Two hundred fifty years. 250 years. It feels so long, yet so short. Our country has reached a milestone today. Happy Birthday to us. We’ve made it so far. I hope we can make it more. Right now, it doesn’t matter what Trump, Russia, Iran, or China does. We are 250 years old.
That’s certainly something to consider and celebrate. I’m so proud of us for making it this far. Despite everything, we have made it thus far. How many of you remember 1976? Our bicentennial. Solemn, thoughtful, amazing. Everything from hot dogs and burgers to fireworks to time to think, about what it was like when we started, and then 200 years later. Now it’s another 50 years later. Somehow, in spite of everything, or should it be because of everything, we’re still managing to put one foot in front of the other.
Give me your tired, your poor //// Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free
For 24 hours, we can tell people like Trump, or Stephen Miller, or Pete Hegseth to eff off. What they are made of, what they are doing, none of it matters for all too short a time. Immigrants come here because it’s America. America still represents the dream it did back when we started. That hasn’t changed. We are (were) the greatest country in the world. We mean something.
I have a dream.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed.
I have a dream.
America had a dream 250 years ago. We still have a dream. We want to go past the bad and look to the good. We can go past those who continue to look back. Yes, we need to do that, to learn from our mistakes, but we must also rise above and look to the future. There will always be conflict. Regrettably, that is human nature. Everyone wants the best. Everyone wants more than their neighbor. Everyone desires. We may not like to *admit* it, but we do. I try to be a good person. I try to be better. It doesn’t always work, but I *try*. What I write on Politizoom is not always the nicest thing. I have my prejudices. I have people whom I detest. I have the things I find that are disgusting. But it’s specific, not overall. I don’t think all immigrants are bad. Most of them are good people. Those who are bad, well, there are enough citizens who are bad too. It’s not “just” immigrants. That’s the part that is continually forgotten.
O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife /// Who more than self their country love /// And mercy more than life! /// America! America! May God thy gold refine /// Till all success be nobleness, ///And every gain divine!
O beautiful for patriot dream /// That sees beyond the years, /// Thine alabaster cities gleam /// Undimmed by human tears! /// America! America! /// God shed His grace on thee, /// And crown thy good with brotherhood /// From sea to shining sea!
America! This is who we are. This is who we’ve become and who we can continue to be. We must be doing something right if people still want to come here to live and work.
Amazing grace /// how sweet the sound /// that saved a wretch /// like me
How many people have been saved by coming here? How many people could *still* be saved? What can be done to wipe out the apathy and prejudice that have taken root in our country? We are more than that. We are exceptional. We are America.
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that, as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
Happy Birthday, America. You are loved.
~~Susan
