America Reflagged
July 4, 2025 Leave a comment
A short story . . .
Tom stood watching at the front room window. Moments before, his father was sitting on the couch reading the Chicago Tribune. But then his father put the paper down, got up, walked through the kitchen and down into the basement and then came back upstairs and went out the back door.
Tom put the funnies down, got up off the floor and went to the picture window. His father, in a white tank tee shirt, tan Bermuda shorts, black socks and black street shoes, was in the front yard unfurling the American flag. Then he put the flag’s pole in its holder on the front of the house and took a couple of steps back to look at the flag and at his flagstone-bordered landscaping beneath it.
Tom knew when he woke up that morning that it was Fourth of July. The Ben Franklin store, where he bought his candy, comic books, and baseball cards, had been selling snakes, snaps, and sparklers. And last night neighbors shot off fountains, rockets, and loud firecrackers. He fell asleep with a rotten egg smell coming in through the bedroom window next to his bed.
Tom wanted to see if anyone else was up on the Fourth of July. He ran outside and grabbed his banana bike from the patio. Riding up and down the street he saw no one and no other flags. No one had a flag. Not the Schroeders, not the Selders, not the Millers, not the Capellos, not the Romanos, not the Majewskis, not the Dubickis, not the Ruiz, not the Martínez, not the Clemons. Not anyone. He rode his bike home.
Tom ate the pancakes his father made for breakfast and drank some Tang. He cleared his plate, made his bed, and then raced off on his bike to find a place to watch the Fourth of July parade. He had to hurry. He saw people carrying lawn chairs and blankets.
Tom found a grassy space near a street light. Just in time. The Good Humor truck was passing by. He bought a Creamsicle with his allowance. Not long after, down the street came sirens and drums and beeping clowns in little cars. There were floats, horses, cheerleaders, military units, and marching bands. There were people as far as he could see. When the parade was over Tom rode back home with sticky hands and orange lips.
Tom folded his hands and bowed his head as his mother gave thanks for the dinner father prepared to give mom a break. He finally decided to eat the creamed chipped beef on toast, except for the peas, and one small bite of his mom’s Jello-salad that didn’t contain carrots. Mom said there was watermelon for dessert.
Tom helped his mother with the dinner dishes and then he helped his father carry lawn chairs to the car. His father then drove the family over to Commons Park for the annual Fourth of the July Fireworks Spectacle. Hundreds of people were already there.
Tom asked his father ten times when it would start. His father said, “Be patient, Tom. It needs to be darker.” When Tom asked the eleventh time, a single whistling flare shot up into the sky. Then nothing. Then KA-BOOM! Babies started crying. Tom said “Cool!”
Tom heard a swoosh-swoosh-swoosh. Then nothing. Then KA-BOOM! KA-BOOM! KA-BA-BOOM! The sky lit up with red, white and blue sparkles. Then more swooshes. One colorful burst after another filled the sky. Instant stars twinkled and fluttered down. Some stars trailed off making a loud sizzling noise as they fell to earth, some fanned out like spider legs, some like flowers, and some like waterfalls. Roman candles shot out multi-colored stars, spinners, and comets. Fountain fireworks shot off showers of sparks like a fountain of light.
Tom stared at all this with mouth and eyes wide open. Then things got quiet and Tom asked why. His father said, “I think it’s time for the finale. You’ll know when they shoot off the aerial salutes.” Tom asked about the salutes. His father said “They are shells that contain a large quantity of flash powder. They create a loud bang and a bright flash.” And that’s what happened next.
Tom felt his insides shake when the three salutes announced the finale. Babies cried. Dogs yelped and cowered. Earth and sky were filled with explosions of light and color for the next five minutes. When the Spectacle Finale ended people applauded and headed for their cars.
Tom rubbed his eyes all the way home. The fireworks display had filled them with ash. But when the car pulled into the driveway, he stopped rubbing his eyes to see the flag in the front yard. He tugged on his father’s shirt and said “Dad, we’re the only ones on the street with a flag. I guess some people like parades and the Spectacle but flags not so much.” His father said, “Should we leave the flag out tonight?” Tom replied “Yes.” “Then,” his father said, “help me shine a light on it.” And that’s what Tom did.
Tom lay in bed that night thinking that there should be more days just like this one. He soon fell asleep to the sound of the neighbor’s firecrackers and the smell of rotten eggs coming in his bedroom window.
©Lena Johnson, Kingdom Venturers, 2025, All Rights Reserved
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Watch This Before July 4 | Office Hours, Ep. 16
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Thirteen Novels Every Conservative Should Read
Host Scot Bertram talks with Ronald J. Pestritto, professor of politics and Charles and Lucia Shipley Chair in the American Constitution at Hillsdale College, about Hillsdale’s new online course, “The Federalist.”
(@23:19) Christopher Scalia, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, gives a defense of fiction and discusses his new book 13 Novels Conservatives Will Love (but Probably Haven’t Read).
Thirteen Novels Every Conservative Should Read – The Radio Free Hillsdale Hour – Omny.fm
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Preface (to Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer)
Most of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred; one or two were experiences of my own, the rest those of boys who were schoolmates of mine. Huck Finn is drawn from life; Tom Sawyer also, but not from an individual—he is a combination of the characteristics of three boys whom I knew, and therefore belongs to the composite order of architecture.
The odd superstitions touched upon were all prevalent among children and slaves in the West at the period of this story—that is to say, thirty or forty years ago.
Although my book is intended mainly for the entertainment of boys and girls, I hope it will not be shunned by men and women on that account, for part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind adults of what they once were themselves, and of how they felt and thought and talked, and what queer enterprises they sometimes engaged in.
The Author.
Hartford, 1876.
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“Who knows, he may grow up to be President someday, unless they hang him first!”
Aunt Polly about Tom Sawyer”
― Samuel Clemmons, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Full Audiobook) by Mark Twain
One famous quote from “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” is: “Right is right, and wrong is wrong, and a body ain’t got no business doing wrong when he ain’t ignorant and knows better.”
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Cindy Wity 
Two Visions Three Questions
July 13, 2025 Leave a comment
Next year is America’s 250th anniversary. By then I will have lived 70+ years of America’s independence history. Born of the USA I now say that the American experiment has been successful.
I’ve experienced the independence, responsibility, adaptations, and hard work required to flourish in America. I have benefitted from the good that others before me have established and I am grateful.
My 70+ years as an American have not made me an optimist nor a pessimist nor an end of-history utopian. I am an American realist. I see things as they are and work from there. I don’t whine and complain and blame others and demand change (except for positions held by representatives in the political realm) to make my life better in some way.
Two Visions in America
I have viewed life with a “constrained” vision – one of two basic visions defined by Thomas Sowell in his book A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles.
The “constrained” vision and the “unconstrained” vision of the “self-anointed” discussed in the book are summarized here. (Along with my Christian understanding of man’s sinful nature, this book aided my understanding of what fosters the political divide in our country.)
As an American realist I decry the “unconstrained” vision of Progressivism and all its hideous tyrannical ‘solutions’ working to fashion new people with its socialist ideology, top-down programs, control of information, and now with AI.
If you view America with an “unconstrained vision” you likely don’t think the American experiment is a success. You’ll likely be dissatisfied with things and think the whole ‘thing’ has to come crashing down and be rebuilt with state institutions that dole out equity, i.e., a communist system of government.
Here are a few quotes from A Conflict of Visions:
“There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.”
“While believers in the unconstrained vision seek the special causes of war, poverty, and crime, believers in the constrained vision seek the special causes of peace, wealth, or a law-abiding society.”
“The greatest danger of the concept of social justice, according to Hayek, is that it undermines and ultimately destroys the concept of a rule of law, in order to supersede merely “formal” justice, as a process governed by rules, with “real” or “social” justice as a set of results to be produced by expanding the power of government to make discretionary determinations in domains once exempt from its power.”
“In the constrained vision, each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late. Their prospects of growing up as decent, productive people depends on the whole elaborate set of largely unarticulated practices which engender moral values, self-discipline, and consideration for others. Those individuals on whom this process does not “take”—whether because its application was insufficient in quantity or quality or because the individual was especially resistant—are the sources of antisocial behavior, of which crime is only one form.”
“In short, attempts to equalize economic results lead to greater—and more dangerous—inequality in political power.”
“Whenever A can get B to do what A wishes, then A has “power” over B, according to the results-oriented definition of the unconstrained vision… But if B is in a process in which he has at least as many options as he had before A came along, then A has not “restricted” B’s choices, and so has no “power” over him, by the process definition… characteristic of the constrained vision.”
Three Questions the American Experiment Requires
Thomas Sowell (born June 30, 1930) is an American economist, economic historian, social philosopher and political commentator. A onetime Marxist turned conservative economist and commentator, Sowell has argued that most causes of the left can be dismantled with three simple questions.
As nothing happens in a vacuum, context is important in understanding the outcomes you desire and perhaps voted for. Promoting any issue or candidate should be evaluated by the answers to these three questions:
1. Compared to what?
2. At what cost?
3. What hard evidence do you have?
One Example:
The Biden regime, the globalist left, and the “welcoming the stranger” Christian orgs didn’t ask Sowell’s three questions regarding an open border policy that let in 20-30+ illegal immigrants.
Open borders policy compared to what alternatives? Compared to controlled legal immigration with background checks and that promotes assimilation of American values. Societal integrity. Safety. Sanity. Sovereignty.
Open borders policy at what cost? The cost of more crime. More disease. More fentanyl and drugs. More gangs. More death. More chaos and dysfunction. More missing and trafficked children. More government. More taxes. Serving the interests of the Democratic party and their wealthy donors who need cheap labor. Overwhelming the healthcare system. (Cheap lettuce is not worth overpriced healthcare.) “Fundamentally transforming” the country into a third world country ripe for globalist dominance.
Victor Davis Hanson writes about The Immorality of Illegal Immigration and The Labyrinth of Illegal Immigration, where the truth is always more complex — and can reveal self-interested as well as idealistic parties.
Employers have long sought to undercut the wages of the American underclass by preference for cheaper imported labor. The upper-middle classes have developed aristocratic ideas of hiring inexpensive “help” to relieve them of domestic chores.
Listen, if a Christian pontificates that love does not consider the cost, understand that the “no cost” part is the individual’s cost of discipleship, and not your family’s, your neighbor’s, your community’s or your country’s.
Immigration laws are for the benefit of the American people — not for the benefit of people in other countries who want to come here. And sabotaging those laws to benefit your need to do something with your empathy or for crops or for domestic help or for anything else is illegal.
What hard evidence do you have that an open borders policy is a good decision? Your feelings? Your empathy? Any talk about “welcoming the stranger” in the abstract is not hard evidence in support of an open borders policy. Is the evidence your need for cheap labor? Democrats Once Again Concerned About Who Will Pick Their Crops
No cities announce that they will provide “sanctuary,” so that American shoplifters, or even jay-walkers, will be protected from the law. But, in some places, illegal immigrants are treated almost as if they were in a witness protection program. – Thomas Sowell, Immigration Sophistry
Sowell notes that times have changed: “When I was growing up, we were taught the stories of people whose inventions and scientific discoveries had expanded the lives of millions of other people. Today, students are being taught to admire those who complain, denounce, and demand.”
The three simple questions the left poses today:
Compared to yesterday, what can I complain and protest about today?
What can I denounce and destroy today without costing me anything?
Will you show me evidence of your affirmation of my “unconstrained” ways . . . or else?
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“When the anointed say that there is a crisis this means that something must be done —and it must be done simply because the anointed want it done.”
― Thomas Sowell, The Vision Of The Annointed: Self-congratulation As A Basis For Social Policy
Mike Rowe: Salena Zito was four feet from President Trump when the shots rang out in Butler, PA, nearly one year ago. She was immediately thrown to the ground by security and caught up in the ensuing chaos. I was watching on TV when it happened and recognized the lady face down on the ground by her signature boots, as did many others.
The Fight For America’s Heartland | Salena Zito #442 | The Way I Heard It
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Lest anyone think that I am an “ignorant hillbilly” and can be known by my smell (Peter Strzok), lest anyone think that I am a rube and an uncaring Christian xenophobe nativist, and lest anyone think that I haven’t traveled outside my shire and am not cosmopolitan, know that I have traveled to many parts of the world and have met and worked with many different people during my 70+ years. I am not a misanthrope.
My travel, mostly for engineering work, included a trip to Seoul South Korea and within five miles of the DMZ, to Dhahran and Jubail Saudi Arabia and the oil fields worked by Saudi Aramco, to Warsaw and Bialystok Poland, to England during the Queen’s silver jubilee, to Rio De Janeiro, to Mexico – Tuxpan and Tampico, Mexico City, and Sonora state, to many of the provinces of Canada, including Saskatchewan when it was 40 degrees below zero, and to most of the U.S.
I did love coming home to the U.S. after each trip to some distant place.
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Filed under 2025 Current Events, Immigration, Political Commentary, Politics, Progressivism Tagged with A Conflict of Visions, America, Immigration, politics, progressivism, Thomas Sowell