WHAT WE OWE OUR COUNTRY

SPECIAL POST

While speaking at Liberty University over the weekend, President Trump hit on something that should resonate with all of us.  He spoke about critics... those who sit on the sidelines griping and complaining about what someone else is, or is not, doing.  What immediately strikes me is the old saying about never criticizing someone else until you have walked a mile in their shoes.  

What is wrong with this country today is that we have allowed ourselves to become critics; yet, few of us have had the guts, gumption and temerity to step forward and help to fix things ourselves.  Trump went on to say just that:  Those who gripe and complain seldom know how to get anything done. 


I belong to several community-oriented service organizations.  I can't speak more highly of the Masonic Lodge, the American Legion or being on the Board of Directors of a local park association.  These are like-minded people who get together to help their communities in some tangible way, by giving of relatively minor portions of their time each month.  Over my lifetime, I've been president of an Optimist Club, on the Board of Trustees of a boys home, on an economic development board and a high muckety-muck in the Boy Scouts.  

In short, I've always been involved in my community in some way, no matter where I've lived... Las Vegas, Carson City, Reno, northern California, western Arizona or Washington State.  I've done everything from washing dishes or serving hot dogs to sitting on steering committees.  There was never a whole lot of stuff that I did at any one time, but over the course of my lifetime those contributions have added up to some significant participation in what is going on around me.  

Every one of those activities helped my country, America, in some way.  But, I've also been keenly aware of what is going on in Washington, or Carson City or Sacramento as the case may be.  And I've never hesitated to voice my opinion on matters that are important to me.  

I firmly believe that we have an obligation as Americans to give back, in some small way, to the country that has become the greatest nation in the world and probably the greatest nation in all of history.  We owe it to our country to get off the sidelines, quit criticizing and start helping.  With more of that kind of thinking in the country, just imagine what we could really be as a nation.  

So, get involved.  Do something.  Be an American.  

That's MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.