Proud and doing my part?
Today I am grateful for my homeland, safety, and freedoms. I am grateful for all those who have served our country in many capacities over our 242-year history.
It’s the 4th of July, celebrated as the birthday of my native country--the United States of America. It is the only home I have known, and I have only left it twice for brief stints in and over Canada . . . for a couple hours 23 years ago when traveling in northern Minnesota and flying to Alaska seven years ago.
I am a proud American and a grateful one, but a concerned one as well. There have been changes, shifts, and declines in unity and patriotism, increases in divisiveness and unfriendly banter.
I won't be doing any naming and blaming here, and the only finger I am pointing is the one I am pointing at myself. Am I doing my part?
Am I joining in community discussions on substantive issues? Am I casting my vote in elections from local level to national? Am I listening to others with tolerance, especially those I may disagree with? Am I treating my fellow citizens with kindness and not judgment? Do I take care of my home and yard, literally and figuratively? Do I speak up when silence may be detrimental?
Do I seek to contribute more, contaminate less? I will not be lulled into hopelessness or the unfriendly banter that immobilizes while it tears us further down. I can and will do my part. It does make a difference. I won't give up on my homeland.
It’s the 4th of July, celebrated as the birthday of my native country--the United States of America. It is the only home I have known, and I have only left it twice for brief stints in and over Canada . . . for a couple hours 23 years ago when traveling in northern Minnesota and flying to Alaska seven years ago.
I am a proud American and a grateful one, but a concerned one as well. There have been changes, shifts, and declines in unity and patriotism, increases in divisiveness and unfriendly banter.
I won't be doing any naming and blaming here, and the only finger I am pointing is the one I am pointing at myself. Am I doing my part?
Am I joining in community discussions on substantive issues? Am I casting my vote in elections from local level to national? Am I listening to others with tolerance, especially those I may disagree with? Am I treating my fellow citizens with kindness and not judgment? Do I take care of my home and yard, literally and figuratively? Do I speak up when silence may be detrimental?
Do I seek to contribute more, contaminate less? I will not be lulled into hopelessness or the unfriendly banter that immobilizes while it tears us further down. I can and will do my part. It does make a difference. I won't give up on my homeland.
This is a t-shirt I got in 2007, while on a school trip to Washington, D.C. It's getting worn and ragged, but I take care of it and put it on every year around this time. Take care. That's what we can each do. Take care and do our part as a citizen of our nations, as citizens of our world.
Fitting words from Rosa Parks to close with:
"To this day I believe we are here on Earth to live, grow, and do what we can
to make this world a better place for all people to enjoy freedom."
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