So...What Do You See...?

So… What Do You See…?

By John W. Vander Velden

 

So, what do you see when you look at the flag.  What are your thoughts today or when you hear the National Anthem.  Each of us carry our own ideas, see values from a perspective we share with no other.  The Stars and Stripes speak to me of all that have stood before.  Imperfect men and women reaching toward a perfect dream.  I tear at the words of the "Star Spangled Banner", remembering my parents, living in an occupied land.  They gave up nearly all they had to come to this country.  A land that adopted them in search of a dream.  A land that gave opportunity, a place they filled those dreams.  Did those successes come easy?  No.  Did their rise on sucess' ladder come quickly? Again the answer is no.   Nearly forty years of struggle and sacrifice.  Nearly forty years of heartbreak and disappointment.  Time and again they stood at the brink of losing it all, but they believed in the possibility...they believed in the country that had taken them in...they believed in the national dream.

So, what do you see, when “Old Glory” flies above?  What does its stripes and stars mean to you?  Can you see the millions of faces of every color that stand side by side?  Unique individuals that share a common thread…for they are Americans.  What do you feel when you hear “The Star Spangled Banner”?  Surely you have not forgotten the countless that have bled and died for our freedoms.  All that placed their everything upon the table for a dream they understood. 

Too easy we point our finger at our counties failures.  Too easy we dwell on long festering mistakes.  Our land is not perfect, for it remains filled with flawed people.  The time has come to look forward.  To work together, shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand, in order to achieve the dreams yearned for by so many for so long...the dreams yet unfulfilled. 

So, what do you see?  I see possibilities!!!

 

(332 Words)                6-29-2015