Today, August 29th, was the funeral for Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts.  I don’t need to recap any of the history, both good (what little there may be, from a public standpoint) and the bad.

The overriding feeling that I have is sadness.  Here was a man who had a lot of what this world has to offer.  He had money.  He had a famous family.  He had political power.  He was able to frequently get out of trouble for which most “regular” people would spend time in jail, or at least see a great reduction in power and influence.  But he was able to maintain all of the things that so many people desire.

Now he is dead.  What did the power, money, and influence get him, beyond a few extra months of life, such as it may have been?  He is just as dead as anyone else.  His eternal destiny is sealed.  I know he claimed to be a Catholic, but his lifestyle denied much of even the most liberal of his church’s teachings.  I do not and can not know anyone’s heart or spiritual condition but my own.  I suspect that his eternity will not be a pleasant one.  One can hope that there was some time, some place, some how that he actually trusted Christ rather than himself, his name,  his money, his power, or his church.  We will know someday.  He knows now.

He could have been such an influence for good.  He could have promoted restrained government.  He could have used his money for actually helping those in need, rather than taking from others (the US taxpayers) and forwarding it to those who did not earn or deserve it.  He could have used his name for something larger than himself, like his sister did with the Special Olympics.  But he did not.

I guess those with conservative principles can be the saddest at the loss of such a great opportunity, not just in the instant of his death, but in the last 47 years of his political service, or even the longer period of his life.

Was the course of his life the best one?  Only he can tell us that now, and he is beyond reach.

In our National Anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner”, the last 2 lines of each stanza contain a common wording.  The 1st, most familiar verse asks the question:

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

Oe’r the land of the free and the home of the brave?

We can now answer that question.  The answer is:

“Well . . .”

See, that flag still waves proudly over this country.  Thousands of our best men and women have courageously and honorably served in uniform underneath that flag.  That flag waves as the symbol of America, the land of dreams, opportunity, plenty, and industry.

But can we honestly say that it is now “the land of the free and the home of the brave”?

I don’t think so.

We have a political sickness in power at the present time that is dedicated to the proposition that all men are NOT created equal, that some men are naturally endowed with greater rights than others based on their skin color, ancestry, or political affiliations, and that those rights are granted totally by an all-powerful, all-”caring”, all-controlling government which has the power to give or take away any rights, liberties, or rewards that it deems fit.

No, we are not the “land of the free” any more.  We are a land of slavery.  We are becoming slaves to the political masters who believe that no one has any innate ability or talent other than what is decreed by them in the governmental wisdom.  All property, capital, goods, services, and even persons belong to the state, and the state is the only entity with rights to do anything with them.  We are chattel, serfs, bondsmen, peasants, or whatever may be the most descriptive historical term for “poor dumb slobs”.

“Land of the brave”?  In some cases, yes.  Again I point to the soldiers who are currently serving on battlefields against a ferocious foe that is more than willing to die for its ideology.  These brave soldiers find themselves pawns in a political struggle that has the potential of making Vietnam look like a riot in a kindergarten.  But they are still brave, and they are worthy of our honor and praise.

But for the rest of Americans back in the states?  Most are whiners, greedily begging at the government faucet with their hands extended almost as far as their bellies.  “No pain, no hardship, no responsibility, no duty, just GIVE ME WHAT I DESERVE!”  They don’t have a clue that they deserve what they earn.  Of course, the current power grabbers want it that way, since they feel that what is earned by all is theirs to distribute “fairly” to themselves and their supporters.  A lifetime of hard work is wrenched from the hands of the elderly and their heirs and given by “community organizers” to lazy do-nothings who claim eternal victimhood.

This is certainly NOT bravery.  It is cowardice.  It is laziness.  It is greediness (no, I’m not talking about “Wall Street”, either).  It is pure selfishness.

And it will ultimately destroy this country.

Let’s pray that it will be later rather than sooner.

So let’s change the words of the song:

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O’er the land that once was free as the home of the brave.

That pretty well sums it up.

OK, everyone has been asking for a blog.

Well, not everybody.

Actually, nobody has asked, although a good friend told me that he thought it would be a cool idea.

So here it is.

Let’s see how much trouble it can be.