Posted on 05/21/2007 7:29:58 AM PDT by The Ghost of FReepers Past
THE FORGOTTEN AMERICAN
A speech by Don Feder at the Independent Third. Force Conservative Leadership Summit, Washington, D.C., May 4, 2007
Posted May 20, 2007
For the past few years, every Memorial Day, my family and I visit the Concord battlefield, a short drive from our home. It seems fitting, as it was here that Americans first fought - and fell - in the cause of liberty.
The words of Ralph Waldo Emerson never fail to move me: "By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world."
"Here once the embattled farmers stood" - not the intellectuals, not the media elite, not the Congressmen or the consultants - but the yeoman farmers of New England. The British disdained them - called the "gullies," Scottish for peasants. But they weren't peasants; they were small landowners, who were educated (they had the Bible and Shakespeare), church-going, patriotic and ready to defend their rights to the death. In fact, those "embattled farmers" were the middle class of 18th century America.
They were also the Forgotten Americans of their time. They were taxed without their consent. Their elected assemblies were abolished. Troops were quartered in their homes. And the Redcoats were coming to confiscate their guns. On April 19, 1775, those forgotten Americans had their revenge - at the Concord's North Bridge and on the long, bloody British retreat, all the way back to Boston.
It ended six years later at Yorktown, when the British struck their colors and their regimental bands played a popular marching song called "The World Turned Upside Down."
I don't care what the history books tell you, the American Revolution did not start in Philadelphia in 1776. While the Declaration of Independence was crucial to the cause, and men like Jefferson and Adams were indispensable, revolutions are made by embattled patriots with muskets in their hands, who hold the bridge.
Not far from here, there's a memorial to a man who lived and died for the Forgotten Americans of his time, including those Americans in chains. Go there, and you will find his words - words which will endure as long as this republic stands - chiseled in marble: "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."
The expression the Forgotten American was first widely used during the Great Depression.
There were stories of tycoons jumping from skyscrapers when the stock market crashed. The rich may have lost fortunes, but ordinary Americans lost everything -- jobs, homes, stores and farms. Farmers from the Dustbowl were thrown on the roads in a great migration. Others lived in shanties in Hovervilles, sold apples on street corners and ate in soup kitchens, or watched as their children went to bed hungry.
I know. My father was one of them. He spent several years in the CCC - the Civilian Conservation Corps.
Those Forgotten Americans went on the rebuild our economy, win the Second World War and make the 20th century the American Century. Those forgotten Americans are now known as the Greatest Generation.
Today, many all too many Americans feel like aliens in our own country - strangers in a strange land.
Click here: You definitely want to read the entire article
We need a take-no-prisoners approach.
And fast.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I love Don Feder! And my father was also in the CCC.
FWIW, it was not until Tuesday, November 25th, 1783 that the British finally gave up New York. Washington and his Army encamped for the years between Yorktown and then on the outskirts of the city — in the Hudson Valley, in Central Jersey.
The Amnesty Bill, the drive by the Left to extend immigration to more, more ME immigrants(Muslims too), the drive not to assimilate any immigrant, the drive to support Hamas with more arms(is that nuts?), the drive to eliminate any Judeo-Christian conservative voices in the political debate, is a full time job for The Evil Party, the media and university profs. When oh when will the rest of us fight back against this huge culture change?
A bunch of people on this board think that Cultural Conservatism will lose the election in 2008. We're supposed to ignore such divisive topics and just focus on fiscal conservatism instead.
I do not like taxes. I do not like big government. But the cultural changes will destroy this country faster than anything. The GOP is walking away from the social side of conservatism. As Reagan once said, "I didn't leave the party, the party left me." Now, he was talking about the old Democrats. But I feel much less connection to the GOP than I did a few years ago.
Bump. Terrific, inspiring article by Mr. Feder.
We need a leader.
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