AMERICA THE AWFUL?

"America has been the undisputed world leader for only two decades. When we consider that the Roman Age lasted a thousand years, and the Ottomans and the British dominated the world for several centuries,America's dominance seems brief, and already it is precarious."
Dinesh D'souza
America: Imagine A World Without Her
Regnery Publishing   2014
p.7-8

I intend to be more casual with this blog--less worried about word arrangement and convincing anyone else; more about clarifying my own thoughts. A friend told me recently, "Lonnie, you can't change the world." She's right. If anyone is to be changed, including myself (!) that's a God-sized job.

Ray and I went to see America at the theatre--probably our first movie since we took the kids to Short Circuit. It was eye-opening and helpful. I saw what our children had been taught in school and began to understand the attitudes and rebellion expressed since. If America is as they were taught, it DOES stink. But, they were taught partial truths.

That being said, discernment is always needed. One side against another? There are bound to be extremes. As a responsible adult and Christian, I need to weed them out to the best of my ability. And try as I might, I'm unlikely to capture the whole truth.

SO . . . AMERICA DOESN'T STAY IN FIRST PLACE. DOES IT MATTER?

You know what? I asked myself this question and I think it does. From a pride standpoint, no. From a freedom standpoint, yes.

Why do we have so many other peoples coming to the United States to live? Is it because we are the crumby, disgusting nation that our children have been led to believe?

"Alexander Hamilton noted that, historically, countries have been founded by 'accident and force' but America was an opportunity to found a nation by 'reflection and choice.'" p. 8

"Thus America's influence in the world, unlike Europe's, was not based on conquest but rather on attraction to American ideals and the American way of life."  p.8

I remember, from the movie, D'souza talking with a border guard. D'souza suggested that it must be a tough job keeping people from crossing the border of America into Mexico. D'souza asked that question a few different ways, each time getting the same answer: "No." No problems in keeping people from slipping into Mexico? No, not once.

It makes me smile.

Another man D'souza talked to was Mexican. D'souza discussed America having "stole" Mexico and only having given part of it back. "If we gave the rest back, would you move back to Mexico?"

"No."

America isn't perfect. We are a nation made up of sinners like anywhere else. But, there has to be something good here, or why are so many migrating to our lands?

Just saying . . . maybe we need to wonder and ask that if the America founded by our forefathers is worth coming to, is it worth fighting for?

Thinking and Growing,
Lonnie