Last week, I flew to Washington D.C. and met up with my daughter and her family for a week’s vacation. I am sixty-six years old now, and my frame is challenged with scoliosis that has worsened over time, so this trip was a challenge from the get-go. I only hoped that I wouldn’t slow my family down.

It turns out that every one of us except the four year old got very sore: sore backs, sore legs and sore feet. I was able to keep pace with the adults. That’s no reflection on how excellent I did, it’s just that none of us is skilled at walking great distances and climbing up tons of stairs. Throw in a heat wave and we are even worse….but we made it! I will never forget, late at night, walking through the Franklin Delano Roosevelt memorial. It went on and on and on……just like his four terms. In fact, I found out that the Memorial stretched on and on because it represented each of his terms. Meanwhile, I was so tired and so sore wandering through them all that I felt like shouting “FOR GOD’S SAKE, TERM LIMITS, PEOPLE!”

I saw such amazing things! One favorite was the Ford Theater where Lincoln was shot. We saw the actual gun that Booth used, then went across the street to the Peterson’s Boarding House where the President was taken to die. We saw such beautiful memorials. At night, it is all breathtaking! We saw things in the museums that are beyond description: the Gutenburg Bible, the original Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. We saw mummies, the Hope Diamond, George Gershwin’s piano, etc., but there was something else I saw…… It was so precious that I brought it home with me.

I saw America as it is meant to be! Over and over again, I read quotes by brilliant founders of the Constitution about how our government is FOR the people and gets its power FROM THE GOVERNED. When we would go into a museum, to the Capitol or the Library of Congress, just to name a few, we were told by guides that these buildings BELONG TO US, that we are welcome to visit FOR FREE! They belong to the American people!

My heart was so touched by a patriotism that had been missing in recent years. I had forgotten why so many men and women fought and died. It was for freedom and to be represented. In recent years, I have gotten the feeling that it is reversed: that government tells me what to do, but I forgot that it only gets its power from the governed, which is us. I remember, now, how our government is supposed to be. I have seen through the eyes of our founders. Every American should make that pilgrimage to the seat of our government and read the quotes on the walls, lest we forget.

I came home with some t-shirts for the grandkids. I also came home with a lot of aches and pains which are settling down now, but there is one thing so valuable that I couldn’t afford to buy it due to its great price…..so I just took it! What was it? It was a deepened patriotism that hadn’t been in me for awhile. It had begun to erode, but now, it’s been totally recharged.

I am an American. I love my country. I love her system of government with its checks and balances. I am so fortunate to have been born here. I pray that men and women will rise up and govern justly with wisdom and respect, without thought of power or privilege. I couldn’t help but think that many of our politicians on Capitol Hill need to be taken on a tour of the sites, to see what we stand for and what many died for…..so that they will not take their jobs for granted. If they are hired, they need to show up. They need to stand up when the pledge is read. They need to not only be present, but prepared to weigh in on matters before them, and it goes without saying that they need to do the job they were hired to do and vote on the issues.

Where are those men who hold our truths to be ‘self-evident,’ who will SERVE, NOT TAKE?  I was filled with pride for our history and all that has been accomplished. It hasn’t always been easy. Slavery, Sufferage, etc. Our past hasn’t always been glorious. Sometimes it’s been down and dirty, but we got through it, intact as a nation.

We need to continue the pattern of government our forefathers put into place after much editing, arguing and compromising. It works if you work it. It may sound simple to some now because it’s been around over two hundred years, but it still works.

Don’t be surprised if, this year on the 4th, I don’t shed a few tears when patriotic songs are played. Not only am I getting older and more sentimental, but my faith in America has been given a booster shot that is only available in Washington D.C.

Thank you, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the many, many names on the Vietnam Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the World War II Memorial, etc., etc., etc. for making and preserving this country.

May God shine his grace on America…..from sea to shining sea.