Why I Love America

I love America for being the place
where an upstart group of colonists, against all odds, battled the most
powerful empire in the world---and won---all in the cause of liberty.
I love America for establishing a revolutionary
new country in which a person’s life is his and his alone to live for his own
sake, and government’s sole purpose is to protect that sacred right.
I love America for recognizing that
not only is it illegal for a criminal to steal your property, force you to do
things against your will, or hijack your life, but the government cannot do
these things, either. I love America for declaring for the first time in
history that government cannot act like a common criminal but must be
accountable to moral law.
I love America for igniting a
firestorm of liberty that in a brief page on the calendar of history led to the
abolition of slavery, the suffrage of women, and the spread of freedom around
the globe.
I love America for triggering an
explosion of scientific and industrial advancement and a standard of living
unmatched---and unimaginable---in history.
I love America for fostering the
climate of freedom in which genius can flourish, making possible the Henry
Fords, the Thomas Edisons, the Wright Brothers, and the many other innovators
who formed entire new industries that moved mankind forward.
I love America for being the place
where wealth was created and earned, rather than looted and plundered.
I love America for spawning the American
Dream, the worldwide symbol of the boundless opportunity and achievement
that freedom brings.
I love America for making possible a
truly civilized society, one of self-sufficient, resourceful, confident,
hard-working, wealth-creating, and life-loving people, who lived in a spirit of
peace and good will toward their fellow man because no one staked a claim to
anyone else’s wallet.
I love America for offering freedom
and opportunity to so many of our ancestors who arrived as immigrants, who knew
that in America nothing was owed to them and everything had to be earned, and
who rose to the challenge, creating a spectacular new life for themselves and
for us, their descendants.
I love America for being the country
where people could work hard, rise, and be proud of their success, because
production, profit, wealth, and achievement were the stuff that American heroes
were made of.
No matter how much our country has
swayed from its ideals today, I will never forget that I am an American. I will
never forget that our ancestors forged a continent not with public aid and
bailouts but with the shining vision of a better life and the self-reliance to
attain it. Our forebears created wealth, progress, and achievement on an
unprecedented scale. No government fed our pioneers, inspected their wagons for
safety, certified their chickens, meddled in their businesses, looted their
wealth, or subjected their lives to endless controls, permissions, and
regulations. No government built the breathtaking skylines of our majestic
cities, the proud monuments to free minds and free commerce. The government’s
fingerprints can be found only on the shattered shells of public housing that
wound our cities, a grim reminder of the failed welfare state.
The time has come to reclaim our
legacy from the meddlers, moochers, expropriators, and budding tyrants who are
hammering away at Lady Liberty, knocking her down bit by bit, and ready to
topple her completely.
We the people must pick up the
pieces, make our Lady whole again, and return her to her golden pedestal as the
country we love and honor, the country of liberty.
Let us ponder these thoughts on
Independence Day.
Chicago writer Gen
LaGreca is the author of Noble Vision, a ForeWord Magazine
Book-of-the-Year award-winning novel about liberty. Her commentaries have
appeared in the Orange County Register, Rocky Mountain News, Front
Page Magazine, Free Market News Network, Gainesville Sun,
Real Clear Politics, and other publications. She holds a master’s degree
in philosophy from Columbia University. For more information, see http://wingedvictorypress.com/medical_thriller.htm.
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