Happy Birthday, America

Jul 4, 2023, 12:36 PM

Happy Birthday, America. Long may you stand.

I’ve been all over this great country of ours, from sea to shining sea. I’ve stood on rocky coastlines from Oregon to Maine, I’ve reveled at the beauty beneath her lighthouses, and I’ve swam in the warm ocean waters of the Gulf.

I’ve watched the fog roll over the land on a sultry Southern morning and I’ve felt the wind off the Great Lakes in November. I’ve cried at the beauty of colorful Aspen leaves in Wyoming in the fall, and I’ve sat and I’ve shivered in the dark listening to an Elk bugle on a cold night in Colorado.

I’ve walked in the warmth of your deserts, and marveled at the glory of the Grand Canyon, her depths and cracks a testament to the ravages of time. I’ve canoed on more than a few of the 10,000 lakes of Minnesota, and I’ve ridden a small raft on the mighty Mississippi. I’ve fished for Trout on the Snake River in Wyoming and I’ve listened to the song of your bullfrogs while catfishing on a hot summer night in South Carolina. I’ve stood in the breakers of your beaches, and I’ve hunted for sharks teeth in your sands.

I’ve stood in awe at the grandeur of Yosemite and I’ve followed a Bison jam in Yellowstone. I’ve looked for a cold Coke on a hot Texas day, and I’ve covered college football games in more states than many people have visited.

And while America is made up on many natural wonders, it’s her people that sets this great nation apart from the rest of the world.

I’ve talked to Native Americans in South Dakota, beneath the stony of visage of Mt. Rushmore, and I’ve watched a tough biker ask to hold my child because his grandchild isn’t near. I’ve talked to preachers and sinners – sometimes both in the same person – and I’ve attended church in everything from hot tent revivals to grand cathedrals made of glass.

America is made up of old men in pickup trucks and CEO’s in limousines. It’s made up of short-order cooks and computer whizzes and even sportswriters. It’s old women walking to church on a Sunday morning, the day after getting their hair done at the local hairdresser where information moves at the speed of light. It’s the roughnecks on oil rigs and the pharmacists inside sterile drug stores.

Now, they don’t always agree on politics. And right now our country is fractured in many ways. But you have to remember this, on this beautiful birthday of all of ours, is that we are all Americans. Our differences make us stronger. It doesn’t matter your race, religious preference, or political party.

We are all Americans. Our grandfathers crossed the Delaware with Washington, they fought each other at Gettysburg, they held on for 13 excruciating days at The Alamo, and they stormed the beaches of Normandy and small islands on the way to Japan. They bled and they died and they lie in unnoticed and unmarked graves across the world, all dying for this experiment we call a Republic.

A line from one of my favorite movies – Saving Private Ryan – sticks with me. As the Captain Miller is dying, he looks at Pvt. Ryan and says, “Earn this…..earn it.”

Earn this every day. Appreciate this great country, with all of its differences, and do something to make it better. Earn it.

Long may she wave.