Land That I Love…

O God, “stand beside her and guide her through the night with the light from above.”  Land that I Love…”Our fathers’ God, to thee, author of liberty, to thee we sing; long may our land be bright with freedom’s holy light; protect us by thy might…”. Land that I Love…”God mend thine every flaw, confirm thy soul in self control, thy liberty in law.”  These words from our  “patriotic” songs have become the focus of my prayers for this Land that I Love.

I was a young man when I watched on “black and white” TV the antics of Bull Connor in Birmingham, Alabama.  He used water hoses and attack dogs to disperse civil rights demonstrators.  I was a young man when in 1965 John Lewis crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. John Lewis was a young man then, too. I watched the Alabama State Police attack and beat those peaceful, non-violent marchers under the guise of “law and order”.  Today, as a “mature” man I will watch John Lewis cross that bridge again.

Also, today, as a “mature” person I will watch (“deja vu”) the antics of the Trump administration in Portland, Oregon and hear again the threats of sending more armed camouflaged militia into other American cities.  

In Egypt, protests are banned and when any protest occurs, the participants are called “terrorists.”  In Turkey, the President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, describes protesters as “terrorists” including journalists, academics and rights activists. In Hong Kong this month, a 23-year-old pro-democracy protester became the first person to be prosecuted under China’s new national security law.  The young protester was charged with inciting secession and terrorist activities.  Donald Trump says he wants to “dominate” our cities and calls all protesters “terrorists.” As a friend often says, “Enough said…”

“Deja vu” occurs “when information by-passes short-term memory and instead reaches long-term memory.”  It seems to me that what is happening now in my later years (though the present happening is unique) happened once upon a time in my youth.

“O say can you see by the dawn’s early light” what we have seen before is what we are seeing now?  

"O say does that star-bangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
It's a big question mark that ends our national anthem.
Have you ever noticed that?