Looking Back and Forward in Appreciation and Concern

So many times bloggers, like myself, focus on all the bad news that confronts us every day – forgetting that, at least for myself and my friends, life is pretty good. We live in a free country with a high standard of living and with great health care (I’ve had five minor and one major surgery in the last eight months, and I take miracle meds every day to control blood pressure and cholesterol – meds that were not available to my father’s generation).

Despite all the anger shown on the left about historical issues such as slavery and the plight of the Indians, deep down those who can think clearly know that our forefathers didn’t do anything that every other country and groups of peoples didn’t do or try to do contemporaneously – they just did it better, and over time we have gone to great lengths to remedy results of past behavior that offends present standards of morality. I have no guilt whatsoever about deeds of my ancestors, nor do I believe anyone else should have – especially when I know that my civilization was the first one to renounce slavery voluntarily, and that other civilizations are still practicing it at the present time.

What I do feel some guilt about is taking the blessings of this great nation for granted all those years when I was so busy earning a living, raising a family and trying to cope with everyday problems. I should have spent more time reflecting on and making sure my children came to appreciate those blessings.

The only thing that is particularly disturbing is in trying to understand the sickness that affects so many Americans that they cannot see through the histrionics of (mostly) Democrat politicians who seem to be bent on destroying this country and our standard of living – whether it be undermining the President in his struggle to protect us from the Islamic terrorists, whether it be enacting environmental regulations that prevent us from building refineries and drilling for our own oil, whether it be pushing down our throats a social agenda that actual votes always show we do not want, or whether it be opening the gates to unlimited immigration that will admit hordes of people who want to restore California as part of Mexico.

So many times in the past our history shows that we Americans are a very lucky people; so many times we have been saved over and over again by the determination of one man at the nexus. I pray that our luck continues to hold, because, in this age of nuclear missiles, we no longer have the luxury of two great oceans to protect us and to give us time to adjust to new perils.