I have heard a lot of Americans talk about how hopeless they feel right now. They wonder if they will ever be able to believe again. America put their belief in a president that said he could give them hope, he could bring about a change that would save America. Our hope was betrayed and many of us now simply have sat down, too confused to now how to move forward.
We are losing the freedom to hope, to dream, to believe in something bigger than ourselves. But hope is not lost. We are still Americans! Our parents and our grandparents have seen hard times before. They have fought in world wars and stood in breadlines, waiting for a chance to feed their families. Yet somehow America has prevailed. She has always picked herself up off the floor and pushed forward into the future. Are we going to be the generation that just gives up? Are we going to be the ones to throw in the towel on the American Dream? What about our children and grandchildren? What will they think of us if we give up?
There are those in our government that will tell us that they know best, that we should simply sit still and wait for them to fix all the world’s problems. They want us to lose hope in ourselves, and put the hope in them. Our President had the right idea when he campaigned on Hope. He knew that was exactly what the American people needed. The issue is that instead of telling us to believe in ourselves, he asked us to let him change the world for us. Our Country was built on the backs of people like you and me. Her past issues were solved not because one charismatic leader swooped in to save the day, but because collectively the American people said, we will survive! Americans strapped on their boots and went to work, they believed in themselves and this gave their children a future to hope for.
Do we have enough faith today to believe, or are we simply resolved to watch our dreams float away? American is still a great land. It is still a place where everyday Americans can take responsibility and move this country forward. Currently, we are cowering under the covers and hoping that our government will scare off the monsters in the closet. But, if there is one thing that I know for sure about the hearts and souls of all Americans, it is that we don’t hide for long. Our parents and our grandparents chased their own monsters out of the closet, tackled them to the ground, tied them up and then put them behind class at the history museum so that we would not forget that we have the power to do anything.
Ask yourself today: what kind of American are you? Are you going to continue to believe that hope is gone, or are you going to stand up and realize that hope has not left us? We have been looking for some great leader to show us the way. The problem is that each one of us holds hope in our hands. We must learn to believe in ourselves, to have faith in our American communities, and to look first up to our God and then to our own feet to find the power to tackle our own monsters. Let us walk together into a strong and meaningful future!
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Saturday, November 7, 2009
FREEDOM: What else are we losing?
Have you noticed that people seem more stressed lately? Life just is not fun anymore for a lot of us. Granted, with the economy the way it is, I can understand people’s concerns, but I have begun to wonder if there is not something deeper to their current state of gloom.
As I watch and study people’s reactions to the current state of our world, I have noticed something in the hearts of Americans that I have never seen before, and this realization scares me to death! We have become apathetic. For the first time in the history of our country, I am hearing more “I don’t cares” or “I just have to look after myself and my family” or “Sure, I am concerned, but I just don’t have time to worry or get involved”. Simply put, this attitude is un-American. I would even venture to say that it is anti-American.
There is a core freedom that has been stripped from the American population and that freedom is our freedom to care: to care about those around us, to care about our futures, to care about our children’s future. We have bought into the idea that the Government is taking care of us so we don’t have to worry. They will provide for our future; we just need to worry about ourselves. Just in case I am not being clear, let me clarify that I am saying we as Americans have traded in our honor and our sacred privilege to help those around us and we have become selfish. We have decided that being politically correct is more important than simply being correct. We would rather look the other way in the face of opposition than stand on the principles that, for so many generations, have made this country great. We are told that it is wrong for us to share our beliefs, to talk about our views, or to care about politics in general. Do we really believe that? Do we really buy into the fact that in order to be a good American we must stay silent? More importantly, the apathy that we are taught to have at work and at school has caused us to stop looking around for ways to help. Our hearts have hardened for the sake of our jobs or our grades and the result is that we have forgotten what it means to care to the point that to even hear someone have passion raises red flags in our brainwashed minds.
What is this apathy doing to our society? Because we have been told not to care, we don’t know our neighbors. “How are you doing?” has become a greeting rather than a question. We busy ourselves with selfish pursuits, never stopping to ponder the consequences that our lack of caring has upon ourselves and those around us.
We can talk about political change until we’re blue in the face but until we jumpstart our ability to care, change will be impossible. Ultimately our selfish, politically-correct, self-preserving, auto-pilot, “don’t get in my way”, “I can’t wait till the end of the week”, mindset gives no room for progress, and even less room for hope. In the end we are stressed, not because we have too many meetings, not enough money, and too large of a mortgage: we are stressed because we are alone. You don’t care about your neighbor and your neighbor does not even know your name, and that, my friends, is not how we were made to live. Regardless of what pop culture tells us, the important part in life is not how high you climb the ladder. The real meaning of life, of progress, of success, is how many steps we did not take because we stopped to help up the person next to us.
Let’s take back our freedom to care even if it means (yes, I will say the scary word) “sacrificing.
As I watch and study people’s reactions to the current state of our world, I have noticed something in the hearts of Americans that I have never seen before, and this realization scares me to death! We have become apathetic. For the first time in the history of our country, I am hearing more “I don’t cares” or “I just have to look after myself and my family” or “Sure, I am concerned, but I just don’t have time to worry or get involved”. Simply put, this attitude is un-American. I would even venture to say that it is anti-American.
There is a core freedom that has been stripped from the American population and that freedom is our freedom to care: to care about those around us, to care about our futures, to care about our children’s future. We have bought into the idea that the Government is taking care of us so we don’t have to worry. They will provide for our future; we just need to worry about ourselves. Just in case I am not being clear, let me clarify that I am saying we as Americans have traded in our honor and our sacred privilege to help those around us and we have become selfish. We have decided that being politically correct is more important than simply being correct. We would rather look the other way in the face of opposition than stand on the principles that, for so many generations, have made this country great. We are told that it is wrong for us to share our beliefs, to talk about our views, or to care about politics in general. Do we really believe that? Do we really buy into the fact that in order to be a good American we must stay silent? More importantly, the apathy that we are taught to have at work and at school has caused us to stop looking around for ways to help. Our hearts have hardened for the sake of our jobs or our grades and the result is that we have forgotten what it means to care to the point that to even hear someone have passion raises red flags in our brainwashed minds.
What is this apathy doing to our society? Because we have been told not to care, we don’t know our neighbors. “How are you doing?” has become a greeting rather than a question. We busy ourselves with selfish pursuits, never stopping to ponder the consequences that our lack of caring has upon ourselves and those around us.
We can talk about political change until we’re blue in the face but until we jumpstart our ability to care, change will be impossible. Ultimately our selfish, politically-correct, self-preserving, auto-pilot, “don’t get in my way”, “I can’t wait till the end of the week”, mindset gives no room for progress, and even less room for hope. In the end we are stressed, not because we have too many meetings, not enough money, and too large of a mortgage: we are stressed because we are alone. You don’t care about your neighbor and your neighbor does not even know your name, and that, my friends, is not how we were made to live. Regardless of what pop culture tells us, the important part in life is not how high you climb the ladder. The real meaning of life, of progress, of success, is how many steps we did not take because we stopped to help up the person next to us.
Let’s take back our freedom to care even if it means (yes, I will say the scary word) “sacrificing.
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