On February 18, 1997, the Lord blessed us with a precious little girl we named Abigail. She turns 13 today and is still such a joy to Terri and me. She loves animals, sticks up for anybody and everybody who cannot stick up for themselves, gives all of her money away to whoever asks for it (except her brother), and always has a kind word.
The world she and her peers are growing up in is very different from the world my generation grew up in. From 9/11 on there has been the steady drumbeat of terrorism and a world turned upside down, from You Tube to IPODs everything seems instantly accessible and repeatable, from Virginia Tech to Fort Hood places that once seemed safe no longer are. I lament the loss of innocence her generation experienced and continues to experience.
So, what can we give our sons and daughters, our grandsons and granddaughters as a present? Love, peace, and assurance for starters, but I also think we should pass on to them an America with a renewed confidence and respect for the institutions of government. Perhaps we can give them a respected civil and criminal judicial system. Perhaps we can give them a country on solid fiscal footing. Perhaps we can give them a country that spends as much time celebrating our commonality as we do insisting on our differences. Perhaps we can give them an America where contrast is clear and compelling but also civil.
Most of all we can give them the assurance that the American dream is alive and well. That when a young person combines education with hard work and mixes in the right measure of personal responsibility and accountability to others that she or he can accomplish anything they set their minds to. Happy Birthday sweetheart and may you grow up in a safe, secure country where you are free to become whatever you want to become.
