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Thanksgiving

Each year America has a holiday in November that has taken on almost a religious reverence which we call Thanksgiving.  We give this holiday so much honor that it ranks with us along with Christmas and Easter as an important holiday in the hearts of family and as a nation.  But this holiday, so rich with tradition, has it origins in the earliest days of the founding of this nation. The early years of the explorers to come to the American continent were difficult ones indeed.  Those explorers, we now call The Pilgrims, faced harsh weather, unpredictable relations with the natives, disease and other challenges as they carved out homes from the wilderness they found here.  Because their earliest homestead were in the northeast, the winters were harsh and their ability to build houses that could keep them warm and to find sufficient food was a constant worry to the men and women trying to raises families in America. So anytime they received help from the native popul...
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When America Proved that Anything is Possible

It was one of those moments in American history that the people who were able to watch it for the first time felt like they were in a science fiction movie.  But with televisions cameras on every move, the nation and the world watched on July 20, 1969 as three American astronauts landed on the moon.   The project had been in the works for years to be sure.  You have to wonder with the phenomenal amount of work, expert engineering and the amazing genius that created the rocket ships and everything that would be needed to make the flight possible, if even those in NASA sat in mute wonder and had goosebumps when “Buzz” Aldren was the first man in history to put his foot on another world and pronounce those famous words – “That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.” That phrase, which itself was carefully prepared, has a lot of wisdom in it.  Sure, touching another world for the first time in human history was a tremendous accomplishment for Am...
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The Great War

The history of America is decorated with some of the great conflicts that have ever been fought by civilizations and for great ideals.  This was never truer than in World War II which was sometimes called the Great War.  As is so often the case, it was not a war that America wanted to become part of.  So often, it is when aggressors bring war to America that she is forced to respond.  But in all cases when America responds, it is with a fury that her enemies will seldom forget. When you think about it, the very idea of a world war is terribly frightening.  And in every way, World War II was a world war because it caught up virtually every country and every continent in a global conflict that went on for years.  The enemies of America and her allies were well armed, intelligent, determined and powerful.  But America was up to the challenge and it will be up to the challenge again if the likes of Hitler dare to threaten civilization like this again. ...
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The Boston Tea Party

There are some events that took place during the historic time when America was declaring its independence from England that are so historic, so iconic that they have taken on the status of myth and legend as much as history.  And certainly the Boston Tea Party fits that description.  This is such a stand out event in American history that it is common to see school children reenact it during elementary school plays or skits.  And the participants names including John Hancock, Paul Revere and John Adams have similarly become classic heroic figures in American folklore and history. But the events of December 16, 1776 were not fable or myth but real and important parts of the development of the American Revolution that was crucial to the early foundation of this country.  The situation of taxation that was being imposed by Brittan on goods that were coming into the colonies was one of serious stress on the colonists because they had no control over those taxes. ...
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Saving Kuwait

The history of American use of its military forces, there are some stand out examples of how America considers its military might be a force for good and justice.  And the use of military for a just cause can be beautifully illustrated in the way America came to the aid of an ally in the Gulf War of 1991.  This war goes under a lot of names including Operation Desert Storm and the Liberation of Kuwait.  But whatever title, it was a battle America needed to enter into because of an unjust invasion of an ally and an act of aggression we could not just stand by and let happen. The United States and the civilized nations of the world had put up with a lot of barbaric behavior from Saddam Husain, the dictator in Iraq for a long time.  He was becoming more and more aggressive in his push to test the will and the ability of advanced nations to stop him.  But he crossed the line when on August 2, 1990 Iraq invaded and occupied Kuwait on trumped up charges of illegal d...
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Standing Down Hitler

If you were to ask anybody in this country what was America’s “finest hour”, you might find many different answers.  For most of us, we think of a handful of incidents where the true spirit of what it means to be an American comes forth.  And to some, you might hear the answer “America’s finest hour is still ahead of it”, and that may be true.  Nobody can tell that right now. But in terms of American history, without a doubt when America linked arms with it’s allies and stood down the terrible threat Adolph Hitler’s Germany was posing during World War II would have to represent the finest show of strength, national resolve and honor in the history of the nation.  And that is because during these difficult years, America did not just use its vast resources to save Americans and American interests.  It is not an overstatement that by standing down Hitler, America saved the world. World War II was without a doubt the most devastating war in the history of the w...
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Manifest Destiny

America is a vast country covering thousands of square miles of land that traverses tremendously diverse climate and landscape.  From high and majestic mountains, to wide deserts to vast fruitful plains that seem to go on forever, the sheer size of the physical landscape of America is breath taking. Obviously, this was not always the case.  When those earliest settlers landed on the east coast and carved out their stark settlements, they had no idea of huge expanse of land that lay to the west.  It took the bold explorations of surveyors such and Lewis and Clark to report back how stunningly huge the amount of physical space that was available for America to inhabit. At first, the very idea of becoming a nation was seemingly impossible for the early settlers to grasp.  They came here to escape persecution, tyranny or to make a new home for their families.  If they could have looked a few hundred years down the line into the future and seen the powerhouse of ...
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