Dear America:
Ever since your establishment on that hot and manic July day in 1776 you have brought hope and inspiration to generation after generation. Both the masses and the more affluent who have heard of your ideals have walked away with a warm soft glow in their hearts. The feeling that Peace and Justice can reign in our lives.
These are not empty words based on sentimentality. Any nation who produces men who think and speak the following words is truly set apart from their fellow nations:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. -Thomas Jefferson
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. -Abraham Lincoln
But we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek, as do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can. -Robert F. Kennedy
I could endlessly continue. America, rivers of blood have flowed to uphold and defend the principles you aroused in those men's souls. Great difficult and grim challenges have been overcome, relying on the thought that your cause was right. Unfathomable sorrow has been endured because we knew the Freedom and Liberty you offered us was paramount.
But America, you have failed those ideals, those principles. Horrible and heinous acts have been committed in your name. Atrocities associated with the vilest, most contemptible and lowest of nations. You have tortured. You have murdered. And along the way your light which had given comfort to the huddled masses yearning to breath free has gone out. Your actions have reduced the words from great men hollow. Why?
Was it for security? Surely you know Benjamin Franklin's response:
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
America, in doing this you have not only broken the Laws of Man, you have given up your prerogative of raised moral standing. The brave and noble Revolutionaries who bled the ground red at Brandywine and left footsteps traced with blood in the snow at Valley Forge did not do so for this, your great sin.
America, you have abandoned your moral compass. What will be your remedy?
Your Beloved Son,
Matthew
This was cross-posted at Yelling at the Moon.