Ran across a new blog yesterday that could be marketed as a substitute for sleeping pills. It’s called OneUtah.org and purports to “serve the majority progressive community in Salt Lake City.” What it really is is just another boring rant against President Bush and conservative Christians.
These people act as if they went to bed one night in a totally secular America and awoke to find that Christians had moved in like a swarm of locusts and taken over. They fret and wring their hands over what horrible changes have been imposed on American life and culture.
The simple fact is that the major cultural changes of the last few decades have been imposed by secularists. Like it or not, the majority of Americans call themselves Christians and that has been the case since the first European settlements. Add to that the fact that the vast majority of Americans are very happy to be Americans and it makes you wonder what exactly the problem is.
Consider this: An article appeared in the Washington Post yesterday about the various American Olympic athletes who have had the privilege of bearing the American flag in the opening ceremonies. The words of skier Cynthia Nelson, who carried the American flag at Innsbruck thirty years ago, is representative of that very small club of athletes, “Now in hindsight I see how privileged I felt to do this. It’s even greater than having the medals hang around your neck.”
In contrast, four Canadian athletes in succession refused to carry the Canadian flag this year and all gave the excuse that to do so would upset their performance. Canadian hockey broadcaster Don Cherry was disgisted by the response of these athletes, “The thing is they don’t care. That nonsense about getting prepared? How long does it take? A little walk around? Come out and say you don’t care but don’t say ‘it will upset my performance,’ that’s ridiculous.”
A totally different ethos infects American culture and it bothers “progressives” like the ones at OneUtah.org. It is one in which your country comes before your personal goals, no matter how important they seem or how long you’ve worked to achieve them and it is embodied in the athletes who value the honor of carrying the American flag above personal performance.