I am proud to be an American!Another July 4th, and I just have a heart full of "grateful" to all our ancestors and current military personnel who have given us this great privilege to live in a free country. Thanks to my Dad, to my brother and my son Roy for serving in our military.
Thanks again to my blue blooded Canadian, on both of his parents sides, Brent's 
family and his heritage (it must be still in the blood). One among them was John Winthrop. He was a visionary man who in 1628 gathered together, led and established the 1st Puritan New England Colony and their center of government at Boston. He was their first governor and re-elected 12 times. We saw a municipal building name after him when we were there visiting in MA. But really, he was an amazing man, who delivered one of the famous sermons "A Model of Christian Charity" and in so many words was the first to introduce the concept of "manifest destiny". Wow! A man who establishes a new religious forum for freedom. I know he must have been a zealot, but me thinks he was a patriot of the best kind.
We 
went to the Freedom Festival Patriotic Service last night. It was pretty good. President of UVU mentioned the foresight of John Winthrop in those early patriots. Made us both proud and all we are the recipients of his work those hundreds of years ago.
President Holland talked mostly about Abraham Lincoln and his charity to all men. It's his 200th birth year, what a man and another great man of charity who would bring our broken nation back together. He spoke on his 2nd inaugural address, just a month before the end of the Civil War, he stated "With malice towards none and charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in." He had and lived personal and civic charity. He was a student of Winthrop in deed.
John Winthrop was also mentioned at Ronald Reagan's Memorial as one of his great personal influences on his governing and his philosophy. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Conor read an excerpt from his sermon 'A Model of Christian Charity" as part of her tribute to him.
You should read it sometime. It is even for here and now and every day. An amazing man of values and courage. It is long, but thought provoking.
Please, let us, none of us, ever forget who and why our founders led the way. Put your hands over your heart and remember them, all of them, with deep thankfulness and gratitude for the lifes we are afforded to live here today.
I cannot say the pledge anytime and never could that I do not get a bit weepy eyed. Thanks to my Dad for his courage and my Mom for waiting and supporting him all those years they were separated during WWII. Thanks to those families today doing the same.
There are so many things in my life that I am grateful for and I know I have led a very blessed life, but being born here in the Americas of goodly parents and finding Brent, a Canadian with more charity than imaginable, are my most valued.
I am not a Bible verse quoter, but this one is worth quoting and remembering each day. (Shown to me by example by Brent daily.)
1st Corinthians 16:4
Let all your things be done with charity.
