Roger Grossman
News Now Warsaw
We are just days away from the birthday of the United States of America.
But not just any ole birthday. No, this one is different. This one marks the 250th anniversary of the day this place we call home changed from being an outpost of England to being its own nation.
Most weeks of the year, this space is devoted to commentary on sports.
Not this week.
This week, I dedicate my words to paying tribute to this land and the people who got us to this week.
Or maybe, better put, the characteristics of the people that allow us to have the celebration that we are going to have this weekend.
Consider that the first people who hit the beaches of the East Coast couldn’t possibly know what they were getting themselves into. They sailed for weeks to get here, and they brought very few supplies with them. They certainly couldn’t fill a PODS container and have it shipped over here.
They were brave people.
That bravery was born of desperation built on fear of government, quest for religious and other freedoms and the vision to create a better life.
They were tough people.
They physically built shelter and tried to replicate what they had left behind in Europe with their hands and simple tools like hammers and axes.
They were resilient people.
They knew what was at stake and they knew they had no alternative but to face each problem head-on, and that quitting was not an option.
Those first people to start their new lives here were resourceful.
So many things were different here. The weather was different. The plant life was different. The trees were different. The people who were already here looked different, acted differently, didn’t speak English, and what they ate was different.
It didn’t matter. Through a lot of trial and error and intense observation, they made what they had work for them.
And, despite their quest to make a life of their own, they knew that they could get more done and have a better experience by doing things together.
They built together. They planted together. They worked together. They shared information with each other and learned from each other’s successes and failures.
And those traits have brought us through every day in every era for two-and-a-half centuries.
When our founding fathers signed their death warrants by putting their names at the bottom of the Declaration of Independence, they were brave, they were resilient, they were tough-minded and physically capable, they were resourceful and they hung together…even when they disagreed with each other.
In the years that followed, when America was at her most vulnerable, these traits held our young nation together.
When pirates and the British navy intercepted our merchants’ ships, these traits held our nation together.
When the British tried to bully us in 1812, America survived because we held to those characteristics.
Some 50 years later, the enemy was an enemy from within.
The southern states used forced, racially driven slavery to run their large plantations.
President Abraham Lincoln declared an end to slavery, and America began four years of civil war.
She survived that, and the bitter years that followed when slavery ended but the hatred did not.
Through the Industrial Revolution, America grew as more and more people came here to start their own pursuit of happiness.
Then the entire world found itself at war — twice.
America joined the fight wherever it was waged and paid whatever price was needed.
And after that, wars were fought on the Korean peninsula and in Vietnam, and in the deserts of the Middle East.
America carried on.
Without a doubt, she was scared. That flag that started with 13 stars now has 37 more, and it bears witness to the journey the United States of America had been on.
The country that started as a theory has become the leader of the world. It is the nation that produced the first combustible engine and landed men on the moon.
And Saturday, America turns 250 years old.
Be sure of this: God has shed His grace on the United States of America.
Happy birthday, America.
