Happy Birthday to the USA:
“Whippersnapper Nation!”
July 4, 2008

Gather around class. On July 4, 2008, the United States of America will celebrate its 232nd birthday. Happy Birthday, you “whippersnapper!” The word “whippersnapper” originated about 100-years, before the freedom-loving colonists told King George to go jump in the lake. To be historically accurate, this dynast’s tea is what the rebels threw into Boston Harbor.

Whippersnapper originally referred to a young person, usually male, who was unimportant and insignificant – but presumptuous. That epithet certainly applied to our early thirteen colonies. They were unimportant and insignificant, relative to the mighty British Empire, but they were also presumptuous in attempting to break away from Mother England. But break away they did!

The modern version of “whippersnapper” describes a person with both ambition and a healthy streak of “impertinence.” Older and more established nations – and even some citizens of this country – feel that the U.S. should be as staid, unimaginative, and lacking in courage as they are. Their desire for the U.S. to conform to their chronically failing economies and their inability to defend themselves militarily did not begin in the 18^th century.

Plus Ca Change, Plus La Même Chose

That means the more things change, the more they remain the same. The same thing is happening now, as too many of our citizens are losing their impertinence – the gall that founded our great nation, even when our backs were against that proverbial wall.

We had better rediscover that impertinence…before all is lost!

Case in point is the catastrophic attack that took place on our nation on 9/11/2001. The day before this disaster – on 9/10/2001 – we were meandering along, minding our own business, watching the latest reality show, cheering on our local teams, eating our Cheerios. You know, the usual staples of a steady and non-threatened existence.

But the alarm clock went off on 9/11/2001. We woke up! Less than one month later, on October 7, 2001, the Taliban was introduced to Operation Enduring Freedom, carried out by a few hundred “impertinent” Special Ops forces and backed up by 25 Navy strike aircraft and 15 land-based bombers. The girls who had been banned by the Taliban from attending school returned to their studies in Afghanistan a few months later.

Women here in the U.S. complain about a “glass ceiling?” It is easier to shatter that glass ceiling than it is to get out from under that impenetrable burqa, with slits for their eyes, that women in Afghanistan are forced to wear. Oh yeah, the U.S. freed some 27-million Afghans from what’s his name, Osama “Where Is He Hidden!” Not to mention the liberation that followed of 50-million Iraqi citizens, who risked their lives to vote in that country’s first free election, and are now enjoying the results of “the surge” that has brought relative peace to their country.

Some Historical Perspective Please

On December 7, 1941, the United States was also minding its own business, choosing not to enter into the war raging in Europe. Four years later, “Heil Hitler” died regretting that Japan pulled our country into World War II, with its attack on Pearl Harbor on that fateful day in December 1941.

Spunky, patriotic, love-of-country American fighting men showed Japan that it is best to let “sleeping whippersnappers lie.” The picture of American soldiers planting Old Glory on Iwo Jima, is part of the enduring lore of “impertinence” displayed by our nation’s defenders.

On the second front in the battle against Germany and its allies, the U.S. and its allies took to the beach, definitely not to frolic. They landed on the beaches of Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha and Utah in order to save Europe (for the second time!) While other allies took care of the first three beaches, America’s 1st Division took Utah and Omaha. Omaha was the more difficult of the two, but it was eventually won. Hitler and his allies learned that it is not the age of the nation, but the courage of its youth.

How many countries and people has this whippersnapper nation of ours saved and emancipated? One measure is the cemeteries dotted too generously – too tragically – across the globe with the tombstones of American liberators. Another measure is what I label “Ghostbusters moments.” In the 1984 movie “Ghostbusters,” and the song of the same name, the tag line was “who you gonna call?” The answer was of course: “Ghostbusters!”

Our spunky, impertinent nation is the Ghostbuster of the world. Be it a natural disaster, a situation where a vicious despot invades another country, or the oppressed people of a country or continent need help, the GhostbUSter is there!