I was watching the film "Glory" the other night. It is a film about, in essence, how white America had to learn to love the people they had brought here to abuse. A film about how those who had been wronged every day of their own lives had to step up, forgive and dare to live. The white man had to be humble and brave enough to give the black man a chance to be a man and then the black man had to be resolute enough to take one more step, their own step.
I thought how this nation's people have not been inextricably tied to the land from the dawn of time. We are a nation of pioneers seeking life and liberty. We have, since the first groups of settlers, been joined by other groups of people in this new nation either through their own fruition or through the tragedy of crimes. We all have the necessity of learning to live together and we all have inherited the destiny, right and responsibility to work hard for our future; to take responsibility for our own situation and to make it better and, when occasion permits, show charity to those around us.
In order to facilitate this American destiny and gain our independence many people fought and died and others have fought again and again to maintain our freedoms. The best minds at the dawn of our country took what was true and right and devised a way that through the responsibility and work of the people we might maintain our liberties and work out or problems together. They sacrificed that we might maintain our destinies and not give control of our lives to others.
In this day we see our country in crisis. First, a crisis of information overload. We are so bombarded by information we get lost in it, numb to it or obsessed with it. We want to belong and we want to build but we have no structure around us so we look to media, substance, and material for solace; occasionally to sin and vice. But these leave us unfulfilled and bitter. Meanwhile, through our consumerism, we have lost our community and our feeling of connection to the towns, states and the country we have built.
Another great crisis that we face is that some people, in the name of "progress", are changing our country. They say that the moral base that this country was founded on is out of date, old-fashioned or unfair. They more and more seek special privilege for the few in the name of equal rights while at the same time chipping away at the structure of government that was made to protect us all as well as possible.
They try to lead us to believe that the truths on which we founded our freedoms are arbitrary and no longer apply. How can moral truth change? Do humans change? In small ways perhaps but the human soul has loved, despaired, hungered, hated, hoped and desired the same way since the first man walked. Right has been, is and will always be right. No matter how much we want to justify, bend or color our wrongs and injustices they will always be wrong. We can follow any road we want but they do not all lead to where we want to go. Even if every person votes that wrong is right; right is still right.
So the time has come. We can no longer sit and talk of glory and sings songs of the bravery of days gone by. We need to kick in and anti up. We need stop pretending that the world owes us a living and realize we owe the world our lives. We need to stop living in the thick of thin things. We need to stop wallowing in the fleeting pleasure of petty things and seek the joy of accomplishment. We need to stop stealing a future of plenty and possibility from our children and we need to take responsibility for our tomorrow. We need to vote, work, plant, repair, talk, share, teach and most importantly we need to be the example we want our children and those around us to have. We need to remember those before us who were humble and brave enough to take the first step and now we need to take then next step, our own step. We, the people, must take a moment each day, stare our responsibility in the face and go do our best. We need to gratefully live the gift, the right and the responsibility that is being American.
