As I listen to the nightly news concerning world affairs and the ills of society, I have noticed the word “crisis” being used to describe different situations.

Of Latin origin, the word “crisis” means decisions made during extenuating circumstances.  The very word conjures up images of impending peril. Synonyms of the word, to mention a few, are: breaking point, clutch, emergency, and tinderbox. 

Having said that, in covering the recent nuclear disaster in Japan, the news media used the word in an attempt to add more spin to a serious situation, including the decisions of the Japanese government concerning solutions to the problems.  During a certain program, the news analyst stated, “This was the second crisis for Japan since World War II.”

Here is where I beg to differ with respect to the use of the word “crisis.”  I do not consider Japan’s decision to end a war that they started as a crisis.  The real crisis was fell upon President Harry S. Truman.  Truman was tasked with determining whether or not to use a new weapon of war in order to achieve unconditional surrender and thus end the conflict.  The rest is history.

It seems to me that the media is constantly trying to rewrite history by using terminology to paint a different picture of what really happened.  They are trying to use synonyms to describe the situation, as they want us, the audience, to perceive it.

In an attempt to be politically correct, the verb “lie” (as in, to tell a falsehood) has transmogrified into “misspoke.”  If someone in power does not pay his taxes, instead of him being guilty, he is deemed to have had “an error in judgment.”

The changes that we are witnessing today in the political arena of our global society have altered America’s image in the eyes of other nations.   Once considered a world leader, those nations now refer to us as “a paper tiger.”  Yet, the world still expects America to rush instantly to its aid in the event of disaster, turmoil, or condemnation.

Although the United States of America is a relative new addition to the countries of the world, her actions in global affairs have brought us to where we stand today.  But, the test of time is beginning to show.  The struggle to remain in the Number One position is causing a financial drain on our system. Internal problems, such as a failing economy and rampant unemployment, are changing — and indeed, have changed — our way of life.

We were once the land of freedom and hope.  But, for the first time in our history, Americans are seeking employment in foreign lands with the desire to create lives for themselves and their families.  This is exactly what our immigrant forefathers sought in leaving their own homelands; they sought opportunities for life, liberty, and the American dream in our “streets of gold.”

Maybe the recent trend toward austerity in America will resolve the problem of illegal aliens entering our southwestern borders. With no job opportunities here and no free services extended, there would be a mass exodus not over our borders, but to pick bananas in Guatemala.  And, with the employment problem, Americans may migrate to Canada as a home away from home.  Talk about a crisis!

The Roman Empire faded after 300 years.  The sun that was never supposed to set on the English Empire has sunk beneath the horizon.  If the same happens to America, the Statue Of Liberty will become an image on a picture postcard to be sold to foreigners visiting our national parks and other places of interest.

If America still wants to retain its stature, let’s review some famous words of noteworthy Americans.  For starters, let’s examine, “Speak softly, but carry a big stick,” “We have nothing to fear but fear itself,” and “My country, right or wrong.”

Personally, I think the word “crisis” applies to our American way of life.  Do we, as a nation, want to continue to be a world leader?  This is the decision that we will have to make.  What do you think?

The Constitution of the United States of America was composed after much consideration and strife with our mother country, England.   It was written to elucidate and safeguard the truths our founding fathers deemed self-evident; these were the rights granted to every man, woman, and child by the grace of God. In creating the Constitution, James Madison, Ben Franklin, and their worthy colleagues sought to craft a document that would stand the passage of time.

Although the document emphasized centralization (federalization) of our new government, it included provisions to safeguard the rights of the individual States and for the separation of Church and State: a condition that guaranteed American citizens the right to practice their religion without fear of persecution.  This freedom distinguished our nation from others and became a beacon of hope to those experiencing religious oppression in their own countries.

From the moment of our nation’s birth, George Washington and every successive leader has made reference to God in governing and protecting our land.  Religious symbols and terminology were always invoked in swearing parties into public office and demanding that witnesses speak the truth in courts of law.  Every denomination of our currency carries the words, “In God We Trust.”   These things echoed the underlying tenets of the Constitution:  that every citizen and lawmaker is held to a higher authority.

The Constitution was designed to be shaped, interpreted, and modified to protect our citizens against threats both within and without our borders.  Yet, our Founding Fathers could not have foreseen the magnitude of change we have experienced as a nation evolving over more than two hundred years.  Now, interpretation of the Constitution is left to the best or perhaps the most powerful (i.e., moneyed) legal minds in the nation, also known as the Supreme Court.  Their decisions are final.  The phrase “Who died and made you God?” is particularly apt, for God has ceased being the Higher Authority in this nation.  Indeed, He has ceased to be, because right or wrong, We the People have to live with the decisions handed down by the Supreme Court. 

Did our Founding Fathers gaze into a crystal ball when crafting the Constitution?  Could they have envisioned the issue of abortion when they sought to separate Church from State?  Did they prophesize the tug of war fought to display/not display religious symbols on public property?  Or, did they mean to simply guarantee religious freedom to our citizens?  You do not have to be a Supreme Court Judge to answer these questions.

In defending our country from its enemies, we find God being written out of our history. Although engraved onto the World War II National Memorial, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Pearl Harbor Day speech has been politically corrected.  Many current references to this speech eliminate FDR’s heartfelt words, “So help us God.”

Christ has been removed from Christmas, for Christmas has been amended to The Holiday Season, Happy Holidays, or Winter Break.  Religious symbols are verboten in governmental structures; prayer was banned in public schools in the early 1960’s.  All of this was done under the guise of separating Church from State.  So, how does religious freedom fit in a Godless country that still professes to be the greatest democracy in the world?

The Bible states that God set forth a set of laws by which man was compelled to live.  The Ten Commandments were handed down to Moses on two stone tablets.  Containing not a single amendment, they serve as the basis of our own laws (“Thou shalt not steal,” “Thou shalt not kill,” “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor,” etc.).  Whereas our legal system is convoluted and often confusing, God managed to cover all the bases with but Ten Commandments.  I guess that’s why we call Him God!

Do you want to continue to write God out of our history and ensure that he is omitted for future generations?  If not, contact your Congressman or Congresswoman to demand that God is re-instituted.  While you’re at it, say a prayer.  Ask God’s help to give our leaders the wisdom they need to lead us properly through a society that worships The Almighty Dollar instead of a truly Higher Authority. 

Attorneys can be disbarred.  Saints can be de-canonized (just ask St. Christopher, the guy who used to protect us as we took our lives into our hands on the Jersey highways).  So what do you call it when the man credited with discovering America is no longer honored, as he was in the recent past, with his own day and parades replete with marching bands?  I’m really not sure what to call it, other than a miscarriage of justice for the great Italian explorer, Christopher Columbus.

 

Far more progressive and controversial than his contemporaries, Columbus postulated that the world was not flat but round.  Columbus’ theory put forth that a spherical planet would enable a faster trade route to the East, wherein lay all manner of goods and beaucoup bucks, as we say today, for those who traded those goods.  With visions of riches dancing in his head, Columbus made his sales pitch to the King of Spain, who was both tolerant and solvent.  It was a good sales pitch, for it earned the explorer three fine ships and a crew by which he had planned to haul back the goods, create new wealth for himself and the Spanish monarch, and offer the people of Europe the luxuries of the Orient.

 

Instead of discovering a new route to the East, Columbus ran ashore of the New World (America).  Planting the flag of Spain on North American soil, he dubbed and befriended the native “Indians”, for indeed, he’d assumed initially that he’d hit India.   Eventually, he found his way to the Caribbean, where he located the spices and other interesting commodities for which he’d been hoping.

 

In his honor, October 12^th was dedicated as Columbus Day: a day to remember the man who’d discovered this continent.   Not so very long ago, schools closed in Columbus’ honor.  Floats moved in stately fashion down the streets of our cities as well as small towns, such as the one in which I was raised.  Brass instruments flashed in the sun, children waved the Stars and Stripes, and entire communities marched in honor.  Everyone celebrated Columbus Day.

 

Inevitably, the Politically Correct came slinking out of their dark, foreboding crevasses to kill Columbus Day, just as they have been trying to do, systematically, with Christmas and Halloween.   Heated discussions arose as to whether or not Nordic explorers or even St. Brendan of Ireland discovered America before Christopher.  And then, of course, came the allegations that Columbus, through guilt by very tenuous association and many generations removed, was responsible for the near-obliteration of the “Indians” (Native Americans).

 

Ergo, no more annual Columbus Day parades, except for those few surviving in proud Italian-American communities, such as Bensonhurst, in Brooklyn, New York.

 

At the time when The Troubles were rampant in Northern Ireland, Great Britain published history books that showed maps of Ireland removed of the 9 offensive Northern counties.  England effectively rewrote history, as it was a bit uncomfortable.  Across the globe, Japanese history books made no mention of the events of Pearl Harbor.  When Japanese tourists visit Hawaii for the first time, they are shocked and horrified to learn of this portion of their history that has been buried.

 

Now that we’ve removed the pomp and circumstance, along with the pride we once felt surrounding Columbus Day, is America now guilty of rewriting history to make things comfortable for the so-called Politically Correct?