God SAVE the U.S.A.

I took our flag down today.  It was time.  It was just time.

Did persecuted Christians in Stalin's Russia proudly fly their flag?  Do underground Christians in China proudly fly their flag?  Did occupied Poland fly the flag of Germany?  Neither will I.

Lee Greenwood’s famous song has been running through my mind all day.  The words make me stomp…and then cry.  I remember memorizing those words for a school program in the 2^nd grade and can still recall the swelling of patriotism in my heart.  It was a seed of pride for my country that would grow with my politically conservative upbringing.  Three short months after high school graduation, 9/11 happened. I stood shoulder to shoulder with my fellow citizens, singing "God Bless America" at ball games and painting those words on the back windshield of my first car.  A few months later, after I was married, we decorated our first home in Americana and even adorned our very first Christmas tree in Old Glory’s red, white, and blue.  But then something shifted…2008...then 2012!

I began to seriously feel the pain when Catholics and other Christians in this country were outright denied their freedom to practice what they preach.  Then I wake up and we are funding the same Muslim Brotherhood who has infiltrated our country, killing and maiming fellow Americans on family outings like something out of a Middle Eastern nightmare.  Our president gives a diabolical speech to Planned Parenthood after 40 years and 56 million children have been legally murdered in the womb.  And then we decide not only to strip away religious freedom from church organizations but now soldiers.  Guns?  Hold on tightly if you can!  Refugees face deportation because the basic right to educate one's children is apparently a myth.  17 Trillion Dollars of national debt.  Ridiculous.  The daily news reads more like an episode from the twilight zone!

Reagan said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” That time has come I’m afraid.  Our homeschool U.S. History lessons sound more like tales of ancient civilizations far beyond our reach.  And the darker events from foreign lands are like crystal balls into our future. Tyranny. Intolerance. Martyrdom.

Today my son asked me if America was “ruined”.  I told him it was sick and we are praying for it to get better (more like in cardiac arrest really).  How different the lesson is for him.  When I was his very age I was waving a little flag singing “God Bless the USA” on the school cafeteria stage.  I knew this was the greatest country in the world…because we had freedom.  My son wants to be a priest.  What do you suppose is in store for him?  I shutter to think about the possibilities, and I pray that his strength is not shaken.

The flag will be neatly and properly stored away.  I hope she can one day fly proudly atop our pole again.  Until then, I have rewritten the words to that song to more accurately reflect our current state of affairs.  Won’t you sing (pray) it with me? 

God Save the USA

                                                                If tomorrow all the things were gone,

I'd worked for all my life,

And I had to start again,

With just my children and my wife,

I'd hang my head in grief,

To be living here today,

'Cuz the flag once stood for freedom,

But they took it all away!

Well, it's sad to be an American,

Where we no longer are free,

But I won't forget the men who died,

In vain apparently,

So I urgently kneel down next to you,

To daily fast and pray

'Cuz there ain't no doubt, I love this land.

God save the USA!

Republicans or Democrats

It doesn't matter either way,

Guns, God, Marriage,

They're gone for good I'd say.

The debt is too damn high,

Babies are killed each day,

Reagan warned us soon this day could come,

Now it's time that we kneel and pray!

Well, it's sad to be an American,

Where we no longer are free,

But I won't forget the men who died,

In vain apparently,

So I urgently kneel down next to you,

To daily fast and pray

'Cuz there ain't no doubt, I love this land.

God save the USA!