Great Again

I confess that as I rise and place my hand over my heart to recite the pledge of allegiance to the flag, I still get a special feeling.  A little tingly and pride in the fact that I have the privilege to be an American.  It saddens me to hear politicians rant and rave about how we need to make America great again.  I happen to believe that with all of its flaws, America is still great.  Were it not, why would so many people want to come to our country?

Recently I read in the paper about a group passing a petition around Texas urging Texas to secede from the United States.  I can’t imagine something more stupid than someone wanting to renounce their American citizenship.  They obviously have failed to stop long enough to count their blessings.

The United States of America still provides us with a defense from foreign countries by having the largest and best military establishment anywhere in the world.  No place is better than America to be able to realize your ambitions. Few places in the world give us the opportunity to worship the God of our choice in the manner we choose.  Where else in the world can we raise our voice and call our leaders–even our president–names if we so choose?  Elsewhere in the world such conduct would land us in prison or worse.  When we take the time to add up the benefits, America is head and shoulders above any other nation in the world in greatness.

It disturbs me to see leading politicians readily announcing that their greatest goal is to see that our duly elected president does not succeed as president.  Of course, there are many detractors among our fellow citizens today about the shortcomings of government.  But I am confident that in the end we will overcome unwarranted criticisms and continue to demonstrate to the world that America is still great.

One of the disturbing factors in our current political atmosphere is that so many citizens appear to want people who hate government--and who seem to know the least about its administration--to take the reins of leadership.  What if you were to read in the want-ads an ad from a young mother advertising for a sitter for her children stating she wanted someone who had never changed a diaper and even disliked children?  I trust most of us, if not all, would denounce such a wrongheaded approach to the care of precious children.  Why then should we follow the same idea by electing people who would like to drown American government in a bathtub?

While I still firmly believe in America, I do believe a danger exists–that danger being that too many Americans, for some reason, have decided to cease being good citizens.  I say this based on recent trends and statistics concerning voter participation.  An older gentleman once spoke to me about personal skills, saying you should always remember to use them or lose them.

Nothing could be truer than applying the same idea to informed citizenship.  Less than 10% of Texans chose to participate in the past statewide elections.  A majority of that minority of citizens obviously believed it didn’t matter that the would-be chief legal officer of our state had admitted guilt to a third degree felony.  Electing someone of that ilk is not the fault of our system but the fault of citizens too dumb or too lazy to delve into the qualifications of those who would run our government. 

Please!  The next time you are tempted to buy into the cheap political slogan of “make our state great again” or “make our nation great again,” take stock in your own performance as a citizen and see whether or not you would grade yourself with A+, a failing grade or incomplete.