On Dec. 23, 1776, Thomas Paine wrote a powerful essay, titled “American Crisis” that became a significant inspiration for the colonists to win their independence from Great Britain. If Paine were alive today, he might write a modern version to reawaken our American spirit. Here’s how he might have penned it. Direct wording from his original essay is cited with quotation marks.

These are the times that try our souls. The ignorant and the apathetic “will, in this crisis shrink from the service of their country,” but we that stand by it now, deserve the love and gratitude of every man and woman. America’s future is not guaranteed; if we say nothing and do nothing to preserve a land worthy of our children and our grandchildren, they will inherit our failure to recapture the pride in our nation we once held in our collective hearts; there has been no light to an endless tunnel of darkness. In that vein we will leave a legacy from which history will render a verdict of guilty as charged.

The harder the conflict the more satisfying the victory. What we are entitled without effort, we hold without value. Our freedom, attained and preserved upon the valor of the fallen soldier, will drift away in the morning wind. The patriotism our forefathers had passed on to future generations of Americans is at supreme risk during this midnight hour and may be lost forever to the self-indulgent and by turning our heads away from our neighbor. We care not for this man’s need of our compassion. We care not for that woman’s need of our empathy.

We have none to blame but ourselves for our indifferences, yet our demise does not need be final. God Almighty or whatever we deem to have created this universe will not give up our people to the unconscionable and to the suppression of the American dream or leave us to perish by our own hands. We shall not surrender to the discontented that declare those to be unworthy because of color of skin, origin of culture, or choice of gender. We must be one people, one America. The eagle awakens the same morning that greets our coming day, flies below the same sun that rises above us all, and rests the same night we kiss our children into the serenity of their sleep.

’Tis surprising to see how rapidly a decline will sometimes run through a country. All nations and ages have been subject to a gradual but enduring decay of humanity that now looms over our land like an ominous black cloud. Yet American history has proved the grit of our people. When we come together, we are invincible to every threat that might be brought upon us. In the United States we stand. In the Divided States we fall and the Pledge of Allegiance would become nothing more than recitation void of significance demanded at public forums and inside school classrooms. We should shudder to speak its doomed revision. To the Republic from which it no longer can stand, a broken nation under God we do not believe, without liberty, and without justice for all.

We shall not be Republicans. We shall not be Democrats. We shall not wear badges of red or blue color. We shall not be mesmerized by the rhetoric of media egos or by the faces that stand behind podiums of political favor. We must demand leadership that empowers us to serve our communities. President John F. Kennedy had said, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”

America has been built upon the backs of the blue collar, from the triumph of the underdog, in the love of family, and for the respect of the man and the woman who live next door. We must not believe extremism will prevail. Anarchy delivers separatism and never unity. We must link our differences together to construct an unbreakable chain from which we can stand upon the mountaintop and proudly hold the hands of our brothers and sisters.

“I call not upon a few, but upon all, not on this state or that state, but on every state - up and help us. Lay your shoulders to the wheel ... Let it be told to the future world that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and country alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it.”

It matters not where you live or what title you hold, the plight of the closed mind and the scourge of his blindness at the road ahead will infect us all. The rich or the poor will suffer alike ... “The heart that feels not now is dead. The blood of his children will curse his cowardice ... I love the man and woman that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection.” ’Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but to those of us whose hearts are true and whose courage is strong, let us pursue our principles unto our deaths.

Let us call not for a revolution with weapons and violence, but for a reawakening of the mission set forth at the birthday of our nation; that all Americans possess the unalienable right to the pursuit of happiness and that this endeavor shall not conflict with that right of any others.

To achieve this right, we must be one people undivided by political party, by race, by culture or by creed. One people driven out of blatant complacency and into spirited purpose. One country lifted high upon the eagle’s wings, to reach for the promise we must make to generations of tomorrow that they too may carry the torch to preserve the glory of our beloved United States of America.

Rich Strack can be reached at richiesadie11@gmail.com