The saying is a battle cry, a slogan and view of many to explain how our nation became so great today.  It ranks, with some, right up there with “remember the Alamo” and “don’t tread on me” as a saying that somehow made our nation great and is supposed to express, for them, the American ideal.

Slogans like this are supposed to inspire the people, the troops in battle and invoke visions of glory.  Sadly, today in our nation they are used more often than not to divide segments of our society from each other and instill fear and distrust among the paranoid in our population.

Many today who have nothing better to say will hold up flags and picket signs with this and other slogans splashed across them.  Never mind that they have defaced our national flag by spray painting the slogan on it or grossly misspell the words on the picket sign.  These people seek a fight for some reason, they are just not sure what they are supposed to fight.

They are scared and frightened people attempting to deal with a world that their education never told them about.  Like the plantation owners of the civil war they cannot see a future that is beyond what they know and through their ignorance and fear seek to hold onto what they currently have.  Our country has seen many changes over the years.  We began as a profitable colony for an expansionist empire.  Once we threw off the yoke of oppression placed on us by that empire we began to expand.

One fact that many tend to gloss over or ignore completely is just how we expanded our nation.  We did so by war and by conquering those who stood in our way.  We expanded through slavery, murder and rape but justified it by slapping the label ‘manifest destiny’ on it so that we could fool ourselves into thinking that we were blessed by God in our actions.  We expanded through the fact that we wiped out the way of life for those that were here before us.  We justified our actions against those who were different than us by placing them at a lesser value or calling them savages.  It was all blessed by God and all in the name of freedom.

Once our holy war ground the savages into submission and we shipped them off to confine them in unwanted portions of our shiny new nation and we fought a bloody war to give slaves their freedom, what then?  Well we already had bigotry and intolerance in our free country and there was no end of places we could put our intolerance to good use.  Asians and Irish and Italians, oh my!  Buddhist and Catholics and Muslims, oh my!  It was almost like wheel of misfortune;  Americans would wake, spin the wheel and say “who do we hate today?”.

Today the slots on the wheel may have changed but the same scared and intolerant people are still spinning it.  Mexicans and liberals and gays, oh my!  Scientists and intellectuals and Muslims, oh my!  The environmentalists, the educated, the black President, oh my!  Those who think differently, those who look different, those who believe differently, oh my!  The poor, the unemployed, the homeless, oh my!  The uninsured, the sick, the dieing, oh my!

They love the idea of living in a free society, as long as it is run the way they want it to be.  They cherish our right of freedom of religion, as long as you follow their religion.  They believe in equal rights as long as you look  just like them.  They embrace freedom of speech as long as you say the same thing they do.  They believe in debating a topic as long as they can shout over any opposing opinion.  They believe in helping their fellow man as long as it costs them nothing.  They think the right to own a gun gives them the right to intimidate others with its presence.

As our country faces yet another crisis they seek to protect some ideal of our nation that puts them in charge even though they are a minority voice.  They scream and yell and pine for the old ways in our world.  Like the plantation owners of old they seek answers in the past and are terrified of the future. They now are going so far as to rewrite the Bible placing those who are liberal and intelligent in the satanic roles.

What they are REALLY afraid of is that as our nation changes and they become a minority  the rest of us will treat them the way they and their forefathers treated minorities in the past.  Do they think that they will at some point face judgment in our society?  Do they envision some type of weird trial against them like weighing them down with stones and throwing them in a pond?

By the way they rant and rave it is obvious that they fear something, I just cannot quite figure out what it is.

Has no one  in their world lost a job?  Yet they protest plans that will create new jobs in our nation.

Has no one in their world been denied private health care or cannot afford it?  They do not want the government to get involved in health care but their main concern seems to be a change in Medicare benefits?

Do they enjoy paying high interest rates and mega bank fees?  Can they get a loan or avoid foreclosure in the current economy?  Do they think it is right that some executives make $54,000 dollars per hour while they turn down a working mans home loan?  They must because they oppose regulation.

Sadly, what motivates these people is nothing but fear.  Our nation has gone through several revolutions that have nothing to do with war or religion but with progress.  Agricultural, industrial and computer advancements have changed the face of our nation before.  Now we are facing an economic, social and green revolution.

Those of us who fear change, fear the future and cling to the past are stockpiling guns and ammo in the name of God.  However, you cannot  hold back change.  The nation you claim to love must change in order to prosper and grow.  Guns and war are no longer the answer.  Manifest destiny is no longer a blessing.  Intelligence and progress are what is needed now.

If you love your nation then put your guns where they belong, safely stored in your home.  We do not need them.

If you have faith in your country then keep your God where he belongs, no matter your faith.  In your heart, your home and your church.  Not in your politics or in the streets.

Our people do have guts and grit.  Now is the time to call on them to help build the future.  Bravery comes in many forms and facing your fears is one of those forms.

It is time for us to pull together as one people and move into the future once again.

A classic example of misspelling on a protest sign. Put away your fears and get out your dictionary. It wouldn't hurt to get out the encyclopedia, too.