I Miss America!J. D. Longstreet
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I have always thought Providence had a plan for this place we call America. No, I did not get that from the “Good Book,” the Bible, as you might think I would claim. Actually, I think it came from my fundamentalist evangelical upbringing. In any event, it is a feeling to which I grasp firmly to this day.
America has done a lot of good I this world. We have managed, along the way, to do some harm. At least those who do not look as kindly upon America as I do seem to feel that way and seem to have no problem letting those feelings be known loudly and clearly.
There has been a feeling within much of the Christian community in America that Providence has shielded America from much harm by extending His protection about her. I cannot argue for or against that stance. I just don’t know.
Recently, however, that is to say - within the past few decades - as America has taken to patterning her society after the European style liberal and socialist societies, the Christian community has taken another look and now a good deal of that community is proclaiming that God has now withdrawn that divine protection and America is now open to whatever evil comes her way. I cannot say, one way or the other. While it is true that God and I have a very personal and close relationship, I am afraid He doesn’t take me into His confidence on such matters. I am eternally grateful for that! Unlike some among us scribes, I take no pleasure in publicly proclaiming I have any sort of inside track with The Almighty in how He deals with the nations.
However, I can tell you this - there is a written record of his past dealings with nations that have won his favor and then lost it. If, indeed, America DID have divine protection extended to her, and has, as some believe, lost it, then judging from the record I referred to above, America will have some trying times ahead of her.
We know from the scriptures that God “chastens those whom he loves.” Its sort of a “tough love”… divine style.
Let me give you an example from that written record we know today as the Bible. When the Chosen People decided they wanted a king like all the nations around them, the prophet told them they did not need a king because God was their sovereign. Not satisfied they demanded a king. Finally, God relented and gave them a king. Problem was, He gave them King Saul. And in doing so, God told them they would rue the day they ever asked for a king! And, boy, DID they! Saul became, quickly, a warrior king and many of God’s chosen people were slaughtered on the field of battle. It seems they were always at war with some other people, or nation, over some problem or other, until the people did come to realize they had made a major mistake in demanding an earthly king. Unfortunately, it was too late. The kingly line had been set and the people then had a royal family and a line of kings that would, march far into the future until captivity and dispersion.
Now - if there is a parallel between those ancient people of the bible and the modern US it might be the demand of the American voters for Obama as our “king” or President. Many of us knew, at least two years before the election, that John McCain would never be President of the US. So, when the GOP decided he was to be their candidate the election was sealed in favor of his opponent, and it turned out to be Obama. And today, about six months into Obama’s reign, the American voter is beginning to rue the day they demanded Obama as their king or President. Calls for his early resignation are heard from all corners of the land today.
After considering all of this, I must admit it does appear as more than just chance that all the bad that has happened to America in the past half a year leads right back to that election and the people’s demand for “change”. And make no mistake about it, the people of the US DEMANDED Obama. We got him - and look what else we got to boot.
And now we are fast approaching the day we celebrate our independence from Great Britain, the Fourth of July. I am sitting here at the keyboard trying to find something to say that is meaningful on this anniversary of our freedom. I find it is difficult, this year, to do that with all the bad we find ourselves nearly swamped in.
Each time I pull up to the keyboard, and type those few words, my eyes want to tear up and I get that lump in the throat that I used to associate with singing the national anthem and watching the flag march by, proudly held aloft by a veteran of the US Armed Forces. It is a common trait among those of us who have worn our nation’s uniform.
Ah, but this year, this year, the would-be tears are not only for those who have paid the price of our freedom with their body and blood - and sometimes even their sanity, it is for what we, as Americans, have lost in just the first five short months of the new presidential administration’s reign.
Near the top of my list of things we Americans have lost is PRIDE. Pride at being an American. Pride that was earned - that was paid for by the men and women who went before us into the jaws of hell and back to free a people in a country the name of which some of them could not even pronounce. It was pride earned because Americans were a people who would lend a hand to their fellow man, far away, who yearned to be free from a brutal dictator.
America used to be thought of as a “can-do” nation. It didn’t make a lot of difference what needed doing, America could, and would, do it. It never occurred to us we could fail. I mean, after all, we were AMERICANS! We DON’T FAIL!
It was confidence. Self-confidence, if you will. We were a nation of rugged individualists who did not rely on government for a damned thing. As a matter of fact, the less government we had - the better.
The nation, itself, was founded largely by the outcasts of other nations. Occasionally, other nations would send their criminals here as punishment. I know that is difficult to believe but it happened! They were people who had nothing to lose, with their backs against the wall they had one way to go and that was straight ahead - and the devil take the hind most! Those were the people who formed the bedrock foundation of the people the world would come to know simply as “AMERICANS.” Unique in the history of the planet - there had never been a nation made of people like those Americans. They were different. They knew it and they loved it.
They were a people who wanted their freedom - and so they took it – and they took it from a world superpower, no less. They created an experimental system of government called a representative republic and made it work! Some 80 years later they fell out, over state’s rights, and split into two separate countries and went to war against each other. The War for Southern Independence was unlike anything the world had seen before and since. They went at killing each other with workman like precision. On more than one occasion soldiers would cheer and applaud the other side’s bravery in the midst of the battle! More Americans died in that war than in all the wars America has been involved in added together. Some say the way that war ended has much to do with where America finds herself today. I cannot disagree with that. As a result of that war’s ending we stand today as one nation containing two countries made up of 50 separate and sovereign states. At some point it is bound to unravel.
America’s downfall came quickly once it began in the early 1990’s.
I have concluded, rightly or wrongly, (But I BELIEVE I am RIGHT) that ignorance is the cause of America’s downfall. We Americans are, as a whole, stupid. We are the least educated, dumbest, society on earth. How else can you account for the people we elected to lead the nation? I mean… just LOOK at that bunch! Now… look at what they have done to the country in less than six months! There is no easy way to say this – the election of Obama was a huge triumph for ignorance in America. If you STILL do not believe me, stick around for oh, a year, maybe eighteen months, or so, and watch what is going to happen and THEN tell me I am wrong.
Come on folks! Look at the fare on your TV. Most of it is insulting to anyone with a slightly above average IQ. You must understand the comprehension level of the average adult American today is around that of a third grader, or below. The people who produce the garbage on TV have to dumb it down so the average American can understand it! How else are they going to be able to sell it to the networks as vehicles for their commercials?
Our public school system (the government schools, as many now refer to them) is absolutely pathetic. It is a colossal failure. The curriculum has been dumbed down so that we are graduating kids who can barely function in a world that will surely pass them by. We know what is wrong with our schools and we know how to fix them - but we won’t. You must understand that for the government (we now have in America) to continue to control the reins of power they need MORE dumb Americans - not less. Our cookie-cutter schools are turning them out by the millions every year.
So, if you say America has passed her zenith, I certainly would not argue with you. Today’s America is but a caricature of the real America. If you choose to believe that God has withdrawn his shield of protection from America, then I certainly cannot argue with that, either. But I CAN tell you this - I really, really, miss America!
J. D. Longstreet
I have always thought Providence had a plan for this place we call America. No, I did not get that from the “Good Book,” the Bible, as you might think I would claim. Actually, I think it came from my fundamentalist evangelical upbringing. In any event, it is a feeling to which I grasp firmly to this day.
America has done a lot of good I this world. We have managed, along the way, to do some harm. At least those who do not look as kindly upon America as I do seem to feel that way and seem to have no problem letting those feelings be known loudly and clearly.
There has been a feeling within much of the Christian community in America that Providence has shielded America from much harm by extending His protection about her. I cannot argue for or against that stance. I just don’t know.
Recently, however, that is to say - within the past few decades - as America has taken to patterning her society after the European style liberal and socialist societies, the Christian community has taken another look and now a good deal of that community is proclaiming that God has now withdrawn that divine protection and America is now open to whatever evil comes her way. I cannot say, one way or the other. While it is true that God and I have a very personal and close relationship, I am afraid He doesn’t take me into His confidence on such matters. I am eternally grateful for that! Unlike some among us scribes, I take no pleasure in publicly proclaiming I have any sort of inside track with The Almighty in how He deals with the nations.
However, I can tell you this - there is a written record of his past dealings with nations that have won his favor and then lost it. If, indeed, America DID have divine protection extended to her, and has, as some believe, lost it, then judging from the record I referred to above, America will have some trying times ahead of her.
We know from the scriptures that God “chastens those whom he loves.” Its sort of a “tough love”… divine style.
Let me give you an example from that written record we know today as the Bible. When the Chosen People decided they wanted a king like all the nations around them, the prophet told them they did not need a king because God was their sovereign. Not satisfied they demanded a king. Finally, God relented and gave them a king. Problem was, He gave them King Saul. And in doing so, God told them they would rue the day they ever asked for a king! And, boy, DID they! Saul became, quickly, a warrior king and many of God’s chosen people were slaughtered on the field of battle. It seems they were always at war with some other people, or nation, over some problem or other, until the people did come to realize they had made a major mistake in demanding an earthly king. Unfortunately, it was too late. The kingly line had been set and the people then had a royal family and a line of kings that would, march far into the future until captivity and dispersion.
Now - if there is a parallel between those ancient people of the bible and the modern US it might be the demand of the American voters for Obama as our “king” or President. Many of us knew, at least two years before the election, that John McCain would never be President of the US. So, when the GOP decided he was to be their candidate the election was sealed in favor of his opponent, and it turned out to be Obama. And today, about six months into Obama’s reign, the American voter is beginning to rue the day they demanded Obama as their king or President. Calls for his early resignation are heard from all corners of the land today.
After considering all of this, I must admit it does appear as more than just chance that all the bad that has happened to America in the past half a year leads right back to that election and the people’s demand for “change”. And make no mistake about it, the people of the US DEMANDED Obama. We got him - and look what else we got to boot.
And now we are fast approaching the day we celebrate our independence from Great Britain, the Fourth of July. I am sitting here at the keyboard trying to find something to say that is meaningful on this anniversary of our freedom. I find it is difficult, this year, to do that with all the bad we find ourselves nearly swamped in.
Each time I pull up to the keyboard, and type those few words, my eyes want to tear up and I get that lump in the throat that I used to associate with singing the national anthem and watching the flag march by, proudly held aloft by a veteran of the US Armed Forces. It is a common trait among those of us who have worn our nation’s uniform.
Ah, but this year, this year, the would-be tears are not only for those who have paid the price of our freedom with their body and blood - and sometimes even their sanity, it is for what we, as Americans, have lost in just the first five short months of the new presidential administration’s reign.
Near the top of my list of things we Americans have lost is PRIDE. Pride at being an American. Pride that was earned - that was paid for by the men and women who went before us into the jaws of hell and back to free a people in a country the name of which some of them could not even pronounce. It was pride earned because Americans were a people who would lend a hand to their fellow man, far away, who yearned to be free from a brutal dictator.
America used to be thought of as a “can-do” nation. It didn’t make a lot of difference what needed doing, America could, and would, do it. It never occurred to us we could fail. I mean, after all, we were AMERICANS! We DON’T FAIL!
It was confidence. Self-confidence, if you will. We were a nation of rugged individualists who did not rely on government for a damned thing. As a matter of fact, the less government we had - the better.
The nation, itself, was founded largely by the outcasts of other nations. Occasionally, other nations would send their criminals here as punishment. I know that is difficult to believe but it happened! They were people who had nothing to lose, with their backs against the wall they had one way to go and that was straight ahead - and the devil take the hind most! Those were the people who formed the bedrock foundation of the people the world would come to know simply as “AMERICANS.” Unique in the history of the planet - there had never been a nation made of people like those Americans. They were different. They knew it and they loved it.
They were a people who wanted their freedom - and so they took it – and they took it from a world superpower, no less. They created an experimental system of government called a representative republic and made it work! Some 80 years later they fell out, over state’s rights, and split into two separate countries and went to war against each other. The War for Southern Independence was unlike anything the world had seen before and since. They went at killing each other with workman like precision. On more than one occasion soldiers would cheer and applaud the other side’s bravery in the midst of the battle! More Americans died in that war than in all the wars America has been involved in added together. Some say the way that war ended has much to do with where America finds herself today. I cannot disagree with that. As a result of that war’s ending we stand today as one nation containing two countries made up of 50 separate and sovereign states. At some point it is bound to unravel.
America’s downfall came quickly once it began in the early 1990’s.
I have concluded, rightly or wrongly, (But I BELIEVE I am RIGHT) that ignorance is the cause of America’s downfall. We Americans are, as a whole, stupid. We are the least educated, dumbest, society on earth. How else can you account for the people we elected to lead the nation? I mean… just LOOK at that bunch! Now… look at what they have done to the country in less than six months! There is no easy way to say this – the election of Obama was a huge triumph for ignorance in America. If you STILL do not believe me, stick around for oh, a year, maybe eighteen months, or so, and watch what is going to happen and THEN tell me I am wrong.
Come on folks! Look at the fare on your TV. Most of it is insulting to anyone with a slightly above average IQ. You must understand the comprehension level of the average adult American today is around that of a third grader, or below. The people who produce the garbage on TV have to dumb it down so the average American can understand it! How else are they going to be able to sell it to the networks as vehicles for their commercials?
Our public school system (the government schools, as many now refer to them) is absolutely pathetic. It is a colossal failure. The curriculum has been dumbed down so that we are graduating kids who can barely function in a world that will surely pass them by. We know what is wrong with our schools and we know how to fix them - but we won’t. You must understand that for the government (we now have in America) to continue to control the reins of power they need MORE dumb Americans - not less. Our cookie-cutter schools are turning them out by the millions every year.
So, if you say America has passed her zenith, I certainly would not argue with you. Today’s America is but a caricature of the real America. If you choose to believe that God has withdrawn his shield of protection from America, then I certainly cannot argue with that, either. But I CAN tell you this - I really, really, miss America!
J. D. Longstreet
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