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A Perfect Country We’re Not!
By Frank J. Marchion, Canton
In response to J. Gerard Dupre [Don’t Let Them Brainwash You, March 14]: Mr. Dupre, I can assure you that I have not been brainwashed. My opinions and beliefs come from my life experiences, observations, upbringing, and using the mind God gave me, not from being brainwashed. It is easy to take a few phrases out of context and make a case for your own point of view. I suspect that you and I could go around and around for hours on end. And in the end you would still feel the way you do, and I would still feel the way I do.
I readily acknowledge that there is much wrong with our government and society. It would take more room than this paper has to list all our ills and the reasons for them. Having said that, however, I still believe that this is a great country—not a perfect country, but a great country, maybe the best country in recorded history. I believe that, and I believe that the U.S.A. is worth fighting for. Why else would people come from every corner of the world to live in this country? Why would Cubans and Haitians risk their lives to come to our shores on rickety, leaky rafts that are barely able to float? I still get emotional anytime I hear our national anthem played.
We can speak freely and disagree with each other without the threat of having our tongues cut out. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t seen any of my rights trampled on since September 11. I still enjoy the same freedoms now as I did two years ago. Things may be a little more inconvenient, but we are all still free. If we don’t feel free, we are free to leave. No one keeps us in bondage. That is because we have always stood up for our freedom, not run away from the threat.
I too am an Independent. I vote for the man or woman, not for the party. President Bush strikes me as a man of moral character and conviction. He also has the courage of his convictions. I am proud to have a man of faith as my president. To compare him to Hitler, Stalin or Amin is simply cruel and ridiculous. Government is about more than just economics. It’s about doing the right thing, even when it isn’t popular to do the right thing.
Freedom is not free. Freedom does not come from running away from reality. It doesn’t come from sitting idly by. When people do that they get taken over and are subjected to enslavement, misery, and to the will of others. Since the beginning of time freedom has had to be fought for and defended from those who would try to destroy it.
When an individual has cancer, they can’t just hope that it goes away all by itself and do nothing. No, when a person has cancer, they need treatment to get well. When chemotherapy is needed, good cells are killed along with the bad cells. The person’s health must get worse before they can get better. It’s the same with war. In war innocent people get killed, good people. War is messy and hideous. That is the cost of war; some must be lost for the good of the whole country. Again, when we must go to war to defend ourselves, we must. Remember that even Jesus got angry and threw out the money-changers from the temple when He saw a cancer going on inside of it. War isn’t wrong when the cause is a just cause.
Mr. Dupre, I want to thank you for fighting for us in World War II. I thank you for the many sacrifices you must have had to endure. I thank you for defending my freedom and the freedom of every American. I want to thank you for standing up to those who wanted to destroy us and our way of life. I too believe that you are a good and caring person.
We certainly don’t live in a perfect world or a perfect country, but I would not want to live anywhere else on earth. We may not agree about going to war, but that’s OK. I think we will have to wait till we get to heaven to experience a perfect world. I truly hope that we get to meet up there. We could have a nice long talk about the good old days when we lived on earth in that good old, imperfect U.S.A. If you get there first, please save a good seat for me, would you?
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