America — Rylee Donna

Independence Day has been a big deal in my family for as long as I can remember. This time of year brings back a flood of memories of parading around Plain City, Utah in Grandpa Jensen’s fire truck and eating saltwater taffy (the saltwater taffy we were meant to be throwing at those watching the parade) and chicken scrambles and late-night fireworks shows (and the consequential mosquito bites that showed up the next morning).

But despite all that, I don’t know that I can honestly say that I’ve fully participated in the holiday. I guess I’ve never understood the significance of it or given much thought to how blessed I should feel to live in a land where I’m given so many freedoms.

I guess spending time away from America will help you realize that.

If you’ve been keeping up with me lately, you’ll know that I just got back from Ghana, Africa. I spent much of my time mingling with the locals, mostly elementary and middle school-aged children, watching their eyes light up with curiosity and wonder whenever I told stories about America. To them, America is this amazing promised land, so grand it’s almost unbelievable.

Meanwhile, to many of it’s citizens, the significance of our country is simply something we passively think about from time to time.

I find my self logging in to social media or checking major news networks and getting angry over the mess and hostility within American society and the political arena.

Sometimes I wonder if I should be ashamed to be American.

…

My grandpa was 18 when he enlisted in the army. Maybe it was the urge to make something of himself and make a difference, or maybe it was the lure to get out of his small hometown and out into the world that motivated him to enlist. Whatever the reason, the army changed him.

…

“May 21, 1945, Germany

Dearest Mother,

I haven’t heard from you for quite sometime but I guess the mail is messed up again.

I haven’t told you what I have been doing or whether I was in combat or not, because I knew you would just worry. The last 5 months I have saw some of the worst horrors of war that you wouldn’t believe unless you saw them with your own eyes. Last winter I was hauling ammunition right up to the front. Sometimes we would be up all night hauling because the Germans could see us in daylight and it would be impossible to get in only at night. There would be shells land all around us and you could hear small arms firing all around you, then you would get some kind of feeling that you can’t explain. I guess the only one who knows what it is like is the one that has them experiences. I had some pretty close calls but I guess it wasn’t my time. It is all over, over here now and if I never see any more action it would suit me just fine.

The worst thing I have ever seen in all my life was when we was spearheading with the Infantry and we ran into one of Hitler’s Concentration Camps before they could hide the evidence. Maybe you saw some of the pictures in the papers but that was nothing like seeing them with your own eyes. There were about 300 Jews starved to death then some of them was half burned. Then out in the field there was about 30 digging graves, but we were coming too fast so the Germans shot them right there and then tried to get away. But they failed. I don’t see how anyone can be so inhumane. It is one of those things that is better to forget. I could go on forever I guess and tell you of the experiences I have had but they are all the horrors of war and I guess it would be better to forget them all. But after a fellow sees them things day after day they are sometimes pretty hard to forget.

It is 12:00 o’clock and I better go to bed because I go on guard in two more hours.

Will write soon again

Your loving son

Blaine”

…

My grandpa often talked of the inhumanity and horrors of that World War and had a firm belief that America could be, should be, and had to be different. America could not succumb to tyranny, but had to continue being a light and source of courage for so many in the world.

I think of him, and those like him who sealed that belief with their blood, and I realize that I should not be ashamed to be American. I should be proud of it.

So here’s to accepting the failings and shortcomings, vowing to do better and be better, and honoring the beauty and sacrifice in this exceptional country.