Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.

The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.

For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. Continue reading George Washington on Unity of Government and Need for Morality →

. . . in times of war and peace, thank you. We owe you deep gratitude for our unique liberty.

Photo: PowerPee/Flikr

Whether you fought the bad guys or kept watch on our borders, thank you for your service.

Photo: soyboy7/Flickr

All Star-Spangled Banner lyrics below the fold. Continue reading "Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation." →

2 Corinthians 8-10 ESV–For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.

I’ve been praying during the night for a few people who would identify with Paul’s suffering, but beyond that the applications are legion, aren’t they? Self-serving officials, the mess in the gulf (now being called a dead zone), crime in our cities, conflict in our families, illnesses or injustices or simple unemployment among our friends and acquaintances. No matter what the next step may be for one of these problems, it is to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He is all-sufficient, merciful, and righteous.

“It’s so hard to watch these Americans, who have so much, toss it away by voting for imbeciles. I am American now and these people have no idea how good they have it.” Kevin Jackson posts an conversation he had with a Ukrainian businesswoman who was a Republican, because she knew where liberal ideas led.