God Bless America Fond Memories
I shall never forget a long-ago evening in my beloved British Columbia community of Nanaimo, where I spent four of the best years of my life as the first manager of a branch of Canada’s new and exciting young, chartered bank. It was 1971 and a dozen or so of my friends gathered in a private room of the Diner’s Rendezvous Restaurant to say goodbye to an American colleague who was returning home. What a better way to say goodbye than through song. So, we ended our festive evening with a great rendition of “God Bless America”. Now admittedly, we had no “Lee Greenwood’s” or “Kate Smith’s” in our group, but the feeling was there. America in 1971 was not much different than when I first visited in 1949 as a young boy who had won a trip to New York as part of a winning baseball team. There was no fear, and we walked everywhere in the city. Come to think of it, I visited New York in 1980 from my university in Boston and walking around wasn’t much different than in earlier years. Sadly, that was then, and this is now.
America has changed, dramatically so, and the direction it has taken in the past half-century is a frightening sign. Debt has overtaken the nation and particularly over the past quarter-century has run away to a point where each and every American has taken on an obligation too onerous to get out from under. With the exception of those in the Deep State who greedily confiscate more and more of the nations’ wealth, the average American has become a servant in their once magnificent homeland. It reminds me of a line in a kris Kristofferson song, “Freedom is just another word for nothin’ left to lose”. And of course, economic problems and the massive border invasion are leading to America’s downfall. Don’t get me wrong, peoples in the other Anglo-Saxon countries are facing the exact same dilemma and can point to their own weak leadership as the cause.
On November 5th, Americans went to the polls. In that election, the Republicans basically held onto their own slim majority in the House but took control of the Senate. What a great benefit control of both houses of Congress will be for the president elect, Donald Trump, himself the former president from 2016 to 2020. His resounding victory, if he follows through with his many promises, may well lead to a return to the greatness America once knew.
Whether Democrat or Republican, President Trump will need collective prayers that he remains true to his great concern for the nation and that despite some of the negative remarks already evident, he be given the chance, as he so often comments, “to make America great again”. And we at this Association, in realizing he is the target of crazed individuals, fervently pray that the Almighty God protect President Trump and guide him in this greatest challenge of his life.
