The year is 476. The last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustus, is deposed by Odoacer, and the Western Roman Empire falls. This is the last remaining strength that either empires will possess, but of course the original Roman Empire had already split into two pieces.
Before the empire split, history books tend to show the destruction of the Roman people as a collective identity. With wealth and power came the watering down of their discipline, their principles and ideas. They incorporated and imported pieces of other cultures to supplement their own, stealing what they could to shape what they believed to be the best empire for the world.
This ultimately was their undoing. The Roman senate under the emperors began to fall to pieces, politicians squabbling and fighting to serve their own agendas instead of the people. No one felt protected because Roman soldiers were no longer being trained the way they were supposed to and therefore they were no longer the invincible troops of Rome.
So here we are, the children of those of the 13 colonies. We have long held onto our idea that Americans are better than the rest of the world, but even as we speak, we continue to import from other cultures. There is debate that our official language should be Spanish, that we should no longer be one nation under "God" as there are so many that are non-religious.
I have often heard it said that if Adolf Hitler paid attention to history books, he would have learned from Napoleon, not attacked Russia in the winter, and then simply secured a country that did not have the capability to fight him.
With one less splash in that war, we could have all been speaking German and being trained to hunt the remaining members of a proud and necessary race: the Jews.
Fortunately for us, Hitler did not read his history books and we have a far more peaceful and welcoming world today. Yet we can still learn from history books and actually MAKE CHANGES to save ourselves.
So recall your religion, you heathens. Speak English with pride and welcome those who do not, but teach them as it is your country, not theirs, not yet. Praise the underdog and let the foreign countries have their wars, do not intercede unless it threatens you. Let the government fear the people, not the other way around. Make peace through example, not intercession. Make money as a capitalist nation, pour that money into business, use the money from business to hire more people, and steal the poor from the streets to become good people.
Let the children murmur a pledge to a flag in their classroom, regardless of their background for the simple reminder of where they are.
If nothing else, holding on to our identity will insure that we don't break apart, that we move forward as one.
Just a thought, of course.
