America the Beautiful, America the Religion.

It has to be a belief. That’s why America is resilient despite its myriad factions.

We have a unique, even holy way, of handling our rulers: we ARE the rulers. The citizens just hire people from among themselves to handle our affairs.

Our belief allows each person to think and question, and to worship whom she/he will.

Consent and trust of the governed, the rule of law, individual rights: words to some. Reality in America.

America was a European idea. It was a strange utopia, with native peoples who were near-naked and sometimes liked human sacrifice. It was a great landmass named after an Italian explorer who wasn’t Columbus.

But when people refer to America today[usually with contempt, sad to say], it’s just that small swath of land between Canada and Mexico, along with those islands in the Pacific and Alaska.

We call it the United States of America.

Think about the name. It’s practical. Americans are practical. The US was initially a conglomerate of nation-states, like the EU.(only with a much more adaptable--and shorter--Constitution. Why is theirs hundreds of pages long...?) And that’s what the Founders[founding fathers, for none were women--Betsy Ross didn’t sign the DoI] called it.

And yet...our country is philosophical, legal, economic and political technology. [using the classical definition of technology: applied, practical science] The United States of America is the end result of centuries of Western European knowledge--in action.

Also, ours is a country that survives catastrophe. Francis Scott Key had no idea what he was writing.... America is that one DBZ character in a fight who will survive multiple ki blasts and emerge from the smoke and debris without a scratch. [no wonder people resent us--we’re Son Goku! Everybody wants a piece of Goku....]

Our critics say that we should look to other, older countries--for their ancient wisdom.

The thing about Americans: we’re infused with true Christian humility. Our style of governance lets us be our own worst critics. Greek dictums like “Know thyself” are tacit bylaws. In other words: we already do.

But let me list the surviving ancient nations, those lands that have seen many European nations born.

1. China: Tianamen(sp) Square country? Human rights violating country? The one that wants to destroy Tibet and invade Taiwan?

Afraid so. China has been through incredible changes. But China brought us Confucius, spaghetti, ketchup. China makes cheap shoes, and thus is the only post-Soviet country to survive communism, eschewing most of it.

2. Japan: That’s just because I like their cartoons? The cartoons are just an indicator of the country’s health.

By buying that Yu Yu DVD, I participate in international trade with a centuries-old culture, rich in simple folklore and understated pageantry. Nintendo, Toshiba, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Yamaha, RCA...the Japanese proper have incredible common sense and cunning. Hardly the best place to live--there is much I’d change. But someday, they’ll quit resenting the fact that they lost WW2 and rebuild their military. I just hope the rest of Asia lets them. [I don’t blame China and South Korea for being leery....] Japan was a tough enemy: the Vegeta to our Goku, the Kaiba to our Yugi. The Japanese resent us for being better than them, even while wanting our trappings. [actually, it’s probably a bit more complicated. no letters, please.]

3. Israel: But...it was born in 1948...!

No. Its physical boundaries were redrawn then. Its people have outlasted two thousand years of unrelenting persecution. [we ex-slaves of the Diaspora have endured one-fifth that, and we won’t let the European end consumers of the Arab Muslim slave trade hear the end of it. The Japanese immigrants to America dealt with a few scant decades of it for their overseas cousins’ crimes, and they demanded restitution.] Burned alive, spat on, and every crime in between.

It is Israel who has the portable, go every-and-anywhere God. [Psalms 139, plus the ark of God, the tabernacle....] It is Israel whose very history is forever enshrined in the hearts of men. It is Israel whose culture and beliefs are emulated in the United States.

= = =

Israel, Japan, and China: these peoples all understood the concept of ethnos. [Gk., nation] But Israel held itself together even without a physical country. That’s just flat-out impressive. And it outlasted the Roman Empire, the Inquisition, and the Third Reich. It outlasts all of Islam.

Likewise, we of the United States of America are an ethnos, but a very young one--one who was without anything but respect for all the elder nations. Seeing them hate us continually is saddening and sickening at the same time.

America has to be successful. We took all of Europe’s ideas, added in the Bible, wrote in a clause that would respect other beliefs, and didn’t spend our days hating the people of Israel that moved here. [as a government. individuals may vary, but SC has a centuries-old synagogue; FWIW.] We consolidated synaptic eons of human thought and made it work in a scant two hundred years.

As a result, entire nations--ethnos and kingdoms(landmasses)--know our name, for good or ill.

= = =

America is indeed a shining city, a wonder to behold. Hence, I believe it to be holy. Enough that atheists would defend it. [although they’d do so on practical grounds, i.e. “it’s my home....”]

My country is a land of light, a beacon in the darkness of time. We show potential and opportunity, as Israel shows the reward of righteousness and diligence.

And I say America is a religion not out of blasphemy, but from the simple fact that when humans colonize the moon, Venus, and Mars--the humans will be Americans.

= = =

America is spiritual light. Islam is spiritual darkness. The two never get along.

Islam without Mohammed, sharia, the hijab, jihad and mindless hatred of “the infidel” would just be a benign NoI, easily subsumed back into the AME Christianity it came from. [now with Arabs!]

America has laughter, joy, hope, love, peace, honor, truth, and humility. Our heroes, real and fictional, reflect that. Islam has none of these things, and has only a sad, misogynistic coward as its hero.

In the marketplace of ideas, as better and smarter people than me have blogged, Islam is mincemeat. Islam is mincemeat compared to France--let alone to China, the UK, and Israel.

Heck, I could start an underground cult of Amazons in the Muslim world that centers on women. Islam would die like the loathsome tapeworm it is in mere moments.

America could unleash Super Saiya-jin 3 and destroy Islam with one nuclear thought. Unlike the two-bomb bluff on Japan(we only had two, and Hirohito had to be the tiebreaker in order to save Japan), we have many nuclear weapons. The only reason our warriors and civilians are dying in the ME is because we don’t--as a nation--want to destroy Islam that way.

That’s why I want Dubyatron to win in November. That’s why I hope we’ll succeed in Iraq. I want true freedom to take root and grow in the ME, like a dandelion that will choke out the foul, blood-scented garden of Islam. I want the desert of Islam replaced by the sweet lands of liberty; oases like Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia.

If America fails at this, and Islam attacks, over a billion people--adherents to Mohammed’s teaching--will die, suffer, and be reviled even more than the Japanese were.

And unfortunately, the surviving Muslims can blame no one but themselves.

I say this because America is holy, and its people are culled from the earth. Islam has Mecca and Medina. We have our fifty states, from sea to shining sea. Our shining city won’t die. We won’t let it die. So Mecca and Medina will die.

We aren’t easily pushed. But keep pushing Americans, and you awaken the sleeping Gundam within. Tread on a rattlesnake, and you will be bitten.

I’d rather we come as the dandelion than as the rattlesnake.

Amen.