#699 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Wednesday July 5)
Good morning,
In this week of celebrating our independence, it is important to recall exactly what our country stands for. While I don’t advocate completely open borders, as I believe any state must preserve its own territorial sovereignty, America nonetheless has long been an aspiration of peoples throughout the world.
America has aspired to be an example to others, the “city on a hill” envisioned by John Winthrop and reimagined by Ronald Reagan. Welcome immigrants coming here to work, raise families, and pursue the American dream is a big part of what America is about.
I never grow tired of rereading these words of “The New Colossus,” penned by Emma Lazurus and engraved on the Statue of Liberty (the last part is well known but it lacks something without the power and allusion of the beginning, set out below):
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
PEACEFUL PROTEST IS AS AMERICAN AS APPLE PIE
Lest we forget, we still live in a country where protest is part of the democratic process for change. In an era where the extent of our right to free speech increasingly is part of the daily political debate in this country, when books are banned and speakers are shouted down, maintaining the right to protest increasingly at risk. Only a couple of years ago, the former president broke up a peaceful protest in front of the White House. Depending upon the next elections, it could happen again.
Here are some songs that remind us that the greatest expression of patriotism is when authority is questioned and protest is shared peacefully and poetically:
Woody Guthrie: This Land Is Your Land
“…In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?…”
Billie Holiday Strange Fruit
“Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees…”
Sam Cooke, A Change is Going to Come
“I was born by the river
In a little tent
Oh, and just like the river, I've been running
Ever since
It's been a long
A long time coming, but I know
A change gon' come
Oh yes, it will”
Bruce Springsteen, Born in the U.S.A.
“Born down in s adead man’s town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that’s been beat too much
Til you spend half your life just covering up, now
Born in the U.S.A….
Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man.”
Have a great day,
Glenn