The Land of
Opportunities
As you read these lines,
Independence Day has passed, but as I write them, it is 2 days away. In my
family we are all naturalized citizens, but my father is the most patriotic of
us all. He adores this beautiful country, which he calls “The Land of
Opportunities.” So each 4th of July I think of him. He loves to proudly put the
American flag outside his home, and enjoy a BBQ.
I also remember a brooding
sentiment that at times he has about America. He fears that unless the
principles of liberty and justice are cared for in our society, that they could
be lost. The admissions scandals in some
“No, America needs no
instruction in the things that concern democracy. But instruction is one thing
— and another is memory, reflection, reexamination, the recall to consciousness
of a spiritual and moral possession of which it would be dangerous to feel too
secure and too confident. No worthwhile possession can be neglected. Even
physical things die off, disappear, are lost, if they are not cared for, if
they do not feel the eye and hand of the owner and are lost to sight because
their possession is taken for granted. Throughout the world it has become
precarious to take democracy for granted — even in America" (The Coming
Victory of Democracy).
About 60 years before
Thomas Mann published these words, President Theodore Roosevelt delivered a
speech titled “Duties of American Citizenship” in Buffalo, New York.
Roosevelt identified
several dangerous elements to freedom, but I was struck by these two: the
pursuit of pleasure and the pursuit of gain. I wonder what he would say about
American society nowadays where a certain eagerness for novelty magnifies the
pursuit of pleasure, and the pursuit of gain seems too often disconnected from
the common good.
Let us pray that the
pursuit of pleasure may be tempered by the pursuit of Truth, and the pursuit of
gain may exist always in the context of moral integrity.
God bless,
Fr. Carlos, OSA
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