“WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY”
Rep. Mike Morley
The approach of Independence Day each year always inspires me to pause and reflect. I have particularly felt that this year with the events of recent months. What is it about this time of year, this day, this country, that inspires such fervency of emotion and need for celebration?
It is pride in a tradition of fairness and decency. It is the honor and courage exemplified by our leaders and common citizens for over 200 years. It is the quality of life we enjoy, the right to live and worship as we choose, the ability to earn a living and provide for ourselves and our families. It’s a thousand things: our sparkling cities and small hometowns, mountain peaks and windswept coastlines and sagebrush deserts; it’s baseball games and summer evenings. It’s Valley Forge and Gettysburg and the Mormon Trail. It’s the stirring in our souls when “The Star-Spangled Banner” is played and when an American flag whips in the wind. It’s ideas like “all men are created equal”, “one nation under God”, and “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. It’s Manifest Destiny. It’s the Bill of Rights. It’s liberty and justice and freedom. It is not free.
I recall many years ago standing in the Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D.C. It sits near the center of our nation’s capital, yet is a world away from the noise and rush. I knew without being told that this was sacred ground upon which I stood. My eyes wandered over the green fields dotted with row upon row of white markers stretching off into the distance in all directions. Yet, these peaceful surroundings were a sharp contrast to the reality of the sacrifices made by these courageous men and women who placed honor and duty to country above all else, even their lives. This was a humbling concept to a boy of 16 and one I have never forgotten. Certainly, freedom is not free.
Most of us will never in our life be expected to make this ultimate sacrifice. But, we have other civic responsibilities which are vital to the continued strength and well-being of this greatest nation on earth. Edmund Burke, the great 18th-century Scottish philosopher and British parliamentarian, once said, "Evil triumphs when good men do nothing."
One of my favorite poems goes something like this:
I saw them tearing a building down,
A gang of men in a busy town.
With a “yo-heave-ho” and a lusty yell
They swung a beam and a sidewall fell.
I asked the builder if these men were as skilled
As those he would hire if he were to build.
He laughed and said, “Oh, no, indeed,
Common labor is all I need;
For I can wreck in a day or two
What builders have taken years to do.”
I asked myself as I went my way
Which of these roles am I to play;
Am I the builder who builds with care
Measuring life with a ruler and square?
Or, am I the wrecker who walks the town
Content in the role of tearing down?
It is appropriate that the founding fathers are referred to as the framers of the Constitution because they were, in reality, building a new way of life. It is easy to find fault. It is not so easy to find solutions and build upon the foundation we have. May we be builders upon a solid foundation, never wreckers for political agenda or self-interest.
I love this country. I am grateful for the opportunities it has given to me and my family. I am appreciative of the trust placed in me by the citizens of this area as I represent them in the state legislature. I am re-committed to doing my part to preserve the freedoms and rights we hold dear. I encourage us all to do more, to take seriously this sacred trust we have been given as citizens of The United States of America.
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