Length: 421 Words Reading Time: 2 Minutes
Tomorrow is Memorial Day and yesterday as I was driving my car around Reno, the thought occurred to me that America is a unique country for many reasons, from minor to major.
We celebrate many events in our history and many people who made significant contributions to America, from the Founding Fathers to the men and women in today’s Armed Forces. The list is so long that it defies any reasonable description. Memorial Day is just one of the celebrations on that list.
If we look back over the history of America, we find the men whom we call our Founding Fathers. If the United States had not won the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783), most, if not all, of the Founding Fathers would have been hanged or imprisoned for treason by the British. Patrick Henry said it best and most succinctly, “Give me liberty, or give me death.”
Thomas Jefferson, one of our Founding Fathers, wrote our Declaration of Independence. He became the third President of our country.
America celebrates its independence from England on the Fourth of July, another major celebratory event.
Fifty-five delegates gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 for the Constitutional Convention and thrashed out a written constitution, one of the oldest in the world.
The U.S. Constitution has a written Bill of Rights that was unique, given the times in which the founding of our country occurred.
The U.S. Constitution has a 52-word Preamble that is one of the most precise mission statements ever to be put on paper. Fifty-two words that capture the essence of America’s vision and values, along with the Bill of Rights.
The delegates to the Constitutional Convention gave us a republic whose legislative branch comprises representatives from the 13 original colonies that were sovereign states. Each state had two senators and representatives based on population. That representation model continues to the present day.
The republic has expanded to 50 sovereign states. That expansion was done peacefully and without any internal conflict except for the Civil War.
America fought a Civil War from 1861 to 1865, when 11 Southern States decided to secede from the Union. America survived that Great Civil War and continued to thrive to the present day.
I ask you to reflect on the few points I have highlighted above. I am proud to be an American because America is a great country. America is a great country because the American people are good and the most generous on the planet.
Let’s take great pride and solace in those words.
