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credit: usageorge.com

I thank God I’m still here to update this article each Independence Day.  Those of us fortunate enough to be born American truly won the lottery of life.

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.  Not something on a computer in a bedroom, but a real, US Air Force issue simulator.  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–this is known as “merit,” absolutely not “equity”–and for all the other implements with which we preserve liberty.  May our pilots have all the fuel and flight time they need.  May our soldiers, sailors and Marines be spared racist indoctrination and always go to war with equipment far, far better than that of the enemies of liberty.

That experience also reminds me of my early days in the Air Force in that long ago Cold War.  As our small group of security policemen stood outside 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 majestically as the giant bomber.  One of my fellow airman exclaimed in shocked surprise: “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 and author, only two of the innumerable talents of this Renaissance man.  But this brief saying expresses an essential truth known to the Founders: if they lost, they lost everything.  For them, it truly was liberty or death.  So too it is for us.

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, not for equity, but individual liberty, the sovereignty of the citizen over the State–-the unalienable natural rights of the individual, regardless of skin color.

We fight not for social justice, but for actual justice–-the rule of law, the equality of all men under the law.  To Americans, all lives matter, equally, never equitably. Americans have liberated untold millions and asked no more than the foreign land necessary to bury Americans that gave the last full measure of devotion.

Nearly a century after the founding, 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, Emissary (we’d now say “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–Everett understood, and to his credit, admitted to Lincoln his two minutes were superior to his two hours–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 American 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 the ultimate sacrifice on the alter of liberty, 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 said: “Here I am; send me.”  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, experienced 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.  Under Temporary President Joe Biden, the presidency—whoever is actually ruling–has, once again, reverted to hating America and Americans, to enriching our enemies, damaging our allies and above all, putting America last.

Normal Americans understand D/S/Cs are not protecting liberty. 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 mob violence.  They brand half of America white supremacists, and America, irredeemably racist.

Historians looking back on these crazy years—if they’re allowed honesty—will be convinced D/S/Cs no longer sought to represent America and Americans, but illegal aliens, criminals, and any and everyone, foreign or domestic, that wished America harm.  Many of them believe Barack Obama, despite ignoring the American flag and honoring Che Guevara and the communist Cuban regime, was not sufficiently socialist/communist.  Today, many believe a tragically and rapidly failing Joe Biden not sufficiently socialist/communist. They no longer even pretend he’s a “moderate.”  They aim to make up for lost opportunities and time.  Nothing restrains them, not honor, law nor decency.

But even as D/S/Cs conspire against liberty, normal Americans know a world without America, an America strong and vibrant, with the wisdom to see the right, confident in it, 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 world.

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.

What Normal Americans wouldn’t give to hear, once again, an American president say that–and act on it.

credit: commons.wikimedia.org

This July 4th, as many of our elected representatives scheme to circumvent the Constitution, As our DC rulers celebrate the 4th with fireworks, but refuse to allow them to Americans honoring America at Mt. Rushmore, as the D/S/C Party incites violence against Americans, when partisan political advantage, power and money own D/S/Cs, when hate deranges them, when federal judges abandon their oaths of office in favor of D/S/C politics, as the enemies of modernity, civilization and liberty plot, behead, rape and torture, as our D/S/C ruled cities burn, as D/S/C mayors and governors not only praise fascist mobs, but encourage and support them, and as fundamentally dishonorable and destructive forces like Antifa and Black Lives Matter gleefully work 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 the 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. Ronald Reagan sagely observed:

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.

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. Grant that those preaching racist hatred may once again become Americans.  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 future generations one day speak well of us, remembering us as heroes and patriots, 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 may God bless America, now and forever.