By Robert Lowry | RedCounty.com | Hollywood, FL
It is not too late to recover America’s exceptionalism
Today we celebrate the 31stanniversary of Neil Armstrong‘s first steps on the moon in summer of 1969. That day, the world stood still as America made history, not only for this great nation but for all mankind. Even in Time Square, time stopped. We waited in rapt attention, not daring to breathe, as those words, with just a flecking of static, traveled 230,000 miles to emerge from the speakers of televisions and radios – “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
On that day, everyone – regardless of nationality or color – felt connected as a part of the human race that took the giant leap together… and America made it happen.
Growing up in Cocoa Beach, many of my friends’ parents were directly involved and responsible for this amazing feat. I remember the pride we had for our country. Not just because of what we had accomplished as community, and not just because of what we did as a country, but because of who we were… Americans. I remember running along side of Armstrong’s car during his return parade in our city. I remember the streets covered with American flags.
As with all great accomplishments, it started with a dream and a challenge. At Rice University in 1962, President Kennedy gave his historic speech declaring: “we will go to the moon”. Kennedy reminded us of the many challenges that face each generation, and of the inner strength of the human spirit to conquer those challenges. He quoted William Bradford’s speech to the Plymouth Bay Colony in 1630, stating that “all great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and both must be enterprised and overcome with answerable courage.” That theme was consistent with the American experience: When men are free, that liberty creates opportunity for all men, and through that opportunity success is earned, not entitled.
Today, it seems we live in another America. Every day, we read in the paper or on the internet of personal liberty traded for temporary gain. We hear of the many foreclosures blamed not on the borrower, but on the lender. We see immigrants flooding into our country illegally, demanding rights as if they were American citizens. We can feel change in the air, a growing sense of entitlement, almost a resentment of those that succeed. How far we have fallen from Kennedy’s statement “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
Is Bradford’s and Kennedy’s America gone forever?
I think not.
I believe that on an instinctive level, Americans understand what is at stake today. They may not understand the complexities of the 2,700 page healthcare Bill, or the nuances of a 2,200 page Bank Reform Bill, or even the 2,000 plus pages of the Cap and Trade Bill, but one thing is certain: Those things that make up America and the American Dream are being covered with a black shroud of deceitful tyranny.
Every generation has had their hurdles either in war or economic strife, and every generation before has applied the resolve and ingenuity to overcome their obstacles. They employed self-sacrifice, self-reliance, and self control. They challenged the notion that someone else must care for them, and they defended individual freedom.
Today we too must take a stand to defend liberty, not entitlement. This is a time of opportunity, not complacency. We need to return to a time when people cherished equal opportunity, not equal results.
We all teach our children that they can be anything they want to be when they grow up, even walk on the moon. I believe that that will be true as long as America becomes America again.
