Losing The Land of The Free?
While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,
Let us swear allegiance to a land that’s free.
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.
(The introduction to the song God Bless America, by Irving Berlin)
Many of us are not familiar with the introduction of the song God Bless America. Irving Berlin originally wrote it in 1918 while in the U.S. Army at Camp Upton. He put the song aside shortly after writing it. But during the rise of Hitler in 1938, Berlin decided that it was time to revisit it. He made a few revisions and added the intro. Kate Smith sang the intro in her first broadcast of the song.
It is true that Hitler is long gone and that chapter of history is behind us. However, the lessons that were learned from that era should never be put to rest. Hitler was a great speaker and his followers found him somewhat charismatic. He was there to save them. One by one their freedoms were taken from them. It was such a slow process that they didn’t even know it was happening, until of course, it was too late.
On September 11, 2001, the Land of the Free came under attack. It was a foreign enemy that attacked us right here on our own soil. They had infiltrated our great country and wreaked their fury in the very heart of America. Many innocent lives were lost on that horrific day. We were not prepared.
Shortly after those attacks, President Bush vowed that this would not happen again under his watch. He vowed that they would take the necessary measures to keep the American people safe. On October 26, 2011, President Bush signed into law what came to be known as the PATRIOT Act. The PATRIOT Act was designed to weaken the restrictions on many law enforcement agencies, the gathering of intelligence in the US and to also allow the Secretary of the Treasury more authority to regulate foreign financial transactions. The act was to include anyone suspected of domestic terrorism as well. The PATRIOT Act has always been controversial as it expanded the government’s power to intrude in the privacy of suspected every day Americans. However, the American people were fully informed of these new policies when they were enacted. As time progressed, the PATRIOT Act became fuel for the left in their relentless attacks on President Bush and his administration.
On May26, 2011, President Obama signed a 4-year extension of three key provisions of the PATRIOT Act. The three provisions were roving wiretaps, searches of business records (the Library Records Provision) and the ability to conduct surveillance on “Lone Wolves” which are individuals that are not connected to a terrorist group. Of course the left was silent when this occurred.
On June 5th, a wave of shock and outrage sparked the nation when we discovered that many of our phone records had been turned over to the NSA. If you listen to those on the left, you would think that the flow of hypocrisy coming from the right was baffling. However they forget that at the time when the Bush administration put those policies into effect, we were just beginning to learn how big of a threat radical Islam had become. The Bush administration made privy to the American people his intentions and the policies that would be put in place in order to combat the enemy. The most transparent administration however, did not. In fact, just this March at a hearing, the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was asked if the NSA collects any data on millions of Americans. “No sir … not wittingly,” Clapper responded explaining that there are cases “where inadvertently perhaps” the data could be collected.
Over the past several weeks, we have been bombarded with just how intrusive this administration has become. I don’t need to lay out the many scandals that have been the headline on an almost daily basis. The American people have been hit at almost every angle with some of the most morbid attacks ever witnessed in the history of our Country. It is almost surreal when you try to grasp the extent of what has occurred. But what is even more mind-boggling is the fact that those on the left are fiercely defending those that are responsible for another attack on our great nation. No, our buildings are still standing and our planes have not been hijacked, however our privacy and our freedoms have. At what point will they put partisan politics aside and put the principles and the foundation that our Country was built on, first? If Americans were targeted because of their opposition to a President and his administration, do they not see the dangers in defending this? How can they not see past this as to what would happen if a Republican President were to use those same powers to target those that opposed him and his policies? I for one would not be defending him.
President Reagan said it best: “ Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected and handed on for them to do the same.”
Right now, we are being tested. God gives his hardest battles to his strongest soldiers, but this is a different type of battle. At this point we are not being called to gather our arms and test our strength with our blood. Hopefully it won’t come to that. But somehow we must unite as one people and restore our country back to that time when our people were free. Where patriotism trumped and serving your country was honor. We have slipped from that. We have become a dependent country that feeds from our government with a sense of false security. This is our call. This is a battle that we must win for our children, and their children. Future generations are dependent on us. Will they look back in history to find that we were those that lost the battle for freedom, or will they look at us as those who fought fiercely to turn over to them the same America that was handed to us from previous generations? I believe that we can preserve our great country. It won’t be easy, but she is worth it.
