The Official Web Site of Stephen Willand ...
photo courtesy of Assumption College
Heritage
My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!
Thomas Jefferson
In 1998 I had the great honor of serving as the Chairman of the 150th Anniversary Celebration for the City of Worcester. There were many highlights of that yearlong celebration including a laser show with 15,000 people in attendance, bagpipe brigades, cookouts and the usual array of speeches and gala get together. However, for me the centerpiece of the City's big party was the fourteen month Multi-Cultural Festival. Each week a new national or ethnic group would proudly step on stage and display their music, food, dress, and most importantly, their history, their culture, their heritage. I sat in amazement as week after week country after country would be put in the spotlight, as people showed their pride in the rich traditions and cultural and historic legacy that each country had handed down from one generation to the next. I realized that each of these national and ethnic groups not only knew their nation's history and understood the significance of the events of the past, but were deeply proud of the heritage that they had inherited. As I watched and listened I knew that I was witness to a basic truism. If a nation and its culture and traditions are to survive, there must be a deep and unbending faith in, and respect for, the history and heritage that have defined that nation and its people.
If a nation's future is at least in part determined by a respect for its past, then America is looking at a future that is bleak at best. We in the United States do many things well, and in many cases better than any other nation or people in the world. In this regard we are world leaders at self criticism which is not only not a bad thing, but a rather healthy and necessary ingredient for any free and open democratic society. However, we in America may have taken this self-evaluation a bit too far. Americans are not only world leaders; they have set a new standard for denouncing, thrashing and publicly denying the very foundations upon which their nation was built. The basic principles, the core beliefs and the underlying faith that inspired the creation of this nation have all been relegated to the trash bin of history as we try to re-define, re-invent or somehow re-think our mission and purpose. This is not a corporation trying to re-engineer for the new world of global competition; it is a nation, a people that some 230 years re- thought what the purpose of government was, and then revolutionized the world. Thomas Jefferson told us about the self evident truth of being created equal and the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and "that to ensure these rights, governments are instituted among men..." Today, nothing is self evident or unalienable and the role of government is questionable.
The list of events that have been subject to this re-thinking, otherwise known as historical revising, is far too long to discuss here. Suffice it to say, it begins with the very discovery of the lands that we now inhabit and call our nation. People have told me that Columbus (the archetypical Dead White European Male) did not discover America; he invaded it. Moreover, for those of you who wish to acknowledge that Columbus, and his followers, explored America, you need to be told that he conquered it. There you have it. Next Columbus Day weekend celebrate the invasion and conquest of America and mourn the slaughter of all Native Americans. Shortly thereafter, on a day formerly known as Thanksgiving, you can celebrate another day of mourning when we retroactively berate the Pilgrims for the dastardly deeds they perpetrated on the Native Americans in Plymouth on a day when there can be nothing for which to give thanks. When it comes to Patriots Day, you should be reminded that the Patriots at Concord and Lexington on that memorable April morning in 1775 were all white land owning men who were merely protecting their own economic self interests. Speaking of economic self interest, what are we to make of those wealthy, white, land owning, slave holding, self serving men who went to Philadelphia in 1776 and declared the independence of this nation?
We can continue throughout our history and tell ourselves that Davy Crockett, Sam Houston, Jim Bowie and all were anti-Mexican land grabbing scoundrels and should never have been in the Alamo in the first place; that Custer got what he deserved at the Little Big Horn; that the Confederate battle flag is a symbol of racism and on and on. When we have no heroes we have no cherished role models to believe in. Thomas Jefferson was a man of enlightenment, a liberal, a champion of the rights of people, and an avowed hater of the institution of slavery. He was the most articulate, eloquent and elegant voice in the fight against tyranny and the strongest advocate for the rights of the people. Yet, today rather than respect all that he did to help found this great nation we criticize him for having slaves. If we have no heroes, we will have no heritage. Most nations, most people believe in their country and honor its past. Most nations cherish their heritage and pass it proudly from one generation to the next. Most nations teach their history with great pride. In all these nations, the future of their culture, values and traditions are guaranteed because people have pride in them. The same cannot be said for America.
The Greatest Generation on Furlough
A wonderful group of friends who served their country with distinction including William F. Willand (top second from left) and his brother Robert(top far right) and Charles Roberts, USMC, a true American Hero, a Great American, a Great Marine and my father’s best friend.
