Spirit of Rebellion

The War of Independence was an unfair matchup. England, population 6.4 million, versus The Colonies, about 2.5 million farmers and colonists. No Las Vegas bookie would have taken that bet. But God did.

There’s a rebellious streak in youth. It’s a natural tendency. They’re born to despise authority, to abhor rules, to kick back at every provocation that seeks to restrict their sense of freedom. If you don’t believe this, adopt a teenager.

The young are revolutionists, seditionists. Innovation is their magic carpet. They detest normalcy. Their minds have not yet crossed the threshold of Concession or Impossibility. Things are black or white, no gray. It’s blood and guts, not cookies and tea.

Youth has something to prove, and they’re restless until they do. They’re impervious to danger, eat it like nail soup. They spit in the face of death and dare it to complain. Change is a quick snack they have for breakfast.

Old men don’t dig trenches. They don’t wage wars in the dust, the heat, the cold, the mud and the blood. It’s viewed at safe distances with smarmy handlers, catered meals and corporate sponsors. Their empty platitudes are masks of insincerity at the gravesites of patriotism.

Strategy and political maneuvering are their amusements. Their spirit of conflict is overcome by their pacifistic urge to compromise with status quo. They conduct closed-door conferences and schemes of international intrigue. The globe is their chess board. Youth are their pawns. Don’t rock their boats.

Is America becoming soft by compromise, anesthetized by wealth, obese by inaction? Is it content with the noose of unearned entitlements? Or acquiesce of personal independence squeezed out by a greedy central government? Is it happy with the constraints imposed by a bloated bureaucracy? Where’s the spirit of rebellion today? Where are the protesters?

America was conceived as a nation of rebels. Like youth itself, it was a wild, unexplored country, full of promise, privation and possibility. Its future was unknown, untapped and untried.

The bones of its skeleton are nationalistic, its flesh the principal of charity, its breath the soul of freedom. God spoke the words once again unto its chaos, “Son of man, can these bones live?” They did, and in 1776 America was born. It has remained a mighty nation for 238 years.

America thrives on a cult of perpetual youth. The quest for the Fountain of Youth ended in 1513 in what’s now St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest city in America. Ponce de Leon had a vision, but it was 263 years early. Today the spirit of that vision is alive and well.

America’s is not planted in concrete. It’s sleepless, ever inventive, always transformative. It runs, not walks. Enough is never enough. Perfection is just another milestone to something better. The culture of constant rebirth boils in the national spirit. Caste finds no home here.

How is this possible? America’s freedom was not born of a religious fanaticism. Nor by slick, sugar-coated words of doctrine that rolled off the tongues of politicians. Freedom comes at the expense of blood, not vowels. The blood of Colonial Patriots still cries from the earth, “Remember, remember, remember!” This is what we celebrate on Independence Day.

America was a dream. Dreams are ephemeral. They vanish easily at daylight. Dreams need nurture. The visions are gifts that need to be stirred up regularly. Like the grit of discontent, it impels us to action.

Tomorrow we will again celebrate Independence Day with parades and egalitarian events nationwide. We will for a day reignite the Spirit of Freedom that thrives in our nation. We will eat 150 million hot dogs and the words ‘lily-livered’ and ‘yellow belly’ will not be uttered.

Overhead fireworks will burst everywhere. Like the bursts of muskets and cannons, may each one remind us of the sacrifices that were made by the Patriots.

America’s future of freedom will continue to be earned by the sacrifice of patriots who possess faith in the heart, freedom in the soul and fire in the belly. May our Spirit of Rebellion always remain alive, ready, willing and able.

Bud Hearn
July 3, 2014