Posted on 05/28/2018 11:37:32 AM PDT by Kaslin
“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.” – Patrick Henry
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” – Benjamin Franklin
In May 1942, with the U.S. Pacific fleet down to just three carriers after heavy losses incurred at the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway, the USS Wasp, after having distinguished itself in the Atlantic war, embarked to fight the Japanese in the Pacific.
After a hard fight at Guadalcanal, three Japanese torpedoes hit the Wasp head-on. Fires spread quickly thanks to the incredible amount of oil and gas released from the tanks by the direct hits, and it wasn’t long before the ship’s fate was sealed. My grandfather, Harding Morefield, was forced to jump into the ocean after his hair caught on fire. When the ship’s captain, Forrest P. Sherman, ordered the abandon ship, the only delays were caused by the crewmen who didn’t want to leave until every single wounded soldier was brought to safety.
When the foundering, desperate Germans cut through the Ardennes to surprise American forces in December 1944 with what would be their last major offensive of the war, my wife’s grandfather, a young infantryman named George, was shot in the leg. Because the units in the area were caught by almost complete surprise, George languished in the snow for 12 hours before being rescued. He lost his leg in the battle, but 19,000 other Americans lost their lives.
There are millions of stories like this, interwoven throughout the histories of millions of American families. Most of us have ancestors who were willing to fight and die for something they saw as bigger than themselves, a nation where they, their families and their descendants could live in freedom. From the patriots who risked their lives and sacred honor to found a new country based on liberty and justice to today’s brave soldiers who willingly sign up to fight an enemy that doesn’t always even wear a uniform or adhere to the laws of war, courage and sacrifice are what founded our nation and made it great.
Our grandparents were heroes to us, of course, and in many ways today’s pampered generation can barely imagine the sacrifices they endured. My wife’s grandfather who lost his leg was said to have never complained about his situation, at least within earshot of his family. To them, he would have gladly given his other leg for his country.
But they, along with most everyone who survived the horrors of war, would never tell you they were heroes. No, they’d probably say they were lucky, because to them it didn’t seem like there was any real rhyme or reason to those who got to go home and those who got buried on a European battlefield or dumped into the Pacific ocean, or even those who left a leg in some makeshift military hospital in Belgium. To them, the real heroes were the ones who gave all they had to give in places like Khe San and Hamburger Hill, Normandy and Bastogne, Belleau Wood and Flanders, Manassas and Gettysburg, Bunker Hill and Yorktown.
Crosses in their honor are planted in fields all across Europe, and in Lee’s old farm in Virginia, their lives cut off in the flower of their youth, their deaths mourned by family members who would never see them again.
The real heroes - they would say - never came home.
American industrialist Henning Webb Prentis Jr. once described the historical cycle as, “from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to apathy, from apathy to dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more.”
This Memorial Day weekend we should certainly remember our slain heroes, but we should also consider whether our fragile, dependent generation has the same mettle as our ancestors. Because if not, and if Prentis is correct, we’re about to enter a period of bondage unlike any mankind has experienced.
As we enjoy an extra day off work and fire up the barbecue, may we not only remember the heroes who gave everything so we could live in a country founded upon and defined by liberty, may we also acknowledge just how precious and easily lost that liberty is. May we remember that freedom is something that, once lost, is never freely returned by those in power.
It is always born of blood.
Unfortunately, evil, rotten traitors have permeated our government and are perverting all that is good about this nation. People have lost confidence in the government. It has become a government of, for, by the oligarchs.
Our soldiers who have fought and died for freedom and liberty are being dishonored. It is my prayer, Almighty God will shed light on this darkness. These treasonous actors need to be held to account, otherwise our nation has turned the page of all that is good and decent.
Last year's Sons of Liberty portrayal of Samuel Adams might allow us to introduce to Millenials his clearly-articulated understanding of liberty versus tyranny. His voice and words would seem to be concise enough to penetrate even the minds of youth who have been propagandized by Progressive educators.
"The liberties of our Country, the freedom of our civil constitution are worth defending at all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have receiv'd them as a fair Inheritance from our worthy Ancestors: They purchas'd them for us with toil and danger and expence of treasure and blood; and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle; or be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men. Of the latter we are in most danger at present: Let us therefore be aware of it. Let us contemplate our forefathers and posterity; and resolve to maintain the rights bequeath'd to us from the former, for the sake of the latter. - Instead of sitting down satisfied with the efforts we have already made, which is the wish of our enemies, the necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude, and perseverance. Let us remember that "if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom." It is a very serious consideration, which should deeply impress our minds, that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event." Samuel Adams - Essay in the Boston Gazette, October 14, 1771"When designs are form'd to raze the very foundation of a free government, those few who are to erect their grandeur and fortunes upon the general ruin, will employ every art to sooth the devoted people into a state of indolence, inattention and security, which is forever the fore-runner of slavery." - Article signed "Candidus," in Boston Gazette, December 9, 1771
"If the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them." Samuel Adams- As Candidus in the Boston Gazette, January 20, 1772
"The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave... These may be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institutes of the great Law Giver and Head of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament." Samuel Adams - Rights of the Colonists, November 20, 1772
"It is the greatest absurdity to suppose it in the power of one, or any number of men, at the entering into society, to renounce their essential natural rights, or the means of preserving those rights; when the grand end of civil government, from the very nature of its institution, is for the support, protection, and defence of those very rights; the principal of which, as is before observed, are Life, Liberty, and Property. If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce or give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation. The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave." - The Rights of the Colonists, November 20, 1772
"Is it now high time for the people of this country to explicitly declare whether they will be free men or slaves. It is an important question which ought to be decided. It concerns more than anything in this life. The salvation of our souls is interested in this event. For wherever tyranny is established, immorality of every kind comes in like a torrent, it is in the interest of tyrants to reduce the people to ignorance and vice.” - Samuel Adams
“The utopian schemes of leveling (redistribution) and a community of goods, are as visionary and impractical as those which vest all property in the crown. These ideas are arbitrary, despotic, and, in our government unconstitutional.” - Samuel Adams - (Take note, Progressives)
The American Republic and the freedom of individuals is presently not at danger of being destroyed by outside enemies.
It is, IMHO, in danger of being destroyed by internal enemies, both in real persons, and in apathy.
after heavy losses incurred at the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway,
A Michigan talk radio network show last week had a guest who recited numbers of colleges that have dropped requirements for American History and others have dropped that as a major and the ones left with optional classes have fewer taking them.
His theory is that liberal dominated departments want young people to be free of any knowledge of history. Then they can be molded and indoctrinated as in China.
No one will know that the country had a proud history of great people who are now gone. The new socialist paradise led by leftists will control the history.
Marx= hero, Founding Fathers=white supremacists and losers.
May I repeat that roughly 40% of young people in a survey could not correctly place which came first: World War II or the Civil War. Many have never heard of the Holocaust. Trouble.
Fortunately in 2018 we have stellar exaples of the failure of socialism
Venezuela
All of Europe. As they import terror weakly
Scandanavia. Overrun. Run by socialist women
Remember that capitalism allows industry and growth and this will always outpace the strangulation by government
The key is that the poor versus rich thing CAN NOT be solved. Period
This needs to be taught
Only human to human compassion can end suffering
“The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” — Jefferson
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