Tag: American history

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Americana Journal Wisdom

Why have a 4th of July church service?

Fourth of July
I am inspired by a traditional Fourth of July worship service

Celebrating the Fourth of July in the traditional way with patriotic hymns and maybe even the Pledge of Allegiance might raise questions these days. Is it too secular? Maybe even partisan? Or just distracting?

I have always felt very positive about a traditional Fourth of July service. I even find them inspiring.

  • First, a Fourth of July emphasis keeps the Sunday service relevant on a holiday weekend in the same way that we make services relevant for other national holidays such as Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Martin Luther King Day, and Thanksgiving Sunday.
  • A song such as “America” which I nearly always choose is itself a prayer and very appropriate for a church service.
  • The Pledge Allegiance to the American Flag seems really to be an affirmation that we will do what we are commanded to do in 1 Peter 2:13, to submit ourselves to the human authority which is over us.
  • The phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance reminds us that our first allegiance is to God. When I use the Pledge to the American Flag in a service, I also use the Pledge to the Christian Flag. And I do the latter one first, noting that our first allegiance is to Jesus.
  • A Fourth of July service with patriotic overtones pays tribute to the Christian heritage of our country’s beginnings. Connecticut was founded by the Congregationalists from Massachusetts and had an established church until about 1818. We don’t wish to return to that but we do want to remember their legacy. In 1892 the Supreme Court declared, “Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind.  It is impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian” (Church of the Holy Trinity V. Unites States). So, there is a close interrelationship between the values espoused in our country’s great documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the Christian faith that partially inspired them. A Fourth of July service reminds me of this linkage.
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Journal News Commentary

How did we end up with such unpopular candidates?

This is one of the big questions of the 2016 election. It is also one of the hidden problems that needs to be solved if American democracy is going to thrive again. I found this video article that helps explain how it happened. It makes good sense.

http://www.bbc.com/news/video_and_audio/headlines/37802358

The next question is, “What can we do about it.”
1. More Americans need to vote in primaries. Primaries are very influential. It is intellectually tempting to be an “independent.” But the number of people who are uninvolved in primaries is part of the problem. I was an independent myself for several years until I realized the power of the primaries. Then I registered for a major party so I could express myself in the primaries. I can still vote for whomever I choose in the general election.

2. Primary voters need to keep “elect-ability” in mind when casting their ballots. Primary voters who vote for extreme, irascible or unqualified candidates who will be greatly handicapped in the general election are asking for their candidate to lose in the general election. Primary voters must strike a balance between where they stand and how electable the candidate is. And the farther to the left or right a voter is the more they need to think this way. To fail to do so is to endanger the chances of the party of your primary in the general election as is happening to both parties this year. This year it is obvious that either party would have had a cakewalk with a moderate candidate. If two moderate candidates had been put forward, we could have had a real democratic election.

3. This year’s Republican process is making a case for some kind of “vetting” by major parties in order to run in their primaries. A major party should not be put in a position as the Republicans were this year where a person they cannot truly support squeaks through with popular vote. But there is danger with this idea too as it opens the way for power player control and cronyism in the vetting process.

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Americana Journal

A family memory

Family memories are often attached to old vehicles
Family memories are often attached to old vehicles

This antique Packard belongs to Steve, a neighbor of mine.   It reminds me of a story my Mom used to tell.  When she was a girl, probably a young teen, she was taught to drive a car in order to help on the farm.  He father instructed her how to pull hay up into the mow with it.  I think it was a Maxwell.   Cars in the 1920’s, the era this car is from, were often put to work on the farm.  I’ve heard stories (I can’t remember where) of a rear tire being removed from an old car and a belt somehow put on to drive a saw.  Steve found an original engine for this car in another old Packard that had been used as a tractor.   Much of the interior work on this car is leather.  Steve pointed out that many parts were hand-made, not mass-produced in that era.

 

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Americana Journal

Visiting the Nina and the Pinta

The recreated Pinta

 

The stern of the Nina
When Columbus came to America he sailed with three ships.  Most famous of them on his first voyage was the Santa Maria. That ship was accompanied by two others, the Nina and the Pinta.   The Santa Maria ran aground in the Caribbean.   So Columbus boarded the Nina, made it his flagship, and returned to Spain with two ships.   The Pinta then disappears from history.  But Columbus returned to the Americas with another fleet and the Nina at its head.  This fleet encountered a hurricane on its return voyage and all the other vessels sank except the Nina.

All this I learned as we visited on Saturday the floating historical display, the re-created Nina and Pinta moored this past weekend in Oswego harbor.   The Nina I saw was crafted using the same type of tools and skills that would have been used 500 years ago to build it.  It was built at a shipyard in Brazil where this type of skill is still known and practiced.  It was as exact a replica as research could determine.  Another interesting fact I learned from the crew of the re-created ships was that the crew that sailed with the early explorers like Columbus were probably very young — most likely teenagers — but had very limited life expectancies.  Most would’ve barely lived into their twenties.  

JoAnne and I were impressed by the fact that the vessels were much smaller than we thought. We learned that the crew constantly stayed on deck even in rough weather, and would have been often drenched by the splashing sea. However, I also learned that Columbus’ crossing from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean took 33 days, which is long enough but not as long as I thought it would have taken.    One definitely came away from the visit impressed with the courage of the early mariners and amazed at the hardships they endured.

You can read more at www.thenina.com