7 04 03

This
past week was our country’s birthday once again. For 227 years
we have been evolving, changing and growing not only as a
nation, but as a people. To be certain we have had some rough
spots along the highway of our history. We manage to smooth some
out and just as soon as we do, new ones appear. I suppose it
will always be this way in a growing society such as ours. In
ancient and perhaps not so ancient civilizations it was not the
same. Once the rules had been set, they weren’t often changed
except for the benefit of those in power and those with the
authority to effect those changes. The common man had little or
nothing to say about how his or her government was run or their
rulers selected. This is certainly not the case in our country.
Oh, we have problems galore to be sure. We have hungry people,
uneducated children, too many folks in jails and prisons and
people without work. But, then again we all know about these
issues and we all want to try and do something to either improve
them or make them go away forever. It isn’t so, in other
countries. Other places in our modern twentieth first century
choose to ignore poverty and ignorance as if they did not exist.
We know they exist, we just don’t know how to correct all of the
ills our country has to deal with at one time. You might say
it’s a problem of growing pains. We have grown so fast in such a
short period of time.

My spirits were
lifted by an article about us as Americans in today’s paper. It
concerned a lady named Christine Gill, of Houston, Texas. Ms.
Gill is ninety years old. The granddaughter of slaves. She is
quoted as saying “Around World War II, things changed for black
people. We were included in what our country was doing. I
remember the posters of Uncle Sam pointing and saying your
country needs you. That’s when things changed for me. I felt
part of things. I felt needed. I felt like I was doing a great
thing to go and replace a man in the military so he could go
fight. I became involved.” Ms. Gill was a war veteran and now is
a volunteer at the Houston VA Medical Center. Did you read that
she was ninety years old? God bless you dear lady.

With all of the
bad press we hear about each day blasting us at every turn, we
often miss these little stories which are the very embodiment of
our culture. Here is a woman, advanced in years, still going,
still having a good attitude and from a background as different
from my own as well, black and white. This is the story of
America. This is what makes us the greatest nation of this
planet. This is why we must not shirk our duties and we must
keep on pressing forward. We cannot solve our problems in one
fell swoop. We didn’t get them overnight and they won’t go away
overnight either. But we cannot turn our heads and choose to
overlook our shortcomings in the pursuit of our own happiness
and personal pleasures. We must keep the benefit of our people
as the single most important function of our republic.

Our Declaration
of Independence signed those many years ago makes a statement
that “All men are created equal.” From time to time, I’m certain
that for Ms. Gill it didn’t seem to be so. Her decision to keep
on going and persevere should be an inspiration to all of us.

At various
times, we need to sit back and look at all of the right things
we’ve done in this country since those men signed that document
in 1776. We need to pay particular attention to those issues
which we have made substantial progress and be proud of our
achievements.

Ms. Gill and I
may come from different backgrounds and ancestors. But as of
this moment we are united under one common bond. We are both
Americans.