By
Ron Ewart
November 6, 2013
NewsWithViews.com
"A country grows in history not only because of the heroism of its troops on the field of battle, it grows also when it turns to justice and to fight for the conservation of its interests." -Aristide Briand, French statesman and prime minister for 11 terms
CITATION: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty on 28 October 1944, near St. Die, France. When his company was stopped in its effort to drive through the Mortagne Forest to reopen the supply line to the isolated third battalion, S/Sgt. Adams braved the concentrated fire of machineguns in a lone assault on a force of German troops.
CITATION: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with the 4th Battalion, 10th Marines, 2d Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Saipan, Marianas Islands, 7 July 1944. When the enemy launched a fierce, determined counterattack against our positions and overran a neighboring artillery battalion, Pfc. Agerholm immediately volunteered to assist in the efforts to check the hostile attack and evacuate our wounded.
CITATION: He displayed conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty. When a powerfully conducted predawn Japanese counterattack struck his unit's flank, he ordered his men to take cover in an old tomb, and then, armed only with a carbine, faced the onslaught alone.
CITATION: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with the 4th Marine Division during action against enemy Japanese forces on Roi Island, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, 1 February 1944.
These are just a few opening lines in Congressional Medal of Honor citations about men in World War II. The complete citations go on to describe the individual heroism of each Medal of Honor recipient. Some of their exploits are almost unbelievable. Many of these cherished medals are awarded to families of those whose heroism led them to make the ultimate sacrifice.
Heroism is described as: "conduct especially as exhibited in fulfilling a high purpose or attaining a noble end."
A hero is described as: "a person of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his or her brave deeds and noble qualities."
What may be forgotten about heroism is that they are single acts of valor. Their actions don't necessarily win wars, but they do help to win battles. Winning battles wins wars. However, without the many behind the heroes, no wars would be won.
Not all heroes perform acts of valor on the battlefield. Some acts of valor occur in homes when saving people from fires or other tragedies, or on the road in horrific traffic accidents where a frail woman miraculously lifts a car up high enough to retrieve a victim, or at times of natural disasters. Some occur in the halls of justice with court decisions that really SERVE justice and still others occur in the unhallowed halls of local, state and federal legislatures, where a good law is passed, or a bad law is repealed. Like all acts of heroism, they tend to be the exception rather than the rule.
Heroism
is manifested in selfless acts of bravery and courage despite of and ignoring
potential risks to life, limb, or property. It is also displayed by the
man or woman who stands up at a public hearing and although trembling
and nervous inside, delivers a passionate plea for justice, to right a
wrong, or to support or oppose some law. Thousands of those heroes stood
up at the 2009 Town Hall meetings on Obama Care and gave the politicians
a vehement piece of their mind. Those heroes are still standing up and
standing out in that battle and they are growing even more vehement as
Obama Care unravels into the disaster everyone of any intellect knew would
happen, even before the law was passed.
Women are heroes almost every day when saving one or more of their children
from themselves, in the difficult and sometimes impossible, if not thankless
task, of raising them, or an immature husband, to adulthood.
Heroes always pay a price for their heroism. Audie Murphy, soldier and actor, paid a significant price for being one of the most decorated soldiers of World War II. Although he had a successful acting career after the war, he was plagued by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and slept with a loaded gun under his pillow. He had significant money problems in his mid-life years and died as he had lived in real life and in films, in a fiery plane crash in 1971.
Of the six men who raised the American flag on Iwo Jima, 3 died in combat, two died of acute alcoholism after the war (Ira Hayes, 1955 and Rene Gagnon, 1979) and the third would never talk about the incident for the rest of his life, except once. (John Bradley, 1994)
Heroes don't tend to be leaders. In almost all cases they act alone. But their spontaneous individual acts of courage inspire others to follow. It is the others that follow that win the wars, on or off the battlefield.
In the battlefield of politics and policy, heroes are needed even more than in war because of the resident evil that lurks in the hearts of men and women in power. Wars end but the battlefield of politics and policy is eternal. If that evil is not challenged daily by the hero and those that follow, that evil prevails.
In each American the seed of heroism resides as the softly glowing pilot light of freedom, because deep down in the recesses of our minds and embedded in our genetic code, we strongly believe that we were and are born free.
In some small town in America, or in a state legislature, or on the floor of the U. S. House or Senate, the pilot light in one of our silent heroes lights the fire of freedom at great personal or professional risk and inspires those that follow that are necessary to win any ideology or policy war. It's easy to go along with the common mindset as so many in politics do. It is difficult and dangerous to break away from that mindset, or the party elite, to become the hero of brave deeds, high purpose and noble goals.
Unfortunately, in our lavish American lives of wealth and comfort, the hero in us has been sequestered and inattentive. But the light of the hero has not gone out by any means and the pilot light of the hero is beginning to grow brighter again as the evil power of those that are tightening the screws of control upon us, expand their arrogance and blatant socialist agenda that is the antithesis of liberty. Obama, his minions and his agenda are adding fuel to the pilot light of America's silent heroes. As the pressure of tyranny mounts, the selfless acts of heroes pop up in places unexpected, like bubbles that are driven to the surface of the sea by some unseen power.
All across America the pilot light of silent heroes is reflected in the growing body of movements acting in concert with the principles of freedom and liberty. As the heroes spring into action, more and more of those that follow continue to grow and are manifested in the groups that form around the heroes. The freedom movement is not dying, it is getting legs and growing, in spite of a news media that echoes the forecast of its pending demise. The Tea Party, or some version of it, is here to stay in the fight for the preservation of our Constitution and the restoration of our Republic. Believe it! Commit to it! Let the hero in each of us perform its unparalleled magic, or let us follow these single acts of heroism in the defense of our liberty.
When duty calls, the hero in some of us always rises to answer it with a selfless act of bravery and courage, as an inspiration to those that follow.
With the recent exposing of systemic corruption in the IRS, we have answered the call and are challenging the IRS with our new website “Attack Watch Spies” HERE, and our new video entitled: "IRS Corruption and High Crimes" HERE.
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� 2013 Ron Ewart — All Rights Reserved
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Ron Ewart, a nationally known author and speaker on freedom and property issues and author of his weekly column, "In Defense of Rural America", is the President of the National Association of Rural Landowners, (NARLO) a non-profit corporation headquartered in Washington State and dedicated to restoring, maintaining and defending property rights for urban and rural landowners. Mr. Ewart can be reached by e-mail for comment at ron@narlo.org, or by 'phone at 1 800 682-7848.
Website: www.narlo.org
E-Mail: ron@narlo.org
