For all that we, as a nation, have, we would have none of it without the Freedom to believe that which we wish to believe. To practice our religion and our faith without persecution and live in peace. America was founded on this, it was settled with this belief, that all should be allowed to practice their faith so long as it did not impinge upon the rights or freedoms of others.
That did not mean that we could banish those who seek the same from our land simply because it is easier and less taxing then performing checks. That is not what our country was founded for. That was not what we have fought for so many times in the past.
If you want to be thankful for the freedoms that you have, then you must also do as those in the past who wanted those same freedoms. You must be willing to let others be free as well.
I am thankful for the freedoms that I have grown up with and the thought that banning them in the name of security is more than just distasteful. It is an attack on what our country was founded on. There should never be a time when it is seen as ‘acceptable’ to disregard the Bill of Rights. You cannot be true to the Constitution and disregard it in the same breath. It doesn’t work like that.
You may call me naïve or foolish, but I believe that these rights were important enough to our country when good people died in order for them to exist in the first place, so we should honor that sacrifice and work to uphold them in their place.
To do anything less would be to spit upon those who have died for this as well as those who have lived and fought for them during their lives.
Maybe one person speaking can be ignored, but if enough stand together then it is harder to ignore until there are enough standing that something must be done.
This is me, probably not the first person to write or say something like this. Hopefully I’m not the first (I don’t know, I don’t have continual access to the internet to really look, everything on my blog is pre-written and then scheduled at least a month in advance), hopefully I’m just another person standing where others already are saying that I am grateful enough for the kind of country I was blessed to grow up in and wanting others to be able to grow up in a place like it too.
I am grateful, and that means that I need to do something with that gratitude else it will fail to grow and become more. Maybe someone else will stand as well, maybe a lot of someones will stand and together we might actually get something done.
This little rant was inspired by the song “There She Stands” by Michael W. Smith.
Check out the original Thankful Thursday. (Will update link when able.)
Breathing In 