God Bless America

Christmas used to be my favorite holiday.  Twinkle lights, presents and remembering the best gift ever, Jesus. As a young woman it occurred to me that I would be nothing without Jesus' death, burial and resurrection so I claimed Easter as my favorite holiday for a long time.  As a Christian both holidays symbolize great things.  The Messiah has come and is coming again!  These truths will never be taken from me. 

When I met my husband his family went all out for the 4th of July and it wasn't long until it became my absolute favorite holiday.  Every single tradition of America's birthday is my favorite!  Parades in both of our hometowns, lazy afternoons spent with family and friends and meeting on 'the hill' for fireworks.  But more than any of that it is that I celebrate the amazing country that I get to live in.  Each year the strains of Lee Greenwood's "God Bless America" are heard in the background.

My mind returned to them earlier today,

"If tomorrow all the things were gone I'd worked for all my life
And I had to start again with just my children and my *husband*
I'd thank my lucky stars to be livin' here today
'Cause the flag still stands for freedom and they can't take that away"

Except that we are living in a country where that freedom has slowly been striped away.  You can argue that pandemic caused the shutdowns all day and I will tell you that the virus is a problem, but the bigger problem is our ridiculous response to it.  Stripping away a persons right to earn a living in the name of maybe, possibly, protecting someone from a virus with a 99.5% survival rate is ludicrous.  You can argue that the election was right and fair and I will meet you with evidence that it wasn't.  You can argue that Trump is the source of the unrest in our country and I will encourage you to think critically about what is really happening in our land.  

In the wake of yesterday's events in Washington DC I have this to say - 

I wanted to stand in our nations capital yesterday with fellow Americans who love our country.  You will notice that I said stand.  What took place in the Capitol is not representative of my feelings or those of anyone I have spoken with who shared their desire to be there.  We simply wanted to experience history in the making and make our presence known to Congress. Our votes in November didn't count, perhaps our presence would.  That is what yesterday was about.  Sadly a select few turned it into something that it wasn't intended to be.

I am proud to be an American.  I am thankful that my spiritual freedom isn't based on humanity and politics. I pray that the national freedom secured in 1776 and celebrated for 244 years will still be recognizable on July 4, 2021.