Friday.....America.....A Mirror Helps Answer Questions

I was born in 1950. The grade school that I attended was close to the Buffalo International Airport. In the 1961 school year we were herded out to Genesee Street and looked on adoringly as then candidate for president John Kennedy drove by on a visit to Buffalo. All of the history classes that I had were respectful of the people who settled here and who piece by piece, built this great country. Were there exaggerations? Probably, but no more than one would expect from those who wrote those textbooks who fully realized every benefit and every freedom that set this land apart. On into high school here in Pittsburgh, the teaching was more realistic but still instilled a love for this country for the mind was now capable to compare our failures, our sins, with the rest of the world. I was never ordered to honor our flag for it has always effected me as it was portrayed to have effected the Jewish prisoners at the end of the film Life Is Beautiful as the stars and stripes adorned an American tank pulling into the concentration camp. I never felt better than people in our countries but I did feel advantaged . When I traveled, I felt honored to be with the South Vietnamese and the Paraguayan. I always felt that the Canadian was a brother and the English were forefathers. I respected all the Europeans and when I meet people today from other lands, I'm excited to ask them questions. The vast majority of people my age would feel the same way. Is this just a natural response for baby boomers that grew up in a Pax Americana? I don't think so. I think that many in every generation felt blessed to be pilgrims, colonists and citizens of this land. Having given these thoughts, I am often mystified at how Americans can so blithely sweep away this history and opt for the proven failure of socialism and bondage of an all-powerful state? Was it postmodernism that garbled the definition of words such as freedom, liberty and patriotism? What makes an established American actor praise Hugo Chavez and what makes us flock to see films of those who paint us as warmongers for the world to jeer at? I don't know the specifics of these questions but I know the source. We are human. American or not we are going to eventually reject the benefactor of these blessings, we are going to view ourselves as more intelligent, more progressive than those who came before us, totally oblivious to the fact that those we dishonor gave us the right to even question their sacrifices, their laws and their traditions. My questions are cleared up even more as I think about my own daily moments of rebellion, flattering lips and praiseless praise to the one who snatched me out of the fire and clothed me with His garments. So, It's really no mystery but sad nonetheless. I know this also. We're to go one step at a time, forward, humble, remorseful but filled with joy, for this human condition will not last forever and it is His faithfulness that will trump our unfaithfulness, His strength that will overcome our weakness and His righteousness that will conquer our rebellion.