I wrote a poem several years ago to express my feelings toward America. To be more specific, the United States of America. I read this morning about the effect our financial situation is having on World Markets, and I am reminded of the influence we have on other countries. They may not like us, but they sure don't want us to fail financially. Some are even offering help. Try and remember who we were when we started, and then think about who we are now. I am posting my poem along with a piece from an annonymous author.AMERICA
Out of revolution,
the grip of monarch’s rule.
Driven by freedom.
Necessity.
Founded on values
from God’s holy book,
the glue that binds,
in trust,
its varied masses.
America
Through fire of war,
without,
within,
was forged in strength
a strong republic.
America
And though the vision dims
in her prosperity,
she rises to the challenge
when tyrants seek
to quell her voice.
America
Blessed by God,
we must hold those
values close
that bound
our loose knit colonies
in their infancy.
America
Now consider the course that some in our country would have us follow.
'You ain't gonna like losing.'
President Bush did make a bad mistake in the war on terrorism. But the mistake was not his decision to go to war in Iraq. Bush's mistake came in his belief that this country is the same one his father fought for in WWII. It is not. Back then, we had just come out of a vicious depression. The country was steeled by the hardship of that depression, but they still believed fervently in this country. They knew that the people had elected their leaders, so it was the people's duty to back those leaders. Therefore, when the war broke out the people came together, rallied behind, and stuck with their leaders, whether they had voted for them or not or whether the war was going badly or not. And war was just as distasteful and the anguish just as great then as it is today. Often there were more casualties in one day in WWII than we have had in the entire Iraq war. But that did not matter. The people stuck with the President because it was their patriotic duty as Americans to put aside their differences in WWII and work together to win that war.Everyone from every strata of society, from young to old pitched in. Small children pulled little wagons around to gather scrap metal for the war effort. Grade school students saved their pennies to buy stamps for war bonds to help the effort. Men who were too old or medically 4F lied about their age or condition, trying their best to join the military. Women doubled their work to keep things going at home. Harsh rationing of everything from gasoline to soap and butter was imposed, yet there was very little complaining.You never heard prominent people on the radio belittling the President. Interestingly enough in those days there were no fat cat actors and entertainers who ran off to visit and fawn over dictators of hostile countries and complain to them about our President. Instead, they made upbeat films and entertained our troops to help the troops' morale. And a bunch even enlisted.And imagine this: Teachers in schools actually started the day off with the Pledge of Allegiance, and with prayers for our country and our troops. Back then, no newspaper would have dared point out certain weak spots in our cities where bombs could be set off to cause the maximum damage. No newspaper would have dared complain about what we were doing to catch spies.A newspaper would have been laughed out of existence if it had complained that German or Japanese soldiers were being 'tortured' by being forced to wear women's underwear, being subjected to interrogation by a woman, being scared by a dog or that they did not have air conditioning.There were a lot of things different back then. We were not subjected to a constant bombardment of pornography, perversion and promiscuity in movies or on radio. We did not have legions of crack heads, dope pushers and armed gangs roaming our streets. No, President Bush did not make a mistake in his handling of terrorism. He made the mistake of believing that we still had the courage and fortitude of our fathers. He believed that this was still the country that our fathers fought so dearly to preserve. It is not the same country. It is now a cross between Sodom, Gomorra and the Land of Oz. We did unite for a short while after 9/11, but our attitude changed when we found out that defending our country would require some sacrifices.We are in great danger. The terrorists are fanatic Muslims. They believe that it is okay, even their duty, to kill anyone who will not convert to Islam. It has been estimated that about one third or over three hundred million Muslims are sympathetic to the terrorists cause...Hitler and Tojo combined did not have nearly that many potential recruits. So...we either win it - or lose it - and you ain't gonna like losing. Hopefully, your children can adjust to becoming Muslim, if we lose.America is not at war. The military is at war. America is at the mall. Annonymous
