I remember the first time I heard Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.” I was in high school, and my father and I had traveled to New York for my cousin’s Eagle Scout ceremony. After the troop leaders presented him with the award, they played this song, and there was not a dry eye in the room. That cousin would later join the Marine Corps, fly helicopters, and defend our freedoms.
His love for our country was greatly influenced by not just his parents but by my father, who gave nearly 30 years of his life to the Marine Corps and who served as inspiration for another cousin, who also joined the Corps, flew harriers, and served with love and conviction.
What did these men have in common? They were proud to be Americans. And now when I hear the words of Greenwood’s song, I think of these three incredible Marines, but I also think of the countless men and women who, since our nation’s birth, have fought for our country and served with distinction. Their actions gave us the freedoms we all enjoy today—the freedoms that many take for granted and that many abuse—and they inspire us in the pro-life field as we, too, fight for freedom and the right to life.
Celebrating freedoms
We’re approaching our nation’s 250th birthday, a time when we should all be saying “I’m proud to be an American,” as we are a nation founded on moral principles and by people who understood the importance of inviting God into our lives. As one of the opening sentences of our Declaration of Independence reads, “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.”
The men who founded our country believed that we had a right to life given to us by God. Those who fought for our country and those who still fight to defend her believe this as well. But it’s not only the members of the military who fight for this right. It’s every person who sees the beauty of this great nation, who understands the horrors and threats to life unfolding in front of us, and who works daily to stop them.
Sometimes it seems like we are facing attacks on all fronts. As we look around the US, we see so many who have lost their way. No longer do they acknowledge that God gave us the right to life and liberty, but they have thrown God away entirely in their pursuit of happiness. They live with the misguided belief that happiness should be the primary goal of life and that it should be sought for at all costs, even at the expense of life and liberty. They don’t understand that the pursuit of happiness—and happiness itself—cannot come from the destruction of others, whether that’s through divisiveness, drug use, abortion, assisted suicide, or the tearing down of our great nation. Happiness is not found in how many likes you have on social media, on your next night out partying, on your sexual conquests, or on the destruction of other human beings. These things lead only to emptiness.
Happiness can only be attained by living well, by protecting the vulnerable and his or her right to life, and above all by putting God first.
Yet today, we see people living for the wrong kinds of freedom—those that actually take away another person’s liberties and right to life. They want the freedom to kill their own children and to kill Grandma when her health has declined. They want the freedom to create and sell children via IVF procedures, never caring that they are treating children like commodities and leaving them in a frozen state or washing them down drains because they are not “wanted.” They want the freedom to silence brave men and women who simply seek dialog and teach the truth. The list goes on and on.
I can only imagine what our Founding Fathers would say if they could talk to some of these men and women today, especially some of the elected officials and the people who vote for them. Case in point is what’s happening in New York, as New Yorkers recently voted for three self-proclaimed socialists to represent them in Congress. One of these socialists is Darializa Avila Chevalier, who in 2019 tweeted, “I forgot to get napkins so I just wiped my hand on the American flag behind me.”
It’s shameful that anyone could vote for a woman who has such disregard for our flag, our country, and thus our military brothers and sisters who died protecting us.
Voters seem to have no idea what they’re doing, and I daresay that many are led by hatred for our president and an ignorance of the reality of socialism rather than by a respect for our country and a respect for life. We see this in the many misguided people who have wasted their time in “no kings” protests. It’s clear that America doesn’t have a king, but ironically, this phrase serves as a reminder that those who advocate for threats to life actually do have their own personal king—a king who says that they should search for happiness at all costs.
As Catholics, we know that happiness cannot come from death, hatred, and destruction. And when the masses realize this, maybe they will see the value and beauty in life. Maybe they will see what I saw as a Marine Brat growing up—that men and women dedicate their lives to our country to keep it great, that those attempting to tear it down have no place here, that many brave men and women work daily to protect life from creation until death, and that happiness cannot be found by destroying the life and liberty of the citizens of our great republic.
Is our republic crumbling?
The signing of the Declaration of Independence led the way to our nation’s Constitution. After the men signed this document, Benjamin Franklin was asked, “What have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” His response? “A republic, if you can keep it.”
Can we keep it? We hope and we pray. Maybe our nation’s birthday will cause people to examine history a little more thoroughly, to see the sacrifice that people have made and still make, and to understand that true freedom does not come from taking the life of the vulnerable but from living the life God intended for us all—one based on the freedom, not to do what we want at the expense of others, but to build moral and productive lives with our families and friends, to work hard, to pass our faith on to our children, and to care for those around us.
All else means nothing, and if we throw away our lives and freedoms in pursuit of happiness, we will never actually find happiness. We will only find chaos, anger, hatred, and disgust.
So as we approach our birthday, let us reflect on the rights given to us by God, and let us thank Him for our great country. When we see the blessings we have, maybe, just maybe, we can all join in with Greenwood and proclaim, “I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free and I won’t forget the men who died who gave that right to me and I’d gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today ’cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land.”
Just like my cousins. Just like my father.
God bless the USA.
This article first appeared at LifeSiteNews at lifesitenews.com/opinion/may-god-bless-the-usa-with-respect-for-true-freedom-this-fourth-of-july/?utm_source=most_recent.
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