Glitz n' Beadz Gossip: May 2010

This morning, I was greeted with the phrase, "Happy Memorial Day".

"Happy? Memorial Day," I contemplated. A true oxymoron for sure.

Should I be happy on a day that commemorates the heroism of so many who have given their very life's blood for me to be able to even think I can have an opinion? I wonder.....

As a memorial to those who have fallen for my freedoms, I decided to update my avatar with a flag or USA theme and then I came upon this disturbing image and stopped......

Is this the face of our future?

This is America. land of the free and just what that means has become the issue.

There are 2 very real schools of thought in our country right now,

1. Freedom means having the right to think and act as one chooses even if it means bending the very fiber of our great country.

2. Freedom means loving, respecting and preserving the dreams and hopes of our fore fathers' as they crafted the constitution to allow us all the pursuit of happiness.

I have written so often in the past about the salvation this wonderful country was for my family in their times of trouble. Many times, I have tried to contrast the chains of socialism with the freedoms of America and how lucky each and everyone of us are to live in this country where everyman has the opportunity to strive for their own dream.

The problem becomes when their dream is bigger than themselves and includes forcing others to become a part of their will. This is not what America was founded on, nor is this what many of us signed up for. It certainly was not the America that so many of our young sons and daughters sacrificed their lives for.

There is a line from an old book (later made into a movie) Fiddler On The Roof by Shalom Alechim,

Paraphrased for our times:

I beg you to accept us.
                Accept them?
                How can I accept them?
                Can I deny everything I believe in?
                On the other hand,
                can I deny them?
                On the other hand,
                how can I turn my back on my country,
                my people?
                If I try and bend that far,