“What Is The
Government?”
I have just
returned from Indiana where I helped lay my 100 year old father to rest. Memory
tapes have been playing in my mind now for several days. Some are funny and
some are sad. Some are the sort of experiences that tend to shape and mold our
lives.
One such
experience happened when I was about nine years of age. I was walking with my
father to the most distant field on our small farm. Even to this day I can take
anyone to the exact spot where this incident occurred. This was during the time
when rural families would sit and watch the radio! My father insisted that my
brother and I be silent while the news was on the radio. I had listened to
enough newscasts to have heard of something called the “government.” On that memorable day, just a father and
young son walking together, I asked, “Dad, what is the government?” Without
hesitation and with absolute certainty he replied, “Son, in America the government
is the people.” Dad’s answer then was far from this small boy’s understanding.
Subsequent schooling and 20 years of proudly
wearing this nation’s uniform served to bring my father’s short, yet
laser like
answer into sharp focus. Over the years I shared his love for American history,
especially about fellow Kentuckian, Abraham Lincoln. Just a year ago I sent him
a magazine about Lincoln at Gettysburg. I like to think his answer to me when I
was nine first echoed on that scared battlefield when President Lincoln said, ”…
that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. . . and that
government of the people. . .by the people. . .for the people. . . shall not
perish from the earth. "
Glenn <><
Just West of Yesterday
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