Andrew Gimson on Americans:
These formidable people think freedom is so valuable that it is worth dying for.
Quote of the Day
In
4 responses
-
Not as good as:
“Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils.”
New Hampshire’s state motto. -
“Better to die on your feet than live on your knees.”
Emiliano Zapata
Mexican reformer & revolutionary (1877 – 1919) -
Andrew, I’m sure he Gimson would agree that he did not rival General Stark’s eloquence, but that’s some pretty faint damnation.
The whole article is wonderful and well worth reading. -
It is a wonderful thing to live in a country as “old fashoined” as the US, where words like justice, liberty, and duty are more than just a puchline.
Every year, on the fourth of July, I have a special “school” day with my four children, where I read to them from the Declaration of Independence adn have a “class” about honor, freedom, and the innate rights of individuals that government has no right to trample. And on Martin Luther King’s birthday, I read to them from the Letter from a Birmingham Jail, and from Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience, and we have a “class” about civil rights, and the RESPONSIBILITY of good citiizens to fight for those rights, by whatever means necessary, not just for themselves but for others as well. And on Memorial Day, we read together from the official citations of men who were postumously awarded our nation’s highest military decorations for bravery – sometimes from the distant past, and sometimes from events startlingly recent.
I do this with my four children every year, with tears in my eyes.
How wonderful it is to live in a country not yet swallowed completely by cynicism.
Leave a Reply