My Remarks at the Spirit of America Festival, July 4, 2010 - 2010-07-04 14:27:42 SPIRIT OF AMERICA FESTIVAL REMARKS BY Homer Hickam, July 4, 2010
Ladies and Gentlemen, friends, family, and Americans everywhere on this our grandest day of all:
I count it as a high privilege to receive the Audie Murphy Patriotism Award today and also share the stage with such great Americans.
As mentioned, I'm best known for a little story I wrote about growing up in a small mining town in West Virginia. I called it Rocket Boys, the movie people called it October Sky, but it was essentially the story of a boy who wanted to take his dreams and make them into reality. In short, it was a story of an American for that is the dream of all of us who understand the potential of this great land.
Coalwood, West Virginia, my home town was a pretty special place, I guess. It was a town owned entirely by the coal company. Every house, tree, road, store, man, and woman was owned by the coal company. Even the church was owned by the company and the preacher was a company man. We liked to say we got the low bid religion.
The company also sponsored a Boy Scout troop of which I was privileged to be a member. I rose to the exalted rank of Boy Scout Second Class, a failure to memorize the Morse Code destroying any hope I had of rising higher. Nonetheless, I learned many great lessons during my days as a Scout including a certain gratitude to the scoutmasters who put up with me and tried to guide me in the best direction possible.
These days, it often astonishes me that the Scouts use the movie October Sky to train their leaders in what is known as the Woodbadge course. It gives them insight, so I'm told, as to the human condition, mostly including perseverance. I'm happy to report it doesn't include the Morse Code. In any case, I'm proud that something I did might help in any way this great organization.
Despite its churches and Boy Scout troop, Coalwood could be a harsh place. Every day, all the men got up and went to work in a deep, dark, and dangerous coal mine. Every day, the wives saw their husbands off, not certain if they would see them at the end of the day. There were days when the sirens wailed, and some of those man didn't come home.
Yet, for all that, the people of Coalwood did more than persevere. They thrived.
Just after the attack on our country in September, 2001, I was on a book tour for the third in the series of memoirs I wrote about Coalwood. It was titled Sky of Stone. But people didn't want to talk about the book. They wanted to talk about 9/11 and their fears. They were afraid, they said, and so were their children. On C-Span, I began to talk about Coalwood and its people and why they weren't afraid, even considering all they had to contend with. I explained why that was so, citing the four attitudes toward life they took every day:
We are proud of who we are. We stand up for what we believe. We keep our family together. We trust in God but rely on ourselves.
Putting all those together, every day, the people of Coalwood raised their heads and said, We Are Not Afraid.
And they weren't. I ended up writing another book, this one titled We Are Not Afraid, to pass this wisdom on to the world, to help all those who are fearful of both physical attack and the mental distress it causes.
There is another type of fear, however, that gnaws at the fabric of our nation's soul. That is the fear that leads too many of our citizens to be hateful of our country and our society. Nothing we as a nation do at home or overseas is any good, they say, and we are a country on a downward spiral and must change everything about ourselves. Such fear and self-defeatism can only be cured by a sound education which includes an understanding of what this country is and why it exists. Our ideals are good, our principles wonderful, the documents that are our foundation impeccable. The only problem with the United States is that human beings govern her, and human beings make mistakes. Only the fear mongers among us or the historically uninformed can't see that. They believe the lies and thus take on the habits of fear and dread and turn them against our sweet country.
The people of Coalwood had an unwavering belief in their country and it gave them a sense of peace. Why fear anything when your cause is just and your country is good?
This is what they taught me, their wisdom sustaining me all the days of my life.
We are proud of who we are. We are proud to be Americans. We are proud to serve our country and we are proud of those who serve. We will forever be grateful to those now in Iraq and Afghanistan, in Korea and Germany, in every ship, submarine, and outpost on the frontier of freedom. We are proud of you and we thank you for your service.
We stand up for what we believe. We believe that this country is the best one in the world. In fact, we believe there is no second best. There is this place and everywhere else has work to do. We know we have work to do, too, but we're doing it. Don't let anybody tell you we're not.
We keep our family together. We are fifty states and several territories and commonwealths. We are all Americans, every one of us who were lucky enough to be born here or were lucky enough to come here and take up citizenship. There are no hyphens in our Americanship. We are who we are, a family of people dedicated to our land and one another. We will keep ourselves one people, now and forever. This is our pledge to those who went before us, who live amongst us now, and those yet to come.
We trust in God but rely on ourselves. As a people founded by men and women who believed in a certain set of devinely defined principles, we know that no matter our situation, there is always One greater than ourselves. We strive to not be so arrogant in our knowledge and capabilities that we forget that. But we also recognize that we have to do all that we can do for ourselves and for our friends, our family, and our nation. It is expected by those men and women who put this country together, and the Creator who has blessed it during all its days.
Finally, We Are Not Afraid. There are those out there who think they can scare us but they don't know us, not at all. We are Americans. And Americans do not back away from a challenge. In fact, we welcome them. They make us stronger. This is something our enemies have never figured out and I suppose they never will.
There was a preacher in Coalwood. His name was Reverend Richard, and he happened to be a black man. He was a beloved fixture in our little town and I yet recall the invocation he gave at Coalwood's annual Independence Day Celebration in 1961. I thought highly enough that I even included it in two books: Sky of Stone and this one, We Are Not Afraid.
Here's what the good Reverend said on that long ago day:
Dear Lord, we are gathered here to celebrate not just the independence of our great land, but also the document on which it stands. There is much to admire in that document but what we best remember is this: We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
To prepare for this invocation today, I have pondered long and hard these words. Most of you know that I rarely go anywhere without my Bible. It is an old Bible. It belonged to my grandfather. What you don't know is that inside this book, I have always kept a copy of the Declaration of Independence. It also belonged to my grandfather. He believed it to be as Holy as his Bible.
When I was a boy, somebody once asked me if my grandfather had been a slave. I couldn't imagine that could be true so I went to him and asked him: Grandfather, were you a slave? He said, Child, a man called me that but I was never a slave and you know why? Because I could read. My mama, she taught me when that man wasn't looking, just as her mama taught her.
When he became officially a free man, my grandfather purchased this Bible and a copy of the Declaration of Independence. He kept them both until the day he died. He left them to me.
I have come to understand my grandfather was right. No man or woman can be a slave if they can read. Especially if they can read the Bible and the American Declaration of Independence.
But that means there are still slaves in this land. There are slaves who do not know that they have unalienable rights given to them by God, and that they also have, by the grace of the Lord, life, liberty, and the right to pursue their happiness and the happiness of their families.
They are slaves to their own ignorance. Ignorance is the ultimate slave owner.
So on this 4th of July, I pray a special prayer.
I pray for the day when the tyranny of ignorance will be banished all across this great land and every man, woman, and child can read and understand what they read.
I pray for that day.
I pray every day for that day.
Thank you, Reverend Richard, and thank you one and all for this wonderful award. I will cherish it forever.
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