Susan D. Harris
The United States of America - - the most radical concept in the history of the world
By Susan D. Harris
I'm sick of seeing America ridiculed and attacked by every jealous country in the world. I'm tired of people using the freedom of America to spew their hatred at us while they wish us a quick but painful beheading. I'm weary of the old "we shouldn't be the policemen of the world" mantra. We have kept the peace and defended the weak. We should make no apologies for that.
Dinesh D'Souza didn't answer the question: "What would the world look like without America?" I will try:
Before America existed the whole idea that it was "self-evident" that all men were created equal didn't exist. Go ahead; try to find any country in the history of the world that chose to base their belief system and subsequent laws on such an explosive idea. Try to find anyone who said that all men were endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, and that among those were life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It was a radical concept, and it's still radical today. It was a concept worth dying for when it was conceived, and it's still worth dying for today.
It can be argued that America is the closest thing to heaven that has existed on earth: Multiple ethnicities, cultures and religions came from the four corners of the earth and willingly agreed to live peacefully, side by side, as "one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
We can argue about who discovered electricity or who flew the first airplane. None of it matters because there is almost nothing in use in people's everyday lives that can't be traced back to American ingenuity and Capitalism: Televisions, cell phones, computers, the internet, cars, airplanes, life-saving vaccines, medicines, surgical techniques, automation and the assembly line, the phonograph, the cd...go ahead...name something.
Watch television and you'll see Hamas, Hezbollah, Mexican drug cartels and Somali pirates walking around with Nike sneakers and planning their next horrific deed with cell phone technology that was conceived right here...in liberty.
Shall we discuss oil? Standard Oil of California discovered oil in Saudi Arabia and handed her the wealth she has today. Try teaching that history to people today who think the Middle East was born sitting atop her own homemade oil rig. To our friends in the Middle East: You are welcome for the discovery of your black gold and the technology to extract it.
Shall we discuss war? We invented the atomic bomb to end the horrors of war. Debate me if you will, but the world had never seen a military inflict such horrors and torture as the Japanese used in WWII. Hundreds of thousands could have seen it first-hand if it weren't for the courage of President Truman and the crew of the Enola Gay.
America was the first country that engaged in war with a heavy heart because of the value it placed on human life through the eyes of its Creator.
And a heart we do have. After two world wars started by Germany, it was America who stepped in with the Marshall Plan and rebuilt all those European cities who now burn our flags and spit at the mention of our name. Germany, Japan, France, Italy nor Britain would be the proud, arrogant nations they are today if it weren't for America investing about 5% of its GDP to modernize their financial and economic systems. It was America that rebuilt those countries as they lie dying in graves they'd dug for themselves. And it wasn't a loan. We didn't ask for our money back. It came freely off the hard-working backs and the generous hearts of American taxpayers. Additionally, we forgave billions of dollars in debts.
In a 1973 editorial/recording titled, "The Americans," Canadian journalist Gordon Sinclair said, "The Marshall Plan, the Truman Policy, all pumped billions and billions of dollars into discouraged countries; and now newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent, war-mongering Americans." Not surprisingly, as our good works continued over the years, so did the slander and hate.
Yes world, we've cleaned up most of your messes...with our dollars, our sweat, and the blood of our children and tears of our mothers.
The world has treated us like the Palestinians treat Israel. Israel gave up Gaza, handing over advanced technology and greenhouses that provided nearly 70% of that countries organic produce; only to have them torn down, shat on, and broken apart to use for missile launching sites that targeted the very people who tried to help them. Now the world sits in judgment condemning those "war-mongering Israelis." (Our friend, our ally – Israel – a tiny nation surrounded on all sides by those who live to drain every drop of Jewish blood – if we break faith with you, let us bury our heads in eternal shame.)
Do you live in a country that has had an earthquake, flood or other natural disaster in the last century? If you found food, water, sanitation and medical help, you can thank America. Ah, but don't be so quick. We can be blamed for helping too. According to the Pulitzer Center, the 90,000 metric tons of American crops sent to Haiti after their devastating earthquake "undermined thousands of Haitian growers who were already struggling against imports of cheaper rice and corn." Sorry about that, next time we'll look the other way.
Gordon Sinclair boldly wrote that it was America who rushed in with men and money when floods overtook the Yellow River and Yangtze. He pointed out that the Americans had "helped control floods on the Nile, the Amazon, the Ganges and the Niger;" but when the rich bottom land of the Mississippi was under water, no foreign land sent a dollar to help.
He went on to say that "when the franc was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up. And their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris..."
How many Americans, not just wealthy philanthropists but regular middle class folks, have given money to help people half-way around the world? The Philanthropy Roundtable writes that "of the more than $300 billion that Americans give to charity every year, only 15 percent comes from foundation grants. Just 6 percent comes from corporations. The rest comes from individuals."
We're a good country with a good heart and we've been that way since our inception. Only in the 20th Century did we become prosperous enough to have an impact on the world, and what an impact it's been.
Gordon Sinclair concluded his piece by saying:
All the talking heads on TV can sit around calmly and discuss the fall of the American empire; well I can't discuss it calmly anymore. Everything we've worked for is dying before our eyes: Our borders, our culture, our values...our national identity.
What of all the boys who died in WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, the first Gulf War? What of the men and women who died in Iraq and Afghanistan, or the maimed sitting somewhere gazing out a window – brain-damaged and missing limbs? Was it all for nothing?
Yes we could have survived; we could have struggled through if not for this one president; this one administration. I don't give a lick whether a man is black or white or yellow or polka-dotted; so long as he is a tyrant bent on this nations' destruction I am against him. I will not hold my tongue for fear of offending someone.
Is there no one left to fight? Are there no heroes to swoop in and save us at the last? Do we think these plastic keyboards are all we have to repel oppression? For some of us it is all we have; but there are others...smarter, stronger, and just as passionate. Where are you? Speak now or forever hold your peace.
It's time to stand up, straighten your shoulders, stop apologizing, and be proud to be an American again.
If we survive this President and a Congress full of vile, ignorant Democrats and whining, pacifist Republicans – we must retake the country. How? Get on your local school boards, Chamber of Commerce, represent your districts. Become mayors, Governors, House Representatives and Senators. Most importantly, get into the universities and teach the next generation why America was great and how it can be great again.
We must not be intimidated from preaching it from the pulpits either: We must call a lie a lie and a sin a sin. We must say NO to abortion; NO to homosexuality; and NO to every perversion and putrid, violent, sexualized song, TV show, movie or video game. We must say NO to everyone who seeks to silence us by perverting our laws.
And as the very name of Jesus Christ becomes increasingly offensive in America and the world, we must refuse all compromise. We cannot stuff Jesus into a closet where He can't offend anyone. Churches: Know that God is not a happy fairy tale to be dusted off for an hour on Sunday morning; and He surely isn't going to accept your 501c3 status as an excuse for your silence when you stand before Him in judgment.
If there is anyone left to save us – the time has come to act. With the power of the people, change can still be achieved peacefully, but not without great effort and sacrifice.
If you won't act, stop what you are doing right now and pull your child aside. Tell him or her that America was lost because you didn't have the guts to save her.
Originally published at Freedom Outpost
© Susan D. Harris
August 2, 2014
I'm sick of seeing America ridiculed and attacked by every jealous country in the world. I'm tired of people using the freedom of America to spew their hatred at us while they wish us a quick but painful beheading. I'm weary of the old "we shouldn't be the policemen of the world" mantra. We have kept the peace and defended the weak. We should make no apologies for that.
Dinesh D'Souza didn't answer the question: "What would the world look like without America?" I will try:
- It would be a continual mess of warring nations, arrogant tyrants, slaves and injustice.
- It would have never known a "middle class" that held greater power than a king.
- The Gospel of Jesus Christ would not have been preached "in all the world for a witness unto all nations." (Consider untold missionaries and "the Gideons" who have distributed more than 1.9 billion Bibles worldwide.)
- It would never have conceived and implemented "liberty and justice for all" – we birthed that with God's divine help in 1776. That truth spread like wildfire and seared the minds of men everywhere. In one fell swoop we threw off the chains of oppression that had bound every civilization that came before us.
Before America existed the whole idea that it was "self-evident" that all men were created equal didn't exist. Go ahead; try to find any country in the history of the world that chose to base their belief system and subsequent laws on such an explosive idea. Try to find anyone who said that all men were endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, and that among those were life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It was a radical concept, and it's still radical today. It was a concept worth dying for when it was conceived, and it's still worth dying for today.
It can be argued that America is the closest thing to heaven that has existed on earth: Multiple ethnicities, cultures and religions came from the four corners of the earth and willingly agreed to live peacefully, side by side, as "one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
We can argue about who discovered electricity or who flew the first airplane. None of it matters because there is almost nothing in use in people's everyday lives that can't be traced back to American ingenuity and Capitalism: Televisions, cell phones, computers, the internet, cars, airplanes, life-saving vaccines, medicines, surgical techniques, automation and the assembly line, the phonograph, the cd...go ahead...name something.
Watch television and you'll see Hamas, Hezbollah, Mexican drug cartels and Somali pirates walking around with Nike sneakers and planning their next horrific deed with cell phone technology that was conceived right here...in liberty.
Shall we discuss oil? Standard Oil of California discovered oil in Saudi Arabia and handed her the wealth she has today. Try teaching that history to people today who think the Middle East was born sitting atop her own homemade oil rig. To our friends in the Middle East: You are welcome for the discovery of your black gold and the technology to extract it.
Shall we discuss war? We invented the atomic bomb to end the horrors of war. Debate me if you will, but the world had never seen a military inflict such horrors and torture as the Japanese used in WWII. Hundreds of thousands could have seen it first-hand if it weren't for the courage of President Truman and the crew of the Enola Gay.
America was the first country that engaged in war with a heavy heart because of the value it placed on human life through the eyes of its Creator.
And a heart we do have. After two world wars started by Germany, it was America who stepped in with the Marshall Plan and rebuilt all those European cities who now burn our flags and spit at the mention of our name. Germany, Japan, France, Italy nor Britain would be the proud, arrogant nations they are today if it weren't for America investing about 5% of its GDP to modernize their financial and economic systems. It was America that rebuilt those countries as they lie dying in graves they'd dug for themselves. And it wasn't a loan. We didn't ask for our money back. It came freely off the hard-working backs and the generous hearts of American taxpayers. Additionally, we forgave billions of dollars in debts.
In a 1973 editorial/recording titled, "The Americans," Canadian journalist Gordon Sinclair said, "The Marshall Plan, the Truman Policy, all pumped billions and billions of dollars into discouraged countries; and now newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent, war-mongering Americans." Not surprisingly, as our good works continued over the years, so did the slander and hate.
Yes world, we've cleaned up most of your messes...with our dollars, our sweat, and the blood of our children and tears of our mothers.
The world has treated us like the Palestinians treat Israel. Israel gave up Gaza, handing over advanced technology and greenhouses that provided nearly 70% of that countries organic produce; only to have them torn down, shat on, and broken apart to use for missile launching sites that targeted the very people who tried to help them. Now the world sits in judgment condemning those "war-mongering Israelis." (Our friend, our ally – Israel – a tiny nation surrounded on all sides by those who live to drain every drop of Jewish blood – if we break faith with you, let us bury our heads in eternal shame.)
Do you live in a country that has had an earthquake, flood or other natural disaster in the last century? If you found food, water, sanitation and medical help, you can thank America. Ah, but don't be so quick. We can be blamed for helping too. According to the Pulitzer Center, the 90,000 metric tons of American crops sent to Haiti after their devastating earthquake "undermined thousands of Haitian growers who were already struggling against imports of cheaper rice and corn." Sorry about that, next time we'll look the other way.
Gordon Sinclair boldly wrote that it was America who rushed in with men and money when floods overtook the Yellow River and Yangtze. He pointed out that the Americans had "helped control floods on the Nile, the Amazon, the Ganges and the Niger;" but when the rich bottom land of the Mississippi was under water, no foreign land sent a dollar to help.
He went on to say that "when the franc was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up. And their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris..."
How many Americans, not just wealthy philanthropists but regular middle class folks, have given money to help people half-way around the world? The Philanthropy Roundtable writes that "of the more than $300 billion that Americans give to charity every year, only 15 percent comes from foundation grants. Just 6 percent comes from corporations. The rest comes from individuals."
We're a good country with a good heart and we've been that way since our inception. Only in the 20th Century did we become prosperous enough to have an impact on the world, and what an impact it's been.
Gordon Sinclair concluded his piece by saying:
-
When the Americans get out of this bind, and they will, who will blame them if they say: 'To hell with the rest of the world? Let somebody else buy the bonds, let somebody else build or repair foreign dams or design foreign buildings that won't shake apart in earthquakes.'
When the railways of France and Germany and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody lent them an old caboose. I can name you 5000 times when the Americans raced to help other people in trouble; can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble?
All the talking heads on TV can sit around calmly and discuss the fall of the American empire; well I can't discuss it calmly anymore. Everything we've worked for is dying before our eyes: Our borders, our culture, our values...our national identity.
What of all the boys who died in WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, the first Gulf War? What of the men and women who died in Iraq and Afghanistan, or the maimed sitting somewhere gazing out a window – brain-damaged and missing limbs? Was it all for nothing?
Yes we could have survived; we could have struggled through if not for this one president; this one administration. I don't give a lick whether a man is black or white or yellow or polka-dotted; so long as he is a tyrant bent on this nations' destruction I am against him. I will not hold my tongue for fear of offending someone.
Is there no one left to fight? Are there no heroes to swoop in and save us at the last? Do we think these plastic keyboards are all we have to repel oppression? For some of us it is all we have; but there are others...smarter, stronger, and just as passionate. Where are you? Speak now or forever hold your peace.
It's time to stand up, straighten your shoulders, stop apologizing, and be proud to be an American again.
If we survive this President and a Congress full of vile, ignorant Democrats and whining, pacifist Republicans – we must retake the country. How? Get on your local school boards, Chamber of Commerce, represent your districts. Become mayors, Governors, House Representatives and Senators. Most importantly, get into the universities and teach the next generation why America was great and how it can be great again.
We must not be intimidated from preaching it from the pulpits either: We must call a lie a lie and a sin a sin. We must say NO to abortion; NO to homosexuality; and NO to every perversion and putrid, violent, sexualized song, TV show, movie or video game. We must say NO to everyone who seeks to silence us by perverting our laws.
And as the very name of Jesus Christ becomes increasingly offensive in America and the world, we must refuse all compromise. We cannot stuff Jesus into a closet where He can't offend anyone. Churches: Know that God is not a happy fairy tale to be dusted off for an hour on Sunday morning; and He surely isn't going to accept your 501c3 status as an excuse for your silence when you stand before Him in judgment.
If there is anyone left to save us – the time has come to act. With the power of the people, change can still be achieved peacefully, but not without great effort and sacrifice.
If you won't act, stop what you are doing right now and pull your child aside. Tell him or her that America was lost because you didn't have the guts to save her.
Originally published at Freedom Outpost
© Susan D. Harris
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(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
