Just a Moment…

Writing for World magazine, Jane Chaney highlighted this July 4 being our semi-quincentennial – say that word fast 5 times! America is 250 years old. We are blessed.

I well remember our Bicentennial in 1976. I had just finished my freshman year in college. Red, white and blue were seen everywhere. I had a pair of sneakers in those colors (don’t laugh – they were really cool, or at least I thought). There were the usual parades, fireworks and celebrations – but all at a heighten level.

Chaney writes, “Can you stand up next to Lee Greenwood and sing, ‘I’m proud to be an American’? Pride may not be the right word. I’m an American by Providence, and though I consider it a blessing, what pride can there be in what I didn’t do? … Our Founding Fathers might have found it an odd question as well … they were not certain about America’s future. ‘A republic, if you can keep it,’ was Benjamin Franklin’s ambiguous reply to the lady who asked him the result of the Constitutional Convention. If they could see us now, Jefferson and Adams wouldn’t recognize the nation they birthed in 1776, but they would be impressed we’ve made it to 250 years … ‘Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord,’ but we can rightly love our homeland. She deserves it – even more, she needs it.”

Happy Birthday, America.