(Ed. Note: written by our long-time blog reader Retired Spook…being, ya know, old and stuff it took him a while to catch his breath and write this up…it is so good though, that it is being put out as a separate entry)

We didn’t get home from the Restoring Honor Rally until Sunday evening and we were so beat, we went straight to bed. I had intended to post some observations about the rally yesterday, but the site was down all day. When it finally came back on-line late last night, I caught up on the threads I missed while we were gone, happily noting that a couple other regulars also made it to the rally, but I was still too tired to put some coherent thoughts together, and the thread on the rally was 48 hours old by then anyway.

So here are my thoughts.

It was probably the most spiritually uplifting event that my wife and I ever participated in, and we came away feeling renewed and rededicated to playing our part in making this country a better place.

We were on one of 3 buses that left Fort Wayne, IN, at 9PM Thursday evening, arriving in D.C. about 10AM Friday morning with our first stop at Arlington Cemetery. After an hour and a half stay at Arlington (my first visit since the late 60’s and early 70’s when I was stationed there in the Navy), the bus dropped us off at our hotel (The Mayflower Renaissance on Connecticut Avenue about 4 blocks NW of the White House, and the rest of the day we were free to do whatever. We went out to lunch with two other couples, ending up a couple blocks from the hotel at a unique little local eatery with inside and outside tables, and then, I can’t vouch for what others did, but, after an 13-hour bus trip with stops about every 2-1/2 hours, we went back and took a nap.

We did do some sight-seeing later in the afternoon, and then took another nap. When you younger readers get to be 65, you’ll understand.

We were up around 6:30 on Saturday, and, after breakfast, walked the 8 or 9 blocks down 17th street to the monument area. A couple members of our group went down around 4:30 and saved some choice spots on the north side of the Reflecting Pool about 200 feet straight out from the stage, which was set up on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Thousands of people camped out all night in order to get close to the stage.

Neither the speakers nor any aspect of the program were publicized in advance. The event was billed as “non-political”, and the only description ever given about it was that it would be an experience unlike any we’d ever had, and we would come away with a new perspective on life and the future in general. That turned out to be accurate. The overwhelming concern of virtually everyone I talked to is that, for the first time in American history, we are headed toward a time when future generations will experience less prosperity and less freedom than their parents.

If you read any news accounts, (I read at least a dozen yesterday, the NYT and Newsweek being the most despicable) I can almost guarantee that they are not accurate. In fact, that was the one really disconcerting aspect of the whole event — that the media tried to make it something ugly and meaningless, and it was anything but that. You’ll read, for example, that the crowd was largely white and over 45. One of our 3 buses was full of families with children, and I would guess that the overall composition of the crowd reflected that demographic. It was disappointing that there weren’t more African Americans there, but it wasn’t because they weren’t welcome, and I did meet a couple who were exceptionally nice. One in particular was a giant of a guy in a Boston Celtics jersey who walked up and introduced himself.

The one accurate account that I did read later said that, in a crowd that extended nearly a mile from end to end, there were no arrests, and the only incidents that require police intervention were from a couple small groups of Leftist plants who brought some ugly signs up on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and were asked to leave.

RedState has the best photos I found showing the size of the crowd as well as the condition in which we left the Mall and monument area after the event. I’ve seen a number of photos of the original crowd at MLK’s I-Have-a-Dream speech in 1963 which was estimated at 200-250,000. There were 2-3 times as many people there last Saturday. Interesting that the 3 alphabet networks estimated the crowd at “tens of thousands”, “87,000 +/- 9,000″ and “around 100,000″.

One of the coolest parts of the entire program was completely unscripted. Because of the location, the organizers were unable to arrange a military flyover, but Mother Nature came to the rescue and, at 9:59 (one minute before the start, and with the music just beginning to play), a large flock of around 30 Canadian Geese banked around the WW2 memorial and flew in perfect V-formation straight down the length of the Reflecting Pool about 30 feet above the water, veering off to the north at the last moment. The crowd went nuts. the only part of the program that got a bigger ovation was Alveda King’s speech.

The program lasted nearly 3-1/2 hours. After the first 2 hours or so, we worked our way up through the trees almost to the north side of the stage by the time the program ended, just to get a feel for that portion of the crowd that was in the shade and couldn’t be seen in the aerial photos. The sound system was superb, and there were 6 jumbotrons spaced along both sides of the Reflecting Pool, so we never got to a point where we couldn’t see or hear.

Afterwards we visited the Vietnam Memorial to pay respects to two of my best boyhood friends who lost their lives in that conflict. From a distance that black granite wall doesn’t look like much, but standing directly in front of it was a sobering experience. As we walked away, I had to clutch my wife’s hand because the tears streaming down my face made it difficult to see where I was going.

Walking from the Vietnam Memorial down through the park to the WW2 Memorial, I didn’t see so much as a gum wrapper in the grass. All of the trash containers were full, but what didn’t fit in the containers was gathered in plastic bags and stacked against the containers. The 4th photo in the RedState 8/28 wrap-up is an accurate depiction of what we witnessed and quite a contrast from the 100+ tons of trash left strewn across the Mall at the Obama inauguration.  It really is a contrast in how different classes of our society show or don’t show respect.

We joined a thousand or so people sitting around the edge of the pool in the middle of the WW2 Memorial, cooling our feet in the water. For those of you who haven’t seen it, it’s a truly impressive structure and a fitting tribute to The Greatest Generation.

After cooling our feet, we walked up to the Washington Monument, and then headed back to the hotel, stopping for a rest and snack in Lafayette Park, across from the White House. I had forgotten what a neat city Washington, D.C. is. My last trip there was in 1989, the year I retired from the Navy, and I spent most of my time up at NSA in Maryland.

Our bus caravan took a different route coming home on Sunday, and the return trip only took a little over 11 hours, arriving in Fort Wayne at around 8:15, but we were so exhausted we went home and went straight to bed.

On my way to pick up our dog at the kennel yesterday morning, I heard a lady from our local bus caravan (3 in our group Thursday night and 5 more on Friday) interviewed on local AM radio. The guy who does the morning drive show asked her what was the main message she took away from the rally, and I think she hit it out of the park. She said that, above anything else, the main theme was that we need to quit dwelling on the scars of America’s past, along with all the victimhood associated with them and begin to concentrate on making the future better by, among other things, not repeating the mistakes of the past. To that I would add that it was also about restoring faith – the kind of faith that inspired a group of extraordinary men to found this country over two centuries ago. That was never more reflected than by the Black Robe Brigade, a group of 240 ministers, priests, rabbis, and imams who occupied a good portion of the stage. At the end, everyone joined in renewing the pledge made by the Founders in the Declaration of Independence:

with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

A recent report on the cost of freedom – from the AP:

In the summer twilight, a crowd gathers on a baseball diamond in Seattle, candles in hand, to remember a sailor who not long ago ran this dusty path.

In a California church, a young widow reunites with friends she saw just nine months ago at her wedding – this time, though, they’ve come to bid farewell to her soldier-husband.

And in a Tennessee high school, a family friend remembers the eager boy who grew up counting the days until he could don an Army uniform.

Day after day, the war in Afghanistan comes home…

Remember that every day while you and I sit safe and dry here at home, our best and bravest are out there putting their lives on the line. In this, it doesn’t matter your opinions – your opinions mean nothing to a 20 year old soldier on patrol in Afghanistan. All that soldier wants is the knowledge that you’ll back him up, and honor him by living the liberty he secures for us.

Don’t let a day go by without thinking of them – praying for them, and for the victory which will allow all of them to come home.

Angelo M. Codevilla over at the American Spectator has a fascinating article about just how our current ruling class arose, what it’s goals are and the perils for any group which would try to overthrow it and re-establish Constitutional government. Some of it is things I have already discussed and there are a few points of disagreement between myself and the author (most notably and the notion of bringing democracy to foreign lands on the point of a bayonet – I think we can and should, Codevilla feels otherwise…of course, I would do it differently from the way we’ve done it). It is, in my view, a must read article.

The pragmatic facts of life here are that we do have a ruling class. It comprises the overwhelming majority of elected Democrats as well as a substantial minority (and perhaps, at times, a plurality) – Ed. Note: this had said “majority”, but that was a typo, sorry for the confusion – of the Republican party. It absolutely dominates the permanent bureaucracy, especially on the federal level. It controls the unions, almost all institutions of higher education (especially in the prestige universities) and the MSM. It is culturally dominant in television and motion pictures.

It is very badly educated (especially in history and military affairs, while it wouldn’t know theology or philosophy if it fell on them) and yet claims for itself the mantle of an educated elite (this on the mere fact of having degrees, especially dumbed-down degrees from prestige universities). It is anti-Christian, anti-Jewish religion (to distinguish from those non-observant Jews who are members of the ruling class), anti-American and utterly contemptuous of the American people. It believes that it must rule because the American people, as such, are too narrow minded, ignorant, racist and stupid to govern themselves.

And it has to go – we must get rid of it before it destroys America and thus opens the path to war, conquest and a new Dark Age.

The changes we must advocate and carry out are, indeed, revolutionary. That we will be doing nothing other, in the end, than restoring our Founder’s government doesn’t make it any less revolutionary. We must think and act like revolutionaries – uncompromising in our demands and fierce in our denunciations of a usurping ruling class.

We must press our enemies and never let up. But we also must be wary of ever falling in to their methods. Codevilla points out how wrong it would be if, given a Congressional majority, we were to enact a Bill of Attainder against, say, Pelosi, Reid and Obama and then, per the Constitution, refuse authority to the Courts to review such action – we would be running rough shod over our own views and thus destroy ourselves.

But we must not shrink from the prospect of eventually putting all of them in jail for their violations of the law. Not that we will, but we must be prepared to do so – we must have an intensity of force which will leave no doubt that we are not going to be thwarted. They, on their side, have spent decades slowly transforming America in to a political freak show – we’ll want to switch it back to a constitutional republic in a matter of a few years, because any coalition of revolutionaries in favor of the Founder’s system will not be able to cooperate over even a ten year period, let alone the 80 or 90 years our ruling class has spent wrecking America.

Our advantage is in numbers and genuine enthusiasm for what we’re doing. Their advantage is in having control while also being a tightly disciplined minority. Victory will go to the side which keeps the goal most clearly in mind and which doesn’t lose faith even when things look darkest – fortunately, we are also the side with faith, so I do see our victory as certain, if we but show the will to try.

I am shocked to find that in Washington, DC, there is no memorial dedicated to those who served our nation in the First World War – it turns out that I wasn’t the only person who didn’t know:

In March 2008, Frank Buckles, the last surviving American veteran of World War I, visited the District of Columbia War Memorial, on the National Mall in Washington DC. He observed that this peaceful, secluded memorial, dedicated in 1931 as a memorial to the 499 residents of the District of Columbia who gave their lives in that war, sits neglected and in extreme disrepair, and that there is no national memorial to World War I. Mr. Buckles issued a call for the restoration and re-dedication of the D.C. memorial as a National and District of Columbia World War I Memorial.

I have seen that memorial and it is actually quite a moving place – though it is in great disrepair. And it would make an excellent memorial to all those who served – and this includes my grand-father and all of his brothers, as well as a couple sisters who served as nurses. They are all gone now, but the centennial of the First World war is little more than four years off and it would be fitting that the veterans receive a memorial worthy of their sacrifice – and as a permanent reminder to future generations of those Americans who went “Over There” to fight for freedom.

This link is to a petition which urges Congress to appropriate the money necessary to make this a reality. I hope you will sign and join in remembering the veterans of the First World War.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security…

Really miss having a great President.

…I therefore invite the good people of the United States, on the approaching 4th day of July, in addition to the usual observances with which they are accustomed to greet the return of the day, further, in such manner and at such time as in their respective localities and religious associations may be most convenient, to mark its recurrence by some public religious and devout thanksgiving to Almighty God for the blessings which have been bestowed upon us as a nation during the century of our existence, and humbly to invoke a continuance of His favor and of His protection.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 26th day of June, A. D. 1876, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundredth.

U. S. GRANT.

Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war. . .testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated. . . can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate. . .we cannot consecrate. . . we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us. . .that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. . . that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. . . that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. . . and that government of the people. . .by the people. . .for the people. . . shall not perish from the earth. – Abraham Lincoln, November 19th, 1863

…Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and Citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connexions with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle… – George Washington, September 17, 1796

…They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable–and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace– but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! – Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775

There is a lot of deserved hoopla over the sacrifices made by our veterans in WWII, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and OIF I & II. But somehow, WWII is often mentioned, with a skip over to Vietnam, and Korea appears to be but a footnote.

On this 60th anniversary of the start of the Korean War, lest we forget, (emphases mine)

• 6.8 million served on active-duty during the Korean War
• 1.8 million served during period of hostilities 36,940 died in theater during the war
• 4,793 died while missing in action
• 92,100 service members were wounded in theater, some several times
• 8,176 are still listed as missing in action 7,140 were POWs of whom 4,418 returned
• 131 Korean War participants received the Medal of Honor

The median age of Korean war vets in 2003 was 69, thus bringing the age now to 76.

In the series, M*A*S*H, the self-righteous surgeons (i.e., Alan Alda) of the 4077th often decried the ‘futility’ of the war, and the overarching message was that our men in the service were killed and wounded for no reason.

I beg to differ:

Without the sacrifices endured by our fighting men and women in Korea, the whole damned peninsula (and quite possibly beyond that) would have shared the fate of the northern half, and the pall that currently reigns over North Korea would have relegated a similar fate to untold millions more.

The next time the White House feels the compulsion to apologize for American “arrogance,” the Apologist in Chief may do well to take a gander at the above photo.

Today is the anniversary of D-Day – take a moment to remember those men set aside their own lives in order to liberate a continent from a monstrous tyrant.

The story of the Longest Day.

Wikipedia has a good account of the battle. Its good for us to pause and remember – and especially so for our battles of the Pacific War, most of which seem to have dropped out of the public mind.

Midway is especially worth remembering because it was a fight against long odds and we won it. Outnumbered and facing a much better trained and experienced force, the US Navy met the Japanese fleet toe to toe and administered a crushing defeat. Before Midway, there was no limit to Japanese conquest in the Pacific – after Midway, it was only a matter of time before Japan was beaten.

Had the battle gone the other way, Hawaii would have been open to invasion and the US west coast naked to raids and other destruction. It would have added years to the war, at the very least, and might have eventually forced a negotiated peace leaving Japan in control of a mighty empire.

So, remember those brave men – especially the hundreds of Navy pilots, some of them flying hopelessly obsolete aircraft thanks to pre-War idiocy about military spending, who threw themselves upon the Japanese fleet with no thought for their own safety.

…Their story is known to all of you. It is the story of the American man at arms. My estimate of him was formed on the battlefields many, many years ago, and has never changed. I regarded him then, as I regard him now, as one of the world’s noblest figures; not only as one of the finest military characters, but also as one of the most stainless.

His name and fame are the birthright of every American citizen. In his youth and strength, his love and loyalty, he gave all that mortality can give. He needs no eulogy from me, or from any other man. He has written his own history and written it in red on his enemy’s breast.

But when I think of his patience under adversity, of his courage under fire, and of his modesty in victory, I am filled with an emotion of admiration I cannot put into words. He belongs to history as furnishing one of the greatest examples of successful patriotism. He belongs to posterity as the instructor of future generations in the principles of liberty and freedom. He belongs to the present, to us, by his virtues and by his achievements.

In twenty campaigns, on a hundred battlefields, around a thousand campfires, I have witnessed that enduring fortitude, that patriotic self-abnegation, and that invincible determination which have carved his statue in the hearts of his people.

From one end of the world to the other, he has drained deep the chalice of courage. As I listened to those songs of the glee club, in memory’s eye I could see those staggering columns of the First World War, bending under soggy packs on many a weary march, from dripping dusk to drizzling dawn, slogging ankle deep through mire of shell-pocked roads; to form grimly for the attack, blue-lipped, covered with sludge and mud, chilled by the wind and rain, driving home to their objective, and for many, to the judgment seat of God.

I do not know the dignity of their birth, but I do know the glory of their death. They died unquestioning, uncomplaining, with faith in their hearts, and on their lips the hope that we would go on to victory. Always for them: Duty, Honor, Country. Always their blood, and sweat, and tears, as they saw the way and the light.

– Douglas MacArthur, May 12, 1962

Originally done up for Veteran’s Day, but it works, every day.

A great video:

Its getting hard to do this – maybe I’m just getting more emotional these days, but I have a hard time watching the images and listening to the music without breaking up.

We can never do enough for them for all they’ve done for us.

Another great one:

Great video:

After all, we were born of rebels:

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, speaking at a law school forum, said that GOP opposition to the Obama program “is almost at the level of sedition.”

Patrick later said the phrase was a mere “rhetorical flourish,” but this isn’t the first — or the fifth — time a prominent liberal politico has accused conservatives of approaching sedition in opposing Obama administration policies. See, the “almost” part is key, because then it isn’t offensive, right?

And the thing is, we’re not like the liberals who call themselves rebellious. No, not like that at all – liberals are slaves who, doing their master’s bidding, think they a “speaking truth to power” or whatever catch phrase of the day it is. We, on our side, are like this:

Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined. – Patrick Henry

We refuse to give up that force and we won’t be cowed by hacks like Deval Patrick. Call us seditious and we’ll wear that badge with pride – we do, indeed, seek the overthrow of the liberalism being imposed upon us. There will be no let up on our part until liberalism is consigned to the ash heap of history.