Lucy and I attended the Cynthia Mitchell Woods Pavilion for the annual 4th of July concert. We took our grandson with us so he could hear the music associated with our national holiday celebrating Independence.
Earlier in the day I played the 1812 Overture for him so he’d recognize it while at the concert; explaining how, in all probability, there would be canons fired to compliment the music. JJ thought that would be neat and put up with the other music as the night wore on. The Houston Symphony did a fine job and the canons were much louder than JJ had anticipated; covering his ears as they blasted away on cue. As an encore, the pavilion’s thankful crowd clapping away; the orchestra played Sousa’s The Stars and Stripes Forever to end the evening’s concert.
A fireworks display followed and we headed home where I immediately put on my favorite version of the 1812 Overture, the one played at the Tchaikovsky 150th Birthday Gala performance. If you’ve never heard this version, and watching the performance is even better as the YouTube video below will convince anyone paying attention; near the end where the music builds, up in the second level alcoves, on both sides of the orchestra, a group of uniformed Russian military band members joins in with the brass section to make for an electrifying conclusion.
My next choice was a CD, Rostropovich Return to Russia , which has, of all things, one of the best versions of The Stars and Stripes forever I’ve ever had the pleasure of listening to.
Does that sound a little odd; a Russian who’d been living in America going home to Russia after having been in exile for daring to stand up to a totalitarian communist regime? It doesn’t end there; Rostropovich was welcomed like a returning war hero. He had, traveling and performing with him, the National Symphony Orchestra from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington rather than some Russian orchestra as the Russian audience stood in excited loud applause to America’s Stars And Stripes Forever, clapping and shouting their enjoyment for several minutes at its conclusion. It’ll raise the hair on your back listening to it!
You might be asking, “Okay, what’s the catch?” Well, you’d need to do a little work with the calendar to appreciate how this all came about. Rostropovich’s performance was given on February 11, 1990; ring any bells for you history buffs?
Ronald Reagan gave his famous, “Berlin Wall” Speech on June 12, 1987, where he asked; no, he demanded:
“Mr. Gorbachev -- Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
The stage had been set for freedom and liberty to triumph over tyranny and totalitarianism all because President Ronald Reagan believed in America’s foundations as he proclaimed to those listening at the Brandenburg Gate:
“Perhaps this gets to the root of the matter, to the most fundamental distinction of all between East and West. The totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship. The totalitarian world finds even symbols of love and of worship an affront.”
Jump ahead to November 9, 1989 and the Berlin Wall came down , much to the amazement of the entire world.
“Over the next few weeks the feeling in the air was electric, as if some great force had been let loose, perhaps the greatest example of positive [collective] human will ever seen, in my mind the opposite of what happened in the summer of 1914 - a real peaceful revolution.” Joseph, Portugal
This should have been the end of my thoughts ( it's almost 2 am now) as I prepare for tomorrow’s pancake breakfast at church followed by an open house at the Mixa’s where barbeque and all manner of festive foods will be served. Included in my jubilation on this our Independence Day, I must include the hidden warning which accompanies such a set of circumstances.
America is embracing a march toward a totalitarian state as our government ignores individual freedoms and liberties, these gifts from God vanishing from view. Each new “crisis” creates an opportunity for the totalitarian force to grab away yet another piece of our foundation.
Our latest version of America, the great “new deal”, as I’ve heard it called, or the “change”, brought about with the election of Obama has little if any regard for individual rights as contained in the Constitution and even less respect for the Declaration of Independence; more specifically, the part which defines the foundations of our society.
“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.”
Many in positions of leadership put up with references to our “ancient documents”; but relegate them to an America of long ago so as to diminish the importance of God, Creator of this great nation, the Author of Liberty and individual rights. It would be so much easier installing a full fledged totalitarian regime if not for unalienable Rights which could only come from God; man being singularly inadequate when it comes to the ability to conjure up “natural rights”.
I’ll run that quote from Ronald Reagan by one more time; placing it before all Americans as a warning, something to ponder given our current path.
“Perhaps this gets to the root of the matter, to the most fundamental distinction of all between East and West. The totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship. The totalitarian world finds even symbols of love and of worship an affront.”
Either our Creator really did bestow individuals with certain “unalienable Rights” or America was founded on lies; there really can be no middle ground. If God did grant individuals Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness then the State must be halted at each turn of the road where it attempts to hinder any individual’s lawful expression of those God given rights. I find it much easier to believe God granted unalienable rights because the competing line of thought is unthinkably dark, that another human being, another man has the strings which control everything for which an individual may or may not do.
The best celebration on the 4th of July will be those moments spent in quiet reflection attempting to understand the miracle which we call the United States of America, a gift from God which provides a beacon on the hill for all the world to see. Let us appreciate that gift as we pass it along to the next generation is my prayer. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
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