At Trenton, in 1776, some of Washington’s men marched barefoot in the snow. At Spotsylvania, in 1864, Lee and Grant’s men fought hand to hand, in the rain, for 18 hours. At Tarawa, in 1943, the Marines waded through neck-deep water in the face of Japanese machine guns in order to get to shore. In 1950, General Walker issued a “stand or die” order to his 8th Army in Korea – and plenty of them did die, but they also stood.
Why did these men do that? For more than two centuries American fighting men (and, these days, fighting women) have willingly gone in to the very worst places imaginable and won victories against all odds. Why?
Did they do it so that we could have a bloated Department of Veterans Affairs with a backlog of nearly 1,000,000 claims cases? Did they do it so that fat cat bankers could be bailed out by middle class taxpayers? Did they do it so that our factories could be shipped to China by a collusion of government and business short-sightedness and corruption?
Were they laying down their lives so that terrorists could get Miranda rights? For that matter, were they sacrificing so that criminals could get off on a technicality? Was their blood shed so that in academia, media and the political left their nation – and their sacrifice – could be slandered at will? Were the noblest sacrifices of youth given so that wastrels could sit around collecting government money?
No – they fought and they sacrificed so that their people, we Americans, could be free. Free not to debase ourselves or become the lazy, kept serfs of the super-State – but free to live our dreams, and work hard, and sacrifice in our own turn so that this last, best hope for Man on earth would be preserved. They died that we might live. And what have we done with their sacrifice? Think for a moment of some poor son of our land whose life blood pours out at Yorktown, Gettysburg, Normandy or Pleiku…his life is just slipping away, his family will never see him again; he is giving his all for you…have you lived up to that sacrifice? Have any of us?
This is the test we are given, the task we must perform. They gave their all for a vision of America – for the Founder’s vision. Those words written on paper in 1776 in our Declaration of Independence and in 1787 in our Constitution are what they were defending – and it is, then, up to us to ensure that those ideals are maintained and given their full life in our lives and in our government. If we will not fight for the America they died for, then we are cheating them, and we would be justly damned before history and all decent men and women if we failed in this trust.
We’ve been slack. We’ve let a lot of things slip. We’ve been too quiet – though we are now waking up. But, beware! The siren song of sleep is being spun out – there are those, still, who warn us not to be too ardent. After all, we might offend someone and you know how bad that would be…they want us quieted, again. And some of them claim to be on our side! The whole power structure of money and politics is dependent upon us betraying America, and betraying those patriots who gave their all.
We dare not do that – we must fight, and we must be willing to give our all in this cause of American liberty. If not now, when? If not us, who?
Cross Posted: Noonan for Nevada
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