I Believe in the Stars and Stripes Forever

I believe in the Stars and Stripes not because it’s the name of the sensational march that my great Grandfather wrote on a ship returning from Italy, and not because Ronald Reagan made that march the National March of these United States, but because those few simple words represent how I believe we should all feel about our imperfect country.  Stars …. and …. Stripes ….FOREVER….!

Yes, I said imperfect. It was imperfect in 1776 and it remains imperfect today.

We have always strived for perfection and many of us have different meanings associated with the word perfect. Most however can’t define what perfect means without a bunch of truly ignorant platitudes with no real understanding about who perfection would be perfect for.

I strongly believe our nation is far more perfect that imperfect. As a people we are, for the most part, striving for perfection. If something is wrong, if something is out of kilter, we attempt to fix it.

Let’s take slavery. Without exception the bleakest time in our country’s history.  Owning other human beings, almost always black, and with little or no regard for their wellbeing. Shameful!

The result was that a war with itself that took more than 600,000 lives.  All to address this great injustice.   The civil war tore our newly minted country apart: It pitted family against family, brother against brother, town against town until that great Republican President Abraham Lincoln was able to declare the North had won and slavery was abolished.

Hard feelings labored for decades, racial tension and racial divide continued into the 20th century, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated for his role in bringing slavery to an end in our country. And, yes, today we still suffer from the pain and ignorance of racism.   White supremacy groups on one side, black lives matter on the other.  There are those who are ripping down our historic statutes as if that will somehow change our history. There are those who have great power over American corporations and force them to remove shoes that bare the American flag because they find it offensive.

In a sense, it’s a special brand of hate and even terror. They should be shut down. NOW!  Neither serves any purpose except to keep us divided. An abhorrent objective.

There are many other warts our country has suffered over the years and each time we have, for the most part, stood together to right the wrongs and to repair what ills us. Most of the time with pretty good success.

There are those today, as there always have been, that detest our nation. That loath our freedoms, that hate our capitalistic economy and that are jealous of our success and that want nothing more than to bring us down. They don’t want us to lead, they want us, as Obama said, to lead from behind. And I can’t help but wonder if they have thought about who leads if not us? China? Russia?

We have heard the word ‘socialism’ bantered around a great deal over the past 9 months or so. Bernie Sanders is a self stated socialist though he is having a really hard time deciding what kind of socialist he wants to be. A few years ago he pointed to Venezuela as his example for a utopian America; now, not so much.

But aside from Bernie are 22 other (maybe more) far left Democrats who do NOT want the “Stars and Stripes Forever.” They want their version of what that means to them. Not to you and me, but to them. You’ll notice at the first 2 Democrat debates very few bothered to wear an American flag lapel pin.

Our founding fathers, when they created this imperfect nation did so with a few basic principles. First, we are all created equal. Doesn’t mean we are all entitled to what our neighbor has, just means we are equally entitled to pursue our dreams and opportunities.  BUT, it sure doesn’t mean that government should play God and determine who are the haves and have nots.

The Democrats running for president not only believe that government (them) should decide who has what, but also that they should dictate every aspect of our lives by regulations and tax policy.   One candidate wants to tax our assets while we are alive (and dead.) Another wants to tell us where we should live because, well, that’s the role of government according to him.  Still another suggests the government pay each of us a thousand dollars a month for doing nothing (buy casino stocks).

These people are not patriots, these people don’t love our country, these people could care less about our history. These people and their allies in Congress simply want control of this great nation.  If they get it, The Stars and Stripes will certainly not be Forever.

We simply can’t allow that!

John Philip Sousa, IV

John Philip Sousa, IV is an entrepreneur, political activ-ist, author and accomplished business person. John has worked in the financial services industry for over 40 years, built a highly successful marketing company, ran for congress at age 24, and in 2016 created and led the successful movement to draft Dr Ben Carson into his candidacy for President of the United States. John is author of John Philip Sousa, A Patriot’s Life in Words and Pictures and Ben Carson, RX for America.

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