Before I start my birthday letter to you, I’d like to quote how I feel, not only of what has been happening, showing hate, disrespect, bigotry and lack of God. Here it is:
“I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good thing, therefore, that I can do of any kindness I can show to any creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” Stephen Grellet.
Monday is my 94th birthday and the birthday of the Stars Spangled Banner, I guess that is why my love of our flag chokes me up when I see it fluttering in the breeze. As I did last year, I would like to present a gift to you. Listen and learn.
Another year of living in these United States has had its ups and downs, and we, as a nation, have taken it on the chin, but this is not what we should be having to face. Never in past years has there been such division. I doubt it has ever raised its ugly head to this level during our times of war or peace.
My memory of the past does not compare with what this past one year has dumped on this nation.
My past has survived several wars and the Great Depression. It wasn’t that the Depression that was great; it was that this was an era in which everyone pulled together as one. World War II, we again pulled together as one. Sept. 11, 2001, the first big catastrophe on our land, and several other wars where we lost many military souls. At all these times, we came together as one.
Are you aware of the story our flag tells us? The red is the valor of those who died for us, the white is for the liberty we take for granted and the blue represents the justice we seek in our courts of law and the stars — our states’ independence. Please don’t burn the flag. Respect it for what it represents.
After each catastrophe we came together as one. We were one nation, under God. We didn’t single out a person or state because of hate, the outcome of an election. We didn’t destroy what was built up by hard working citizens, we didn’t kill one another, not even in the history of these United States of wars did we kill innocent children, burn buildings, topple statues, spray paint not only buildings but individuals supposedly in the name of a group of people named “Antifa,” organizations named “Organizing For Action,” “Open Society Foundation.”
Skin color has never been the cause of dissent. It is these groups, the small-minded hate mongers that have given this nation a mark of division.
Grow up, show you can become the citizen that shows love of country, not a political party, love of fellow man and especially, Love of God.
When you cast your vote, your most sacred act, do it for OUR country, not the political party that wants to change what we, as a nation, represent. Will you show you are a true American citizen of these United States? Keep America, America.
Anita Dwyer
Lompoc
