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INDEPENDENCE???????????DAY
2001
by G. P. Campbell
Shirley, Arkansas
wadsc@artelco.com
The other day, as the kids and I
set out in search of props for a traditional Fourth of July celebration, I
decided to explain to the kids what Independence Day was all about.
“Yes,
Children, we are celebrating our independence from a government who wanted too
much control...”, I began... as we climbed into our government licensed and
registered vehicle, snapped on our government required seat belts, and made a
quick check to see that I had my ‘papers in order’. Oh, you know, my
driver’s license, and government required proof of auto insurance.
“...The King demanded too many
taxes”... “hmmm”, I thought to myself, “we could surely buy a lot more
fireworks and hot-dogs if we had the 50% plus of Daddy’s wages the government
commandeers from his paycheck, our groceries, gasoline, medicine, personal/real
property taxes etc...etc...”
“It’s traditional to celebrate with firecrackers and pop-bottle rockets, and
a wonderful assortment of fireworks!” I went on to say, as we pulled up to a
stand displaying only 10 second sparklers and environmentally pollutant smoke
bombs. “Ah yes, the government is now protecting us from the fireworks they
assume we are too ignorant to know how to use safely and properly” (but
weren’t we all educated in government schools?). “Well, lets just get some
sparklers,” I say with waning enthusiasm.
“LOOK, Mom!”, my son points out, “These fireworks were made in CHINA!
Isn’t that where they killed some school kids who wanted a little freedom?”
My teenager adds, “I read in the newspaper that the Chinese get their organ
donors by killing the lucky prisoner with the right DNA.”
“Eeoouu”, my daughter squeals, “and they eat babies!”
I finish with, “And OUR president thinks China is such a GREAT nation that he
awards them ‘Most Favored Nation’ status”.
“How appropriate”, I now think with just a HINT of sarcasm,” we are about
to celebrate our freedom with products made in and purchased from a Communist
country whose people are considered to be nothing more than raw materials, and
freedom seeking students are murdered in the street by a government who knows
they can quash opposition because the Chinese PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE GUNS.”
As we turned away from the fireworks stand, I noticed it was sponsored by the
Boy Scouts. I shook my head in wonder at how an organization so ‘morally
straight’ that they do not want homosexuals leading our young men could
support the atrocities of the Communist Chinese government.
“Oh, let’s just go home,” I sadly respond. “Maybe we’ll just burn an
American Flag.”
Fully disillusioned by now, I lamented to the children how our free and
independent country seems to have been taken over by tyrants because “good men
had done nothing”. I pulled onto the highway, searching for something
encouraging to say, “At least America isn’t as bad as Nazi Germany where
people were stopped at checkpoints as they traveled”. My son added,
“And I read about the Red Army stopping people at “Checkpoint Charlie” in
the days of the Berlin Wall!” I saw something ahead on the road, was there an
accident? I hoped no one had been hurt. As I drove nearer it looked like...NO!!!
Couldn’t be!! The children shrieked in horror,
“MOMMY, is that Checkpoint Charlie?!?!”
As I pulled to the side of the road my little daughter cried from the backseat,
“Mommy, I don’t want to go to a concentration camp!”
Good thing I had my “papers in order”..........................
So, while you were all out celebrating something-or-other, we just sat at home
and mourned the LOSS of our independence.
MEN WITH LIVES AND FAMILIES DIED IN WARS TO SECURE OUR LIBERTY. THEY BELIEVED
THAT WE WOULD APPRECIATE OUR BLOOD-BOUGHT FREEDOM AND EXPECTED US TO PRESERVE
IT. WE NEED TO HUMBLE OURSELVES AND ASK THEM TO FORGIVE US, ONE AND
ALL, FOR ALLOWING OUR FREEDOM TO FADE AWAY INTO THE DARKNESS.
G. P. Campbell
P.S. I’m so sorry to say, that I
don’t expect July 4, 2001 to be much different under a Republican
administration.
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