Here in Washington and throughout the land, we commemorate our million or so soldiers, sailors and marines who perished so we might be free. Even with these horrific numbers, America is lucky. We are not just celebrating our heroes. We are thanking God and them for our good fortune.
One of the great things about America is our faith in God and the principles of our nation, however imperfectly enacted. Another great thing about America is our faith in the future.
When American soldiers fight, they do not fight for a king, a leader, a crown or a government. They fight for their love of liberty, the glory of the future and to retain goodness in the world that would die if America were to fall.
What will make the future glorious is when we have perfected the ideal of liberty, that everyone can walk the streets without fear of being arrested, spied upon or looked at suspiciously. We have to fight that battle mainly at home.
But the ideals of liberty, freedom, privacy, free speech, equality, opportunity and innocence until guilt is proven no matter how much they are threatened and weakened here, are such powerful ideas that most of the world still fears them and will do anything to stop them from thriving.
Our soldiers have been brave. This is to be expected, for there have always been gallant soldiers. The good guys and bad guys have both been brave fighting to preserve their country or to destroy someone else’s, to prevent themselves from becoming slaves or to take slaves home with them, to save their family or bring glory to their king.
So often people glorify war. The reason is that war allows young men to devote themselves to a cause greater than themselves.
A cause greater than oneself is a noble goal. But usually the cause which people die for is organized by selfish people.
These selfish people have young truth seekers and young men longing to be needed dying for a group that is not greater than them, nor willing to sacrifice for others. Any pain or inconvenience the initiators of war willingly bring on themselves is done with the expectation that they will attain more power no matter how many people die or suffer.
In World War II, two of the countries received ghastly losses. One country’s government was supposedly in service to the people. But the people were actually enslaved to their leader.
The other country’s people loyally served a dictator because they thought he would restore glory and prosperity to their ancient culture.
In America we do not fight for the president. Americans fight for the ideals embedded in our constitution. Our government exists to make sure Americans never have their rights taken from them.
The recent leaders of our nation have behaved like tyrants. At best they have sent young men to die for a mistaken cause. At worst they have sent our young men to die to satisfy the egos of the president and his cabinet and advisors.
These actions relate to what I said earlier about our biggest battle for freedom being at home. This struggle is greater the more the government lusts for war.
When a government lusts for war, that means war is not necessary. It means the need for secrecy that is essential in a defensive war is concocted, increased and abused in a war of selfishness.
All these actions lead to fear. There is the fear that is instilled when an enemy is claimed to be more dangerous than it is.
There is the fear of criticizing the proponents of an unjust war, for people fear what might be done to them if they complain. There is the fear of each other too. We cannot help but fear each other when the world is demonized and the government lies and demands the right to be secretive.
What does all this mean? It means we lose civil liberties. It means we lose the freedom that comes with trust, good will and confidence.
It means the future looks anything but glorious. And it means the goodness that has been essential to America has gone.
When we celebrate our heroes today, we must realize that there is no foreign threat to the United States. The threat to America comes from politicians, business leaders, professors and attorneys.
The war that must be fought is here against your government. Americans need to risk their career, property, love and bodies to free America. What I am saying is that parents and grandparents have to risk jail or death for their kids and grandchildren.
This is scary.
Americans do not look like a free proud people. We look frightened and timid.
America needs to rise above this fear. American citizens need to demand the end of the surveillance state, of guilt until innocence is proven.
You must make my fellow politicians and bureaucrats and business leaders terrified of you and your lust for freedom. Now you are afraid of them.
For those with a religious or philosophical bent, who believe in noble causes, in something greater than oneself, this is your challenge. It is an opportunity of a lifetime far greater than the challenge of a young soldier fighting for a cause and leaders he does not understand.
You Americans at mid-career, at your peak, enjoying your wisdom and retirement. You understand. This is a cause greater than yourself.
God wants people to be free. In no other country is God and freedom intertwined like here.
America is being sabotaged. If you do not rise up then our soldiers, sailors and marines will have died in vain.
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