Some of us have served many months in foreign countries, so in reflection we can appreciate and “Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserved us a nation,” of which we sing in our national anthem. I recall words I sang as a youngster: “For some must push and some must pull, As we go marching up the hill.”

The old advertising jingle “Everybody doesn’t like something, but nobody doesn’t like Sara Lee,” holds true as we look at each of our countries. The group Up With People sang “inside everybody there’s some bad and there’s some good.” We need to praise the glass being half full instead of criticizing the glass for being half empty.

One of the many I remember speaking from BYU’s Marriott Center encouraged us to even pick up trash in our communities instead of ignoring it as we walk by. Our law enforcement officers ask us “if we see something, say something,” which can apply to many things, not just crime.

Do something now instead of nothing. Vote. Stand and salute. Add a new word to your vocabulary, “Semiquincentennial,” as we celebrate and give thanks for our nation’s 250th anniversary.

Ralph R. Zobell

Orem

Let us defend America and bring hope for generations to come

I have just finished reading Rick Atkinson’s first installment of his American Revolution trilogy, “The British Are Coming.” I found this excerpt especially moving:

On July 9, 1776, His Excellency George Washington, received a thirteen-hundred-word broadside entitled, “A Declaration.” General Washington was at his headquarters in New York. Every soldier in his command was ready to hear what Congress had to say. He instructed the army to assemble at six p.m. on various parade grounds. The order was for each brigade commander to read “with an audible voice,” the proclamation intended to transform a squalid family brawl into a cause as ambitious as any in human history.

That evening the commander in chief himself appeared on horseback at the Common. Erect and somber, Washington rode into the middle of a hollow square formed by New York and Connecticut regiments. A uniformed aide spurred his horse forward; the crowd hushed as he unfolded his script and began to read: “In Congress, July 4, 1776.” Even the most unlettered private recognized that something majestic was in the air.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Although I believed that the American story was familiar to me as I have heard it and read about from my elementary school days on, my time as a member of Utah’s America 250 Commission for the past four years has made it even more real and meaningful. My fellow commissioners and I have been involved in planning activities and shaping opportunities for all Utahns to commemorate the development and signing of this remarkable document and the founding of America. I love the Fourth of July and have read the Declaration and the Constitution frequently. I love to put my hand over my heart.

These past several years I have attended lectures and programs and energetically sought out America 250 lectures and presentations on CPAN and other venues.

And while America is certainly not a perfect union with the stain of many failures and missteps including the tragedy of the Vietnam War of my generation, I still have hope. I vote, I follow my city council, my county commission, my state legislature and the U.S. Congress.

Just last week I was in Washington D.C. and had the opportunity as a “citizen lobbyist” to visit the offices of both of our U.S. Senators and three of our Representatives. I found it stirring, stimulating and inspiring. I don’t know if my colleagues and I did any good advocating for permitting reform in regards to transmission lines, but at least we were accepted. I felt safe and I felt the energy of the U.S. Government. Even at my age, I was in awe as I had my photo taken in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Let’s use this anniversary to renew and recommit. Let’s not check out or give up. I like what President Ronald Reagan once said:

“As long as the American Dream lives, as long as we continue to defend it, American has a future and all mankind has reason to hope.”

Let’s use this 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence to defend America and to give the world and ourselves many reasons to hope for generations to come.

Steve Handy

Layton

Don’t forget the hand of God in America

In view of our 250th Celebration of our nation’s birth, I submit my concern that not enough is being said to give recognition and thanks to God. Even as we, the people, are of many mixed cultures and races, yet still we are the children of one Divine Being who resides and watches over us all. That Being is not Pres. Donald Trump, nor any one man or woman, nor group of men or women.

The great, significant stories of heroism and sacrifice that has led to the creation of this wonderful Republic we belong to have come as God has given strength, wisdom, and inspiration to men and women. The Constitution itself, following a rousing Declaration of Independence, comes from those who were divinely inspired from Heaven above. The Republic derived therefrom is not a pure democracy, and works only as designed, as a republic with representation of the sovereign people of this beautiful land. Studying the lives and words of the pioneers including those who signed these great documents proves without a doubt their reliance on and belief in Jesus Christ our Lord.

While we applaud the great “comeback” of American values of freedom, industry, and exceptionalism, we must not boast, but rather humbly express gratitude to God who has, so much as humankind will allow, guided and inspired. We ought to remember our origins juxtapositioned next to where we are now and make course corrections as needed to maintain our rights, our liberty, and our way as a beacon of light to all the world. I am so grateful to have been born in this Heaven-blessed nation and hereby express my thanks to Jesus Christ, our only Lord and King.

Darrel R Thompson

Ogden