By
Attorney Rees Lloyd
July 7, 2010
NewsWithViews.com
American Independence Day, the 4th of July, is a time to annually rejoice in our freedom, and also to remember that our freedom was bought by blood, from the Founding Fathers of the first generation of free Americans, through the veterans of all the American generations who served in all the wars, to the sons and daughters of America of this generation who serve today in the Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard and Air Force to preserve and protect the freedom our American Founding Fathers bequeathed to us.
We Americans of today owe a great debt to all of the generations of Americans who came before us and preserved for us our most precious possession: Freedom. We pay that debt to those Americans who came before us by preserving and protecting freedom for the Americans who will come after us.
We Americans have before us as a model the finest exemplar of service to God and country: General George Washington. He was the greatest American of any generation, our First American President, honored as "The Father Of Our Country," saluted by those of the Founding Fathers generation as "First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen," as expressed by Henry "Lighthorse Harry" Lee. He was hailed internationally by such as French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte as the "greatest man of his era" because Washington walked away from power to return to his home as a citizen although offered life tenure as U.S. President, or even the title of "King," all of which he rejected as incompatible with patriotic virtue and devotion to individual freedom in our republic.
Gen. George Washington, led a ragtag Revolutionary Army of citizen soldiers against the greatest military power on earth in order to make America free. He and his Army were laughed at, scorned, by English King George III and the English generals. They said it couldn't be done. Gen. Washington and his Revolutionary Army soldiers did it. They made us free. He and they set the example. It is ours to emulate it.
Gen. Washington, when few thought that freedom-loving Americans could triumph over the military power of England which then dominated the world, said to his Revolutionary Army troops on July 2, 1776 (as reported in William J. Federer's "America's God And Country; Encyclopedia of Quotations"):
"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver.
"The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die."
We Americans of today are those “unborn millions” of Americans of whom George Washington spoke.
Today, Americans face an even more “cruel and unrelenting enemy” than did George Washington and the Founding Fathers: Islamofascist jihadist terrorism. Islam is a political ideology, cloaked as a religion, fanatically determined to destroy American freedom and impose Sharia law worldwide, giving Americans but three choices: (1) convert to Islam; (2) abject submission to Islamic governance as subservient subjects; or (3), to die, to be killed in the name of Allah.
George Washington, the Founding Fathers, and the citizen soldiers of the American Revolutionary Army, did not apologize for America’s stand for freedom, did not seek to appease the power that threatened to deny and destroy freedom, did not bow before the tyrant, did not invent euphemisms for tyranny but called it by its name. They chose “brave resistance” rather than “abject submission.” And we are free because of their brave choice.
The question presented to us is whether we, the “unborn millions” of Americans for whose freedom George Washington and his soldiers fought, still believe, as did Gen. Washington, the Founding Fathers, and the soldiers of the American Revolution, that we must also choose “brave resistance” rather than “abject submission” in order to preserve and protect the freedom that they bequeathed to us.
Are we Americans today “resolve[d] to conquer, or die,” against the Muslim tyranny in order to preserve freedom for “millions of unborn” Americans?
More than 12,000 Americans out of a population of approximately 4-million died fighting against the imperialist English monarchy of King George III for a free American republic. Today, there are 350 million Americans. Are we of this generation of Americans willing to make the kind of sacrifice that the Founding Fathers generation made to preserve and protect freedom for ourselves and posterity?
I have no doubt that those Americans of this generation serving in our Armed Forces are possessed of the full measure of devotion to liberty that was possessed by the Founding Fathers generation. Those serving today in Afghanistan, Iraq, and wherever freedom is threatened by the fascistic drive for world domination in the name of Islam, are making that sacrifice.
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But can we say that the generation of Americans now in governmental power and media dominance in America, who call themselves “progressives,” i.e., ultra-liberals who flee the name “liberal,” are equal to the Founding Fathers in any respect, including in particular the will to choose “brave resistance” over “abject submission” to Islamist tyranny in order to preserve American freedom?
Not to put too fine a point of it, but compare, for instance, Commander-in-Chief George Washington and Commander-in-Chief Barack Hussein Obama; or Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of State Lady MacBeth.
Thomas Jefferson, possessed of the greatest mind ever to reside in the White House, or any American house, was the principal author of the American Declaration of Independence, the greatest and most inspiring declaration for freedom ever writ. His personal motto was: “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.”
As an American revolutionary and Founding Father, Jefferson did not apologize to, bow to, or appease the oppressive English tyrant. As third U.S. President and Commander-in-Chief, he did not apologize to, bow to, or appease the oppressive Muslim tyrants who preyed on American ships, and freedom—Jefferson sent the U.S. Marines to Tripoli, without apology, or concern about “the Muslim street,” or political correctness lest Muslim feelings be hurt.
Does that Jeffersonian determination to choose “brave resistance” over “abject submission” reside in the minds and hearts on those who lead America today, many of whom, including Barak Hussein Obama and Hillary Clinton, call themselves “progressives? Is the transformation of the presidency from that of George Washington to that of Barack Hussein Obama by any commonsense understanding “progress”?
Jefferson wrote in our American Declaration of Independence that we Americans believe that “all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” The question presented is: Do Americans still believe that in 2010?
Do Americans still believe, most particularly do self-described “progressives” believe today, as Democrat President Jack Kennedy said, that “the rights of man come not from a generous government, but from the hand of God?” Or is it to the hand of the government to which contemporary Americans look as the source of their rights, as “progressive” governmentalism incrementally creeps over seemingly every aspect of American life?
Do we Americans, from the most humble to the most exalted in the White House and the present regime, still believe that the choice must be for “brave resistance” and not “abject submission,” that the price of freedom is paid in the blood of patriots, and that price must be paid if we are to preserve freedom for “unborn millions” of Americans?
If that is not believed, from the most humble home to the White House, from those with roots in the Founding Fathers generation to the most recent legal immigrants who desire to become Americans -- and even to the millions of illegal aliens squatting in America who seek all the rights of Americans with none of the responsibilities, including the responsibility to obey American laws and defend American freedom -- then American freedom is in peril.
It is important, therefore, that on each Independence Day, and every other day, we remember the values, and sacrifice, of those who created, and preserved, our free constitutional republic.
In that regard, that we contemporary Americans have a wealth of information at our fingertips as to our own history, more accessible information than any generation has had to know who we are as Americans by knowing our American roots.
For instance, we have available in considering our American independence and freedom William J. Federer’s “America’s God And Country; Encylopedia of Quotations,” the best single resource to learn what the Founding Fathers said and wrote about their own beliefs and values in founding America, the greatest and most successful experiment in freedom in the history of civilization.
I cite “America’s God And Country,” by William Federer, one of America’s most outstanding public intellectuals, authors, and patriots, because I believe that if we do not walk in the footsteps of the Founding Fathers, we will walk away from freedom. We will walk away from freedom to the soft tyranny of an all-encompassing governmentalism, whether it calls itself “progressivism” or by any other name, promising security but leading ultimately to governmental soft tyranny, or the harsh tyranny of Islamist Sharia Law. Islamic jihadism is today as great a threat, or greater, than was the fascist axis of Nazi Germany’s Hitler-Italy’s Mussolini-and Japan’s Emperor Hirohito in WWII, or the socialist totalitarianism of Stalin-Mao-and Pol Pot under communism, which is the ultimate expression of socialism. This true no matter the good intentions of liberal “progressives” and their Orwellian euphemisms for the tyranny of governmental control over every aspect of life.
Regarding the Declaration of Independence and the signers of it, Americans – including American children who won’t get it in the liberal-dominated, politically-correct, cultural relativist public schools -- have the availability on the internet of such excellent informational resources on the internet as www.ushistory.org/DECLARATION/.
Further, there is available now a very moving recent tribute to veterans entitled “I Fought For You.”
And, we have available the moving words and call to action of Gold Star Mother Debbie Lee on MoveAmericaForward.org, remembering her fallen son, Navy Seal Marc Alan Lee, and all those who have served and are serving in the war against terrorism.
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Finally, it should be remembered, on every Independence Day -- and every other day -- that it is American veterans, those who served when our country called them to arms to defend freedom, who have chosen “brave resistance” over “abject submission,” and paid the price for freedom, all giving some, some giving all: Over 1,500,000 Americans have given their lives for American freedom in all the wars -- including those Americans serving today, who are suffering terrible wounds, and dying, for our freedom. For us. And “unborn millions” of Americans.
May God bless and keep each one of them. And may God continue to bless the United States of America, the greatest, because the most free, nation in the history of the world.
� 2010 Rees Lloyd - All Rights Reserved
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REES LLOYD is a longtime civil rights attorney and veterans activist whose work has been honored by, among others, the California Senate and Assembly, and numerous civil rights, workers rights, and veterans rights organizations. He has testified as a constitutional expert at hearings before the U.S. House and Senate representing The American Legion.
He has been profiled, and his work featured, by such varied print media as the Los Angeles Times and American Legion Magazine, and such broadcast media as ABC's Nightline and 20/20, Fox News In The Morning, and, among others, by Hannity. His writings have appeared in a variety of national, regional, and local newspaper, magazine, and other publications. He is a frequent radio commentator, and a sought after speaker.*
[*For identification only. The views expressed here are solely Rees Lloyd's and not necessarily any person, entity or organization he may otherwise represent. ]
E-Mail: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com
