Since 1777, Americans have celebrated the Fourth of July, the birthday of this democratic republic. I have a survey map of the first family farm in Morristown, New Jersey dated 1766. Just think of the difference in this country from then and now!
Here in North Carolina, my family and the community always celebrated the Fourth of July. At the crossroads, the large two-room country school where my ancestors attended school, the entire community celebrated with a Fourth of July picnic. The entire day was spent with ball games in the large ball field next to the school, families visiting one another, local politicians making speeches, and at noon, the tables spread with food. One of my great uncles would hitch up a team of horses and go to the nearest town, where ice was available and bring back ice for the occasion. It was the only time of the year that children could enjoy ice cream, iced tea, milkshakes.
There were two things my parent talked about until they died: the Fourth of July picnic, and Hurricane Hazel which decimated eastern North Carolina in 1954. There were still American flags at my home which were flown around that schoolhouse every July. These were American citizens who loved their country.
This morning I ate breakfast with a WWII veteran of the US Navy. He told me how, as their ship sank in the South Pacific, and the men aboard jumped into the shark-infested waters, their orange life jackets were a perfect target for Japanese riflemen aboard the ships which had sank theirs. Those who survived gave up their life jackets to take their chances with the sharks and the waves. The millions of America's finest who died in our wars, right on up to the present, loved their country.
This Korean war veteran (I am a totally blind, 100% disabled, service-connected medical officer veteran of the Korean conflict), while the Korean war was going on, was hospitalized on the second floor of the Duke Eye Clinic (right across the street from the Veteran's hospital). Protesters of the Vietnam war, mostly UNC-CH and Duke students, were protesting around the VA facility. A black nurse came into my Duke hospital room, told me how much she despised veterans, and spat in my face. Did this woman, or those protesting on the outside, really love their country? For the first time in my lifetime, those in elected office, those who are bureaucrats, and even those who have raised most of today's working class citizens, have never experienced war.
The brightest bulb on the tree usually gets elected to public office, but there is nothing as easy to control as a man with an ego, one who is blind to everything but self. An egotistical person actually feels that he is superior, but he forgets that he is so easy to control, so ready for compromise, so anxious to keep his elected office, so anxious to please everyone. He is just what Satan ordered because Satan knows his weaknesses.
A young man in my town was elected to the legislature. He and his wife, both fresh out of college, courted me from the beginning of his professional and political activity. As he moved up the ladder, as he incited the wrath of more and more people, making enemies, another friend said to me, “you know him best, what are his weaknesses?” I said, “you will have to get this information from someone else.” Another party managed to get the information and he has disappeared; you seldom hear his name anymore
There is a tremendous difference between what you can give to your country and what you can get out of your country. The number of people in elected office who are trying to milk this country for everything they can get is bewildering. One congressman said to me, “there is nothing greater in Washington DC (or Raleigh, NC) than being called 'Mr. Chairman'.” In my limited acquaintances, my limited world view, I have known many titled (ranked) individuals who did not deserve the title (Senator, Congressman, Commissioner, Councilman, Alderman, Mayor, Doctor, Colonel, General, etc.).
History has been written by the blood and sweat of those who only knew honest work and integrity. Our best did not have their names in the newspaper; our best did not live in the largest homes, drive the largest cars, wear the most expensive clothes. The hands of our best, when you would shake them, had known hard work, compassion.
The real patriot, like the real Christian, is always aware of the unreal, the games that people play. Realize that there is little honestly left in the world among men or nations. There are 60 “Sky-watch” facilities (nests) around the world where nations watch the aerial activity of one another. Nations do not trust one another, the powerbrokers of the world's commerce, the secular news, academia do not trust one another. In my youth, there were “fire-watch” towers across eastern North Carolina, just trying to keep up with forest fires...we need such today in this nation as fires race across thousands of acres. During WWII, volunteers scattered across the country watched the skies for planes, volunteers along the coasts watched the oceans for ships or submarines.
Government is slowly shutting down; trust anywhere, any time is hard to find. It was only among those who have given the devotion of their life, those wounded wearing their country's uniform, those willing to deny self to conserve and preserve this republic, that we find trust. 95% of faith and trust is just raw courage. Do we still have the courage to salvage any independence we have left.
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