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2009
Soap Box Archives Our Strength Presently, we are in the middle of our heavy touring season. The band and myself are putting in a lot of miles and entertaining a lot of people all over the country. When I stand on stand and look out across our audience, I see what makes America great, senior citizens, teenagers, toddlers and usually a smattering of America's military men and women in the crowd. These and others like them are the lifeblood of America. This great nation's strength is not in our politicians, many of which have been so compromised by the political promises they've made to the special interest groups to get them to where they are that the interests of the common folk are the last thing on their minds. It's certainly not on Wall Street or in the banking world where greed and taking care of number one is paramount. It isn't reflected in the garbage that spills out of our television sets. No, the true strength of America is in its people. You see them everyday, driving big tractors across five hundred acre fields of soy beans in the Midwest, walking up the steps of small town churches on a Sunday morning or pushing a baby carriage down the sidewalk in a big city park. You see them plowing snow on a high Colorado backcountry highway or pushing a herd of white face cattle into the working pens in the big bend country or ringing up groceries at a super market cash register, or threading their way through rush hour traffic to put in another day at the mills and factories. You see them jamming gears on an 18 wheeler pulling a heavy load up the side of the mountain, headed for Denver or Dallas or who knows where. America is made up of individuals with different tastes, different personalities and above all different dreams. This country has always been a place where, if you can dream it, you can do it. A place where if a white picket fence and a nine to five job fits your taste, it's there for you. But if you march to a different drumbeat and your dreams are more grandiose, if you possess the tenacity, and you're willing to put forth the effort, then your dream is possible too. The American dream is not built on collectivism, America is not a one size fits all, everybody gets the same pay regardless of the work they put out, do just enough to get by and let the rest go kind of place. Settlers didn't cross the Rocky Mountains in covered wagons by leaving it to somebody else. It took some mighty rugged individuals, emphasis on individual because every person had to reach down inside themselves and find the strength to face some incredible hardships. The current political mood in this nation at this time is to take away the initiative of the individual; we're much easier to control when we can be herded around like sheep. When we think for ourselves, we question the actions of those who are supposed to be looking out for us. Stay proud, America. Keep thinking for yourself, never be afraid of expressing your opinion, and never fear being different and walking apart from the crowd. Don't be intimidated and remember your Creator endowed you with certain inalienable rights, we still have a Constitution, a Bill of Rights and above all, the will and indomitable spirit of the people of the greatest nation the Earth has ever known. The United States of America: Worth fighting for, at home and abroad. What do you think? Pray for our troops, and for our country God Bless America Charlie Daniels
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