Letters to America – Brittany Corfman Parks

America the Beautiful,  

I have walked your roads, America. I have knocked on the doors of my fellow citizens. I spoke of liberty in Ohio, on the crest of what was once the untamed frontier. Today, deer graze in quiet meadows where muskets once roared, and cotton clouds roll across the open sky as if they’ve forgotten the smoke of battle.

I am a proud tenth-generation descendant of John McElroy, a Patriot of the American Revolution from North Carolina. Two hundred and fifty years ago, you were not yet fully formed. You were just a daring, dazzling idea, alive in the eyes of farmers, blacksmiths, mothers, sons… and men like John.

He arrived to you in 1729 as an infant, cradled in his mother’s arms aboard the George & Ann, leaving Belfast for Philadelphia. They did not seek comfort. They wanted liberty. From the hills of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, John grew into a man forged by the raw strength of frontier life. He married Martha, a woman of quiet strength, and together they carved a life through wilderness and war. 

When Revolution called, John answered. He didn’t with speeches, but with his blood, grit, and musket. Alongside his father and four brothers, Archibald, Hugh, James, and Samuel, he fought through the French and Indian War and then the Revolution itself. A father and five sons, standing shoulder to shoulder in the mud and the remnants of battles fought. This was not merely for a cause, but for the future. For us. For you. 

I often wonder if he could see his descendants now with electric lights where he had fireflies, highways where he had trails, skyscrapers where he had trees. Yet he is still here, in the essence of who we are and in our stubborn faith that America, with all your scars and splendor, is still worth fighting for 

I joined the fight for freedom for John, for Martha, for every child they raised when liberty was still wet ink on fragile parchment. Every generation of my family has known the cost of war. From the Revolution to Afghanistan, where my little brother came home carrying the invisible wounds of service. 

Since your birth, America, we have given you our blood, our talents, and our treasure. Ten generations later, as a proud Daughter of the American Revolution raising the eleventh, I look forward to the next 250 years. But if we are to prosper, we must learn from those before us. We must have practical realism and focused restraint, in policy and in purpose.  

As we approach the 250th anniversary of your Independence, I raise my hand―not just in salute, but in promise: 

To remember. To continue to fight for freedom from the halls of elected power to the doorsteps of my neighbors and communities.  To continue the work that patriots like John McElroy began. 

Your proud daughter of the 21st century ,

Brittany Corfman Parks  
Grassroots Engagement Director
Concerned Veterans for America