This post was written in a far off place many worlds away. But it has a lot of memories for me and seems fitting with the holiday. It was a gift to me and the girls for the Fourth of July from Papa.
40 Years ago, on the heels of election, John Kennedy included the following passage in his inaugural address:
‘To those in the huts and villages across the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required – not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich’
Sadly, I think, this pledge died with the president in Dallas. And if what I have witnessed in DRC is forty years of our “best effort”, then this beautiful country and its 70 million souls are surely doomed. Without strategic location, without oil, and without purpose.
And having spent the last six months doing all that I could to “occupy” the time until my return, those at home have occupied for change. I have followed, as best I could, the events on Wall St. and across the country, and around the globe, and also the continuing revolts in the Middle East and North Africa. I have cheered them in their unbridled uprising and winced as momentum faltered and the mainstream media betrayed itself as pocket puppets to thieving tyrant masters.
Kennedy went on to say:
‘We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans – born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage – and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. Now the trumpet summons us again – not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are – but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, “rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation” – a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself…In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its maximum hour of danger. I do not shank from this responsibility – I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it – a glow from that fire can truly light the world.’
And then, the famous two lines – ‘Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.’ What can anyone do for a country that is near ruin, that is nearly bankrupt, whose government will not govern, whose leaders will not lead?
God may choose to save America…but as for me…I am Occupying Africa.
Mountain Moma
