Questions ...

This is great! I'm so excited that people are reading my blog and are making comments. Please continue! Refer it to your friends. Jessica made a comment, to which I would like to reply. Here was her comment: "Don't you think the respect that existed in our parents time was the after effects of numerous political and world events? In fact, if anything our parents had MORE events to motivate their patriotism. Think the space race, WWI and WWII veteran parents, Vietnam, the Kennedy assassination, MLK assassination, Watergate, and the hippie movement. These were all big political events...which is some way or another caused people to either be patriotic or simply get involved in politics and think about it.

So for us we've had 9/11, the war in Iraq, and a few other incidents. I don't think it's a sign of a less appreciative generation that it took 9/11 to wake us up...our parents had tons of their own wake up calls.

It's sad that it takes a war or an attack to rally our respect and patriotism, but we know from the scriptures that that's just the pride cycle...it takes something bad for us to realize what we're grateful for. It's nothing new or a sign to me that our generation is worse...only that mankind hasn't changed since Biblical times."

Jessica: You have a really good point. A lot (if not most) of the patriotism that existed as our parents grew up, did come from life-changing events: e.g.; Kennedy, Vietnam, WWI, WWII ... I couldn't agree more with you. So what is it about today that is taking the patriotism out of our nation? Why is it that most public schools now don't recite the Pledge of Allegiance? Why are so many people so against patriotism?

If we do look at the scriptures, we are right in the middle of the pride cycle. We have a lot about which TO be prideful. I was postulating and thought about an interview that Obama had with a news reporter - he was really ripping on a "conservative" news channel. If my memory serves me correctly, he came out and said it once: FoxNews. (See interview) He was being pretty hard on names like Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. He didn't mention any other news sources because they all support Obama. They aren't giving him crap (excuse my french) so he doesn't have a problem with them. Does that sound familiar? What is the church going through right now? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormons, (and thanks to South Park we know that the Mormons had it right all along...) takes a lot of flack. It gets lumped into liberal, cultish, extreme beliefs. When it and its members stand up for what they believe is right and when they try and expose wrong, they are immediately condemned for it. The wicked taketh the truth to be hard. I think the reason that our nation's patriotism is dying is the fact that the adversary is working as hard as it can to bring our country, a blessed and promised land, to shambles. The constitution of the United States as well as the Bill of Rights were written through inspiration. George Washington was undoubtedly led by the Spirit to do the things he did in forming this country... for us. I hate to be a Debbie-Downer but I really think that every day will get worse. Our government is going to get worse -- Obama and his predecessors may hire 100 czars... all our social security may be gone... we may have ridiculous health care plans... but their is nothing to fear. We hopein Him. If we are living righteously, we honestly have nothing to worry about. Worry is just another form of Atheism.