Tags
Abraham Lincoln, America, Benjamin Franklin, Donald Trump, freedom, George Washtington, Independence Day, liberty, socialism, Thomas Jefferson, unalienable rights of the individual
credit: usageorge.com
I thank God I’m still here to update this article each Independence Day. I chose the photo of a B1 because I was fortunate enough to know a B1 instructor pilot who arranged for me to “fly” a B1 simulator for 45 minutes. It was a fascinating experience, all the more so because he told me the actual aircraft is easier to fly than the simulator. B1 pro tip: non-fatal aerial refueling requires a bit more than 45 minutes of simulator practice. I came away with a renewed appreciation for American technology, and for the dedication and skill of the men and women who design and produce our military aircraft, who maintain and fly them, and for all the other implements with which we preserve liberty. May our pilots have all the fuel and flight time they need.
That experience also reminds me of my early days in the Air Force in that long ago, Cold War era. As our group of security policemen stood at parade rest, preparing to go on duty, the roar of the eight engines of a B-52 on the nearby flight line rose as slowly and majestically as the giant bomber. One of my fellow airman exclaimed “what’s that?!” A young man from the inner city, he’d never heard or seen anything like it. Our Sgt. smiled and replied: “That’s the sound of freedom.”
As I update my observations of a year ago, I hope you find something that strengthens your pride in America, and that encourages you to take up the fight to preserve liberty, just as so many before us have done.
Benjamin Franklin
If we do not hang together, we shall surely hang separately.
Thomas Jefferson
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
George Washington
credit: bibleteacher.org
I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.
As we enjoy America’s bounty on this Independence Day, thinking back on the hopes and sacrifices of those that gave us liberty must humble us. We tend to think of Ben Franklin’s aphorism as merely one of a great many he coined, many published in Poor Richard’s Almanacs, for Franklin made his fortune as a printer, only one of the innumerable talents of this genuine renaissance man. But this brief saying expresses an essential truth known to the Founders: if they lost, they were dead. Perhaps even their families were dead, and all of their property would be forfeit to the Crown. For them, it truly was liberty or death.
Understanding this, the final sentence of The Declaration of Independence takes on new significance.
Among the Founders were an extraordinary number of great men, renaissance men–influenced by great women–-I do not hold either fact to be a coincidence. They pledged to each other their lives, their fortunes, and above all, their sacred honor. If they could not trust each other, not only to keep their word, but to remain steadfast no matter the sacrifice, to fight to their last breath to secure freedom, not only for themselves but for the future, for an America they hoped and trusted would be worthy of their sacrifice, they surely would have hung separately.
We thank God they were men of integrity and honor. They established the greatest people and the greatest nation in history, a nation not of takers and despots, but of builders, thinkers, humanitarians and warriors for human dignity and liberty. Then and now, we fight not for diversity and inclusion, but individual liberty, the sovereignty of the citizen over the State–the unalienable natural rights of the individual.Benjamin We fight not for social justice, but for the rule of law. Americans have liberated untold millions and asked no more than the space necessary to bury those that gave the last full measure of devotion.
Nearly a century later, men of integrity, honor and courage would be needed again. At Gettysburg, between July 1-3, 1863, more than 51,000 Americans were counted missing, wounded or dead. On November 19, 1863, a ceremony to dedicate the cemetery was held at Gettysburg. Edward Everett, a former Congressman, Massachusetts Governor, Ambassador to England, Secretary of State and President of Harvard, then considered one of America’s greatest public speakers, delivered the main address. He spoke for more than two hours. Few remember his name; fewer remember his remarks.
credit: livinglincolnweb.unc.edu
Abraham Lincoln was invited to speak as a formality, as a matter of decorum. It was fitting the nation’s chief executive say a few words to dedicate the cemetery, but no one expected him to equal, let alone surpass Everett. Lincoln delivered his personally written speech in only two minutes. Many thought the speech a failure. Its greatness was not immediately apparent to all, yet those two minutes, those few words, perfect in intent, context, time and place, will be read, spoken, and will inspire as long as honor lives in the hearts and minds of free men and women.
Read these words aloud, and as you do, be transported to that field, that hallowed, still ground in 1863, as the spirits of the dead listened as they listen today, forever attentive and watchful, alive in America’s hallowed past, sentinels for the future:
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on 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 battle-field 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 can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not 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.
“…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.”
Lincoln spoke of the fallen of Gettysburg, but his words apply to every American that has laid on the alter of liberty the ultimate sacrifice, that none of them shall have died, or ever shall die, in vain.
Temper this against the knowledge that when America faced danger, when the world faced almost unimaginable darkness, Americans—men and women in the mold of Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln and the Founders who pledged everything they had and ever would have—rose up. They answered the call of freedom, fought tyrants, domestic and foreign. These are the women and men that have gladly and proudly stood for the playing of the national anthem, and have always held the Star Spangled Banner high until America, and all she represents, lit the world as the shining city on the hill, as the defender and beacon of liberty, mankind’s last, best hope.
America, under President Trump, is experiencing a new birth of hope, in contrast to Barack Obama, who in July of 2017, warned foreign audiences against patriotism:
The former US president said some countries had adopted ‘an aggressive kind of nationalism’ and ‘increased resentment of minority groups’…
‘What we will see is more and more people arguing against democracy, we will see more and more people who are looking to restrict freedom of the press, and we’ll see more intolerance, more tribal divisions, more ethnic divisions, and religious divisions and more violence.
Mr. Obama was speaking of America, the nation and people he was twice elected to represent. Even as congressional Democrats and much of our news media ceaselessly labor to overturn the result of the 2016 election, Americans, not Americans in name only–AINOs–understand Mr. Obama and those of like mind currently running for the Democrat nomination for president are not protecting democracy. They seek to destroy it, to abolish the Constitution and to wipe away the rule of law. They seek not to heal racial and ethnic divisions, but to widen them with identity politics, unhinged hatred and violence. Any rational American watching the recent debates would be convinced Democrats no longer seek to represent America and Americans, but illegal aliens, criminals, and any and everyone, foreign or domestic, that wishes America harm. Many of them, many of their Democrat followers, believe Barack Obama, despite ignoring the American flag and honoring Che Guevara, was not sufficiently socialist. They aim to make up for lost opportunities and time.
But even as progressives conspire against liberty, normal Americans know that a world without America, an America strong and vibrant and willing to pay any price, to make any sacrifice, to bear any burden for the cause of liberty, is a terrible, ugly and doomed place.
Consider these words from President Donald Trump, speaking at the 2017 Celebrate Freedom Rally honoring our veterans. Consider, and decide who truly speaks for liberty:
Since the signing of the Declaration of Independence 241 years ago, America always affirmed that liberty comes from our creator. Our rights are given to us by God, and no earthly force can ever take those rights away. That is why my administration is transferring power out of Washington and returning that power back where it belongs to the people.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, weeping for the cameras as she beholds an empty lot…
This July 4th, as many of our elected representatives scheme to circumvent the Constitution, as progressive Congressmen call for violence against members of the Trump Administration, when partisan political advantage, power and money own them, when hate deranges them, when federal judges abandon their oaths of office in favor of progressive politics, as the enemies of modernity, civilization and liberty plot, behead, rape and torture, and as fundamentally dishonorable and destructive forces struggle to force freedom into retreat, take a moment to remember the words of Franklin, Jefferson and Lincoln. Take a moment to remember all those Americans that sacrificed so much that we might enjoy not only the material, technological comforts American liberty has provided in such abundance, but that we too might hear the call, and accept duties of honor. Resolve that we might, in this time of attack from within and without, in this time of potential final darkness, pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.
It’s our time; it’s our turn. The battle has not been decided. May we teach our children well. Dear God, grant that we may never have to take up arms to recover our nation, but if it be necessary, grant we answer the eternal call, and that we be worthy of the sacrifices of those who came before us that have given us so very much. May our children be the inheritors of a free, prosperous and generous America, comprised of Americans that honor the Constitution in fact rather than rhetoric, that recognize the difference between justice for all and social justice for a chosen few, and that always feel the pride of genuine patriotism, the pride of being an American. May they too know as Thomas Jefferson knew that the tree of liberty must, from time to time, be refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants–freedom is never free–and may they one day speak well of us rather than curse us for our apathy and cowardice.
Standing watch at Arlington National Cemetery
A blessed Independence Day to you and yours gentle readers, and God bless America, now and forever.
Stately McDaniel Manor 
I would call that picture of Donald and Melania “…now go Donald”
Dear ontoiran:
Heh.
Um, no, not precisely. In fact there was a range of possibilities, from that at one end to quite light measures at the other – and the former was remarkably unlikely in practice. That was merely the formal level of what could be done as reprisal.
Here’s the thing: to re-establish control, as after the Restoration (“Act of Amnesty and Oblivion”) and various Jacobite rebellions (mostly in Scotland and Ireland), or as often happened when dealing with pirates, there would often be all sorts of amnesties. Over and above that, families would often arrange to have junior members hedge the family’s property bet by taking the other side to the rest of the family (this was spelled out in an explanatory essay that accompanied my edition of Stevenson’s “The Master of Ballantrae”); it looks as if that is what the Randolphs of Virginia did, and perhaps even the Franklinses of Pennsylvania. It is remarkable to moderns how often capital offences received royal pardons in that era.
Anyway, that was the usual practice that had developed during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, precisely in order to avoid bitter enders – a Boer War reference – and those rebels were well aware of it, knowing that, just like a besieged garrison, they could almost certainly treat for binding terms at any stage short of holding out to the bitter end and dying in the last ditch – which was originally a literal statement about the siege warfare of the period, given wider currency by William III if I recall correctly.
Thus showing that a little learning is indeed a dangerous thing. Once you also learn what I have just told you – which may be checked readily – it takes on yet another significance: just as “nailing one’s colours to the mast” is a metaphor drawn from literal practice, physically preventing surrender that could be carried out by striking one’s colours, so also all that was an attempt to pre-empt and rule out any conciliation by the British and so force all those involved to commit to fighting to the last (or think “burning one’s bridges”).
That doesn’t make it any less principled, it’s just that there were actually rather different things at work.
From here, only the “builders, thinkers, humanitarians” part appears based on fact. None of the rest looks even remotely plausible. To give just one example, Skidelsky’s biography of Keynes concluded that the U.S.A. was so much a taker that the European capital it ripped off (mostly British and Dutch) exceeded in value the later Marshall Aid (which, of course, speaks to humanitarianism).
No! There have been no ambassadors to England from anywhere since 1707, not even loosely speaking (formally, they are “… to the Court of St. James”). And, if I recall correctly, U.S.-British diplomatic relations were then at the minister level, not ambassador level (just as my great-uncle Leopold was the Irish minister to Madrid).
Somehow, that reminds me of Gandhi’s observation when asked what he thought of Western Civilisation: that he thought it would be a good idea. (And see my earlier, related remarks.)
On the other hand, whether those normal Americans are right or not**, normal non-Americans fear that a world with America, an America strong and vibrant and willing to pay any price, to make any sacrifice, to bear any burden for the cause of liberty, is a terrible, ugly and doomed place. We fear this because we know all too well – often having lived through it – the truth of C.S.Lewis’s insight that it is better to suffer at the hands of despots than at the hands of the well-intentioned, because the former may sleep or be satiated but the latter have the approval of their consciences. No, this is only incidentally anything to do with you; it applies equally to, say, approving the British approach to empire more than the French one which tried to civilise everyone it could reach and so make little Frenchmen out of them – for their own good.
*As early as the 1860s, in his work on North America, Trollope remarked with some wonder on this uniquely American view of themselves.
** None of that rules out the possibility that we are damned if you do and we are damned if you don’t.
“The cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.” ~ Oscar Wilde
Perhaps you might consider the words of Theodore Roosevelt as to the meaning of the doers of deeds:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
I shall pray for your shriveled soul.
No, I would not like to consider those words, as they have no bearing on the further and better particulars I was giving people. Didn’t you take on board that I freely acknowledged that those rebels were indeed acting out of principle, but that it was in fact other things going on than what the post made out? Or are you objecting to my pointing out the feet of clay involved in the sort of America idolatry that reads all things American as not only great and good but also doing good to the whole world as well as motivated by good intentions, even though we know where those lead?
As to my soul, shrivelled or not, it is no concern of yours. I do hope you weren’t suggesting that readers should lie by omission and let misinformation stand as a sort of “higher truth”.
Dear P.M. Lawrence:
I hope you’re not suggesting I am lying by omission and misinforming readers? In writing any article, one, of necessity, omits many things to keep to a theme. Where I am offering opinion, I do my best to make that obvious, and always seek to carefully document factual assertions.
One can certainly argue with my opinions, and perhaps point out factual inaccuracies–I’m far from perfect–but suggesting I’m lying and purposefully misinforming people is falling into the territory ad hominem attacks.
I will never, by the way, apologize for patriotic expression. America’s worth is perhaps best measured by how many people of all nations seek to come here, at any cost.
No, not at all. I fully appreciate that you faced those very constraints.
Rather, I was telling that other fellow that I myself would be lying by omission if I posted anything but left out those parts he was objecting to (as those are relevant things I know).
And thank you for leaving it open to me to clarify that rather than locking in anything that was misleading.
Nor should you, any more than (say) a Pole or a Kenyan. It is amusing, though, how Americans do it; as Trollope noted over a century and a half ago, you do make a very intense, big deal of it. And that can get up people’s noses when it pushes into and encroaches on our own values.
Unfortunately, that is a poor measure, just like advertisements for a product that cite all its satisfied customers or the way financial indexes are forced to use firms that didn’t fall by the wayside. It’s subject to far too many statistical biasses to be of much use. For one thing, it doesn’t count all those who stayed put or (like me) chose somewhere else.
Dear P.M.Lawrence:
Considering all we’ve done , and continue to do, for the world, perhaps a bit of patriotic pride is allowable?
Dear P.M.Lawrence:
As always, thanks for your comments. When folks vote with their feet, that’s a rather consequential vote.
M. McD. wrote:-
That’s a misunderstanding. You, like any other country’s people, are indeed allowed a fair bit of patriotic pride, but for quite other reasons – because it’s not that sort of justification through works thing. But on the factual point of “all we’ve done , and continue to do, for the world”, which wouldn’t justify anything of the sort even if it were a hundredfold larger, it does seem pretty likely that the rest of the world would actually have been rather better off if the U.S.A. had never come into being. That’s because the rest of the world would have had what went into it. Yes, it did a lot in both world wars – but think how much more would have been done if its territory had pitched in as soon as the rest of the British Empire, and how much stronger British and Dutch industry would have been with the capital it drew off, and so on.
That’s precisely what I was pointing out. The large number who try to get to the U.S.A. is not that vote. The all up counting of those who do that, those who stay put, those who go elsewhere, and so on – that is that vote. Just presenting those who fall into one category is like saying Hillary Clinton won an election because she had so many millions of votes. It doesn’t tell you anything without knowing the rest of the story. Come to think of it, that’s the same sort of not looking at the whole story as talking only about what the U.S.A. actually did for the rest of the world, without looking at what it crowded out.
Mr. Lawrence,
Your critique is based on the Platonic delusion of the Perfect Forms. This is a technique favored by sophists as it very conveniently relieves them of the burden of dealing with the world as it is.
You speculate that the Founders were not in real peril because sometimes the King didn’t hang rebels. This despite their signatures on a document, presented to such King, stating “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor”. Would you make that bet Mr. Lawrence?
From your comment: “To give just one example, Skidelsky’s biography of Keynes concluded that the U.S.A. was so much a taker that the European capital it ripped off (mostly British and Dutch) exceeded in value the later Marshall Aid (which, of course, speaks to humanitarianism).” If economists had any idea what they were talking about we wouldn’t have library shelves filled with their varied and various musings. The fact remains the the efforts of The United States to rebuild Europe and Japan after the devastation of WWII was unprecedented, unique, and magnificent.
“No! There have been no ambassadors to England from anywhere since 1707,”. Oh boy. I’ve been saving a word for years, just waiting for the opportunity to use it. The word is picayune.
“Somehow, that reminds me of Gandhi’s observation when asked what he thought of Western Civilisation: that he thought it would be a good idea.”. Ghandi also said “Hitler killed five million Jews. It is the greatest crime of our time. But the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs.” On the other hand George S. Patton said “…Pray for the defeat of our wicked enemy whose banner is injustice and whose good is oppression. Pray for victory. Pray for our Army, and Pray for Peace. We must march together, all out for God.”.
You: “normal non-Americans fear that a world with America, an America strong and vibrant and willing to pay any price, to make any sacrifice, to bear any burden for the cause of liberty, is a terrible, ugly and doomed place.”. Yes, wouldn’t you be so much happier penning your missives in Russian or Deutschsprechen or maybe Japanese.
And this: “(just as my great-uncle Leopold was the Irish minister to Madrid).” exposes you as a poseur, a mediocre one but indeed a poseur.
No, I’m not giving a critique “based on the Platonic delusion of the Perfect Forms”. In fact, I wasn’t giving the post a critique at all, I was trying to supplement and complement it, just as I recently attempted for a post about semi-automatic pistols. However, I shall give your comments the benefit of a critique.
Balderdash. (1.) That’s no speculation, it was the standard approach – which anyone can readily check. (2.) They were in real peril (though not automatically as much as the poster thought), and they were trying to lock that in and increase it. But that should show that, without all that burning bridges stuff, they would have left themselves open to do the reverse: to treat, conciliate, and so on. It all goes to show that they were indeed making a commitment and taking a risk; it was just that the commitment and risk did not rest in the mere fact of rebellion or even of signing that document. Yet the post as it stood might give that impression to casual, unaware readers – of whom there are far too many around.
So what? Here, Skidelsky was wearing his biographer/historian hat. He actually ferreted out stuff that happened. Musing doesn’t enter into it.
And the fact remains that I stipulated that that was a big humanitarian effort (among other motives, though there was nothing magnificent about it – I take that to be a different sort of quality, lacking here partly because of the strings attached). That has sod all to do with whether the U.S.A. had also been a taker on a grand scale. I went to a great deal of trouble to acknowledge that there were quite unrelated plusses like that in order to head off any attempt at rebuttal resting on such irrelevancies. You are venturing into Monty Python dead parrot territory.
Hang on, what has that to do with anything? I’m pointing out that it is worrying to be around someone massive, wilful, well meaning and unpredictable, as that makes others reliant on not only that person’s continuing good will but also on its wise exercise. Would you like to be in that boat? Think Lenny in Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men”.
Pretend, if you will, that I am a poseur. Then look at the bloody material and reasoning I presented. It’s not about me, it’s about understanding the world. After all, if I can do anything to inform Lenny, we are all that much safer.
FWIW:
Nine signers of the Declaration were killed in the war. Five were imprisoned. Twelve signers’ homes were burned to the ground. Seventeen lost everything they owned.
Not one defected to the enemy.
My favorite description of the Revolutionary War:
The Brits raised our taxes and tried to confiscate our guns.
So we shot them.
Dear Tom:
Quite so. The British had a habit of hanging traitors. The Founders had every reason to believes their lives were on the line.
Regarding the image of Alexandria Empty Cortex emoting to an
empty parking lot, I knew instinctively where the drinking out of
toilets BS came from. I had the displeasure of spending a few
days inside a cell after a confrontation with four violent Samoan
thugs. Let me just say that it was on my own property, they
were all 350+ pounds, they had committed a crime against
a member of my family and were continuing to terrorize and
threaten her. Did I mention a firearm was involved?
Those are just the details of the event but at that time (the
early 80s,) multiculturalism was in its infancy, and the Los
Angeles Sheriffs department had an insane policy of catch
and release for major and even violent crimes. They were
releasing these thugs into the custody of “elders” for something
called “Tribal justice” which usually meant going to the nearest
bar and having a few drinks while bragging about getting away
with another crime. And they are probably still scratching
their heads over the high crime rates in Carson CA to this day!
So, that is how I learned about jail toilets. All it cost me was
an ADW conviction. During this staged photo-op, AOC and
Liawatha were doing their best impression of media whores
looking shocked at an empty parking lot. There were, in fact,
more members of the media than the Demo☭rat Congress-
critters combined. This figure even included the 2 charter
buses Liawatha used to bring two supporters to this staged
Goebbels propaganda fest.
AOC then turned down an opportunity to tour the facility,
because that would have destroyed the false narrative she
was shoveling. Then came the toilet water lie, followed
by her claims she was threatened physically and sexually
by members of the CPB.
The only restriction involved in the tours is that they cannot
take cameras or cellphones so as to prevent them from
taking photos of minor children. Fred-RICO statute Wilson,
the black Congress-chick from Florida with the Howdy
Doodie Hat then chimed in by calling for the prosecution
of people poking fun at Congress-critters.
With people like AOC being the face of the Demo☭rat
party, and especially the 24 clown car candidates running
for the Demo☭rat nomination, I would say that this is
low hanging fruit! As long as this cluster of dunces are
speaking, they will be a never ending source of amusement!
I want people who were amazed by the discovery of a garbage
disposal unit to keep talking until the night of the 2020 election.
I seriously doubt a woman who was born into a welalthy
family could have made it past Kindergarten without learning
about a garbage disposal, so this was probably a case of
her overplaying her “poor girl from the Bronx” narrative.
Even when she is being mendacious, she is revealing herself
to have the IQ of a doorknob! You go, girl but you are not
Machiavellian genius!
Here is a video which I think was from the same detention
center that she used as a prop:
http://ninetymilesfromtyranny.blogspot.com/2019/07/border-patrol-disproves-aocs-toilet.html
PS I made a mistake, the original charge was ADW. It was reduced
to simple brandishing.