Go AMERICA!

Tomorrow is the Fourth of July and I am psyched.  I mean literally. I love this holiday so, so much! I mean, yes, the BBQs and family and beach and fireworks are awesome.  Hanging out with my family is my favorite thing ever.  But that’s not why I love this holiday.  I love the Fourth of July because I LOVE my county.  I am so proud of being an American, I can’t even express it.  You’ll notice that’s a common theme in my blogs.  Let’s remember that I started this blog because of my trip to Ireland, but don’t let that fool you.  Ireland was awesome, but America is my home, my heart, my county.  It’s true, I’m not fond of everything this county does or of all of its values; however, I still couldn’t be prouder of where I’m from.  I refer you to both my post from the last July 4th (Oh Say Can You See?) or a couple of my posts from Ireland, the first where I taught America to my Middle Students (2nd Paragraph from Where HAS the time gone?!) or when I saw the bodies in St. Michan’s Church Crypt of the Irish Rebels (last 2 paragraphs from Here at the end of all things).  Heck, just click on the tag “America” on the main page of my blog and read all of the ones I’ve posted under that name.  I love my country.

I have noticed that going overseas has one of two effects on the average person.  In general, both sets of people will acknowledge the separate cultures they visit and create an appreciate and respect for them.  The first sort of people will leave their heart overseas, converting their loyalty to where ever it is that they visit.  This bothers me.  Yes appreciate, yes respect, yes love, but remember your roots.  I don’t ask that immigrants to this country forget where they are from.  I except that a person who moves here from Ireland will become American, but also keep their connection to their home country.  There are exceptions to this that I’m just not going to get into right now, because this is not a political blog, so we’ll leave that aside for later.  The second kind of effect overseas travel will have is when a person goes to another country and falls in love with the culture they find there, but they come home with a greater love for their own nation.

That is what happened to me.  I’ve always loved being an American, but now I am downright exuberant of it.  I love my God and my country.  I even love North Carolina more than I did before (which is saying something as I have always loved my state).

However, it wasn’t just overseas travel that increased my love for America.  Teaching has done that to me as well.  It was one thing to study American history as a student and appreciate it, but another thing altogether to impart this knowledge and information to children and teens.  Suddenly, I’m drawing conclusions and making connections and explaining their importance.  It makes me so excited to be able to say, “Look at this! Look what our Founding Fathers did! It was unprecedented, unimaginable, and nearly impossible–but they did it.”  I even now more appreciate the story of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (which by the way, today is the anniversary of the last day of that battle).  Before Lincoln gave that short little speech people would refer to the United State as a plural and say things like “The United States are a democracy.” Afterwards, whether because of that speech or because of the war in general, people referred to the country as a singular, such as, “The United States is a democracy.”  Also, think about our pledge of allegiance: “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands ONE nation UNDER God, INDIVISIBLE with Liberty and Justice for all.” Have you ever thought about why Indivisible is in the pledge? It seems an odd word thrown in there.  It’s because of the Civil War.  I am a Southerner, and I am proud of that too, but the Civil War almost destroyed what the Revolutionary war built.  Afterwards, we realized that we are a people Indivisible.  We are United under our God and our government to stand strong together.  Amen.

I want to end this blog by expressing again the importance of what happened during the American Revolution. Can you imagine what the Founding Fathers felt when they voted on and signed the Declaration of Independence.  Had they failed in their intent, and by all accounts they should have, they had just knowingly and willingly committed an act of treason to the crown.  They had signed their own death warrant.  THINK ABOUT IT!! The Declaration of Independence could have been the Death Warrant of the 56 men who penned their names to it.  For many of them, it was.  Doesn’t that give new meaning to what they did? Doesn’t that hit it home? It is sobering.  I know that I am sobered by it.  And yet, they had confidence in it.  So strong was the confidence of my personal favorite Father, John Adams, that he wrote back to his wife Abigail on July 3, 1776 of the events of July 2 (the day we should actually celebrate the Independence Day, as that was the day the Declaration was adopted) of a great celebration that would continue in this country for the rest of history.  I am posting it hear for you to read carefully.  Read between his lines.  He is thrilled, but also afraid.  He is confident, but also realistic.  But his forethought is incredible.  He knows he is right, and he knows what he had just done.

The Delay of this Declaration to this Time, has many great Advantages attending it. The Hopes of Reconciliation, which were fondly entertained by Multitudes of honest and well meaning tho weak and mistaken People, have been gradually and at last totally extinguished. Time has been given for the whole People, maturely to consider the great Question of Independence and to ripen their Judgments, dissipate their Fears, and allure their Hopes, by discussing it in News Papers and Pamphletts, by debating it, in Assemblies, Conventions, Committees of Safety and Inspection, in town and County Meetings, as well as in private Conversations, so that the whole People in every Colony of the 13, have now adopted it, as their own Act. This will cement the Union, and avoid those Heats, and perhaps Convulsions which might have been occasioned, by such a Declaration Six Months ago.But the Day is past. The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfire and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

You will think me transported with Enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil, and Blood, and Treasure that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet, through all the Gloom, I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means, and that Posterity will triumph in that Day’s Transaction, even though We should not rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.

God Bless America.

Interestingly, this painting is inaccurate and a scene such as this never took place, however, what a great representation of what it means to be American

Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson refining the Declaration

 

it’s seems to be darkest just after TWILIGHT

Ok so I just finished reading the “Twilight Saga” today because I was curious and I wanted to see what all the hype was about.  Here’s my “expert” anyalsis of the series as a whole

Alright, first of all I want to say that the series, as a whole, was not bad.  I was always hooked enough into the books to want to keep reading them and I always was curious as to what happened next.  They were good books, I will give Stephenie Meyer that.  I did, for the most part, enjoy them. 

HOWEVER, I did have some qualms with the books, vampire story aside (because I’m going to be honest, I’m not always a fan of the vampire novel, not an Anne Rice fan for instance, but I do enjoy some vampire stories such as The Historian  or the classic Dracula, in addition to other various vampire books I have read in my life, but I digress…) My biggest issue was the maturity level of the books, YES, I realize that they are Young Adult Fiction and they are not supposed to be completely mature, YES, I realize that they are written for a younger audience (actually, this was not the original intent by Mrs Meyer according to her website, who wrote the first book for herself without a specific audience in mind, but for the sake of argument here and as they are placed as Young Adult Fiction, we’ll go with that) but still, the characters bugged me so much! Almost every single character in the books were shallow, without any real depth or reason behind them.  Bella’s sole purpose in life was about Edward.  There was never, not a single moment, in the books where I understood the Bella-Edward relationship.  There was physical attraction, yes, but otherwise I saw no common ground, nothing to link the two characters romantically, espcially in a “deep, true love” way that I believe Mrs. Meyer was intending to portray.  I rather saw the relationship as extremely unhealthy.  Bella, until the last book when (if you haven’t read the last book, you might should stop now, I am about to post a spoiler) her daughter was born, cared for nothing and no one else except for Edward.  Yes, she did care for her family and Jacob, but not so much that she would not give up every one of them for Edward. It was an obession with her, simple as that, very teenage. This is not the kind of lesson I would want to be teaching Young Adult Girls about love – it makes for a very shallow realtionship.  In fact, as I read the books, I could understand more fully the relationship between Jacob and Bella.  (Ok, let me just rant here a brief second, but the Jacob character was actually my favorite in the novels.  I know that a lot of the fandom gives this character a hard time for being immature or selfish or whatever, but I also felt that he was the most entertianing and the most complex character in the books.  Stephenie Meyer gave me, I feel, a lot more reason to like this character and I had much more reason to pity this character over any of the others.  I think that he was well written and came off spectacularly, and I’m not sure that he wasn’t the main reason I kept reading the books because I was dying to know what happened to him, ANYWAY…) Jacob and Bella spent time together, got to know each other, were comfortable in each other’s pressence, whereas Bella did not see herself as deserving of Edward, as though he were too good for her.  How can a healthy relationship form, when you always believe that you must be better for the person you love, or that there is nothing you can do to deserve that person.  In a sense, maybe Bella didn’t deserve Edward because of that (although to be honest, he didn’t seem like that great of a catch to me anyway).  Also, while there was a sense of physical attraction between Jacob and Bella, it was not what dominated the relationship.  And, as strongly as Jacob had claimed to feel for Bella, I never saw it as the same obession that Bella had for Edward.  They just were comfortable, they fit. They were more healthy.

If I were writting these novels, I would certianly had ended things differently.  I would try to show my audience that real love is based on more than a shallow, unexpainable attraction.  That real love doesn’t necessarily mean sacrificing yourself and those around you just to be with that one person – you should remember the love you have for your friends and family as well.  There are comprises that can be made and sometimes there are sacrifices that should be made, but never in a way that I feel it was done in these books.  It was a selfish “love”.  There is no doubt that Twilight has a large fan base and a following, but I really don’t feel like this is a good thing, NOT BECAUSE THEY ARE VAMPIRE BOOKS, please do not mistake me on that, I had no problem with the vampire aspect of the book in essence, but it was the way the book played out because of the vampire aspect that I took issue with. I feel that these were inmmature books that should not be given to an immature audience, at least not without guidance. Sometimes, the Young Adult mind has trouble decerning for themselves.

Please do not mistake me.  As I said before, I did enjoy the books, they were good – for a one time read.  I will never read them again, more than likely.  I’ve heard them often compared to the Harry Potter books as the “next big thing” but I really see no comparison.  For one, the HP have lessons I would be more willing to share with the younger generations, and while they were not always mature at times, it was an age appropriate immaturity for the characters.  They are books I will (and have already) read many times over.  

This really has just been my 2 cents.  You don’t have to agree with me, but I do ask that you at least consider where I am coming from.  I’m in college to become a high school teacher, and I care about and worry about the next generations.  In the world we live in today, teens are not given a clear picture of right and wrong because in our objective society, many feel that they are gray areas, but I don’t believe that.  There IS morality and there IS right and wrong and we need to teach our children this.  The Twilight books were one large gray area.  The only real time we got a “right or wrong” was in the decision of the main characters not to drink the blood of man, but animals, and of course murder is wrong, but I feel like the books blurred the lines of morality in many other places.  I ask that you please use caution when reading the Twilight books.  They are good stories but please learn how to categorize story and reality, and don’t take all of the “lessons” from the book to heart.  Use the brain you were given to think for yourself, don’t follow the herd of sheep just because you can.