Time out for the 4th of July

Welcome to this break from our discussion to honor our independence day.  As many of you know, the fourth of July has always been my favorite holiday.  I don't know exactly why.  It may be summer and the fact that the fourth always includes the best things of summer--cookouts, pool parties, country music, cold beer and fireworks.  It's also a simple holiday.  Lots of fun with little preparation or work.  Mostly though, it's my intense love for my country.  I have always believed that our forefathers were the greatest of men.  They dared to dream of something different and risked everything to make it happen.  I imagine their cries of "freeeeedom" as being akin to William Wallace's at the end of Braveheart.  Certainly worth celebrating big.
Songs like America the Beautiful have always left me with slightly damp eyes but lately, for a different reason.  For the first time in my life, I am wondering what exactly I am celebrating tomorrow.  Recent events in the Big Apple show how far we have strayed from our forefather's vision.  The "freedom" celebrated there in the past weeks is not at all the freedom I long for or the freedom for which many have died*.  Our pledge still says "One nation under God"--at least when it's not edited out--but can we really call ourselves people under God's protection while violating His laws and offending Him in every way?  It's enough to make me downright depressed.
As always though, there are bright spots.  First, as I have mourned the loss of a bit more of my innocence and idealism regarding our country, I have thanked God for the Church He left us.  My true home is in Rome.  It is the only human institution about which Christ promised "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."  Regardless of what evil laws governments pass, the Catholic Church will continue to champion the Truth.  We pray for Pope Benedict XVI every day.
Another positive in recent events is that people are thinking, talking and acting.  Big issues like gay marriage tend to make divisions clear and that can be a very good thing.  I have had a couple of surprising and eye-opening conversations recently on this topic.  I do not agree with the old adage about not discussing religion or politics.  Who made that one up?  What progress can be made like that?  How can children be taught?
I had considered banning the red, white and blue and draping Camp Kreitzer in black tomorrow (I think my mom would have been easy to convince) but have decided to celebrate big instead.  I am not celebrating the United States as it is today though.  I am celebrating our forefathers, their dreams and their gift to all of us.  And I am celebrating true freedom.  Freedom to do the work and be the person God created me to be.  And freedom to pursue happiness without denying other people their God given rights.  I sincerely pray that our country continues to be a place in which that is possible.
And in the spirit of the day, I'll give Thomas Jefferson the final say:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable 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 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.


Time for a new government?  Time to move to Texas?


*In the push for "gay marriage" (an oxymoron), I have heard a lot of talk about the rights of lesbians and gays and very little about my right to continue to define marriage the way it has always been defined.  The people of New York no longer have that right.  The government has declared that heterosexual marriages, the cradle of the next generation, the only kinds of marriage capable of producing new life, are in no way different from homosexual unions (I will not call them marriages because they are not).  This has huge ramifications which I will not get into now.  All I can say is that celebrating this decision as an advancement of "freedom" is a lie.  For any supposed "freedom" granted, it has robbed many more of a legitimate right.