On Feb 20, 9:03 am, "D. Spencer Hines" excelsior.com> wrote:

Hi,

That is an important observation and identity.

In 1976, I played Thomas Jefferson in the Bicentennial play, and the
local DAR chapter remaked about how my performance personified what it
is to be an American. To this day, I still believe the pen is mightier
than the sword, and the Patrick Henry is important because he took the
initiative when saying "Give me liberty, or give me death."

Since my father died in 2000, when I was 37 then, on that night in
November 2000 and onward, I was the head of the family. My mother who
was disabled at the time needed care, we had gone through a tough year
in 1999, and the bills were mounting. The easiest thing would have
been to quit, I did not choose that path. I knew that night at 2:00
p.m., a transformation had occurred -- I was no longer the creative
computer geek, but needed to be head of the family because my mother,
sister, and her husband needed me to do so. My point is that like
Patrick Henry, one can try many methods to get others, The Throne, to
listen. Eventually, when those options fail, and the decision time
comes, you need to act and identify yourself, your role, and your job
to be done.

That night, I could not say to someone, could you do this for me, or I
don't want to talk to WE energies about the utilities being cut off.
As hard as it was, I had to make the those phone calls, see what money
we had in the budget for my Dad's funeral and to pay the minister to
speak, and to seek what I could pay WE energies to keep the utilities
on and keep my mom in the home she wanted to stay. The hardest point
was the first winter of 2001 since his passing, some things he would
solve me for me, I needed to solve myself. Also, his friend Jim Lunde,
helped me as much as he could from 2001-2002 until he died due to old
age. It was like emerging from a protective egg, and being reborn.

Based upon the transformation started in 2000 and a second in 2006 of
the foreclosure of the family homestead, I remember what my father
used to tell me (he had polio) "Because I had polio, when someone
would start a fight with me, I knew I could not run away, I had to
determine a strategy to solve it there. That is what having polio
teaches you, to solve it there..." If I would have been my old self of
1999, I may have given in, thrown in towel; But, I knew things will
get better, and that like in 2000, I need to persevere.

A transformation is interesting, because you know of who you once
were. You may even ask if you wish to go back to being who you once
were. Then, you realize that if you had not transformed, you may not
free and you may not be alive (dead by suicide or dead by others
controlling your life and destiny:: both horrible). Once the
transformation occurs, it is the committed path. The only thing that
can change a transformation is love.

The above phrase of Patrick Henry represents a transformation of mind
and person in that we are American. We are not religious right,
radical left, republican, or democrats, we are Americans first and
always.