Published: July 01, 2008 10:54 pm            

What does it mean to be a patriot?

EDMOND — I didn’t sleep well last night. Maybe it had something to do with the firecrackers, rockets and Roman candles exploding just beyond the trees behind our house. Not that the noise kept me awake, since I’m used to the whiz-bang antics this time of year. I can’t go to sleep because I hate to close my eyes and miss a humdinger. I drew up the bedroom window shade for a better view.

Summer fireworks commemorate the wars fought to gain and maintain freedom. Francis Scott Key wrote our national anthem as he was held prisoner on an invading British ship in the war of 1812. The British couldn’t believe they’d lost a war against a half-starved scruffy band of poorly organized and half-trained colonists, and took another crack at us.

By the light of the “bombs bursting in air,” and “the rockets’ red glare” Key had “proof through the night that our flag was still there.” As morning dawned, he tried to see whether the “star spangled banner” still flew over “the land of the free and the home of the brave,” (specifically, Baltimore’s Fort McHenry.) If not, the British had won the battle.

Americans are mostly freer today than in 1814 when the poem was penned. Sixty years would pass before slaves were legally free and more than a hundred years passed before women were allowed to vote. The patriots fought for the process of freedom to proceed. The British continually had increased taxes and tariffs and taxpayers had no recourse and received no benefit. The English got fatter as the Americans worked harder.

Happily, the cause of freedom is favored by God. Each of the founding fathers expressed gratitude and wonder at the miracles worked by God in establishing and protecting this nation. They had fog when they needed it. The winters that were so difficult for the colonists also prevented the English from striking too early. George Washington and other generals made significant blunders, but trusted God and thanked Him for the miracles that helped the cause of freedom.

The last verse of Key’s poem that became our national anthem reads:

“O thus be it ever when free men shall stand

“Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation

“Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land,

“Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation.

“Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just

“And this be our motto, “In God is our trust.”

“And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

“O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

We stamp “In God we trust” on our coins and print it on our paper money. Our pledge of allegiance calls us “one nation under God.” Our flag has white stars on a dark blue field to acknowledge heavenly deliverance. The truth is, there are no atheists in fox holes. When we are praying with our whole hearts for our safety and the just cause we fight for, we are more apt to notice the answers to our prayers than if we are far from the conflict, sipping iced lemonade and bandying clever opinions. Our national acknowledgment of God’s favor and aid are not on our national symbols by accident.

God made us free with inalienable rights, regardless of our nationality or even our willingness to acknowledge that He exists. He values freedom so thoroughly that when the majority of Americans desire to kick God out of America, He’ll go.

Patriots know and knew that only through God’s mercy did we obtain the level of freedom we enjoy, but God won’t protect our freedom against our collective will. He will always let us choose our own ways but He also won’t change the consequences of those choices. It doesn’t work to commit adultery and pray not to conceive a child.

Americans have a sacred duty to preserve freedom. The blood spilled in the cause of liberty cries from the earth that we not let it be wasted. We must safeguard our freedoms in every aspect of society by qualifying for the blessings of God on our nation. We must choose to be the land of the free and the home of the brave by bravely standing for right, whether it’s popular or not.

The issues we face in representative houses and the presidency are not just politics but essential to the cause of freedom. More restrictions of natural rights and higher taxes are examples of reduced freedoms currently proposed. Perhaps our soft generation values lightly the freedoms most of us have never sacrificed for. We won’t know how much we’ve lost until it’s out of reach.

We can’t let that happen. We need to seek righteousness in every level of society from our homes in Oklahoma to the White House, to the representative houses of government in the capitol building. We must work, vote, write and speak for freedom.

I love this land. May God bless America.



BETH STEPHENSON is an Edmond resident.

        

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