Tuesday, September 12, 2006

God Bless America


And God bless George Bush. I hope everyone caught his speech last night, whether live at 7:00 pm in the Mountain Time Zone or any of the various replays on the cable news. I know its not always popular to like the president, but he is a God-fearing man, and I stand behind him.

I have been thinking recently that a lot of the lack of presidential support has to do with our generation's built-in or learned skepticism which I have written about before. Therefore I don't blame people for their various levels of support for George Bush or any of the other presidents we have had or will have. I however increasinly admire my grandparent's generation, they were truly one of the greatest generations. Whether you argree with the politics of that time period or not, they supported the country, they supported the leaders, they remember WWI and WWII with feelings of honor, patriotism, and duty. In large part many of them firmly believed that God was directing the path of this country, and that He still does. I highly recommend a visit with your grandparents for an idea of really what it used to mean to say you were an American. And I hope our generation, to the extent that we can, can in some measure rekindle that fire for God and country, whether we are democrats, republicans, or somewhere in between. United We Stand.

16 comments:

Joy said...

I love my country, I love the ideals and ideas for which it was founded on, I support the presidency, but I don't support most of the decisions this administration has made in the past four years and I don't believe he's a man of God, but that's not my call to make, only God's. I work for the current administration, their actions and decisions affect my daily work-life. I'm not bitter, I just don't agree with many of their actions.

I honor my grandparents (almost all are deceased) but I don't think comparing the war in Iraq to world war two is accurate or fair.

I don't fault this and the generation before us for their skepticism, Watergate and Vietnam were both a tough scandal and a war to swallow.

Scully said...

I agree with Ruby G. The Administration hasn't proven itself worthy of my unquestioned support. They haven't proven their ability to choose the needs of the nation over their personal agenda. And I don't know anyone alive who was old enough to have an opinion about WWI, but WWII is a completely different situation than Iraq or even Afghanistan. I see it as a political battle, closer to Vietnam, than a moral/ethical battle like WWII. There was a moral imperative that the majority of the nation grasped that I don't see with Iraq.

Unknown said...

I'm not comparing WWII and Iraq, I just mentioned WWI and WWII as the wars of our grandaprent's generation.
I am also not promoting that we all have to agree with everything of our grandparent's generation, but I do deeply admire them for their partiotism. Our situation is different today, and I just wonder if they had attitudes that our generation cannot and will not ever have, becuase life is different now.
And I know we are all going to see politics differently, but I value that because I firmly believe that the divergence of ideas is a very important part of our democratic system.

Unknown said...

We don't have tv right now, not till maybe tomorrow night, but it seems kinda like the same old song and dance, same old speech he's been giving all along.

Panini said...

I thought the speech was okay but I strongly dislike President Bush and not because of "built in skepticism" . . . I just use my little cabeza. I Hate his education policy, cannot stand his foreign policy, and hate hate his environmental policy.

I'm glad he's a religious guy but this administration is doing a real # on schools, the environment, and don't even get me started on Iraq. As a person--he seems nice. Congratulations to him for having a religion--but where's the brain? Just a question.

Love you, Esperanza.

Unknown said...

Well, glad to have riled everyone up anyway! ;) I still like him, and his policies LOL even if you all don't. And its not an uneducated opinion. I'll try to come up with something else controversial soon...racism anyone?
jk, atleast I know panini and I have similar views on that one. LOL.

Panini said...

:-D yes . . . let's do racism

Missy said...

Shucks, missed a good one!

No one shoot me here, but I have a hard time keeping up with politics because everything makes me nod off lately. ;)

I appreciate Bush for his faith and have to trust that he is using the way it is intended. There has got to be a way to unite the people, and be less like the Nephites bickering amongst themselves while the Lamenites are outside huffing and puffing, ready to blow the house down.

Pipe dream, maybe, but what can I say...been trying to be more optomistic.

Scully said...

I don't even see how you can respect a man who claims to be a Christian, but is advocating altering the Geneva convention in order to get heat off himself and his administration for what can only be described as torture. Also, he and his Compassionate Conservatives use moral issues like abortion and gay marriage, not to encourage morality, but to politically polarize the nation during elections. And finally, several of his friends on Capitol Hill, like Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham and other so-called Christians have been caught in lies, fraud, and other illegal acts. These are not the fruits of true followers of Christ. These are people who use the name of believer to get gain.

Missy said...

Oh, don't get me wrong, Scully. I don't agree with alot of the things going on being associated to moral issues. All the things our president in the past 10 years have done, have been for political reasons only.

I guess what I was trying to say is that it could be worse, but atleast I feel like their is some redeaming value in his ability to have to stick to the basics of his professed religion. HE has to save some face.

Unknown said...

I think every single presidency and supporting cabinet has had their scumbags as well as worthy people. I wouldn't exclude anyone from that list, so I don't pin it all on Bush, not condoning it either, but Nixon....Ford... Clinton....Kennedy...Jackson...all of them, torture, scandal, even Regan years had the whole south american tourting scandal thing going, so I think personally that Bush's administration is a mostly good one and that is one of the reasons why I support it.

Missy said...

Exactly Esperanza!

Joy said...

ya know, each administration since wwii has had their scandals. Some minor, some major. I wonder if its even historically accurate to compare patriotism now with patriotism during wwii because none of the scandals you listed before had happened yet. I think patriotism now, and love for country is different now...partly because of the current events that has transpired since then. Americans still love their country, but it might be a more of a eyes wide open love, but that doesn't mean its any less than wwii. Just different.


That being said. If an accountable adult breaks the law and everyone else broke the law...that doesn't excuse his/her actions any less. Just because everyone else has done it, that still doesn't make it right.

Unknown said...

I really really like that idea of an eyes wide open love. That's awesome.
I do think there were scandals pre WWII though. What about Jefferson's slave lover or Jackson during the whole Joseph Smith thing or...well, Andrew Jackson in general with his giving of favors.

Joy said...

Yeah, there's been govt scandals pre wwii...but think about the growth of the media in the past 40 years. During wwii there wasn't even television. Radio has been around less than a hundred years. There's always been newspapers, but to people in remote areas, they didn't get the news as fast.

Never in the history of the US have we been so plugged into the media as we have been in the past 40 years...There's been government scandals before wwii, look how corrupt govt was in the 1880's etc, but it didn't affect the nation's pysche to the point it has in the last 40 years because the dissemination of information paled to where it is now.

Sure, during wwii for example, there were articles daily about the war...but the feeling you get about reading newspaper articles is different than seeing footage of war happening earlier that day or the day before, and hearing the names of the soldiers killed on television.

Sure, you read about the scandals in washington, but there's a bit of disconnect that exists when you read a newspaper article that you don't get when you watch the watergate congressional hearings on television.

Unknown said...

Its true. I agree. Has anyone (other than Panini) read "The Gulf War Did Not Take Place." by Jean Baudrillard? Or another good media/politics is Manufacturing Consent, by Chompsky?