This I Believe by Robert A. Heinlein
"I am not going to talk about religious
beliefs but about matters so obvious that it has gone out of style to mention
them. I believe in my neighbors. I know their faults, and I know that their
virtues far outweigh their faults.
"Take Father Michael down our road a
piece. I'm not of his creed, but I know that goodness and charity and
lovingkindness shine in his daily actions. I believe in Father Mike. If I'm in
trouble, I'll go to him."
"My next-door neighbor is a veterinary
doctor. Doc will get out of bed after a hard day to help a stray cat. No
fee--no prospect of a fee--I believe in Doc.
"I believe in my townspeople. You can
know on any door in our town saying, 'I'm hungry,' and you will be fed. Our
town is no exception. I've found the same ready charity everywhere. But for the
one who says, 'To heck with you - I got mine,' there are a hundred, a thousand
who will say, "Sure, pal, sitdown."
"I know that despite all warnings
against hitchhikers I can step up to the highway, thumb for a ride and in a few
minutes a car or a truck will stop and someone will say, 'Climb in Mac - how
far you going?'
"I believe in my fellow citizens. Our
headlines are splashed with crime yet for every criminal there are 10,000
honest, decent, kindly men. If it were not so, no child would live to grow up.
Business could not go on from day to day.
Decency is not news. It is buried in the
obituaries, but is a force stronger than crime. I believe in the patient gallentry
of nurses and the tedious sacrifices of teachers. I believe in the unseen and
unending fight against
desperate
odds that goes on quietly in almost every home in the land.
"I believe in the honest craft of
workmen. Take a look around you. There never were enough bosses to check up on
all that work. From Independence Hall to the Grand Coulee Dam, these things
were built level and square by craftsmen who were honest in their bones.
"I believe that almost all politicians
are honest. there are hundreds of politicians, low paid or not paid at all, doing
their level best without thanks or glory to make our system work. If this were
not true we would never have gotten
past the 13 colonies.
"I believe in Rodger Young. You and I
are free today because of endless unnamed heroes from Valley Forge to the Yalu
River. I believe in -- I am proud to belong to -- the United States. Despite
shortcomings from lynchings to bad faith in high places, our nation has had the
most decent and kindly internal practices and foreign policies to be found
anywhere in history.
[Rodger Wilton Young (April 28, 1918 – July 31, 1943) was an Americaninfantryman in the U.S. Army during World War II. He was killed on the island of New Georgia while helping his platoon withdraw under enemy fire. For his actions, he
posthumously received the United States' highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor.]
"And finally, I believe in my whole
race. Yellow, white, black, red, brown. In the honesty, courage, intelligence, durability,
and goodness of the overwhelming majority of my brothers and sisters everywhere
on this planet. I am proud to
be a human being. I believe that we have come this far by the skin of our
teeth. That we always make it just by the skin of our teeth, but that we will
always make it. Survive. Endure. I believe that this hairless embryo with the
aching, oversize brain case and the opposable thumb, this animal barely up from
the apes will endure. Will endure longer than his home planet -- will spread
out to the stars and beyond, carrying with him his honesty and his insatiable
curiosity, his unlimited courage and his noble essential decency.
"This I believe with all my heart."
Robert A. Heinlein wrote this item in 1952.
His wife, Virginia Heinlein, chose to read it when she accepted NASA's Distinguished
Public Service Medal on October 6, 1988, on the Grand Master's behalf (it was a
posthumous award). Mrs. Heinlein received a standing ovation.
And let me add; This I Believe:
That Americans are truly the cream of the crop. As stated above, humans have a natural gift for charity, compassion and self-sacrifice, but Americans seem to be the ones keeping the flame of humanity alive.
The new is full of it. Disasters happen, and who is the first to arrive from outside the immediate neighborhood?
Americans, private citizens on their own dime or with some established private charity. Not FEMA, not the U.S. guvmint. (At least not until the political value of such a move is analyzed, charted, vetted, denied, negated and kicked upstairs to the bosses for a decision. See Katrina, FEMA's performance in.)
Americans, giving up their own time, money and risking their safety to help others all around the world who might be in need.
Yes, we might have our own troubles here at home, crime, unemployment, homelessness, but these are temporary for the most part. Especially now that more and more Americans are starting to realize that the source of most of our problems is our government and the ivory tower approach to real world problems that just keep digging the hole deeper and deeper.
Americans, of all races and former nationalities, are without a doubt, the most splendid example of humanity, generally speaking, on the planet.
95% of them are honest, hardworking individuals who care about their families, their commuities, their country (whether native or adoptive), and all they want from life is the chance to live their lives, pursue their own brand of happiness and to do both in the brand of Liberty our national forefathers designed.
The freedom to worship in the church of their choice, or not.
The freedom from oppression by a tyrannical bureaucracy operating without regard to the will of The People.
The freedom to keep their children from being sacrificed far from home for political ends they do not agree with.
The freedom to conduct business in an honest, orderly manner without a gestapo-like ex-government organization disrupting, destroying, and disemboweling their business and their family in search of a few more dollars to throw into the hungry maw of a deficit totally out of control.
Freedom from harassment of any kind was the goal of our forefathers when they organized this little operation in the way back when. A republic where each citizen was sovereign, endowed with certain inalienable rights, which no one person, no organization, and no group of people could take away from
them .
More later... Rx
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