Celebrating July 4th

Today is the 4th of July, or Independence Day. I’ve just returned from my two week tour of the West and I’ve been reading and clearing my e-mails, which—even though I tried to screen them every night on the road, seem to number in the hundreds—contain a lot of patriotic messages relating to this day.

Well, I have no quarrel with those messages, but I think I can put a different spin on the holiday we celebrate this weekend based on my thoughts over the past several days.

I know, I’m probably using a title that is either already a song or a book title, but I want to call this column “Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?”

Do you realize that any American who is under the age of 40 (that is at least two generations, if not more) cannot name any television or movie actors who played cowboys?

Oh, maybe a few would come up with John Wayne, but how many do you think could reel off the names James Arness (Marshall Matt Dillon), Alan Ladd (Shane), William Boyd (Hopalong Cassidy), Clayton Moore (the Lone Ranger), or even those guys who used there own stage names in their portrayals? There were Tom Mix, Roy Rogers and Gene Autry to name just a few.

Oh, I don’t want to make this a contest to see how many cowboy stars I can recall, but just think about this... Almost every one of those people I named and many, many more I didn’t, are long dead. And there are no noteworthy replacements.

In our politically correct world the taming of the Wild, Wild West cannot be talked about or shown anymore. Who would be the “bad guys?” Instead, we get movies like “Brokeback Mountain” to make heroes out of sissified gay cowboys.

Yes, a whole huge chapter in our heritage has been completely wiped out and forgotten in our history. If the topic were to come up today, it is more fashionable to apologize and revile those true heroes of the American West who helped make this country what it became in the Twentieth Century.

Just try to find anything on the Internet about Kit Carson. I drove past a town in Colorado named after him, but I doubt that the citizens even know who he was much less what he did to open the western frontier.

Then there was the grave of Buffalo Bill that is on Lookout Mountain above the town of Golden, Colorado. Buffalo Bill Cody has been reviled by those who blamed him for single-handedly wiping out the huge herds of bison on the Great Plains. Not only was he incapable of doing that, his Wild West shows that included Chief Sitting Bull among others was instrumental in bringing settlers westward.

I could name and cite many others, but the point is, our kids don’t even get taught this stuff anymore, or else they get false information.

So, yes, I do honor the heroes of today, our military servicemen and women who protect us and help other countries to gain and enjoy our freedoms. But I also want you to tell your kids and grandkids and great-grandkids about those other heroes who helped make all of this a reality.

Let’s remember, even if it is only in the make-believe world of Hollywood and TV Land, that there were a lot of good men and women who braved the hardships to make this a nation that stretches from “sea to shining sea.”

Note: I learned of two websites that help you and your kids to read and to understand the U.S. Constitution. You might want to look up and bookmark these two for present and future reference:
http://ratify.constitutioncenter.org/constitution/index_no_flash.php
http://usconstitution.net/