The
other night I had the opportunity to visit with a friend of mine about things.
We were reminiscing on our lives, the many blessings we have both had, and what
faces each of us in the future. He made a comment to me that really hit home.
He said, “Think about the past fifty years we have had the opportunity to live
in. They have to be the greatest fifty years ever. How many times did you go to
bed hungry, cold, or afraid for your life?”
I
have thought about that some more, and so I blog away. The two generations
before ours fought two World Wars to guarantee our freedom from tyranny. Those
men and women gave everything they had to guarantee that I can go to the church
I want to, vote for who I want to, and even walk down my street without
worrying about getting checked out by some guards. Then there was the Korean Conflict, The
Vietnam War, and the wars in the Middle East we are in now. Our military has
paid the ultimate price for all of our freedoms. We need to thank God for that
gift every day we get out of bed and take a breath of fresh free air.
Technology
has advanced beyond our wildest dreams. When I was a young man, the Apollo
missions were going on. I wanted to be the first astronaut Priest on the moon
at one time. Rockets were cool. We got to watch the first man set foot onto the
surface of the moon. Think of all of the things we learned from NASA. Computers
used to fill a room, now they are smaller than a pin head. Now I can e-mail,
twitter, blog, Skype, use a small cell phone, and probably a lot of other
things I do not even know how to do. We can run our home appliances form our
cell phones. We can listen to any music we want on tiny little devices that put
out better sound than my old eight track tape deck!
One
of the saddest things has been the degeneration of the family and of the
sanctity of human life. We have now a generation of people who grew up thinking
that abortion is a normal and okay. The fact that EACH life is created in the
image and likeness of God from natural conception until natural death has been
lost. We, as a nation, in the name of our “freedom to choose” seem to think it
is okay to eliminate any inconvenient lives and to do things our way. What if
one of those little babies was going to cure Glioblastoma Brain Cancer? We will
never know, because we took into our hands what we wanted to do with that
person’s life instead of letting God’s plan play out.
We
have lived through a lot of historical events. I remember when Sister came into
the classroom to tell us that President Kennedy had been shot. We all bowed our
heads and said prayers for his family and for our country. I remember when his
Brother, Bobby Kennedy, was shot, and the night they shot Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. The Kent State protests and shootings. We saw the Berlin Wall built,
and we got to see it torn down by the people it attempted to confine. We lived
through the election to the papacy, the lifelong service, and then the death of
Blessed Pope John Paul II. We watched Mother Theresa working with her missions
and win the Nobel Peace Prize on the news.
There
are so many good things that have happened in my lifetime, and also some bad.
It is always thus. The more prosperous we become as a people, it seems that
sometimes the farther we stray from the truth and from God. It doesn’t have to
be that way, and we can make that difference. Start each day by thanking the
Good Lord for all we each have and for those who fought and gave their lives so
we could have our freedom. This is still the greatest nation in the world – we
just have to remind ourselves and others of that once in a while. Make it a
great day, and thank a veteran or an active member of the military when you see
one!
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