My Blog for 7/4/2012 Two Little Stories For America

Good American Morning!

I had occasion to speak with a British lady yesterday, who is here visiting a friend.  We began by teasing each other about putting our flags out for July 4th, hers the Union Jack, mine of course the Stars and Stripes.  Since we don't actually live here in our rental, our permanent flag remains in Georgia.

Deep into our conversation about the differences between our countries, she explained about the command center in London.  This is a complex that reads all of the cameras in  England that are placed on every street, on every corner and has total coverage of the entire city.  It may well extend beyond the big city and into the entire country--we didn't get into that possibility.

My point here is, the Brit police force, commonly called Bobbies, carry no weapons.  This is because of the law in the UK that makes it illegal for anybody to have a gun or rifle for any reason.  The theory is that the cops can take care of the population that has no firing weapons.  But of course, the bad guys are infiltrating the system and do have weapons.

And, therefore, cameras take the place of weapons for enforcement.  In theory this sounds like a good idea to me.  No weapons, no shooting, no deaths, even of those who need to be erased because they prey on society.

I see two major things wrong with this idea.  One is that of course the bad guys DO have weapons anyway, and the second one is--Freedom has been removed from that country.  Big Brother is in charge of everything every individual does inside that country.

This, of course, removes the hypothesis that a free country instills enthusiasm for patriotism--that people will die to defend their freedom.

Thank God I am an American.

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Now, my second story has to do with my French great grandfather.  Aimee Faure, who was born around 1836 in the Basque Country of France (best we can tell), was a twin from a family of a little wealth.  They we sheep herders who spent their time pasturing hundreds of sheep for which Aimee and his brother were responsible to make sure the sheep were safe.  An interesting part comes in here.  Because of the system of primogenture, the eldest son was the only child who inherited land at that time.  If you weren't born the eldest son, then you were simply out of luck in the way of inheriting anything from your family's wealth.

Aimee Faure was the second son, by only a few minutes while his twin was being born.  Aimee knew from the time he was a little child that he would have to make his own way in life.

So one day when Aimee was about 18 years old and was out herding the family sheep, he got the wild hair (which may still be in the DNA?) and herded his family's entire group of sheep into the town (a considerable distance away) where he sold every one of them.  With the money he got for the sheep he then bought a passage on a ship going to America and left France forever.

This story tells me it is worth even the treasure of having a family to have freedom.  Aimee's future was unavailable if he'd stayed in France.  Exactly what would he have become if he had not come to America?  He didn't have the freedom to become anything at all.  He was not cast in a system that would keep him poor for life.   As it was, he at least was able to marry and take care of a family after he got here.  And he was not beholden to anybody.

God Bless America.