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This IS St. Crispin's day...
Bequest of Generations | 02-November-04 | Ron Pickrell

Posted on 11/02/2004 9:48:05 AM PST by pickrell

This IS St. Crispin’s day…

As I write this, we all have no idea how the election will turn out. We’ve suffered tremendous anxiety realizing that the unlimited amounts of money and money- equivalents spent by the coalition of the liberal media, the entertainment industry, the forces of appeasement and the simply blind, may have duped America in the same manner as the Reds duped the Russians in 1917, the Neville Chamberlain acolytes duped the British in the 1930’s, and so many other tragedies. And yet, if George Bush prevails this day, many will assume the mistaken cheer that the battle is over, and that the ones who stand against the dark forces have won.

I would remind people- no, let me change that- I would remind Americans that what George Bush actually said on the deck of that carrier still applies. “Mission accomplished.” NOT … “War over!” or even…“Theatre victory!”

“Mission accomplished”, and I explain this carefully in case any liberals may accidentally read this and become infected with reason, means that what has been accomplished is the mission. The mission of those folks on that carrier was to remain on station long past what should have been expected, and to support the continuing war against totalitarianism and madness, by delivering blows to our enemies.

Similarly, if we prevail at this election, or even if we suffer a defeat, the war will continue, not until armistice, but until complete and undeniable defeat of the concepts of appeasement, and abrogation of personal responsibility. There can be no armistice with animals who cannot comprehend the concept of armistice. The temporary suspension of war with the North Koreans is a concrete example.

You’ll notice that I didn’t reference “until one side or the other wins…” This was done for a reason. Many people felt that the fall of the Soviet Union was inevitable, and that it’s demise was merely a matter of the necessary and tragic number of lives snuffed out, and hopes shattered, until one man, an American President ridiculed by the liberal media, decided that the policy of containment was evil. He argued that containment was nothing less than the abandonment of hundreds of millions of human beings to the fate they inherited from a previous generation. He recognized that consigning fellow human beings to oppression and murder, in exchange for some perceived incremental increase in the safety of the consigners…was not an act for men, but for cowards.

But it took a Jimmy Carter to finally bring the United States to such a miserable state of defenselessness, that the average citizen saw no further benefit to themselves in prostration before bullies, and finally enabled a man like Ronald Reagan to effect change. We pride ourselves on our attention spans. We shouldn’t. The media made a mistake in showing the unending days of American hostages bound and blindfolded, and that finally, painfully, penetrated the psyche of the majority of voters.

The media may yet learn from their mistakes. They know now that they need to carefully craft their fraudulent documents, against the investigations of the new technology of the Freerepublic. They know now that the safer bet is to continue the tried and true method of the truth embargo, and leave the open fabrications to their deniable surrogates.

Our founding fathers warned us that freedom was expensive and that a people unsuited to the challenge of eternal vigilance against the tyranny of the elite will suffer. No, this war won’t end in our lifetimes. Because this war will never end. Men will always be free to try to sway other men that the earthly goods that they desire can more easily be removed from those unjust present owners, and re-distributed to them, the deserving, rather than engage in the tedious and painful business of making a life for their family by the sweat of their own brow.

People who can be swayed by such logic can see the nuances. They can appreciate the subtleties that the extra-chromasome, cro-magnan types, who are the conservatives cannot discern. Sometimes it is necessary to feed the wolves so that they will leave the rest of us alone.

We must slowly, painfully try to make them understand that the wolf population will simply expand into a larger, better fed pack of animals who dismiss any worries about our potential relatiatory thunder as mere venting of gas. We will never be free of our obligation to try to make the dupes understand that they buy nothing for themselves when they spend their birthright so foolishly.

I am saddened to think that so many will yet die so needlessly. I have a new appreciation for what Winston Churchill must have felt as he watched Neville Chamberlain wave that famous piece of paper before the newsreel cameras, and promise “Peace in our time…”.

I am ashamed at what the Australians must think of us, if the vote goes against us. I’ve already experienced what I thought of the British, before a Brit Freeper argued his case. I don’t agree with the Brits, but I must feel empathy for the 25% or so who perhaps remember appeasement, and stood with us. I’ll bet large money that the Brits on the ground in Iraq have different views from their armchair compatriots back in England. But then, I could be wrong.

Where I really am shamed badly, however, is by the courage of the Poles. Poland suffered under decades of misery, and can speak as no one else, of the horror of being abandoned by the rest of the world, while the Russians rolled their tanks over dissenters, all while their apologists in the U.S. media, and the U.S. intelligencia spoke so movingly about the warmongers in the U.S. who couldn’t muster the European sophistication to see the difference between the corrupt United States soldier, and the faithful comrade of Soviet liberation forces.

Even if we win, how do we explain to the Polish people what happened here, as so many Americans were so willing to throw so many others under the wheels of the bus, in response to the instructions from Osama? Polish soldiers have died to prevent this. British soldiers have died to prevent this. Many American soldiers have died to prevent this.

I will hope that the “coalition of the coerced and the bribed”, who never had a chance to be weaned on Massachusetts Brie & Chablis, will somehow understand that we have entered our own “Phony War” here in the U.S. (For those young people, look it up…if history books are any longer permitted in our progressive schools.”

I will hope that Americans finally realize what George Bush so prophetically saw, that this war will never end in our lifetimes…barring a miraculous change in the ability of a self-concerned citizen to open their eyes. But it may take the election of another Jimmie Carter, or much worse. Let us not ask, if the future holds this cup for us, that the Poles and the rest of the Iron Curtain cry for us. Let us instead remember the Jon Stewarts, and the other entertainers, who sneered their way into their mansions, and figure that their high compound walls will at least now protect THEIR children, while they attend THEIR private schools, protected by THEIR security guards, carrying THEIR handguns.

As the great economist Dr. Thomas Sowell has so elegantly and compellingly pointed out; they have saved the environment…but for whom? They have protected the schools…but which schools…and from whom? They were anointed as your spokesmen…but by whom? They have saved the Supreme Court…from what?

To those of us who stood our best on this, our own St. Crispin’s day, I salute you. But let us lay ourselves down to bleed awhile until we re-enter the fray. It is how we will acquit ourselves, now and henceforth, that history will record.

Ron Pickrell, Veteran for Bush


TOPICS: Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: courage; election

1 posted on 11/02/2004 9:48:08 AM PST by pickrell
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To: pickrell
Nicely articulated. With the dem’s dominance in the media, entertainment industries and, most importantly, the schools, this will be a long row to hoe! Praise the Lord and pass the gunpowder.
Thanks!
2 posted on 11/02/2004 10:05:18 AM PST by MountainPete (democrats are Liars . . . the Truth ain't in 'em!)
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To: pickrell

What magnificent and profoundly true words. I, for one, am deeply grateful to read your fine post on this Day of Days. Do you believe more than 1% of our population can remotely understand such thoughts as yours anymore? I certainly pray daily that they might, and that the Lord's plan is to save us as he states in Isaiah ch.60.


3 posted on 11/02/2004 10:08:58 AM PST by righteousindignation
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To: pickrell

What's he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin;
If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.


4 posted on 11/02/2004 10:09:01 AM PST by Question Liberal Authority (How do you ask a goose to be the last goose to die for the Kerry campaign?)
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To: pickrell

What magnificent and profoundly true words. I, for one, am deeply grateful to read your fine post on this Day of Days. Do you believe more than 1% of our population can remotely understand such thoughts as yours anymore? I certainly pray daily that they might, and that the Lord's plan is to save us as he states in Isaiah ch.60.


5 posted on 11/02/2004 10:14:30 AM PST by righteousindignation
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To: pickrell

Here is the inspiring text of the St. Crispin's Day speach scene from Henry V:

WESTMORELAND
O that we now had here
But one ten thousand of those men in England
That do no work to-day!

KING HENRY V
What's he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin:
If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires:
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England:
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more, methinks, would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made
And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.


6 posted on 11/02/2004 10:14:35 AM PST by Uncle Vlad
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To: pickrell
Thanks for the post. I couldn't agree more that the mission WAS accomplished. The air, sea and land forces brilliantly advanced to and seized Baghdad, deposed the Saddamite regime and secured Iraq for the coalition.

Nobody said there wasn't fighting and hard work ahead. But to say our servicemen and servicewomen who participated in that campaign didn't accomplish their mission is a grave and unwarranted insult to them.

7 posted on 11/02/2004 10:17:25 AM PST by colorado tanker ("medals, ribbons, we threw away the symbols of what our country gave us and I'm proud of that")
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To: pickrell

He who has shed his blood with me this day by walking the precincts and making calls IS my brother; and those who were not here this day will one day hang their heads in shame that they did not fight on this St. Cripsin's Day!


8 posted on 11/02/2004 10:22:07 AM PST by LS
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To: pickrell

Great Post!


9 posted on 11/02/2004 10:26:22 AM PST by Fiddlstix (This Tagline for sale. (Presented by TagLines R US))
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To: pickrell
...the Neville Chamberlain acolytes duped the British in the 1930’s,

Actually, in some fairness to Chamberlain, the British duped the British. In Late 1932, the Oxford Union, a political club at Oxford University, England, passed their now-famous resolution that; “This house will not die for King or Country”.* England was so disarmed that appeasement was all that Chamberlain could do. He knew it and Hitler knew it.

England got what it had wanted, disarmament. Then, unfortunately, got what it deserved for being so foolish. I hope we don't deserve the same fate by electing Kerry on this St. Crispin's Day..

*From “Why England Slept” by John F. Kennedy, 1940 (page49)

10 posted on 11/02/2004 10:33:03 AM PST by elbucko ( Feral Republican)
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To: pickrell

St Crispin's Day, Oct. 25, is also the anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt, one of the worst defeats ever by the French.


11 posted on 11/02/2004 10:53:06 AM PST by Redbob
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To: elbucko

You are probably right about political realities. Political men like our FDR did not block the sale of the huge cargoes of scrap iron, oil, and coal to the Japanese because it would have been impolitic. Americans, in fact, by popular acclaim watched as Britain, along with her empire allies, battled alone. I cannot argue that most Americans as well as the British wanted no part of another continental war. It would have taken enormous courage for a leader to forget the polls, and prevent tragedy. They would have run the risk that they might lose the next election.

But I speak of men who do what is right, and let the election be a judgement on the electorate, rather than a judgement on the leader.

We've had few.

And they will always stand taller than every little leader who moves with the flow, all rolled into one, and all annointed by the self-absorbed.

This is no attack on your post, since you've made a good point.

It's merely a hope that we are more than we at times seem...
and that when we ARE fully armed, as now, whether those arms were meant to prevent the weak from being crushed under by the strong and the ruthless.

I reflect on history not to denigrate a great ally but to illustrate the folly of policies in the past.

This election isn't about George Bush and John Kerry. Not really.

It's about tall men and small men...and their esteem in our society. It's about what we now are. Our ancestors proved what they were...and so I can type this without a political officer correcting more than my typos.


12 posted on 11/02/2004 11:05:07 AM PST by pickrell (Old dog, new trick...sort of)
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To: pickrell
No, this war won’t end in our lifetimes. Because this war will never end.

That is the truth. As long as there are muslims who are raised to hate anyone who isn't a muslim, the Terror they promote will go on for eternity. They were called crusades for a reason. But we allowed every human on earth to move here and now they live amongst us in freedom. Whether they love us or hate us, there is a muslim in your community too and there's no chance of pushing them back into the middle east anymore, that just isn't going to happen.

13 posted on 11/02/2004 12:50:00 PM PST by Pagey (Hillary has been eerily silent lately, just like when she ran the War Room in the West Wing in 98,99)
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