Descendents Of Revolutionists And Rebels
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
*******************
Sometime
ago I mused:
Change is not always good. This “changed” America is
definitely not as good as the America we had before we decided to
exchange freedom for socialism.
Today, Americans are just
beginning to awaken and learn the nightmare they are experiencing is not
a nightmare one experiences during REM sleep. In fact, they learn, to
their utter surprise, they are NOT sleeping. This nightmare is NO
DREAM. It is REAL. And, Americans who THOUGHT they wanted, and yes,
even NEEDED change brought it on.
Many of the votes that were
cast for “change” back in 2008 were votes from young people who had no
idea what they were trading and what they were getting for the trade.
They are the product of a public education system in America now almost
totally ruled over by the political left, which still seeks the Nirvana
of Utopia through socialism. After 12, or more, years in the public
education system, then 2, 4, or 6 more years in those bastions of
liberalism/socialism we refer to as colleges and universities, is it any
wonder their Pavlovian response in the voting booth was to pull all the
levers by the names of the candidates who were decidedly left-wing
candidates? Hardly! They were simply reacting to the stimuli implanted
in their malleable minds as they made their way through an education
system designed to do just that.
And now we are watching our country collapse around us.
Those
of us who knew socialism’s sad story of lies, deceit, and destruction
are not surprised at America’s perilous position today. We knew it
would happen. We have watched socialism nearly from its birth. We watched
socialism’s struggle to grow as it murdered its host countries all the
while. Like a physician trying to heal a patient, by draining the
patient’s body of all its blood, socialism drains a nation of its
life-giving force and leaves it a broken shell of its former self. Even
as robust a nation as Russia required assistance from former enemies,
just to survive, after throwing off the bonds of socialism a few short
years ago.
Pope Pius XI once said: “It is wrong to withdraw
from the individual and commit to the community at large what private
enterprise and industry can accomplish. So, too, it is an injustice, a
grave evil, and a disturbance of right order for a larger and higher
organization to arrogate to itself functions which can be performed
efficiently by smaller and lower bodies.”
Now we are observing
this “wrong,” and this “injustice,” Pope Pius XI warned of, play out
right before our eyes right here in America.
The “old” America
was truly “something else!” She was a dream. She was a land of
unlimited opportunities and horizons that went on forever. She was the
envy of the world!
Americans were optimistic people who threw
themselves into the task of firing the furnace of the engine of
democracy and delighting in the rewards of their own labor. The
“American Dream” was so big and so multi-faceted that no one could even
describe it!
One British author, John Keegan, described America this way:
“Left
to themselves, Americans build, cultivate, bridge, dam, canalize,
invent, teach, manufacture, think, write, lock themselves in struggle
with the eternal challenges that man has chosen to confront, and with an
intensity not known elsewhere on the globe.
Bidden to make “War”
their work, Americans shoulder the burden with intimidating purpose.
If I were obliged to define the American mystery, I would say it is the
ethos - masculine, pervasive, unrelenting - of work as an end in
itself. War is a form of work, and America makes war in a particularly
workmanlike way. I do not love war; but I love America!” - John
Keegan, author of “Fields of Battle: The Wars for North America,” a
British military historian, lecturer, and journalist.
Mr. Keegan
had it right This is what America used to be like. And for those of us
who STILL remember her, as she was, today’s “changed” America is a
bitter pill to swallow!
Theodore Roosevelt said: "The things
that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price,
peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft
living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life."
The renown men
above speak of an America hardly recognized today. We have forgotten as
President Dwight D. Eisenhower said: " Here in America we are
descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels - men
and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine."
We have
forgotten as President Harry Truman once said: "America was not built
on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable
determination to do the job at hand."
Where is our revolutionist
spirit, our rebellious spirit? Where is our courage, our imagination,
our determination? Where is it?
We have forgotten that we are
the off-spring, the children, of heroes -- not mythological heroes but
real, flesh and blood, men and women who stood, head and shoulders,
above the remainder of the human population on this earth.
Former
Presidential Candidate, Mitt Romney , during the latest presidential
campaign said: "And the American people are the greatest people in the
world. What makes America the greatest nation in the world is the heart
of the American people: hardworking, innovative, risk-taking, God-
loving, family-oriented American people."
Well, Mr. Romney, we USED to be! That's why you lost the election, sir.
It
has taken, literally, generations to wipe the collective memory of
America of any useful recollection of its roots. People who remember
the "blood of heroes courses through their veins" do not lie down and
roll over when adversity strikes. If they fall back at all-- it is only
to fall back to that "steely resolve" instilled in them by heir hero
forbearers.
The edifice that is America may be crumbling and in a
state of great disrepair -- but our foundation is intact! And today
that foundation is under continuous, incessant, attack by the forces
that would wipe America from the face of the earth.
Our founding
documents -- the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the
Bill of Rights remain as a bulwark against every effort the enemies of
America have thrown at them -- so far. They have withstood every
campaign against them to date. But they need our help.
It is
said that today we are living in a "Post-Constitution America." We are
told the constitution is simply too old to apply anymore. We are told
the constitution is a living, breathing, document with the malleability to be
twisted and contorted into any shape necessary to fit any agenda our
political leaders are attempting to foist on the citizens of America on
any given day.
Of course -- it's a lie!
The
constitution says what it means -- and means what it says -- plain and
simple. The US Supreme Court is tasked with determining exactly what
the Constitution means when asked. Now, however, Americans no longer
trust their Supreme Court!
I recently saw a video clip of a
gentleman offering a petition to passers-by on a beach boardwalk that
petitioned the President of the US to repeal the Bill of Rights! My jaw
dropped as I watched them all but line up to sign away their freedom
and liberty! It was mind-blowing! It served to remind me of just how
little value is placed on individual liberty in America today.
Basically -- NONE!
Lady Liberty is being gang-raped by the
political left today while the sons and daughters of America's early
heroes are standing by and, in some cases, cheering on the assault on
their freedom.
Just as God's Spirit "will not always strive with
man," neither will the spirit of freedom and liberty always strive
with Americans. It can be quenched. Much of America has already become
tone-deaf to liberty's call.
For America to survive, we must reclaim that which is ours by birthright.
Alexis
de Tocqueville said of America: "The greatness of America lies not in
being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability
to repair her faults."
It is long past time for us, as Americans,
to employ that inherent ability to heal ourselves, to repair our
faults, to restore that which is good and right about our country.
There is not a moment to waste. We must reach down deep inside and tap
the reservoir of revolutionist and rebellious spirits that each of us
received as blood-bought gifts from our forbearers. Along with our
faith that God will not abandon a country with yet a remnant of the
faithful, THIS will be our source of strength for the struggle to
restore America to her former greatness.
© J. D. Longstreet
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