I’m sitting here at my dining room table, looking out over my beautiful snow-covered front yard and a baby blue sky with puffy white clouds and a warm sun. Standing sentry in God’s majesty is my American flag. It is a symbol of the sacrifices made by my husband and my grandsons and as a tribute to America’s moral principles of right and wrong. Sadly, in recent days, it also appears to be a symbol of where wrong is considered to be the right path.
It has become more apparent to me that being told not to talk about politics among your family, friends, neighbors, and community really means becoming apathetic about what is going on in America today. It means being told you are to vote the party line, or you will be ostracized as an enemy of the sitting president. It means you may keep your job as long as you say nothing negative about the same person. It means the democratic right of voting is no longer my conscientious right to contribute to America’s progress or lack thereof. It means the rights of the group in power are more important than my rights. It means, that for the first time in my sixty-seven years, I feel threatened by the insidious serpent of fear in regards to the safety of our nation and myself.
If the voices of one group of people cancel out the voice of one courageous man, standing on his belief in God and in the midst of the darkness of the Senate, then this is not the democratic America I know and love. We have become apathetic to the moral principles of right and wrong that this country was based on, and I, for one voice, am not apathetic. Whether our Congress acknowledges the affect our present political environment is having on our children or not, one fact is very clear. Our children are learning how not to be civilized, how to inappropriately handle their problems, and how their futures are being destroyed by a few “power-hungry people.”
It is time for those of us who listened to the adage, “Don’t talk about politics; let that up to the politicians,” to stand up and take back our right to speak as one voice, one light, one courageous man. I’m worried about where America is being led and how our moral values are declining here and abroad. The divisiveness of our country is eroding away everything we have held close to our hearts since the birth of our nation. When I see another flag-draped coffin, I cry for those family members who have to live without the love of that courageous service person. I’m beginning to say, “Was their death worth what is going on in our country?”
I pray that God will fill the hearts and minds of our Congress men and women with His spirit of love and forgiveness. I pray that He will give them the wisdom and the courage of heart and mind to pursue the right path for our beloved nation. I pray that He will help us break the chains of apathy that have taken hold of so many people and make us, once more, to be worthy of those who have fought so valiantly for us now and in the past. I pray every American will enter the voter’s booth on November 3rd and loudly say, “You cannot corrupt my soul because Christ lives in my heart.” I pray that every American, regardless of what he or she may call Him, will once again put their trust in God, the Almighty Counselor. Only through Him will our nation be delivered out of the present unrest and into the light of His love.
In the immortal words of “Amazing Grace,” born from the horrors of slavery, “I was blind but now I see.” For the one courageous man who let us know that right does matter, I say, “Well done, thy good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:23)
Anna Hartt
