“And that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth”.
“Oh, say! does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave”?
I am seeing that Francis Scott Key and Abraham Lincoln both realized that the survival of our nation as the” The land of the Free and Home of the brave was not a given and the unity of our nation is something to be cherished and protected.
I remember that Key wrote his great work because he saw a band of free men and women bound together by mutual concern for each other and mutual love of their country. they held out against the greatest military power in the world, The British Navy.
Lincoln delivered his stunningly great speech looking at the death of hundreds and thousands of military folks of our country who gave their lives to preserve the many parts but still one. Lincoln saw the wonder of our grand experiment, the union of all our states into a single country.
In my life I have seen the nobility of our military defeating cruel and heartless regimes in both Europe and in Asia. I am speaking of what was really one war World War 1 and World War 11 taken together. I see the decency and commitment of the America to fight wars that were fought not on own soil. They were fought on other nations land to deliver them from harsh masters.
Now I see our wonderful, noble nation being torn apart over politics. We are being ripped apart as surely as we would have been if the South had won the Civil War.
I am remembering something my mom used to say to her children. ” Mind your manners”. I am making a call to all of us to mind our good manners. We need to learn there is a powerful difference between conflicting views and differing views.
I think we have lost our good manners in dealing with each other. It seems to me that if we all had exercised good manners toward each other we could have solved the problems that are so severe in our country .
I have loved my younger sister from the day of her birth to this day 70+years later. When I get to see her my heart fills with delight. Her political views are more or less opposite to mine. We do not have conflicting views. We just have differing views. They have never caused strife. When we are together we are too busy enjoying the love and respect we share to argue. We have different ideas not anger filled conflicting views.
America “Mind Your Manners”.
George Caywood 