Good Reads for the Days After

Gen LaGreca's tribute to America appears today in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Do read the whole piece as she begins with a long list of reasons to love and honor this country. I've excerpted her ending, because it fits better as a short segment, but the part which boosted my spirits was the beginning.

Celebrating America: Many reasons to honor our country

No matter how much our country has swayed from its ideals today, I will never forget that I am an American. I will never forget that our ancestors forged a continent not with public aid and bailouts but with the shining vision of a better life and the self-reliance to attain it.

Our forebears created wealth, progress and achievement on an unprecedented scale. No government fed our pioneers, inspected their wagons for safety, certified their chickens, meddled in their businesses, looted their wealth or subjected their lives to endless controls, permissions and regulations. No government built the breathtaking skylines of our majestic cities, the proud monuments to free minds and free commerce.

The time has come to reclaim our legacy from the meddlers, moochers, expropriators and budding tyrants who are hammering away at Lady Liberty.

We the people must pick up the pieces, make our lady whole again and return her to her golden pedestal as the country we love and honor, the country of liberty.

Let us ponder these thoughts this weekend.

--Genevieve LaGreca is the author of Noble Vision, an award-winning novel about liberty.

Doug Reich's piece also outlines a vision of America which resonates with mine. In his full post, he contrasts that vision with the direction our current leaders are taking us, seemingly with the support of this country's majority. I can only hope that the consequences of these differences will be understood, and that action will be taken to change course before too much liberty and prosperity is destroyed. Because I am in need of focusing on the good these days, I have only quoted positives. I face the negatives every day--it's nice to take a break on this celebratory weekend. Do read the whole piece at The Rational Capitalist. The contrasts he draws are disturbing and real.

MY AMERICA

America was founded upon the spirit of individualism - the idea that each individual is independent, the owner of his life, free to pursue his own happiness...

Throughout our history, Americans have always stood for limited, self-government, whose purpose is to secure the right to pursue your life and happiness...

Americans admire success and believe in reaping the profits derived from hard work...

Americans are unapologetic for our success which has come at a steep price - the blood of patriots spilled here and around the world for over 200 hundred years - and the sweat and tears of the productive: the scientists, the businessmen, the tradesmen, and the laborers who followed their dreams, built this country and in improving their own lives created the highest standard of living in world history...

My vision of America or My America means something very specific to me. My America is represented by George Washington, Patrick Henry, James Madison, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson... influenced by men such as John Locke, Voltaire, and Montesquieu...

My Americans are the creators and the producers: the Founding Fathers, Thomas Edison, the Wright Brothers; My Americans are Fred Astaire, and Walt Disney, Mark Twain and Henry Ford; My Americans are Sherman, Patton, and MacArthur; My Americans are Bill Gates and Steve Jobs; My Americans are John Galt and Ayn Rand...

My Americans have literally given us light, mass production, aviation, bridges, the movies, music, television, the personal computer, and life saving medicines; some led great armies in heroic battles against tyranny and evil or glorified their work in literature and art...

My Americans produced wealth, defended freedom, and invented something from nothing...

My Americans have given us freedom, production, prosperity, and aesthetic beauty...

My America stands for the life affirming benevolence and productivity that follows from free minds and free markets...

We must wage a moral and intellectual battle to rediscover the American spirit and the morality implied by the Declaration of Independence; we must recapture the spirit of individualism, self-reliance, and limited government. We must fight, not just against Obama's vision, but for our own vision.

I hope you had a happy, free 4th in which you were able to celebrate what is good and right about this country and the principles of life, liberty and property upon which it was founded.

1000 cheers for the pursuit of happiness!!!

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