Just a little over a week ago, we celebrated America’s 234^th birthday, and what a birthday party it was. 234^th birthday sounds like we’re getting old, but as we compare it with many other nations in our world, we’re still just a “baby”, or a small child, as far as age goes. As we thought about our Country and its birthday, and all the celebrations that went with it, it IS a great country, and I’m mighty glad to have been born in America, and have received the many, many blessings that have come to me over these 77 years of my life.

But, almost every day, I hear on TV, radio, in conversations with people, or read in newspapers and books “How Bad, how WICKED, how EVIL America is, how many WRONGS we have committed and are committing today. They are quick to tell us “What’s wrong with America”. Yes, we have our faults, but don’t you think it’s time we stopped thinking about all the “wrongs” – high prices, increasing crime, crooked politicians, and how people on one side of the “aisle” allegedly hate those on the other side. There’s also the bad economy, the recession, unemployment and an increasing indebtedness facing us? And, there’s the matter of bank failures, Social Security and our health care system? But there are a great many good things happening, that are, all-too-often, not represented in our mainstream media, and are, too often, forgotten.

Yes, we have our “wrongs”, as a nation, but let’s take a break from all that and look at the good side. Again, I’d like to pose the question that never seems to be of much interest to so many: “WHAT’S RIGHT WITH AMERICA?”

Let’s start with our economy. Times are definitely tough right now for a lot of people; many have lost their jobs, their homes, their insurance and their retirement benefits. But, you know what? We’ve made it through depressions and recessions before, wars, oil spills and major terrorist attacks, and we’re still standing. In fact, we’re not only still standing, we’re towering over the rest of the world with an economy that is almost as big as the next four largest economies on earth combined.

“WHAT’S RIGHT WITH AMERICA?”  Even with our many faults in education,  the truth is, our universities are always ranked among the best in the world. Students, from all over the world, are flocking to America, to get enrolled for studies, and there aren’t all that many going somewhere else to study. We open our colleges and universities to more than 80,000 foreign professors, scholars and educators each year, and we have more students in colleges, right now, than those four countries combined. You don’t have to come from an elite, wealthy family like the Rockefeller-types to get in. They don’t care about your race, gender or nationality. You just have to be smart enough, and work hard for it. What a concept, huh?

“WHAT’S RIGHT WITH AMERICA?”  How about the way we treat those less-fortunate – the poor, the hungry, the homeless? As a nation, we’ve always reached out to help – in this country and around the world – in time of need. Americans donate billions of dollars to charities, missions each year. So do the churches of every denomination (I’m very proud of what the United Methodist Church and Northside UMC does to help, each year). And, it’s not just the wealthy who are generous. Two-thirds of American families, making under $100,000. dollars a year, (and that’s most of us) give to help others. Compassion is ingrained in our culture like no other.  As Americans, we love our country. A recent poll said that 77% of Americans are very proud of their nationality. I could go on, but my point is that we need to see things with a little more perspective.

As we think back to our 234^th birthday and our blessings, I’d like to ask you to put aside the negatives, and give consideration to “WHAT’S RIGHT WITH AMERICA”, and think about the core principles and ideals upon which our nation was founded, and, for which brave men and women were willing to risk their lives. Americans embraced a view of the world in which a person’s position was not determined by birth, rank, or title, but by talent, ability, character and benevolence. These views asserted a universal truth about human rights in words that inspired downtrodden people through the ages and throughout the world to rise up against their oppressors. Our Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

So, despite what may be wrong, let’s remember for at least a day, and hopefully, many days yet to come, that America still leads the world in the same principles our country was founded upon and which matter most – law, justice, freedom of religion, of speech, equal rights, freedom from an oppressive government are still our heritage and our goals for America. Yes, there are “wrongs” that we have to deal with, but let’s just Thank God that we are Americans and that there’s much “that is RIGHT with America”. Yes, we have been, truly, BLESSED. GOD BLESS AMERICA!