Land That I Love

This is a land where it is alright to love Country Music.  Charlie Daniels, for example, has a huge following, probably larger than PBS, which turned him and his song down for their 4th of July Washington gala.  I am more of a Willie Nelson fan and a Johnny Cash fan, but that is neither here nor there. PBS turned down Charlie, so I am exercising one of my freedoms, one of my inalienable rights granted me by my Creator.  Neither our forefathers, nor our Constitution, nor our Declaration of Independence have granted me this right, the right of free expression—they merely guaranteed protection of a  right I already had, for which I am profoundly and humbly thankful.

I have a problem with the cultural elite, be they PBS, NPR or Beltway bombasts.  Here we are in this glorious country, under God's own grant of rights, as equal as mud, as common as dirt, synergized by our Creator into an awesome edifice of liberty.  And yet the elite have a vision, though they never give name to it, of a society of sheep for which they are the solely qualified shepherds, the munificent lawgivers, the only allowable arbiters of taste.

They reject all taint of religion, which they deem for children, idiots and morons of the lower classes.  They would have us rise above being American, to become members of a world community being guided to utopian splendor by the firm guidance of their knowing hands.

History, and indeed all truth known and unknown, is malleable to them; its only use to further their highly justifiable ends.  All means that can be used without fear of backlash, being politically incorrect or legal reprisal are suitable because the goal is so lofty.

I say a pox on them and their ilk!  I know of no plateau I would seek this side of Heaven more noble than being American. I am satisfied beyond doubt and equivocation that this is the greatest country on Earth. And if Charlie Daniels wants to sing of this country out of a love and patriotism for it, then I will give him ear! 

© Phil Hodgkins, 2002

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