The Declaration of Independence was a bold move by our forefathers to push forth an idea that has become an ideal across the globe.  Of course, jealousy of our system means that we must constantly defend it against those who would want to change it to their will.  This protection of our liberty is accomplished by brave men and women who serve our Country everyday. Elected officials and those who promise to protect and serve, both in the military and our police forces do an important job. Most importantly, by each of us, who are vigilant to remember that what we have is unique and worth saving and protecting.

This 4th of July, as you celebrate with family, food and fireworks, stop and take a moment to reflect on how truly fortunate you are.  America is an amazing place, and it is made up of mostly hard working people who care about their fellow man.  It is made of people of Character, who help those in need and celebrate differences.  It is made up of all colors and races and genders.  A common people who live, work and play together with an understanding that together we stand, divided we fall.

Celebrate your 4th with joy and appreciate America the Wonderful.

 

I was teaching at a school the other day about Roosevelt when I decided to ask them about their perception of the current political turmoil.  This is a pretty common discussion among my adult programs, but I had never brought it up to 3rd and 4th graders before.

I decided to get the conversation started by asking them what they thought made a good leader.  Like all classrooms,  hands shot into the air:

“Smart”

“Good at giving directions”

“Tells people what to do”

“Has a following”

The words were painfully shy of the words and concepts I teach when I do Corporate programs on Leadership:

“Honest”

“Reliable”

“Trustworthy”

“Looking out for other’s best interests”

It made me realize that we are not teaching our children the baseline of what is important – the skills that make each of us not only influencer’s in our small local world, but leaders the greater world.   It concerns me when Honesty is not on a child’s list of important attributes for a leader.  Shouldn’t we start there if we want to have the best future for our next generation?

We teach our children how to compete in almost everything they do – perhaps it is time we find a way to make honesty a competition instead of an anomaly.

 

I have to admit that while I enjoy traveling by snowshoe or ski in the winter, I find myself daydreaming for the spring, so I can spend some days in camp.

My first TR Camp of the season is usually in Nebraska at an Outdoor Expo.  Here, local school children are bused in to explore activities that hopefully will excite them into a life time of outdoor pursuits. These include kayaking, archery, fishing, identifying animal tracks, camping, shooting and many more.  During the day, TR Camp gets very busy, with children visiting me and sharing their adventures of the day as I share mine of a lifetime. By the time they visit me they get an idea of how those experiences can come together to create a life-long adventure, which helps in the overall development of that wonderful attribute – Character.  I try to embody that lesson so that they understand how those elements came together to create the leader we appreciate as Roosevelt, and the importance he placed on the natural environment in doing so. Based on the feedback, thankfully that message is being well received.  But as much as I enjoy TR Camp during the hustle and bustle during the morning and afternoon, I appreciate it as much for its solitude at the end of the day.

When the crowd leaves, camp becomes eerily quiet. I am often the only one there, other than the occasional Park Ranger making sure everything is secure.

This time of year, it is not unusual for a storm cloud to pass over, quickly cooling the air and dropping rain that taps lightly on my canvas roof. The cool air finds me stoking the wood stove and settling by my writing desk to read or jot my notes from the day. The view out my door is a park – an open field or river that gurgles as I read or write.  Sometimes, spring winds whistle through the tree branches or if the sun peaks out it alerts the birds to squawk and explore.

The crowd, including the other exhibitors have left. Most are booked into a warm hotel room back in town with a bath, electricity and multiple television channels of nothing to watch.  When they come back in the morning they find me sitting by my fire with a hot cup of coffee.  Each seems shocked when I answer “yes” to their question “Do you sleep here”?  I have never questioned my sanity for “roughing it”.

I invite them into my warm tent and pour them a steaming cup of coffee and we talk for a bit about the day before and the day to come.  When they leave I pity them for missing the sunset the past evening or the amazing sunrise that morning or the squall that pulled at my tent pegs during the night.

I will let Roosevelt finish this best.   “Nowhere, not even at sea, does a man feel more lonely than when riding over the far-reaching, seemingly never-ending plains; and after a man has lived a little while on or near them, their very vastness and loneliness and their melancholy monotony have a strong fascination for him.”

When I visit schools, I am always pleased when they say “The Pledge of Allegiance”.

I believe there should be a flag at each business and place of worship with a requirement that each day start with that pledge.   I do not say this as mere patriotic symbol, but as a way for all of us to reflect on the country we share. The pledge is meant to remind us why we all must interact with each other with human decency.

I fear decency is the thing that is being removed from our democratic process and has tainted our perceptions of acceptable treatment to our fellow citizens.  Equally worse, it has poisoned how those across the globe view our country.

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands”

This Republic can be an amazing place when our people work together, but when we lose sight of being United and instead separate ourselves into fractional divisions, we threaten the very fabric of the pledge and nation alike.

“One Nation under God, Indivisible”

We are becoming divisible.  Our fellow citizens are telling us so.  Black lives do matter  – and it is sad state when any group feels the requirement through violence to remind us.  The realty is that all lives matter and all voices matter as well.  We must co-exist and work together to solve these issues and appreciate the others viewpoint.  That is not easy to do but it is necessary to do.

Roosevelt himself warned us:

“The death-knell of the republic IS rung as soon as the active power becomes lodged in the hands of those who seek, not to do justice to all citizens, rich and poor alike, but to stand for one special class and for its interests as opposed to the interests of others.”

“With Liberty and Justice for All.”

“This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in.” (TR)

How can we teach our children to treat each other with decency when we don’t lead by example?  How can children believe in the future when the people who want to lead us cannot demonstrate decency to each other?

Perhaps it is time to take a pledge to do so.  I have a suggestion of a place to start, and almost any grade school student would be happy to teach it.

 

 

 

 

“There are good men and bad men of all nationalities, creeds and colors; and if this world of ours is ever to become what we hope some day it may become, it must be by the general recognition that the man’s heart and soul, the man’s worth and actions, determine his standing.”

“Let us, as we value our own self-respect, face the responsibilities with proper seriousness, courage, and high resolve. We must demand the highest order of integrity and ability in our public men who are to grapple with these new problems. We must hold to a rigid accountability those public servants who show unfaithfulness to the interests of the nation or inability to rise to the high level of the new demands upon our strength and our resources. Of course we must remember not to judge any public servant by any one act, and especially should we beware of attacking the men who are merely the occasions and not the causes of disaster.”

“We cannot possibly do our best work as a nation unless all of us know how to act in combination as well as how to act each individually for himself.”

“No prosperity and no glory can save a nation that is rotten at heart. We must ever keep the core of our national being sound, and see to it that not only our citizens in private life, but, above all, our statesmen in public life, practice the old commonplace virtues which from time immemorial have lain at the root of all true national wellbeing.”

“This country will not permanently be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a reasonably good place for all of us to live in.”

~ Theodore Roosevelt