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The view from MT. Twas recently in Brooklyn NY for son’s wedding. He told me about the Old Stone House on 3rd St and 5th Ave. Went to see it. In aug 1776 there was the first real battle of the Rev war thru what is now Prospect park and swirling around this old dutch farmhouse in Brooklyn. The british/hessians had overwhelming numbers and took the stone house(w/2’ thick walls)from the americans.

Then one of the finest chapters in american history : 400 voluteers from MARYLAND threw themselves in suicide charge after suicide charge against the foe. They lost 300 of their 400 that day alone but it bought Gen Washington enough time to retreat to manhatten and live to fight another day.

Thus your freedom today hinged upon those 400 MARYLAND “give me liberty or give me death” patriots, where could you find any such now in MARYLAND? And now there is a large playground there for children to play on, what better monument to those brave MARYLANDERS than to have died so that little children could enjoy life as a free people on the site where they fell?

The way this country has gone in recent years, we would be better off under George III and his regime, as would England. With the probable nominees being McCain, the consummate RINO, and Obama, a left wing Democrat, there is little hope for this country in the immediate future. Those kids in the Brooklyn playground do not have a bright future ahead of them.

I'm usually not this pessimistic. But we must be realistic.

There was no hype in that story about the Battle of Brooklyn. The British fully expected to take Washington and his forces in Brooklyn and it was miraculous that they escaped to Murray Hill, Manhattan across the East River.

In October the British fleet was set to sail down Lake Champlain and capture Fort Ticonderoga and link up with their counterparts in New York City by sailing down the Hudson and basically capturing the entire Hudson River. But the brave Benedict Arnold fought a suicidal naval battle after hiding his makeshift fleet behind Valcour Island and attacking the British from behind after they passed the island. Arnold almost got killed (many of his men had to swim to shore after their ships were shot out from under them) but he forced the British northern forces to spend another 11 months trying to push south of the lake, by which time the politics of New York State had changed and the loyalists in the Albany area were ready to fight the British on farmland near Saratoga.

Anyway, after escaping to Murray Hill (which is where UN employees now live) Washington had tea with Mrs. Murray who was apparently an attractive rich widow. Apparently he dallied amost too long because the British had crossed into the Wall Street area the morning after the Americans escaped in a fog from Brooklyn and the Brits were moving up the west side highway to try to encircle his forces yet again. Whenever I am on the west side highway, I think about how the America was saved because American troops ran fast to the north that day.