Americans, Who are We Really?
This article was written by Chief Warrant Officer Paul Holton (Ret.), President and Founder of Operation Give. I am posting them as a courtesy on his behalf. I hope you enjoy his thoughts.
I know it is long, I got a little long winded, but please don’t pick this apart bit by bit, looking only for faults, without reading the entire piece and please seek for understanding before seeking to be understood, (an old Steven Covey expression). I am only attempting to provoke good positive thought and not to solicit some kind of rebuttal. I will not be responding either way. I provide you my thoughts, only as that my thoughts; to perhaps generate some degree of good positive thoughts on your part. No one needs to feel a need to justify their anger, hatred or disdain, I am not interested.
I recently posted a few comments regarding my attendance and participation as a bystander in our recent Presidential Inauguration. It was my intention to describe this experience in a very non-partisan/ non-political way; attempting to only put words an experience I had not previously had nor do I intend to ever have again in my life-time. I was privileged to be in the area of our nation’s capital and afforded the opportunity and the experience. Whenever in the D.C. area, I always take every opportunity to visit or rather view from a distance our nation’s Capital, the White House, and the various War memorials surrounding what they call the “Mall”, with great pride and reverence for our history.
I was subsequently shocked by the backlash and outrage expressed regarding my inaugural attendance. It came as a surprise to me that anyone would fault me for wanting to attend such an event, since I was already in the area attending a class at Fort Belvoir. And that I would find the whole process, of transferring of power and leadership from one President to another, enjoyable and worthwhile.
Originally upon receiving these somewhat shocking responses, I was tempted to respond back to these individuals with some degree of distain and frustration with their attitudes. I have to say I was very close to verbally slamming those individuals for their seemingly ridiculous comments. But after much thought and consternation, I chose the higher ground and refrained from being sucked into that web of word mongering and confrontational bickering back and forth.
There was already so much anger and hatred expressed in the responses I received, both in email and on Face Book, that I didn’t want to add fuel to that fire and lower myself to that level of hurtful hate mongering. Partially due to what I see as our divisive and disruptive news media reporting, we have all become too quick to give into the temptation to bash another for their point of view. In my life, I have never witnessed a more divided nation, brought about by our own divisive leaders and media, who would chose to have us divided and at odds with one another.
The vary group that calls for tolerance and love, has become the least tolerant and most hateful. While calling others out on the charge of being intolerant, hateful, bigoted, and narrow minded, they continue to show their own serious amount of hate, disdain, and intolerance for anyone that doesn’t see things the way they do. One only needs to listen to the commentary of the progressive nightly news or hear the rhetoric spewing forth from the demonstrators, to begin to understand the degree of hate, disdain and abhorrence they have towards anyone who supported Trump.
Obviously there was a large portion of the population of America who did vote and do support President Trump and continue to support his conservative agenda, or he wouldn’t have won. So what about all those people? Is it within your rights to bash them; hate them for their decision and choice to vote for now President Trump? So does love and tolerance prevail only as long as someone agrees with your point of view?
The process put in place by our forefathers works. There was an election, a chose was made and someone won, and the voice of the American people spoke. For good or bad, right or wrong, a transfer of power happened and Donald Trump is now the president of the United States of America. All of us didn’t get who we wanted, but it is the system we trust, believe in and support.
We should all be praying that he will be a good President; a God fearing – prayerful - constitution supporting – law-abiding president. We do have checks and balances built into our governmental system, which do work and which we can use to voice our opinions through our own governmental representatives.
Our founding fathers were a God fearing – prayerful – religious people, which is obvious in one of their original statements in the Declaration of independence, ““We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”.
This great exceptional nation was built and founded on solid Judeo-Christian principles of equality, love for mankind, honesty, integrity, freedom of choice (free agency), and all the freedoms established in the Bill of Rights.
The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution are summarized below.
1. Freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition.
2 . Right to keep and bear arms in order to maintain a well regulated militia.
3 . No quartering of soldiers.
4 . Freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures.
5 . Right to due process of law, freedom from self-incrimination, double jeopardy.
6 . Rights of accused persons, e.g., right to a speedy and public trial.
7 . Right of trial by jury in civil cases.
8 . Freedom from excessive bail, cruel and unusual punishments.
9 . Other rights of the people.
10 . Powers reserved to the states.
With the caveat that none of us have the right to enjoy any of these freedoms at the expense of others, or in any way to limit the freedoms of others. An individual’s rights do not supersede the rights or freedoms of another citizen’s rights. And our laws are there to protect the rights and freedoms of all of our citizens.
At this time in our nation’s history, there is a movement a foot or a trend if you will, to be anti-Christ, anti-God and anti-Semitic, but yet the principles set forth in the teachings and scriptures from God and from Jesus Christ are the vary principles that we have stood for since our inception. These are the vary principles that our freedoms are based on. It is the vary teachings of Jesus Christ that should guide us now in our interactions with others we might disagree with or have cause to argue. If only we could all get a new set of Christ like eyes, so we might see the peril of our own actions, as we continue to chose to see the mote in someone else’s eyes and justify our own hatred and detest for others professing to have a different point of view.
At this time our nation faces many serious problems that threaten our nations vary existence and perpetuation. As law abiding Americans we should all be looking at the problems and be united in our diligence to try to find solutions for them. We must find a way to overcome our differences, so we might work together in developing a way out, for “United we stand, divided we fall”.
Unless I am really stupid and crazy, I am sure that the majority of us would agree that………
1. A 20 trillion dollar deficit for any nation is not a good thing and will bring about tragic consequences if not remedied.
2. Trade imbalances, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, with our major trading partners, China – Korea – Japan – Mexico – etc….., will also have dire consequences if not remedied.
3. Having unsecured borders, preventing us from stopping criminals, terrorists, drugs, etc… from coming across, will ultimately be our demise.
4. The plight of our citizens in the inner cities has worsened and now we have more people than ever before on welfare and food stamps, unemployed/ under employed, babies being born without both parents around (single family moms), etc.
5. Our dependency on Middle Eastern oil must be cut back; it puts our life style at risk.
6. ISIS is a serious enemy that needs to be eradicated and has already infiltrated amongst us.
7. Our economy needs a good jump start and perhaps it is time to put our own citizens first, as it relates to jobs, incomes, taxes, investments, etc.
Perhaps we could all find some degree of common ground with these problems to start with; uniting us and bringing about some degree of synergy in our efforts. We have to start somewhere. Where is our unity, our common bond as Americans? Who are we anymore? I don’t recognize us.
In the end, unselfish love and respect for one another will be the only uniting force, become that force.
Give love a chance.
Chief Wiggles