MAILBAG: Living in America is a true blessing

What the Fourth of July means to me: It is a day to remember the patriotism of people in 1776, who gave up their land, cash and even families to fight in the Revolutionary War. Such patriotism is exemplified by those who signed the Declaration of Independence, whereby the British hunted down their assets and took them because of their stand for the colonists.

The people who fought in the war gave up their lives so that a new nation could be born out of the tyranny of Britain. A patriot named Nathan Hale exemplifies what a Revolutionary soldier is all about. He was from the Rhode Island Mountaineers and was caught by Cornwallis’ troops near Yorktown and hanged in a public square.

He was an officer, and stated to the hangman just before the noose was put over his neck that “I regret that I have but one life to give for my country.” Moreover, another saying of Patrick Henry was “Give me liberty or give me death” to the Virginia Legislature.

Today, the young and older soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are giving up their lives too in Iraq and have done so because the majority in Congress voted for this war. Likewise, Vietnam was the same situation. I guarantee you that if the sons or daughters of our Congress representatives were involved in the Iraq war, there would not have been one because Congress would have cut off funding.

Sometimes our wars are not well thought out, and as a result of such mutated thinking, millions of innocent people in Iraq have lost their homes and lives due to our combatant forces. However, they may be better off politically than before since they now have a taste of freedom. Who knows how long that will last? With regard to Afghanistan, it is going to be a war that will be hard to win, unlike any of our wars because it is ruled by tribal chiefs throughout the remote areas of that country where the Taliban, who have killed thousands of Americans, and wounded and maimed thousands more.

We should be proud of our men and women in arms. Yet some of us look down at them, who do not have the wherewithal to be proud of them fighting for what our forefathers fought for in both our World Wars, and others in the past.

These people should move out and live in other countries whose populace is not as fortunate as the citizens in our wonderful country, and then they will understand what our country is all about. May God Bless America.

ART RUTLEDGE

Glendale

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