little (maybe nothing) to do with the political problems Doug wrote about. If you can explain to me how mounting federal debt, increasing government involvement in formerly non-government industries, and a loss of personal privacy are related to “taking God out of it” I would love to hear it.
I don’t really have anything PITHY to say about this. BUT. Took the kids to 4th of July fireworks, and we accidentally set up in the middle of a huge immigrant crowd who had been granted citizenship at a special ceremony. Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian, Hispanic–the were all waving American Flags and were THRILLED to be there.
It’s still a pretty awesome place to be, and there is hope for the future…
Jeff, I think you hit the nail on the head. If a person would look back to the point where God and prayer was taken out of the schools and public buildings they would see the rapid deterioration of this country. Look at the violence that is now in our schools. Look at our society, where people anymore do not want to be responsible for their action, but look to other people and life experiences to make excuses for their actions. The lack of morals has caused the society to get to this point.
It amazes me that God cannot be mentioned hardly in public and schools without a backlash, but mention any other religion and it is welcomed with open arms. Why the double standard?
Our founding fathers spoke of God many times and prayed. It is documented. Many government building have some form of God written on them somewhere. I think you brought up a good point Jeff. I hope as well this doesn’t turn into a war of words. We, the believers should be able to speak what we believe without being bashed as well as anyone has the right to their opinion.
Doug hinted at a nice little scandal in D.C. The Washington Post tried to facilitate meetings between lobbyists and the US government.
Every threat of war, every Nanny State measure, every government boondoggle, every whitewash of police wrongdoing helps expose the rot that has set in. Fortunately there are people who see it for what it really is and working to put an end to it. I’m proud to say in my middle age that I’m on that side.