Happy 250th America!!!

As a 12 year old boy in the summer of 1976, I very much remember the spectacles of the Bicentennial celebrations. Not only the national celebrations like the tall ships in NY harbor & the concerts & fireworks at the national mall, but there was also the wonder & excitement for the future I was feeling at the prospect of soon starting junior high as we went to watch the fireworks downtown in a new city we had lived in for only 4 months. Things had not been completely rosy on the national stage and I was just old enough to really begin to understand. Gas prices had been raging for more than 3 years resultant to the OPEC oil embargoes. We were 2 years off our first round of double-digit inflation and still hovering above 5%, but completely oblivious to the fact that there would still be much more of the double-digit variety to come. Politics were particularly contentious during the first presidential elections since Watergate. Despite all that, I don't remember much conflict or protest about the Independence Day festivities, despite that I am sure there was at least some. The age of protest was still hanging onto its last gasps before pretty much petering away during the 80s & 90s. Perhaps the news media had decided to cut us a break for once or maybe I'm simply experiencing some selective memory. In fact, it was during the Bicentennial that I felt a national pride and unity I had only experienced once before - during the moon landing, and had been at that time far too young to truly understand or appreciate. It was a feeling I wouldn't experience again until 1980 after the Miracle on Ice.

50 years later, as a 62 year old man, I look back at a world and a nation with no less conflict, no less rancor or discord or cynicism than that I remember from the 1960s & early 70s or that I learned about from the 1760s & early 70s or the 1860s & early 70s. The century, it seems, does not matter. I look sometimes with horror, sometimes with disgust, and sometimes with a quiet resignation at the direction this country seems at times to be heading; in direct opposition to some very hard-earned, but quickly forgotten lessons from the past. But on this day, exactly a quarter millennium after a group of brave men chose to place their honor, their fortunes & their very lives on the line against their sovereign for an idea about a new and novel way to govern themselves, I choose to reflect with much the same wonder & excitement for the future that I first felt at age 5 and again at 12 and again at 16 and many times again throughout my 62 years about the nation I was lucky enough to have been born into.

I believe in American Exceptionalism. I believe we live in the greatest nation ever to grace the face of the earth, despite all its problems, despite all the mistakes that have been made and despite all the stupid ideas that have been occasionally spawned by some of the less intelligent, or less reflective, people who have inhabited it. I believe American Exceptionalism exists for only 2 reasons: a political system which promotes freedom for its people from the oppression of government and an economic system which allows for upward mobility regardless of class or station in life. Capitalism is that economic system. There is only one prospect for upward mobility in a socialist system - to be one of the very few among the decision makers in government. Everyone else is nothing but a tool to be used, abused and thrown away once its useful life is over. To be exploited for as many resources as it can provide at the lowest possible cost. These are the things the commies never put in the travel brochure. That it's the opposition after the revolution that gets killed, but it's the useful idiots who bought their bullshit in the first place who are the only ones left to exploit after the revolution is over. Imagine that!!! The American Dream was only ever a thing because it WAS attainable by anyone who was willing to put forth the effort AND to weather the storm when things inevitably go sideways! Yes, there is a little luck involved too, but nobody worthy of being believed ever promised it would be easy or that it would be for free!!!

Our republican system of government of, by & for the people, armed with our constitution which has served to preserve our individual liberties, excepting for a few instances when we have foolishly chosen to ignore it, has been the real unicorn. It's the reason why no other country has, as of yet, been able to follow in our footsteps. Because it is human nature to hold onto power once amassed. Even today, it's the same socialist cabal that wants to tear down our economic prowess, who are attempting to reinstall the recently excised corruption that enabled their power to flourish under their previous stewardship and to be maintained even when not directly in power up to this point when that infrastructure was finally destroyed. Anything less than continued vigilance will be our downfall. For another nation to follow would require a leader strong enough to amass the power, along with the will and fortitude to cede it away, and all without losing the ideal that drove the change in the first place. Daunting. Amazing that we were ever successful in the first place. These are the reasons why our freedoms AND our economic system can never be given away - because our circumstance is so impossible to attain in the first place. I, for one, will not become complacent.

Happy Birthday America! My thanks for all those who have contributed to your glory. My encouragement for any brave enough to endeavor for your success for themselves and my continued wish for the decisive defeat of any who would oppose it!!