At What Price, Freedom?

This Independence Day, over over 1,100 currently deployed veterans of Iraq reenlisted

by: jayme evans | published: 07 07, 2008

Freedom -Free-dom frē-dəm\ n. The quality or state of being free as a: the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action. b: Liberation from slavery. c: The quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous. © 2008 Merriam Webster Inc.

Many people think of Independence Day as a day off from work. A day to shoot off fireworks. A chance to enjoy a summer barbecue, a weekend camping trip or a day at the beach. But when I think of Independence Day, all at once I am filled with both gratutide and an overabundance of caution. I celebrate the magnificent gift of freedom that our founders bestowed upon us with their fantastic experiment, yet I am increasingly wary of the current generation of it's handlers. As Americans, we owe our allegiance to our Constitution, not some elected body that pretends to carry out our wishes every few odd years so they can maintain their stranglehold on power.

Since the birth of this nation we have faced invasions, civil war, two world wars, depression and drought, hostage crises, terrorist attack and countless other traumatic events. And throughout our history, we have always pulled together as a nation and stood fast in the face adversity. The two exceptions that come to mind are the practice of our early countrymen to enslave other human beings and the political and media manipulation of the war in Vietnam which caused our nation to  withdraw its support for the war, and in turn, the military. Yet throughout all of this turmoil, or rather as a result of it, our nation grew ever-stronger, an indication of the soundness of it's founding principles. But those principles have been under attack now for about forty years from both inside and out. By friend and foe alike.

Patriotism

As a child, I would look down my neighborhood streets on Independence Day and see them adorned in a sea of Stars and Stripes.  Sadly, when I look around these days, besides myself and the few people whose brand of patriotism is to leave their flag up day and night until it gets torn to shreds by the weather, the only other people on the Left Coast these days to fly their colors at all are servicemen or their families. In my neigborhood, fireworks are legal for the entire week before Independence Day. The neighborhood must have collectively spent $5,000.00 on fireworks so they could keep their neighbors up well past midnight for an entire week, but it seems that it's too costly or too much trouble to hoist and properly care for your country's colors on the few days called for.

As a young boy, I was taught our flag was a living, breathing symbol of our country. It's very soul. These days, liberal cowards wipe their behinds with it, before parading it upside down and torching it in protest of some misguided cause. It has become completely acceptable to damn your country, your colors, your military and your way of life, while hypocritcally remaining under their protection and harvesting the fruits. If one of you cowards ever tried desecrating or even lowering the flag that flies outside this veteran's home, you'd bite off far more than I could ever shove down your throat. To those of you who chide "It's only a stupid flag.", shame on you. Throughout our entire history, loyal Americans have spilled rivers of blood to ensure that it is the Stars and Stripes, and not the Rising Sun, Swastika or Hammer and Sickle that flies smartly over any soil on Earth that US servicemen control, including here in the US. These men carry those colors into batttle and have been doing so since this nation was born. The respect you bestow on their banner is both proportional to and inseparable from the respect you bestow directly upon them. 

Liberals are all about symbolism, so why must they reject the flag and crucifix, the two symbols that best define this nation?

Terrorism

Terrorism against Americans is a very real danger. We have much to fear from terrorists, despite what many liberals tend to believe. That threat comes, not from the terrorists themselves, but from the weaknesses they exploit, such as wobbly, weak-kneed liberals in Congress, their aversion to profiling and cargo screening or their failure to treat airline terrorism as the Israeli's do. While we focus on the bomb as the biggest danger, the Iraelis root out the terrorist. Our misguided and outdated approach is based on an old assumption that nobody would be crazy enough to board an aircraft they intended to blow up in mid-air. But as of late 2001, we all know how crazy many in this world can be. 

But however crazy and devoted to their cause, they cannot simply invade our country and conquer us. They must use our political system, immigration system, legal system, economy and other institutions against us. Therefore, it stands to reason that it won't be the U.S. government that protects us from terrorist attacks when they inevitably begin to occur on U.S. soil. Rather it will be those who hold concealed-carry permits; those who won't hesitate to put a round square between a terrorist's eyes as he chants to Allah while reaching for the detonator. The hunter... The veteran... The off-duty cop... The rape victim who vowed never again.

The Second Amendment is the only thing protecting us from tyranny of any form, so praise the Supreme Court and pass the ammunition.

Congress and the President

Congress themselves are a very real danger to our freedom. There are a few honest souls left, but the vast majority of Congress is nothing more than a collection of narcissistic lawyers and beneficiaries of nepotism. Every single one of the current crises has occurred because Congress was either too timid to react to real threats, or they overreacted to perceived ones.

We  have out of control inflation  driving up energy prices which in turn affects the manufacture and delivery of virtually every other consumer necessity. We have a housing crisis that is due in large part to government malaise. We have mounting defecits and gathering dangers. But while Rome is burning, the best this Congress has managed to do is drastically increase government oversight. They've spent the bulk of their time attempting to pin some sort of malfeasance on the President, advance social destruction through cloning, abortion and gay marriage and to simultaneously suppress free speech and foist Affirmative Action on talk radio by attempting to resurrect the Fairness Doctrine. What an abysmal failure by an atrocious collection of do-nothings.

The President hasn't fared much better. Ever-aloof and far too timid when it really mattered, he's managed to squander enough political capital to run a deficit. He has blasphemed the very word "conservative" by allowing far too many defenders of this nation to face prosecution for doing their job, including soldiers, sailors, Marines and Border Patrol Agents. He's nearly spent us into insolvency. He has set a precedent of situational government welfare. Now, future victims of terrorist attack, natural disaster, mortgage fraud or any other cause a president may deem worthy will be the beneficiaries of government assistance, whether they really need it or not. As with Hurrican Katrina, they'll hand out checks first and ask questions later, wasting billions in the process.

Illegal Immigration

Illegal immigration is a dire threat to our freedom. It has stolen countless jobs from Americans. The myth of illegals doing jobs Americans won't do has been repeatedly shattered and they are a net drain on this country. One recent example: In Portland, OR., the outgoing mayor recently spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money to fund a "day labor center" for illegal immigrants to congregate and seek work. The only problem is that the center hires workers out for a minumium of ten dollars per hour, while most native laborers these days are getting by on the minimum wage, which hovers around $7.50. Besides being a slap in the face to hard-working Oregonians, the illegals have abandoned the taxpayer-funded building to search for work elsewhere because it pays more. What a sweet deal for Oregon's taxpayers.

In cities all across America, it's the same story. Illegal aliens given preference over Americans in hiring. Illegal aliens given sanctuary. Illegal aliens given promises of amnesty. Mayors, governors and City Councils instruct their law enforcement officers not to enforce immigration offenses or cooperate with federal authorities. 

Even Presidential candiates seek to weaken this country - one through waves of migrant labor, the other by retreating from battle just as we begin to taste the sweetness of victory.  John McCain told primary voters that he recognized there needed to be a secure, enforceable border before citizenship of any illegals was considered, yet the forked-tongue devil turned around and gave a speech to Mexican labor groups where he assured them he would continue to work towards his poisonous goal of "comprehensive immigration reform". I have no reason to doubt him.

And Barack Obama can't seem to understand why there is such an uproar over his  IHOP moment on Iraq. This fraud made immediate withdrawal in Iraq a central theme of his candidacy, yet now he's not just trying to buy himself wiggle room in saying he reserved the right to "refine his policy", he's unfairly blaming all of the uproar on mischaracterizations by the McCain campaign. Does the milquetoast Obama take responsibility for anything?

 With respect to freedom, there are three kinds of people in this world:

1. Those who stand up and defend freedom.
2. Those who reap the benefits of that freedom.
3. Those who devote their lives to suppressing freedom.

Most of us in that first category served to fight those in the last. We also understand that there will always be Americans in the second, who are indifferent, unwilling or unable to do the nation's dirty work. But we devote ourselves to the defense of our country as well as its ideals, foreign policy and national security objectives nonetheless.

This Independence Day, over over 1,100 currently deployed veterans of Iraq reenlisted for yet another likely tour. When asked why, most said they were finally doing what they signed up to do. In other words to serve in the searing, scorpion-infested deserts of Iraq with virtually no comforts --facing dust storms, ambushes, IEDs, VBIEDS, suicide bombers, snipers and mortar attacks--  because that is what they agreed to do. Serve their nation wherever that may be. And they're happy doing it there in Iraq.  

July 4th, 2008 was a proud day to be an American.

The decreasing violence that accompanies increasing progress in Iraq means that those who still advocate the securing of service weapons, the collection of magazines and a retrograde maneuver to the rear will have to contort themselves even further to justify their suggestion that we should pull the rug out from under those who volunteered to do it again. They want to finish this. Are you listening, Mr. Obama?

On this Independence day, we celebrate our freedom as well as those who have provided it and those who continue to provide it. But as we go forward, we must always be mindful that freedom isn't free. It requires regular debts paid in blood. But as long as this nation continues to see brave men step up and answer that call with their sleeves rolled up all ready to donate, we shall remain that shining beacon of freedom that is the envy of all mankind.

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