It's a Real Patriotism Thing

Dear America,

"It would seem that the best view 

of patriotism recognizes that society 

and all its numerous elements are best served 

when the general welfare of the greatest number 

of people becomes the great objective 

of all its people, 

rather than the selfish pursuit of 

personal peace and affluence by each individual...

Universal love produces the highest form of patriotism."

We love to talk about the Day After here on G thing -- oh right, that is the idea that started it all for me, being G.  It was just another sunny day in Solana Beach, when lighting struck me upside the head and said, do something, say something, just begin the conversation if only to soothe ye own mind.

That was July 23, 2009 and the day went something like this:

Where do we begin and how do we begin again, I ask myself.

Where I live, it is the Day After OPENING Day of the Races, in Del Mar. It is one of those local traditions that brings the seasonal influx of big hats and high balls, arriving as Bing Crosby sings by train or by car-- limo or B'mer-- and away they go with a day of heavy drinking, gambling and the like. I really don't wanna sound cynical during these trying times, but it is a wonder when pondering the state of America and all of it's ills, worries and confusion how merriment still reigns a very high priority.

Of course, it is also the Day After the Presidential prime-time address regarding the state of our healthcare system and the valiant push by our President Obama to "make it so"-- even if it rushes to harm us in the end.

While just the idea of the Day After brings a sense of melancholy, as if to say that the party is over, time to heal the hangover, pop a pill and sleep it off.

It is the day after something big, something planned, and that something is now over...it merely signifies the remains of the day, recognized here as the Day After.

I find such irony in realizing that here we are, living in the country which created the very idea of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," having now thoroughly grown into such a wayward, mental state, as a people. Seems to me we are lost -- individually, and collectively -- living in one serious hangover; while the only way, I see, to transcend this downward trend is to go back in time, to the time before, to a time where it all began.

A time when our founding fathers and philosophers and renaissance men and society were all speaking the same language. A language that united us in thought, and in word, and in deed, to do our personal best. It was a time that called for individual responsibility to rise up and create a life of happiness on our own. A time when you had no choice but to create that life because big daddy nanny state wasn't going to do it for you, and moreover, we didn't want them to!

How can it be okay to let the government simply takeover our lives?  While, to that end, it would seem, by two-thirds of the prevailing attitude, a hostile takeover at that. Are we giving birth to people so weak, and clearly blind, to the trappings of big government? Or are we just spellbound by the very idea that maybe this time big government will be different?

Perhaps we are no longer the greatest generation, or nation; perhaps handouts and subsidies and higher taxes are the answer to our prayers.

Wake Up you people! Socialism has many ills, wrecks societies and has never been a system of government that allows for the full freedoms and liberty of it's people. It has never worked -- and it never will -- and by all means and heaven forbid, do not let a really cool President convince you otherwise!

Our power to choose everything, good or bad, not only dictates our individual life each and every day, but as a whole, in our present day, it has the ill-fated power to create a society of puppets!

I say today, NO thank you.

We have the power to create responsible, accountable citizens who revel in every thought our freedom brings -- to raise a family, grow a business, acquire wealth and prosper in every possible way. Government is not needed for that! Stop, think, grow rich and look at how we are just turning over, as if playing dead, to the powers that be through taxation, through excess, through mismanagement, through loss of control, through waste, through affairs on the taxpayer dime, through corruption, through lobby, through not in my back yard, through just sleeping it off like the Day After hoping we will just wake up and have it all better tomorrow.

The only pill for this Day After is a hard pill to swallow. That's it. Mary Poppins is not here to put a little sugar on it. It will take each of us, individually and collectively to wake up and place our government back in the hands of the people.

We must recognize that this power and strength is within ourselves all along; our outer world will only change when we align our self to the qualities that will sustain the individual to rise up and be strong all by one's self. Then collectively, we will live all of our days in the land of the free and home of the brave and even look forward to the Day After, and the day after that, and the day after that, and ...

ahh, nothing like a a little day tripping down memory lane.

Given Obama was just an O-babe in the woods back then -- that fateful Day After ...the one that started me on this journey -- I wish I could say that he hasn't done much since.  But, of course, if you are a part of the awakened citizenry that has subsequently arisen out of the ashes, you would be well aware by now that his style of executive leadership, combined with his associations through community organizing, has pretty much upturned every blessed rock this country was built.  Our foundation has been shaken to the core -- no, make that "fundamentally transformed," indeed.

The opening quotation today is from a book that I keep reading and re-reading:  William Wilberforce's Real Christianity as told by Bob Beltz -- who offers us a version of the Wilberforce classic with a modern flare.  But make no mistake, the life and times of a young Wilberforce -- who, at the ripe old age of twenty one -- was compelled to shed some much needed light upon a culture of corruption and shame.  (And bear in mind, a manuscript originally published in 1797!) 

Suffice it to say, everything Wilberforce knew then, runs exactly -- make that profoundly -- concurrent to the day's current affairs.  Sure, there is one small caveat here, in that Wilberforce was a Brit; but let that not stand in the way of the lessons that only real authentic change (through a true Christian heart) brings forth.

Three days before he died, monumental legislation was signed into law in the House of Commons, in Great Britain:  the abolishing of slavery; and all because Wilberforce thought he could make a difference.  He turned over his entire life and pursuits to the immediate cause.   And by raising a higher conscience within society, through a reawakening of the basic precepts and teachings of living life and growing society from a place of authentic Christianity, he changed the world.



Basically, Wilberforce believed many things -- here is just a glance:

"Benevolence and philanthropy that arise from a purely secular framework usually proves deficient:  They always fall short of meeting the full needs of those they seek to benefit.  Cost is always measured against the discomfort that such benevolence might produce in the giver.  True Christian benevolence goes the extra mile.  Its objective is to meet the need even at the cost of self-sacrifice.  It is like a river that flows from an unfailing and abundant source...

...[Christianity] not only teaches the highest moral and ethical code known to man, but through relationship with the Creator of the code the believer is empowered by the Holy Spirit to keep it.

True Christianity, by nature, seems to be particularly and powerfully constituted to promote the welfare and health of political communities.  Why is that?  The reality is that all other systems are rooted in human selfishness.  They are conceived in selfishness, grow in selfishness and, ultimately, perish because of selfishness."

and just maybe we will return to the force defying all odds, in Wilberforce, for the entire week...who knows.

But before I go, did you happen to read about a kid from Compton, Allan Guei?  Talk about finding one's unselfish spirit!  Read this.

THIS is what this country is all about.  Doing something for somebody else just out of the goodness of one's own heart.

Yes, this is the Day After our nation's 235th birthday.  That is a lot of candles.  While, against seemingly all popular belief, real goodness and real charity and a real unselfish heart live to see another day in Allan Guei.  All America really needs now is more of us following the way of Guei, be it religious or not. 

America seems to be more transient in spirit than we have ever been.  By the looks of things, with the loss of living our daily life from a place of "an unfailing and abundant source," with man attempting to play God the more the public spirit wanes, we could easily be living in  Great Britain, circa1797.  But we're not, are we?

We live in America, in 2011, as our nation's caretakers of the American belief system.

The American belief system -- the one we recognize that our rights come from the Creator, not government -- the one, which began, centuries ago, with our Declaration of Independence from Great Britain, for a number of reasons really -- and each and every one painstakingly and duly noted within...

The one my girl graciously allowed me to read out loud just yesterday afternoon -- you know, out of the goodness of her heart... she let me have my thrill without an eye ball roll to the back of her head and all.  And she, as a matter of record, seemed almost enthusiastic (but I'll never tell)  (oops).  While I began our sentimental journey reading every word of our declaration, she quickly began to finish a few familial phrases on the fly -- you know, in the moments I would give way to a theatrical pause.  Oh, girl, you make a mama's heart sing...it was a good day.

And all things considered, it makes for a pretty good day after, too.

Make it a Good Day, G