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 I Am the Nation
I was born on
July 4, 1776, and the Declaration of
Independence is my birth certificate. The
bloodlines of the world run in my veins, because
I offered freedom to the oppressed. I am many
things and many people. I am the
nation.
I am 213
million living souls -- and the ghost of
millions who have lived and died for
me.
I am Nathan
Hale and Paul Revere. I stood at Lexington and
fired the shot heard around the world. I am
Washington, Jefferson and Patrick Henry. I am
John Paul Jones, the Green Mountain Boys and
Davy Crockett. I am Lee and Grant and Abe
Lincoln.
I remember the
Alamo, the Maine and Pearl Harbor. When freedom
called, I answered and stayed until it was over,
over there. I left my heroic dead in Flanders
Field, on the rock of Corregidor, on the bleak
slopes of Korea and in the steaming jungle of
Vietnam.
I am the
Brooklyn Bridge, the wheat lands of Kansas and
the granite hills of Vermont. I am the coal
fields of the Virginias and Pennsylvania, the
fertile lands of the West, the Golden Gate and
the Grand Canyon. I am Independence Hall, the
Monitor and the Merrimac.
I am big. I
sprawl from the Atlantic to the Pacific ...my
arms reach out to embrace Alaska and Hawaii ...
3 million square miles throbbing with industry.
I am more than 5 million farms. I am forest,
field, mountain and desert. I am quiet villages
-- and cities that never sleep.
You can look
at me and see Ben Franklin walking down the
streets of Philadelphia with his bread loaf
under his arm. You can see Betsy Ross with her
needle. You can see the lights of Christmas and
heard the strains of "Auld Lang Syne" as the
calendar turns.
I am Babe Ruth
and the World Series. I am 110,000 schools and
colleges and 330,000 churches where my people
worship God as they think best. I am a ballot
dropped into a box, the roar of a crowd in a
stadium and the voice of a choir in a cathedral.
I am an editorial in a newspaper and a letter to
a congressman.
I am Eli
Whitney and Stephen Foster. I am Tom Edison,
Albert Einstein and Billy Graham. I am Horace
Greeley, Will Rogers and the Wright Brothers. I
am George Washington Carver, Jonas Salk and
Martin Luther King Jr. I am Longfellow,
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Walt Whitman and Thomas
Paine.
Yes, I am the
nation, and these are the things that I am. I
was conceived in freedom, and God willing, in
freedom I will spend the rest of my
days.
May I possess
always the integrity, the courage and the
strength to keep myself unshackled, to remain a
citadel of freedom and a beacon of hope to the
world.
©Otto
Whittaker
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"Our loyalty is due entirely to the
United States. It is due to the President only
and exactly to the degree in which he
efficiently serves the United States. It is our
duty to support him when he serves the United
States well. It is our duty to oppose him when
he serves it badly."
– T Roosevelt – 1918 –
"Why should we be frightened? No people
who have ever lived on this earth have fought
harder, paid a higher price for freedom, or done
more to advance the dignity of man than the
living Americans, those Americans living in this
land today."
– Ronald Reagan –
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The Pledge of
Allegiance
When the popular American comedian Red
Skelton was a young man, he learned the meaning
of the Pledge of Allegiance from one of his
teachers, Mr. Laswell. The lesson became
so meaningful he remembered the explanation
throughout his lifetime. The ironic thing
is when he made this recording he did not add
the words "Under God." Be sure and read what he
said about it at the end of his pledge. In 1969
Red Skelton made the following recording
– An
explanation of the Pledge Of Allegiance:
I:
Me; an
individual; a committee of one.
Pledge:
Dedicate
all of my worldly goods to give without
self-pity.
Allegiance:
My
love and my devotion.
To the Flag:
Our standard;
Old Glory ; a symbol
of Freedom; wherever she waves there is respect,
because your loyalty has given her a dignity
that shouts, Freedom is everybody's job.
United:
That
means that we have all come
together.
States:
Individual communities that have united
into forty-eight great states. Forty-eight
individual communities with pride and dignity
and purpose. All divided with imaginary
boundaries, yet united to a common purpose, and
that is love for country.
And to the Republic:
Republic--a state in which sovereign
power is invested in representatives the people
to the leaders, not from the leaders to the
people.
For which it stands,
One Nation:
One Nation – meaning, so
blessed by God.
Indivisible:
Incapable of being divided.
With Liberty:
Which is
Freedom; the right of power to live one's own
life, without threats, fear, or some sort of
retaliation.
And Justice:
The
principle, or qualities, of dealing fairly with
others.
For All:
For
All--which means, boys and girls, it's as much
your country as it is
mine.
Since I was a small boy, two
states have been added to our country and two
words have been added to the pledge of
Allegiance... UNDER GOD.
Wouldn't it be a pity if
someone said that is a prayer and it would be
eliminated from schools too?
Click
here to listen hear a recording of Red Skelton
reciting this.
(be sure to have your sound
turned
up.)
http://www.getipm.com/personal/red-skelton.htm
To
purchase a video of this famous
pledge,
performed on television in 1969, you
can
visit:
http://www.heartwarmers4u.com/b
MORE
BLESSINGS
TO PONDER
If you have
food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back,
a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are
richer than 75% of this world.
If you have
money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare
change in a dish someplace, you are among the
top 8% of the world's wealthy.
If you woke up
this morning with more health than illness, you
are more blessed than the million who will not
survive this week.
If you have
never experienced the danger of battle, the
loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of
torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are
ahead of 500 million people in the
world.
If you can
attend a church meeting without fear of
harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are
more blessed than three billion people in the
world.
If your
parents are still alive and still married, you
are very rare, even in the United
States.
If you hold up
your head with a smile on your face and are
truly thankful, you are blessed because the
majority can, but most do not.
If you can
hold someone's hand, hug them or even touch them
on the shoulder, you are blessed because you can
offer healing touch.
If you can
read this message, you just received a double
blessing in that someone was thinking of you,
and furthermore, you are more blessed than over
two billion people in the world who cannot read
at all.
Have a good
day, count your blessings, and pass this along
to remind everyone else how very blessed we all
are.
Humbled,
blessed and thankful
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Life is changed,
