Even though our 250th anniversary is coming up here in America, the idea for the song below is several years old. I only recently got around to finishing it.
There’s a lot of political, religious, and ideological unrest in this country.
Deep convictions.
I have my own brand of them, too,
I’m not here to speak on that. What I am here to say is this: no matter what you believe, the man in this song, like your neighbours, relatives, and people you know today, made it possible for you to live as you do.
That includes those who feel it necessary to desecrate or destroy the very symbol they carried to provide you the freedom you enjoy right now…
Our flag.
Think about that a minute or two.
Those who laid down their life so we could make it 250 years… Did they share your ideals? Or maybe they didn’t.
They didn’t ask you before they put on the uniform and did their job. They respected you as a free human being.
Also consider this:
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
That’s a quote often mistakenly attributed to Voltaire, but it’s profound just the same.
Some continue to make that same defense non-verbally, from a coffin six feet under.
Let’s honour that by treating each other with the same respect they gave you with their life.
No, that’s not me singing in this one.