Memorial Day Special

With Memorial day approaching this coming weekend, I wanted to offer a blog solely in honor of Memorial day. I've been reading Ronald Reagan's biography, "When Character was King," and have to say that I am even more impressed with him than I was before. His last speech before leaving the white house started with a story about a Navy ship that was sailing in the seas off Vietnam, and they came upon a boat of refugee's, about 30 people, and one of the men who could barely speak English stood up and said, "Hey American sailor, Hey Freedom man," Its such a simple story, but it really moved me. I remember once traveling in Europe, and in my terminal there were 5-7 American soldiers returning home to America, and just their presence gave me so much comfort. Reagan recounted how moved he was when he heard the story, because it says everything about who we are as a people. "Freedom Man". Our freedom is what makes us great, and our American soldiers really see themselves as defenders of freedom in the world. I think about it everyday, how great America truly is. Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

But as Victor Frankl said, "If you are going to have a statue of Liberty, then you need a statue of Responsibility," Boy have we seen that in this country over our history, how Freedoms and Liberties can quickly turn into narcissism if we are not careful. But the genius of this country, is that we take our chances with more freedom everyday, because the desire for the True, the Good and Beautiful are present in every human life. But it needs to be constantly pointed out that the foundation of this country is not just more Liberty for its own sake, but more Liberty to do the right thing. More Freedom to choose the Good, the True and the Beautiful. What would be great about doing the right thing, if you were forced to do it.

That's why I really think the answer to the way our country has moved closer to Socialism is to become even more generous to the poor, to become more charitable. When we are over taxed, it becomes harder to give, but that is one of the ways to show the goodness present in Capitalism.