July 4, 2022
What Is This America of Ours?
By J.B. Shurk
What is one thing all around us that few see? Our history. Every street name, neighborhood plat, and winding trail is steeped with choices from the past whose meanings time has rendered invisible. Our towns and cities are carved with roads named after prominent historical figures now forgotten. Our hills, parks, and cemeteries honor many now unknown. It is a peculiar fact of life that we at once stand on the shoulders of our ancestors and often don't look down to honor those whose choices lift us up.
G.K. Chesterton once remarked: "Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about." A modern Democrat might not take much from that wisdom other than the idea that more votes from dead Americans should be included in the next election. For American conservatives, however, Chesterton's words are a welcome reminder never to take for granted what may have been won at dear cost in the not-so-distant past.
It is also true that, whereas a conservative in Britain may have a vested interest in protecting the traditions and institutions of aristocracy and monarchy, a conservative in America has a vested interest in the town hall, free speech, limited government, private property, and expansive personal liberty. When we look back at the figures from our past whose names still linger on our maps, freedom-minded Americans know that heroes came before us to remake the world these last two and a half centuries. With blood and courage and perseverance, America's ancestors sank deep into the rock of the new world a flag of stars and stripes attesting to their commitment to advance human liberty and promising their lives in the bargain for its preservation. What is this America of ours? It is a place soaked in the sacrifice of those yearning to be free.
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https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/07/what_is_this_america_of_ours.html
