Land of the free

In praise of America’s enduring humanity

By Ross Lingenfelder
From the December 2006 Print Edition

Dear America,

We, your posterity, would like to extend our deepest and most heartfelt gratitude for the gift of liberty you bore to the world those many years ago.

On that fateful Sunday morning in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, those 65 long years have past, you have lost your innocence and you have met your strife. With Japanese Imperialism to your west, and National Socialism to your east; America, you faced the most formidable foes the world has yet to know. So let us forever mark that date, December 7, with thanksgiving, to remember your gift to humanity.

First, let us thank you America, for your innate cultural righteousness. Since your creation you have struggled for the right of all individuals to live in freedom on your land and to break the bonds of slavery between man and his government. You have been known as the land of opportunity, as the beacon of freedom, and as the shining city on the hill. With God at your side you set forth a new possibility for those who yearned so desperately to live free.

However, in this time you were not asked to open your shores to new Americans. Rather, you traversed the seas to sacrifice your own citizens so that others might live free from tyranny in their own lands. What other nation has been so generous, as to give away her men to such a noble idea? Yes, the Fuhrer had dreams of conquering you, and you needed to defend yourself; yet, you fought for the moral virtue that separated your republic from the fascists in Europe and Asia.

It was your mastery of industry that won the war. At the start you had an army size comparable to that of Czechoslovakia, but by the end of the war you were unquestionably the most powerful nation the world had seen. America, you sent your men to war in order to liberate the world, not conquer it. You sent your women to the factories to arm your men, and what a fine job Rosie did! Your women worked in shifts all through the nights, for three and a half years, seven days a week; your output eventually reached the unparalleled rate of a battleship a day. From December 7th until V-J Day you produced nearly 275,000 military aircraft. The total (wo)man-hours to produce a B-17 bomber plummeted from 55,000 hours to 19,000 hours, just over a one-third increase in efficiency.

America, you won the global political battle. Despite previous Red Scares, you managed to work with the Soviet Union to defeat the dark armies of the Third Reich. Even though the Soviet Union’s military force was an irreplaceable asset for victory, America, you did not lose your abhorrence of the evils inherent in Communism. Your strength — morally, scientifically, militarily, and industrially — enabled your dominance over the Soviet Union eventually leading to its demise, and thereby letting hundreds of millions of people know freedom.

In what has come to be known as the last great sacrifice for freedom, you and your English-speaking allies defeated the Nazi armies at Normandy. On what is now your soil, where old soldiers return and relive their horrors, there stands white marble crosses and stars of David that mark the land that saw the bloodshed of so many, for the freedom of so many more. We honor those citizens who were killed on the islands in the Pacific, and we commiserate with you in your pain of having to act so ferociously against the savage enemies who attacked you. We thank you for having the courage to face the atrocities that your enemy forced upon you while still maintaining your moral dignity by mourning your loss of innocence.

In Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, the Balkans, and the greater Middle East, you have faced the vilest resentment. You have been called "warmonger," "fascist," "imperialist," "racist," and worst, "inhuman." Please, for the sake of free men past, present, and pending, take no despair of the onslaught from totalitarian mentalities. Remember your greatest ally, Sir Winston Churchill, born of one of your own women, had similar charges brought against him. We thank Churchill for his commitment to your mutual goal and we plead that you never forget your unparalleled humanity, so eloquently expressed by the greatest prime minister.

America, you revolutionized the meaning of humanity. Upon learning of the mortally dangerous and racist nature of National Socialism and international Communism, you devised a new plan to prevent acts of genocide the world over. Though this plan has proved a dismal failure, you still maintain your enduring position that basic human rights are essential and indispensable components of your relationship with the rest of the world. In these 65 years, you have rushed to the aid of people all over the world to protect the rights of free men. This cause, so embedded since that December morning, necessitates the deepest gratitude from people the world over.

No words can ever fully embody our gratitude, my gratitude, to you, America. We can but always remember all that you have born and continue to bear to us. Thank you. May God forever bless your sacred honor.

In Liberty.

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