What Happened to America's Fighting Spirit?

First, Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, or Happy Holidays!

A few weeks ago, I watched a documentary on the Revolutionary War. History doesn't usually hold my attention, so I was honestly surprised by how interesting it was. My favorite part was about Baron von Steuben. The Prussian man served as a general of the American army. The documentary said he wrote about the differences in armies he had worked with in Europe versus Americans. In Europe, von Steuben could give an order and the men immediately obeyed. In America, he gave an order and the soldiers ask "why?" A good reason had to be given before they obeyed.

I smiled knowingly when I heard this. We're the same today, I thought, we still have to be told "why" because we don't just blindly do what we're told. But is that really the case today? It seems to only be true with some things. If an American parent tells their child to clean their room or make their bed, the common response is "why?" or "Do I HAVE to?" Yet gas prices continue to rise, healthcare costs rise, and more people are developing cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. We may not like it, but we accept it rather than asking "why."

What happened to that fighting spirit of the colonists who came to America for a better life? It's hard to have a better life when we're all sick and the economy is floundering (which will only be worsened by another rise in gas prices).

That will of fighting for rights shows up every now and then. Who can forget Martin Luther King and the fight against segregation? There was also the Newsboys Strike of 1899 when 5,000 boys, most under age 14, led a successful 2-week strike against a couple of newspapers in New York because of the increase in paper prices. More recently, the movie of Erin Brockovich made her a household name and unveiled her tireless investigation into the poisoning of the groundwater in Hinkley, California by Pacific Gas & Electric. The utility giant was forced to pay an overwhelming $333 million to Hinkley residents.

As good as it may sound, we can't just dress as Indians and toss things into the water with another Boston Tea Party. And we can't storm Washington with bayonets. This is a fight unlike any America has faced because it's not against a specific company or focused on a specific group of people. It involves and affects everyone.

Say it's a conspiracy. Call it greed. Name it whatever you want. The fact is our government is not able to help us in the ways that we most need. The groups with the money are the ones who influence the government, and those groups are the ones most able to harm us. We are going to have to stop relying on the government to fix the problems of America and take responsibility for allowing it to go this far. This country was built for the People, by the People, and it will be these same People who will have to make the changes. You with me?

There's a song called Seize the Day with lyrics approrpriate for this day:

Open the gates and seize the day. Don't be afraid and don't delay.

Nothing can break us, no one can make us give our rights away.

Arise and seize the day.

Just a note on rights being taken away: The FDA has already written that we as Americans have "no generalized right to bodily and physical health" and have no "funadamental right" to choose the food we consume. These particular statements were in regards to a lawsuit over the ban of raw milk, but can you imagine how far the FDA can go if our right to health and to choose our food are fully taken away?