July 4

I hate being overseas on July 4. I hate being separated from my children. I hate missing baseball games, hot dogs, apple pie, BBQ cookouts, fireworks, patriotism and Mom. (Not necessarily in that order although it’s hard to put anything ahead of baseball ... or Mom.)

I hate being away at a time when the country is in such turmoil and uncertainty about who we are and our place in the world. We have a president who is a complete failure as a leader, who is completely devoid of honesty and probity, whose domestic and foreign policies are total disasters that have led to the border crisis and the crumbling of the Middle East. Obama and Napolitano assured us that the border with Mexico had never been more secure. Now there is such a flood of illegals crossing that the government can’t handle them.

Obama assured us that his anti-military decimation of our Armed Forces and his persona of good will would bring Iran to the table and result in a peaceful Middle East. He boasted in 2012 that he had killed bin-Laden and that Al Qaeda was on the run. Now the sacrifice of thousands of Americans in Iraq is being squandered as the ISIS terrorist army, which is bigger than Al Qaeda ever hoped to be, rolls over Syria and Iraq, and Iran, with Russia’s help, is still working on a nuclear weapon and refuses to come to the table for talks. And Russia, unafraid of any Obama red lines, has stolen the Crimea from Ukraine.

America, the benefactor nation of the earth, is mocked, disrespected, and reviled worldwide by the same ungrateful nations that receive free handouts, and Obama, seemingly oblivious of the world that is falling apart around him, plays golf. At least Jimmy Carter could point to the Camp David Accords. Under Obama’s watch all the gains of the last thirty years are being lost. Obama compares himself with Ronald Reagan and Abraham Lincoln, and has been compared by his lemmings to Jesus Christ. A more accurate comparison would be to Neville Chamberlain or Judas Iscariot.

I hate the Obama view of an unexceptional America where the Constitution, patriotism and love of country is mocked and despised. I’ve had numerous debates over the internet with liberals who have so little knowledge of our country and its founding, and so little understanding of history or the world events that made us what we are today, that they consider us all to be illegal aliens and therefore should leave the borders open for “undocumented immigrants,” that we must then take care of because it’s unfair that we have worked hard, achieved, and gotten wealthy while the illegals haven’t.

These are the low-information voters, the Blame-America-First crowd, that the left so lovingly courts, whose only contribution to intelligent discussion is ridicule and name-calling. They blame everything on racism, and bewail that we stole the whole continent from the Native Americans and ought to give it back. When confronted with action, however, not one of them is willing to give back what they personally own or have accumulated to the Indians.

I’m tired of this anti-American crowd that has no appreciation for their freedom, or the blood shed to secure it for them. I’m tired of a community organizer president who is so ignorant as to believe that Muslims had a great part in building America. I’m tired of the hypocrisy of Godless leftists who “boo” God, who rewrite history books and deny the Christian heritage of our Founding Fathers, who condemn Conservatives for violating the separation of church and state because they hold Christian values, and then quote Scriptures that they don’t believe when it is convenient. I’m tired of the moral decay and the spiritual deadness that is leading America to the “ash-heap of nations.”

You know what? I don’t care what the anti-American crowd thinks.

This morning I began my day with The Star Spangled Banner. You can find it on my blog at http://american-flyer.blogspot.com under the picture of the Flag Raising at Iwo Jima. This version by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is, I think, the best choral performance ever recorded. After that I linked to the Whitney Houston rendition at the 1991 Super Bowl. I think that is the best performance bar none that anybody has ever done of our National Anthem.

I couldn’t hold back the tears. I got my patriotism stirred up. At home or abroad, I love America, I love our history, I love our Christian roots, I love our Constitution, I love our progress in spite of our faults, I love that we have become and still are the greatest nation on earth. I love it because, “This is the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes.” (Psalm 118:23). Let us preach it, and enjoy it, and do all we can to turn our country back to the God of our Founding Fathers.

It was George Washington who wrote, “The Hand of providence has been so conspicuous in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations.”

This Independence Day let us acknowledge our obligations to God and country. Let us thank God for granting us the privilege to be born in the greatest country in the history of the world, and let us love America because it is the greatest country on earth. Let us not be ashamed of American exceptionalism. Rather, let's promote it. Let us be thankful because we are a free people and it is our right to play baseball, gorge ourselves on hotdogs, and proudly wave the flag!

“Sure I wave the American flag. Do you know a better flag to wave? Sure I love my country with all her faults. I’m not ashamed of that, never have been, never will be.” – John Wayne