America is incredibly prosperous. Anyone that cares to take a look around history knows this to be the case. And, anyone who cares to take a look around the world knows this to be the case.
During the American Revolution John Adams was away for long periods of time and his wife, Abigail, was left at home to care for the kids and the farm. Her time at home was filled with hardships such as a smallpox outbreak in town, the horror of going through smallpox inoculations in that day, snowfalls close to 6 feet high, and a stillborn daughter. All of this happened without the man she loved so dearly and while she cared for the family’s income. Inflation was so bad during the war that, even though she tended the property very well, it wasn’t making enough money. One can hardly imagine the terrors she faced, or that other Americans faced at that time.
That makes these words of hers so incredibly powerful,
“Posterity who are to reap the blessings will scarcely be able to conceive the hardships and suffering of their ancestors.”-Abigail Adams
John Adams, David McCullough, 2001 p. 169
We are prosperous and free because of the sacrifices and decisions of those who went before us. And it is fascinating to think that she knew it would be this way.
My kids have been watching the original Aladdin lately. The kids love it and that makes me happy. Robin Williams as the genie is just so good. But the thing the genie wants most in the world is to be free. He says,
“But oh, to be free. Not to have to go ‘Poof! What do you need? Poof! What do you need Poof! What do you need?’. To be my own master. Such a thing would be greater than all the magic and all the treasures in all the world.”
Taken from the movie Aladdin, 1992
Americans are a free people. We’ve been given that freedom because the people that went before us made incredible sacrifices and decisions. We have incalculable blessings because of it. Our freedoms are “greater than all the magic and all the treasures in the world.”
And here is why I entitled this, “America’s Ungrateful Children”. There are a whole host of people out there that don’t seem to care a lot about individual freedom. Or, it would probably be more accurate to say that they don’t understand the great freedoms they have or the incredible sacrifices it took for them to have this freedom.
I wrote this yesterday and saw a news story before hitting “publish” that I just felt needed to be added. Rioters toppled statues of Roosevelt and Lincoln yesterday in a protest entitled “Indigenous Peoples Day of Rage.” And it just made me realize how incredibly entitled Americans have become. As nearly every major figure in early American history is chastised by person after person, I become a little more cranky and mutter “these ungrateful kids”. I wish I had a cane to wave around when I do it.
As a Christian I believe that God used these people, flaws and all, to bring about immense prosperity that has trickled down to me. And for that I am incredibly grateful. And if you live in America, you should be too. So, be grateful for those that went before you. Learn from their mistakes, learn from their grievous sins, teach where they went wrong, teach about all they did well, and be grateful for those who went before you.
R. Dwain Minor
Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay
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