July 2, 2007

• In 1910, an American author, educator, and Presbyterian minister named
  Henry Van Dyke wrote, in a poem called "Who Follow the Flag":
  "O brave flag, O bright flag, O flag to lead the free!
  The glory of thy silver stars,
  Engrailed in blue above the bars
  Of red for courage, white for truth,
  Has brought the world a second youth
  And drawn a hundred million hearts to follow after thee."
  

  
  

  
  What is it about our bright, brave flag, about our bright, brave country, that has drawn a hundred million hearts?
  There's
  still something so powerfully, magnetically attractive about our
  homeland that every day, people from the neighboring nations to our
  south risk their lives trying cross our borders illegally, floating
  through shark-infested waters in leaky rafts, trudging through
  dangerous deserts or crawling through tunnels.
  America is the place
  to which - unless we're of Native or African-American descent - every
  one of our ancestors risked a long and dangerous journey, leaving their
  homelands and often their families behind, to embrace this land as
  their own. My great-great-grandfather Watermeier immigrated from
  Germany to St. Louis in the 1800s. My Doerr ancestors also came to
  America from Germany; the Auberts came from Avignon, France; the
  Taylors came from England; and my Adams forebears moved here from
  Ireland.
  What drew my great-grandparents - and yours - then, from
  England, from Ireland, from Scotland, from Germany, from France, 300 or
  200 or 100 years ago? What draws new immigrants from across the world
  now? Just in the year and a half I've lived in Harrison, I've had
  conversations with people who've moved to the Ozarks from Ireland,
  Italy, Sweden, Bosnia, Mexico, and China. In Sarasota, I had friends
  who were born in France, in Iran, in Ecuador, in the Czech Republic, in
  England, in Rhodesia and in the Netherlands. I have in-laws whose first
  languages are Swedish, Spanish and Dutch. All of these folks moved to
  America by choice.
  What makes us different, what makes us the envy
  of people in lands across the globe? Why do even people from nations
  that are our enemies move here when they get the chance? Why do we have
  more people wanting to become Americans than we can figure out what to
  do with?
  Why, in spite of all of our horrifying, heartbreaking problems, do so many people still want to join us?
  One major reason, I believe, is because in America, every individual counts.
  No other form of government empowers men and women like our democracy does.
  The
  most insignificant citizen among us can go to the ballot box and vote
  our heart and our conscience and our convictions. And if we can
  convince our friends and they can convince their friends and enough of
  us of like mind join together, we can change anything in this country
  by our votes. It's happened over and over and over again during the
  past 231 years.
  There is no limit to the difference that we, the people, can make.
  We
  can elect a new county quorum court and county judge. We can elect a
  new state legislature and governor. We can elect a new U. S. Congress
  and Senate. We can elect a new president. We can elect legislators who
  will vote the way we believe, and executives who will appoint judges
  and other leaders whose decisions will fall in line with our
  convictions. We can change our public education and health care
  systems. We can change the way we take care of our orphans, our poor,
  our sick, our elderly, our homeless. We can change our nation's role in
  international affairs. We can even amend our Constitution.
  People
  want to move to our country because here, each individual matters and
  has a voice. Everybody has a shot. We have people born in poverty who
  become billionaires. We have people born in bondage who become leaders.
  We have convicted felons who've turned their lives around and become
  productive, respected citizens.
  Our America is still a bright, brave
  land where one person's voice can be heard, where one person's
  convictions matter, where one person can make a difference. Protected
  and bolstered and empowered by our Constitution, each one of us blessed
  with citizenship in this great land has been gifted with the
  opportunity that comes with freedom - the opportunity to help shape a
  better life, a better family, a better county, a better state, a better
  nation, and a better world.
  
  By Celia DeWoody
  Published July 2, 2007, Harrison Daily Times
  Harrison, Ark.
  Copyright CPI, Inc. 2007
  
  
  
  

  • 9:29 pm
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