It's Just a Thought

Tears - A Wakeup Call?

         On the NBC evening news one day last week, they told the story of a mother and daughter who had fled Afghanistan a while back and come to the United States. What makes this such a notable event is how strongly they feel about the U.S. and what it should mean to the rest of us.
         I don’t remember their names, but that’s not important here. What is important is that the NBC news broadcast showed the two of them near the end of their citizenship ceremony, and what it meant to them. That’s right, they became U.S. citizens. Such a seemingly simple act, but one so important to them that the final act of the ceremony, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, brought tears to their eyes. You saw the tears and the way they fought to finish those special words despite the way their crying tried to distort their facial expressions.
         Are you wondering why I said this should mean something to the rest of us, and what I mean by that? It’s simple. Amazingly simple. This mother and daughter saw the true meaning and experience of real freedom for the first time in their lives. It showed in their faces, and their tears. And that immediately made it obvious to me how the rest of us take that same freedom for granted. That freedom that these two take so seriously that we assume will always be there for us.
         That’s our problem. And it’s a nationwide problem. It doesn’t discriminate. Race, education, income level, don’t matter. Nor does any other criteria. We all take it for granted. We need to take a cue from this mother and daughter and take a closer look at how fortunate we are to be living where we do, and stop taking those freedoms for granted. Those same freedoms that they, and other legal immigrants have such a deep, real respect, admiration, and gratitude for. They know how precious those freedoms are. And we need to make sure we do what we can to help preserve them.
         Can’t think of how you can do that? There are ways to do that that are simple, yet so important. Among other ways, you can:
         Make sure you vote. Take seriously your right to help choose those who will run the country, your state, your city or community. Many elections are won or lost by really small margins, sometimes less than 10 votes. Think your vote doesn’t count? Look at the fact that you and just a handful of others who currently think that could change the outcome of an election when the difference is that small if you all voted.
         Even if you don’t like a confrontation our military forces are involved in, you can support THEM. I’m not telling you anything new with this idea, but that doesn’t take anything away from how deeply they will appreciate that support.
         Make your voice heard. How? Your elected officials are supposed to be representing YOU. But they can only do that if you tell them what you think. It’s easy to find out the phone numbers, email addresses and snail mail addresses of your elected representatives. Something bothering you about some government decision, or pending one? How your tax money is being spent? Speak up. Call them. Write them. Fax them. Send them an email. The only reason all those lobbyists for the special interests can get away with persuading our elected officials to choose their side on an issue is because many of the rest of us are not exercising our rights and standing up to those same officials and telling them what WE think they should do. If we all did that, those lobbyists, like the ones for the oil companies or big corporations wouldn’t stand a chance.
         Help put government back in the hands of the people, where our founding fathers said from the start that it belongs. Get involved.