Slap it on a Sherman

Let's face it.  Our nation has been teaching its kids to hate our nation and everyone in it for years.  Ages ago when we still had cable, I remember watching CNN.  Your typical roundtable discussion.  It was Larry King, but someone else was the host.  I can't remember the topic.  But I remember what some young scholar activist said.   

She said America is falling behind because we live in the age of STEM. Of science and tech and genetics.  In the last century, it was an industrial age. And that fit America fine.  After all, any stupid can be a blue collar construction worker or coal miner.  But STEM takes smarts, and that's always been outside the grasp of Americans.  

Now, she didn't say it that bluntly, but it wasn't too far off either.  I've seen that observation echoed more than once over the years.  Which, of course, is false.  America was always at the head of the race for medical, scientific and tech breakthroughs during the age of invention.  Many of the inventions I'm sure that young woman takes for granted came from America and Americans.  

But we were also a hard working, get your hands dirty, build and accomplish nation as well.  And nothing demonstrates that more than our experience in WW2.     

It's been said that the American soldier's best asset was his ability to do.  To build.  To improvise.  So many soldiers had worked with their hands, could disassemble an automobile, could build their own houses, that in the military they were quick to adapt.  And the military itself demonstrated this time and again.  We might not have had the best of anything, but our ability to improvise and turn on a dime was second to none.   

That is seen in all its spectacular glory in what my sons call 'slap it on a Sherman.'  The Sherman tanik was the second most produced tank in WW2.  Second only to the Soviet's famous T-34.  Unlike the T-34, the Sherman was found everywhere, and used by more countries than any other armored fighting vehicle.  

But beyond that, it's almost hilarious just how we were able to adapt it to anything under the sun, beyond just being an army tank.  That's where my boys get that saying.  Which they use when it comes to us improvising or having to think outside the box on a dime.  Because on any given day, that Sherman could become a bulldozer, a repair vehicle, a rocket launcher, minesweeper, or, as in the case below, a crane:

I hadn't seen that before.  It popped on on a history page I follow.  Heh.  Just one more thing.  It was used to facilitate the moving of heavy rollers to aid in the recovery of armored vehicles.  

Here are some other pics of the Sherman tank and its various identities based on the need at hand:  

The one with the iron spikes on the front is the famous 'hedgerow clippers'.  The hedgerows of Normandy famously caught us off guard.  Mammoth hedges whose roots stretched down to China, we had to go around them through sometimes narrow paths and gateways.   

The Germans, however, being the best trained of the WW2 armies, seized upon this and made sure every path through the hedgerows was heavily guarded.  Much to the misery of Americans.  Until an army Sergeant, Curtis Culin, came up with an idea, based on a conversation he had with a 'hillbilly named Roberts' (according to historian Max Hastings).  Why not take those metal anti-landing devices from the Normandy beaches, modify them, and slap them on a Sherman?  The world's biggest hedge cutters! And it worked.    

That was the old American ingenuity once celebrated, by the 1970s mocked, and today forgotten.  For me, I prefer to celebrate that sort of thinking and accomplishment.  Not the thinking that celebrates what we celebrate today. 

A Memorial Day reflection

 This is what we civilians see of the heroes who have died:

This is what the heroes see of the heroes who have died:

Hence, why we remember them as heroes.  They endure the unendurable so that we can be free.  May God help us to remember that on this Memorial Day, 2022. 

There might still be hope for Americans

Hope for America?  Maybe not.  But when the time comes, perhaps more Americans will remain faithful than we sometimes believe.

So 76% don't want the president to automatically exclude all candidates who are men, and any women who don't have black skin, just because they are men or don't have black skin.  Imagine that.  When we've officially been taught for two years that we must embrace equity and reject equality (that is, treat people differently based on group label rather than everyone the same), that's amazing. 

The Left wishes for racial segregation and political oppression.  Right now, it's had its way, at least among the elites, leaders and institutions and corporations of our nation.  Nonetheless, perhaps America has not forsaken wisdom, even if so many in our seats of leadership have buckled and given up and embraced the bigotry.  It's not a war won, or even a battle.  But it's at least a small bright spot in the darkness. 

Oh, for those who say But Reagan!  Yes, Reagan made the pledge that he would nominate a women to the SCOTUS.  This was because no woman had ever been a Supreme Court justice.  It was a nomination that would often haunt conservatives in the years go come.  In hindsight, I think Reagan was as wrong then, even if it would have been a major breakthrough (we have, in fact, had women and black justices before Biden's pledge).  Given the track record, it appears posturing like this eventually seems to set up more bad than good.  

Happy Birthday Americans

 

As America enters into its phase as a nonagenarian, that is someone in their 90s, you have to be honest.  At that stage in a person's life, you don't begin plans for their next thirty years.  You pray they have many more happy and blessed years ahead.  You just know those years will not equal out to another twenty or thirty in all likelihood, much less another ninety.  

America is there.  I doubt it dies any time in the next few years.  On the other hand, I doubt my grandchild will know a world of freedom, equality or democracy in any meaningful sense.  In just the last few years, the forces opposed to God, Man, Liberty and Life have made massive strides forward.  

We've seen the speed with which people will sell their birthrights of freedom for a bowl of stew.  More and more young Americans are open about their hatred of this country and desire that it be burned to the ground, along with anyone who dares defend it.  Ideas thought safely condemned and put behind us, like racism, violence, discrimination and  censorship have come back in a blaze of glory, fully endorsed by our media, entertainment industry, education institutions, corporations and even among many religious leaders and traditions.  More and more are coming out of the closet and donning their merry communist apparel. 

In typical form, several leftwing outlets came out a couple weeks ago and mocked those worried that Juneteenth will replace July 4th as Independence Day.  I say typical form because if you Google this in so many words, you will see a couple fact checkers dismissing the concern, followed by dozens of results in which we're told Juneteenth should be our real Independence Day.   Emperor's New Clothes level denial has been a bulwark of leftwing activism since I was in college. 

Remember, last year we saw government buildings, churches, businesses, homes, and entire neighborhoods laid waste and burned, while hundreds of innocents were attacked and many killed in the name of a demonstrably false narrative - Black Lives Matter - yet with the full endorsement of not only the above national institutions, but plenty of international level support as well; including, but not limited to, the pope.  That's progress.  It was like Operation Cobra for the Left.

Where we'll be in the next ten years, I don't know.  I find the Left makes much more progress when a Republican is in office and the media can frame it as 'bold revolutionaries against a Nazi regime.'  When the Left is in the White House, things seem to slow down.  There is probably some of that good old American skepticism about too much power for one side that kicks in.

Nonetheless, many things we assumed were true for the long haul have been thrown down in barely a decade.  Even now, saying sex and babies are connected or that boys and girls exist can get you fired from your job in short order.  Having something like a movie or even commercial with all white people would be like having a Jewish gathering in 1930s Germany.  And last year churches allowed themselves to be reduced to the same level of importance in the popular mindset as put-put golf coursers and strip clubs. 

So no predictions, but I'm not worrying about how America's tercentennial will be celebrated.  It is enough that my children are old enough to have at least learned and seen some of what America could be at its best.  They will have to bear the brunt of our folly, but hopefully there will be enough to pass down the lessons and keep a light shining, not only for the best of what America was, but for the Gospel light that, however imperfectly, was a major basis for what America and the West brought into a dark and troubled world. 

Happy July 4th - Independence Day 

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's not inaccurate, at least in spirit

Thanksgiving, the forgotten holiday.  But for grocers and turkey farmers, I think many would forget it's here.  In recent years, our friends in Wall Street almost seemed as if they wished they could ban the holiday in order to get to the much needed spending frenzy of St. Walmart season.  That attitude was joined by the Left's ever enduring crusade to find disaffected descendents of those wronged by the US government or Europeans in general and rally them to bring and end once and for all to the American experiment.  

It wasn't long ago that I would have bet that in a decade or more it would be a holiday long replaced by Juneteenth, or some other celebration of America's unforgivable sins.  But alas, we have Covid.  Suddenly, the only thing that matters is Covid, and insisting Americans do anything but celebrate that holiday as they have.  To do so, the holiday itself has to be lifted up, just to demonstrate how great the sacrifice we're being told to make really is. 

Why, I've actually seen news stories talking about how great the holiday is, how necessary, how essential.  That makes being told we can't celebrate it all the more powerful.  It also makes our willingness to acquiesce and do as we're told all the more noteworthy.  

True, in all the 'why Thanksgiving matters' I don't think I've seen a single pilgrim or Mayflower anywhere.  But then, truth be told, it was never the big thing.   I remember in first grade a picture of the pilgrims on their way to church (famous painting) and talking about the story.  I remember it being mentioned a couple times through the years.  But we didn't worship them or anything, as Americans are sometimes accused of doing.  Mostly we admired their courage, their devotion, and the role they played for helping to lay the groundwork for this most prosperous and free nation we inherited.  That's when we mentioned it at all.  Sometimes it was like in kindergarten, when the emphasis was just on turkey art and making gooey pumpkin pie as a group project. 

But celebrating our heritage, and those who made it all happen, is certainly our approach to the holiday.  We've resisted where some Catholics go in trashing and hashing the pilgrims.   In an odd twist, the Orthodox seemed willing to give a nod to the pilgrims and their story more than Catholics.  But then, they might have seen the pilgrims as a finger in the Church's eye, and that could also be reason for the pilgrim love.

Whatever, despite other traditions joining the modernist in trashing the pilgrims and their story, and despite the attempt to rally more and more people to attack and destroy anything to do with the whole Western and American stories, we are happy to tip our hats to Christians who were, in many ways, better than us.  So Happy Thanksgiving.  Enjoy it while we can.  And remember what could have been. 

The miracle of the USS Yorktown

From a different era.  Donald McClarey has the lowdown.  This was one of millions of stories in the history of the United States and what made it great.  The Japanese were sure we'd be down one carrier when they showed up at Midway.  Japan's incorrect assessment of America's work ethic cost them a crucial battle that ended up being the turning point of the Pacific War.

Today, there is no such thing as that level of work ethic.  When working as a department manager at a major healthcare company some years ago, a fellow manager was standing by a window looking forlorn.  I came up to him and asked what was wrong.  He pointed to the parking lot.  One of his team members was heading for his car.  It was 3:00 PM, and nowhere near lunch or any such thing.  The manager explained that the fellow merely emailed him a brief message: 3:00 O'Clock, time to go!   And off he went.  He was disciplined, but the company made it clear that fear of lawsuits made terminating anyone nearly impossible.  Unfortunately, the young man was not alone, as close to 50% of the employees were constantly getting in trouble for goofing off, not working, violating company policy. And that company was hardly alone.

A labor day reflection for a nation that no longer values labor.  But if we remember the better age, we might, for the sake of our posterity, be able to recapture the best of that age.

America the Beautiful from a different age

When one's politics didn't dictate whether you loved America, or only a vision of America that has yet to live up to your superior values.  Love of country was still a general unifier in America.

I could watch this every Thanksgiving

There are some things to be thankful for.  A nation with time and resources for a special turkey instruction hotline has to be one of them.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and God's blessings.

Happy Constitution Day!

A Gathering of Racists: A Modern interpretation

A day late.  It was yesterday, in case you missed it.  And I'd wager many did.  Odd that we don't have fireworks and cookouts and fairs and family gatherings for Constitution Day, don't you think?  I wonder why that is. 

We're told it's all the Constitution.  When we talk of rights or privileges (or restrictions thereof), it's always the Constitution.  And yet, no celebrations there.  What do we celebrate?  The Declaration of Independence.  Why the difference?

I imagine it's hard to say, but I'll have a go.  I think it's because the Declaration marked a shift - a seismic shift to use the phrase - in human history.  For the first time, humans were going to start a nation from scratch dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, and that government exists to protect that truth. 

Take a survey of the world in 1776, and you can see how revolutionary that was.  Unfortunately, the same thinking that has led to our modern Iconoclasm against all things Confederate has also diluted the impact of the Declaration.  Judging the Founding Fathers based on the latest developments in our present day thinking, it's not hard to find them wanting. And from that, we can logically undervalue their contributions.  Which is likely the goal of the Left, which encourages a dismal assessment of our heritage.

Nonetheless, if a person bothers to think about it, the Declaration was bold, it was stunning, it was something so unique in history that the world has never been the same.  That's why the celebration.

But the Constitution is what guarantees these rights, some will argue.  And don't say our lack of parties yesterday is because some on the Left want to rewrite the Constitution.  We've not been having pot luck dinners for Constitution Day for generations.

Why?  Because, at the end of the day, the Declaration represents our heart and soul as a nation.  It's 'Why we're here.'  It's the thing that is our statement of Faith.  The Constitution is merely the instruction manual for seeing it through.

For instance, Secularists and SCOTUS justices seem to lean on the fact that the Constitution doesn't mention God by name.  True.  But you know what?  I was a pastor for many years.  I served in a variety of churches.  Each church had a church constitution.  Guess what.

Each constitution had two parts.  A statement of Faith, and the actual constitution.  The statement of Faith was repeating the faith doctrines that the congregation upheld.  It was basically a brief summary of the denomination's doctrinal distinctives. 

The rest of the constitution?  That was just business: Who pays what bills, who gets to teach Sunday School, who is in what committee and which committee does what.  In fact, God was seldom if ever mentioned in that part of the constitution. 

And that's sort of our country, if you think about it.  God isn't in the US Constitution because of the same reason that most church constitutions I saw weren't overly religious.  In the end, they're the instruction manual, and that's it.  The point of celebration, of faith, of worship and praise, is in that statement of faith.

And in the United States, the statement of faith is not the Constitution.  It is the Declaration of Independence. And no matter how much the Left wants to rewrite and Stalanize the document to fit its own dogmas, most Americans know the Declaration is the canvas upon which a proper understand oft he Constitution is painted.  Which is why, as important as the Constitution is - and I'm not trying to diminish its unique contribution to our  nation - it will always play second fiddle to the Declaration of Independence.  At least IMHO.

Good for them

The five former presidents join to do what Americans should be doing as a matter of course: Come together for our fellow Americans:

This attitude should be everywhere, during National Anthems and in the face of external threats to our fellow citizens at home and abroad.  Then it becomes easier to bring everyone together for yet another common cause. 

As it is, at least this is a first step.  Now if they could join with the current president to bring us all together now. 

The Conservative Manifesto Take II

By John C. Wright.  With the exception of a few minor points, my only addition: Yep.

The problem with the immigration debate

 

Is that it is framed as heroic people who care versus racist Americans who would throw babies in the river to protect their bank accounts.  I'm sure there are some extremes who feel that way about immigrants.  I'm also sure there are extremes on the other side of the debate who don't care about America's interests in the least as they invoke collective guilt against any Americans who might suffer and die at the hands of illegal immigrants.  In fact, I know there are.  When the case of Kathryn Steinle was brought up in the debate, on more than one website and blog, defenders of illegals dropped the 'look what Americans did to the Indians' rebuttal.  If you think of that, what else does it mean than a thinly veiled 'Americans get what they have coming because their ancestors with a certain skin color did things to other people of a certain skin color.' 

Therefore, I would say there is a certain lack of concern for the wellbeing of Americans by some in the immigration debate.  So we can probably safely rework the narrative to say that it is two groups of heroic people trying to find the way to do the right thing against two extremes who don't care about one or the other groups of people who are impacted by the immigration problem.

So with that, we realize that neither approach is without its extremes who might well have very un-Christian motives or beliefs.  It's no better, in my opinion, to dismiss the suffering of Americans than it is to dismiss the suffering of Latino immigrants. 

So what to do?  Now that we've established nether side of the debate is without its extremes, rather than just slander and besmirch a group for not conforming to a single position, we might actually be forced to look at facts and evidence and details. 

That is beyond me and my humble little blog, by the way.  It is why I sympathize with people on both sides of the problem.  It's why I'm slow to condemn others for disagreeing with me.  Perhaps if I had a bunch of immigrants living in my home, or I lived along the border, I might be quicker to condemn others.  But since I'm not directly impacted by the immigration debate, I'm slow to judge others who are.


You're not born here, you're not an islander.

I will say this.  A cursory glance at world wide immigration policies seems to suggest that America's policies are quite liberal by comparison.  At worst, we seem to be on par with many countries in terms of how easy it is to become a citizen and what rights a person has once they have done so.  At best, we are far better than other countries who make it very difficult, if not impossible, to become citizens.  And in some of those countries, being a citizen never quit amounts to what being born in those countries will give you. 

So let's not continue this notion that America is some racist, evil nation that throws immigrants out into the water when the rest of the world does walk with the angels where immigration is concerned.  Sure, there will always be some who don't want the latest new group to come to the party.  But despite resistance by some, we have always been an open nation to legal immigration. The only ones who ever resisted violently as a matter of policy against people coming to make a new home on our shores were, ironically, the American Indians.  But that's for another post.

America is, in the end, a liberal and open country.  At worst on par with the better countries in terms of immigration, at best far better than many.  That's why a girl I knew from Russia said what she said so many years ago.  I was working on my graduate degree, and she was one of that group of students who came to America after the fall of the USSR.  Her name was Larissa.  She went on and on about how inferior America was.  She didn't like our culture.  Our society.  Our people.  And yet she was working diligently to become a citizen.  I once asked her why, if she seems to despise so much about America, is she wanting to become a citizen?  Easy, she said.  Because the places she would like to live would be too difficult.  She would be a little old lady before becoming a citizen in those countries.  America is ten times easier. 

So why the problem?  First, because Latin American countries are a mess.  A freaking mess.  Poverty, corruption, crime, drugs and conflicts are pushing inordinate numbers of Latinos across the border and into the US. 

Second, our border.  There are few if any places in the world where such a long border exists between one nation and another culture filled with people perpetually trying to get in.  That puts a massive strain on the system.  And since people from Latin America are probably like people in general, they don't want to wait.  They don't want to be the ones who starve or die at the hands of criminals and corrupt governments just so some others get across to the promised land.

Third, because of the backlog and the subsequent desire people have to circumvent it, there has arisen a veritable black market of immigrant smugglers.  Bet your bottom dollar that care and concern for the well being of the immigrants are not top on the smugglers' list.  That makes the entire situation look worse than it needs to be.

Fourth, American employees have added to the allure of coming over illegally by hiring illegal immigrants.  It's true.  Illegals no doubt heard that if they could just get here, they could find work and not have to endure the processes of becoming legal.  Americans would hire them for peanuts, but at least peanuts can be eaten.

Fifth, because so many were willing to just leave their Latin American homes, there has been no real pressure on the Latino governments to, oh, do a better job not starving, screwing, oppressing and killing their own people.  That was a criticism by even pro-immigrant activists back in the day.  In fact, the irony is that I remember some Democratic critics of Reagan blasting his amnesty back in the 80s because it wouldn't compel the Mexican government (and other governments) to do a better job.  It was essentially paying off their credit cards of corruption, rather than making them change. 

Sixth, the influx of illegals is unchecked and does do harm to Americans living here.  Assuming you don't think that the only good American is a dead American, concern for Americans already here is important.

Seventh, all of this is framed between extremes, though to be honest, the extreme of controlling immigration is not usually advanced by most thinkers in the debate.  That is, they aren't racists who say keep people out because they are the wrong race.  The other side, as well, is not defined by its extremes.  If there were people on social media and the blogosphere who invoked collective guilt against white Americans, most thinkers representing an open border and amnesty position don't advocate that.  So let's be careful about generalizing.

Nonetheless, missing in the debate is the fact that America is a liberal nation with immigration.  We are very open and welcoming.  We allow people to come in by the millions.  Upwards of three-quarter of a million people become citizens every year.  But with the strain that illegals put on our system, with the threat of terrorist cells coming into our country under the radar, with the ongoing and increasing drug problem coming across the border, as well as the growing problem of human slavery reemerging in the world, it's logical that we need to do something.

America's future identity?

I'm not in favor of building a wall.  It won't work.  It isn't as if illegals will suddenly throw up their hands and turn around.  It will be billions spent to simply cause the black market of immigrant runners to find new ways around the obstacle.  Plus, it invokes that feeling of Cold War Berlin.  I remember it was a point of pride that America was not the country with walls.  That was the Soviet Union.  And in the wake of 9/11, there has been a growing trend for some Conservatives to embrace more and more tactics and methods that were once condemned by those very Conservatives.  The point of Conservatism is to face the enemy while conserving the past.  It isn't to become like the enemy and say it's OK because we're the good guys. 

So a bit of a mess I'll admit.  Far more complex than just building bridges or walls.  Far more complex than evil white racists versus beautiful people who care.  Far more complex than America shuns immigrants and are against all immigrants when it's clear we let them in by the millions.  Far more complex, in the end, than just about anyone is admitting, except for some of the Republican Candidates.  I'll give them that.  Kasich and Rubio are two who have laid out their reasoning for why they want to do what they want to do.  They've actually reminded people that America is not against legal immigration.  They have explained exactly how and why we need to refuse the Democratic narrative, but also need to reform the current system.  Bush and Carson might have done so as well, but I've not heard them yet.  Unfortunately, while Trump never said he's against immigrants, and did make it clear that he is speaking of illegal immigrants, the tone and content of his rhetoric fit right into the artificial narrative of the liberal press and the Democratic candidates.  And worse, the Pope's response to Trump seemed to do nothing other than fit into that artificial narrative as well. 

So perhaps if nothing else this latest kerfuffle will be a chance for Republicans to seize the moment and reclaim the narrative.  To attack the anti-American notion that one of the most open countries in the world is some racist compound with walls and barbed wire.   But perhaps not advocating for walls and barbed wire might be the best way to start reclaiming the debate.

Happy Birthday America

And may we wake up from our stupor soon, before it is too late for our posterity, and live up to what has, after so many eons, been given to us through so much sacrifice and suffering.  Perhaps reading that little greeting card from all those years ago might help us wake: 

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:

Column 1

Georgia:

   Button Gwinnett

   Lyman Hall

   George Walton

Column 2

North Carolina:

   William Hooper

   Joseph Hewes

   John Penn

South Carolina:

   Edward Rutledge

   Thomas Heyward, Jr.

   Thomas Lynch, Jr.

   Arthur Middleton

Column 3

Massachusetts:

John Hancock

Maryland:

Samuel Chase

William Paca

Thomas Stone

Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:

George Wythe

Richard Henry Lee

Thomas Jefferson

Benjamin Harrison

Thomas Nelson, Jr.

Francis Lightfoot Lee

Carter Braxton

Column 4

Pennsylvania:

   Robert Morris

   Benjamin Rush

   Benjamin Franklin

   John Morton

   George Clymer

   James Smith

   George Taylor

   James Wilson

   George Ross

Delaware:

   Caesar Rodney

   George Read

   Thomas McKean

Column 5

New York:

   William Floyd

   Philip Livingston

   Francis Lewis

   Lewis Morris

New Jersey:

   Richard Stockton

   John Witherspoon

   Francis Hopkinson

   John Hart

   Abraham Clark

Column 6

New Hampshire:

   Josiah Bartlett

   William Whipple

Massachusetts:

   Samuel Adams

   John Adams

   Robert Treat Paine

   Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:

   Stephen Hopkins

   William Ellery

Connecticut:

   Roger Sherman

   Samuel Huntington

   William Williams

   Oliver Wolcott

New Hampshire:

   Matthew Thornton

Have a happy and blessed 4th of July

For all its faults, and for the ease with which our most educated generation in history is throwing away liberty and freedom for a romp in the sack (my sixteen year old says the Founding Fathers tried to foresee as many challenges as possible, but they didn't see us coming), it is still a great country.  For all its sins - sins shared by all cultures, nations, kingdoms and empires in history - it was also a shining beacon, if only for a season in the history of the world.  

For myself, I await news to confirm that I may have a new job, one that pays substantially more than I've been paid in many a moon.  My wife also has an interview on Monday.  My Fifteen year old appears healthy, and things are about as good as they've been in recent memory.  We're praying that it continues. 

We will have cookouts, watch fireworks, ponder the answer to Francis Scott Key's lingering question in light of the new paganism's machinations, and of course reflect on our nation, our blessings and our prayers for the future.  Here is a little post I did about movies we watch during Memorial Day.  They work for Independence Day as well.  Especially the movie Gettysburg (though apologies for its rank and despicable displays of the Flag that cannot be mentioned).  

In it all, there is still much to be thankful for, and maintain hope that as close as we are coming to the cliff, we can still turn around.  God, I don't think, hates America as much as some would have us think.  And if we don't deserve God's exclusive favor, I don't believe we alone of the nations deserve his wrath (though some strong kicks in the pants are more than deserved, as they always are).  Though if we keep listening to those who would have us believe we have always deserved God's wrath, then I have no doubt we'll eventually deserve it. 

So God bless America.  Real America.  Actual America.  Historic America.  God bless those whose labors gave us this nation that has always been, at its best, among the greatest civilizations in history, and even at its worst, no worse than most that has defined human history.  May we be worthy of the blessings we ask from God, of those who struggled, worked and died for our liberties, and may God and common hobbit sense protect us from those who would have us sell our birthrights of freedom and liberty for a quick romp in the sack with the carbon-based life form of our choice.  

And call me an old heretical Catholic, but if I must pick a heroic image of Americans to celebrate outside of the faithful Saints and Martyrs, I'd rather pick something like his:

than the hipster favorite celebrated by so many cool and sophisticated Catholics across the internet today:

Though I admit, one is likely a glorified and false image set up to inspire hero worship, while another actually tries to capture the genuine attributes and characteristics Christians everywhere should hope to identify with and even emulate.  Ah, silly old me. Happy 4th!

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their land.    2 Chronicles 7:14

The great thing about America?

We're still free.  Oh, I know.  At the rate we're going, we won't be.  Too many folks, especially young people, have been fed the delusion that a country with unbridled sexual pornography, legal drugs, and unlimited blasphemous bathroom humor is a free country, no matter what else may be suppressed.  As a result, there is a growing movement of folks, some young, some not, who are willing to call for the eradication of just about any other freedom as long as they can have sex, drugs, and bathroom humor.  Still, despite their best efforts, we are still a free country.  So free, that we can argue endlessly about whether we should vote for this candidate, that candidate, some other candidate, or not at all.  Many in the world do not have that right.  Many never will.  Someday, who knows?  It may just be a whispered rumor talked about around American tables in the hushed hours of darkness.  But for now, we're free to do it or not do it, as the case may be.  And in the historical scheme of things, that's not bad.

I thought of that as I read this quirky story about a fellow who passed out, nearly died, needed resuscitated  and then made sure he still got his vote in.  Whatever one thinks about voting, please don't think it's of no importance.  There is probably nothing else that will more effectively send us spiraling back to Egypt from our journey in the desert than an attitude like that.