by Rees Lloyd, Attorney (ret.)

March 31, 2025

“I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men!” — Cesar Chavez.

Cesar Chavez Day is an official State holiday in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, and is observed in several other States (including Colorado, Michigan, Nevada, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin) on the anniversary of his birth on March 31, 1927.

It honors an extraordinary American — Cesar Estrada Chavez, the late co-founder and president of the United Farm Workers of America who became a legend in his own time in the Civil Rights Era.

In his honor, his headquarters for the UFW, which he named “La Paz” (“The Peace”), in the Tehachapi Mountains in Keene, CA, on Highway 58 between Bakersfield and Tehachapi, is now officially the “U.S. Cesar Chavez National Monument,” established by the federal government.

The U.S. Navy, of which he was a WWII veteran, has named a ship for him.

He was posthumously awarded the highest civilian award for service to America, the Medal of Freedom, which was accepted by his widow, Helen Chavez.

Many States, counties, cities, towns, villages, have named streets, schools, libraries and other public buildings in his honor.

But there are many Americans today who are unaware that there is a Cesar Chavez Day (the major media ignore it), or why there should be a holiday honoring him.

There are also malicious myths tainting the life and the memory of Cesar Chavez that need to be repudiated, most particularly the lies that he was not an American but a Mexican national, and that he was a “Communist,” both of which were first promulgated by the John Birch Society. They are utterly false.

I had the honor of working with Cesar Chavez for some twenty years, starting in 1973, when I was a young long haul trucker participating in a nationwide strike of some 100,000 independent truckers in protest against escalating fuel costs —and escalating profits of the big oil companies—in the so-called “Arab Oil Embargo.”

I was helping to coordinate the truckers’ nationwide “Shutdown” at the Triple T Truckstop in Tucson, AZ, as a member of the steering committee of the “Truckers For Justice.”

Cesar Chavez mentored me in that strike. It remained non-violent because of Cesar Chavez’ demands in mentoring me that there should be no violence. “Rees, if there is violence, it is your fault,” Cesar Chavez admonished me, insisting: “Violence is a failure of creative intelligence; violence is a failure of creative intelligence!”

After that strike was broken, an alliance between the Truckers For Justice and the United Farm Workers of America was established. During that work, in which we refused to haul non-union (“scab”) lettuce and grapes, Cesar told me I needed to go to law school as I could do more good as a lawyer. His recommendation got me into law school.

I worked with UFW lawyers while in law school, and after graduating and passing the California Bar in 1979, I became one of Cesar Chavez’ lawyers until the day of his death on April 23, 1993, and for the UFW thereafter as called upon. I remained exclusively a civil rights, workers rights, veterans rights attorney.

I can attest based on that long “up close and personal” experience that Cesar Chavez was, in his own way, a true American hero; that there are valuable lessons to be learned from his honorable life; and that he is deserving of recognition by all Americans for his service and sacrifice for others, no matter their race, color, or creed.

However, in order to understand that, it is necessary, first, to overcome the lies and myths which continue to distort the truth of who and what Cesar Chavez was.

These are myths by those who hated and maligned him for their own political purposes; and by those who want to exploit who and what he was in order to appropriate him based on race, ethnicity, or nationality for their own political ends.

The most malicious of those myths are, as stated above, first, that he was not an American but a “Mexican” national; and, second, that he was a “Communist.” These malicious myths were first promulgated, utterly falsely and politically deliberately, by the John Birch Society in the 1960’s. Over sixty years later, they are repeated to this day.

First, as to nationality, the truth is that Cesar Chavez was a native-born American, not a “Mexican.” While proud of his Mexican-American heritage, he was a third-generation American, born on his grandfather’s small ranch in Arizona in the Yuma area. No matter the indisputability of those facts, Wikipedia, for example, on which many students and others rely, informed: “Chavez was born on the Mexico Texas border and therefore has dual citizenship.” Utterly false.

Second, Cesar Chavez was no “Communist.” He was a devoted Catholic Christian. He was attempting, humbly, to live his Christian faith as faithfully as he was able by sacrifice and service for others as taught and exemplified by Jesus the Christ, not Marx the Communist.

Perhaps the best proof, although none should be needed, that Cesar Chavez was not a Communist but a devoted Catholic Christian living his faith, is the fact that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), in its U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults, which is taught to all adults seeking to become members of the Catholic Church, chose as the exemplar of living a “life in Christ” and “the principles of the Christian moral life”—Cesar E. Chavez. (See, USCCB Catholic Catechism for Adults, Chapter 24, “Life In Christ-Part Two,” pages 233-234).

Moreover, almost never mentioned by those who hate Cesar Chavez and define him as a “communist” and a “Mexican” rather than an American, is that Cesar Chavez, in 1944 at the age of 17, enlisted in the U.S. Navy in WWII and served for the duration of the war in the Pacific in defense of the country of his birth, the United States of America.

Ironically, those who claim to love Cesar Chavez make themselves accomplices of those who hate him (and them) by obscuring Cesar Chavez’ American birth — and by almost never mentioning that he was an American veteran of WWII.

They do this not to honor Cesar, but in order to appropriate Cesar Chavez on race or ethnic grounds as a “Mexican,” “Chicano,” or “Raza” race-based civil rights movement leader rather than as an American hero who should be honored by all Americans — as an American hero.

In regard to that, Cesar Chavez, while proud of his ancestral heritage, always identified himself as a “labor” or “union” leader,” not as a civil rights leader of Mexican-Americans, Chicanos, Latinos, Hispanics, or La Raza.

In fact, in the some twenty years I worked with him, Cesar never defined himself as a “Mexican,” or “Chicano,” “Latino,” etc., and, regarding the identification “La Raza” (“The Race”) he told me he didn’t use it because he considered it racialist.

Thus, those who condemn him as a “Mexican” and “Communist,” and those who claim a possessory interest him as a leader of a race-based “Chicano” or “La Raza” civil rights movement, are both wrong: He defined himself as, and acted as, what he was—a “trade union leader,” and most importantly, a devout Catholic Christian living his faith.

In truth, Cesar Chavez, as he lived his Catholic Christian faith, was the inspiring moral heart of the American labor movement.

He built the first viable farm workers union in American history, the United Farm Workers of America. As president of the UFW, Cesar Chavez represented all farm workers, whatever their race, ethnicity, or nationality.

One example which refutes the myths of both those who hate Chavez and those who appropriate him based on race, and shows the willingness of both to corrupt historical truth to suit their political ends, is Chavez’ acts regarding illegal immigration, which was then and remains now at the center of national controversy and division.

In 1969, Cesar Chavez famously led a march from Indio, CA, to the border. It is portrayed today as primarily a march in protest against discrimination by racist growers oppressing Mexican and other Hispanic farmworkers. That is false historical revisionism.

The primary purpose of the 1969 march to the Mexican border was a protest against the federal government’s failure to secure the border from importation of illegal immigrants who were being used to keep wages and working conditions down and to break strikes and the farmworkers union entirely. Indeed, as UFW members set up picket lines waving “Huelga” (“Strike”) flags, buses would arrive from Mexico to unload strike breakers.

In short, Cesar Chavez’ 1969 march to the Mexican border was for the same purpose that the Minutemen later went to the border in the 70’s and 80’s— to secure the border and demand that the government stop illegal immigration. (It should be noted that the Minutemen were widely condemned as “racists” for doing just what Cesar Chavez did. Was Cesar Chavez a racist?)

In the 1970’s, Cesar Chavez fell out of favor with race-based civil rights groups, white liberals, Leftists including open Socialist and Communist organizations, and liberal media. He was criticized because he adopted the position of calling upon and aiding the then-Immigration And Naturalization Service (INS) to deport strikebreakers illegally in the country.

Among other things, Cesar Chavez testified before Congress about immigration. He testified that illegal immigration had to be stopped, and the border secured, as illegal immigrants were used to hold wages and working conditions down, and to break strikes, defeating efforts of farmworkers to build a union to improve their wages, hours, working conditions, and lives.

Today, Cesar Chavez’ 1969 march from Indio to the border is historically revised to be a protest against racist growers and his Congressional testimony is rarely cited, to satisfy the political ends of race-based la raza groups and non-raza liberals who want to transform him from what he was, i.e., a leader of a labor movement to improve the lives of all farmworkers, to what they want him to be, i.e., a race-based political leader.

Meanwhile, many conservatives continue the original wrong and error of the John Birch Society when it falsely slandered and branded Cesar Chavez as a non-American and a “communist.” That continually repeated malicious lie has alienated not only many Americans, including many Mexican-American and other Hispanics for whom Cesar Chavez is, rightly, a hero, as he should be for all Americans.

In his lifetime, although he became nationally and internationally renown, Cesar Chavez never sought personal fame, wealth, or celebrity. It was all about “La Causa,” the cause, not about him.

Indeed, Cesar Chavez turned down millions of dollars offered for the rights to make a movie of his life, Similarly, he rejected all offers to write an autobiography or for the right to produce an “authorized” biography. All that he would authorize was the “Autobiography of La Causa,” by Jaques Levy, who didn’t “buy” the right but earned it by working in la causa.

Cesar Chavez’ achievement is monumental. Farmworkers, and domestic workers, were exempted from the right to organize into unions provided to all other workers by the National Labor Relations Act. There were no State laws creating a right of farmworkers to support unionization. They could be and were fired and “blacklisted” with impunity by employers who suspected them of supporting a union. Farmworkers were also migrant, moving from employer to employer on the migrant trail during harvesting seasons.

There were more than a hundred attempts to organize migrant farmworkers by major international unions with money, members, and paid full time organizers. All failed. It was thought impossible to organize migrant farmworkers.

Then came Cesar Chavez. He had nothing. No money, no members, no paid staff. Nothing but the belief that the only way to help farmworkers was to build a union in which they could themselves achieve better working conditions — and dignity. He succeeded by touching the hearts of Americans by his non-violent “boycotts” and exposure of the dangerous and miserable working conditions of farm workers.

He, himself, had become a migrant farmworker at the age of ten when the ranch of his grandfather on which he was born was lost on foreclosure in the Depression and taken over by the Bruce Church Corp., largest lettuce grower in Arizona. He had little education, attending some fifty different elementary schools as his family followed the migrant farmworker trail. After his service in the U.S. Navy, he went back to working in the fields. He married his sweetheart, Helen, also a farm worker, in Delano, CA. Together they worked the fields, ultimately having had eight kids.

The story has been told now in many articles, books, documentaries, and a relatively recent movie of how Cesar Chavez, while working as an organizer in Los Angeles, became convinced a union for farmworkers had to be created if working conditions were to be improved. He quit his job. He and Helen loaded up their old station wagon with the kids and a mimeograph machine, and headed to Delano. There, they rented a house, set up the mimeograph machine, and sent out a flyer calling for a house meeting, the first step in creating what would become the United Farm Workers of America.

How did Cesar Chavez succeed where all others had failed? By touching the hearts of Americans and the conscience of the nation by exposing the true working conditions of migrant farmworkers through creative, non-violent acts and actions, including his fasts and boycotts, and by his manifest personal selfless service and sacrifice.

Cesar Chavez did not merely say: “I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men!”

He lived it. By doing so, he succeeded where so many others failed. He achieved what was thought impossible. He inspired and taught by his example, humbly serving and sacrificing for others, and thereby has enriched the lives not only of farmworkers, but the lives of millions of Americans, of all races, all colors, all creeds, including my own life.

It was Jesus Christ whom Cesar Chavez worshipped, followed, and humbly attempted to emulate by service to others through living his Catholic Christian faith.

I am greatly indebted to Cesar Chavez, especially for the example of his humble, selfless life in service for others. I will always walk in his shadow.

May the God he so faithfully served bless and keep him. May the country he so faithfully served, always remember and honor him.

Cesar Chavez and Rees Lloyd are shown at a press conference in Tucson, AZ, announcing the establishment of an Alliance of the United Farm Workers of America and the Truckers For Justice during a nationwide truckers’ shutdown opposing huge increases in the costs of fuel —and oil company profits—during the so-called “Arab Oil Embargo” in 1973.

© 2025 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

by Rees Lloyd, Attorney (Ret)

March 28, 2025

March 29, 2025, is the 52nd Anniversary of the day in 1973 that America terminated the “U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam” — a/k/a the Vietnam War — and the day the last American troops left Vietnam for home.

March 29, 2025, is also National Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day, by Act of Congress signed into law by  President Donald J. Trump in 2017.

The Vietnam War divided the nation to an extent exceeded only by the Civil War itself.

While more than nine million Americans served when the country called them to defend the nation of South Vietnam from aggression by Communist North Vietnam led by Ho Chi Minh,  anti-war demonstrations involved many thousands who condemned not only the war, but those who were sent to fight it.

This condemnation of those who served in Vietnam by those who never served, led to the nation never realizing that many of the American troops engaged in humanitarian acts unprecedented in war.

For that aspect of the Vietnam War, I respectfully refer you to the truth-telling book of Maj. Gen. Patrick Henry Brady, (Ret), Medal Of Honor recipient,  Vietnam. He is considered to be America’s most decorated living veteran.

Most recently, Gen. Brady was honored by having the main hall of the new National Medal Of Honor Museum named “Patrick Brady Hall” at the museum’s opening on March 22, 2025 in Arlington, Texas.

As a Medical Evacuation helicopter pilot in Vietnam, Gen. Brady  flew over 2,000 combat missions and rescued more than 5,000 wounded— including enemy wounded.

His enlightening book is: Dead Men Flying: Victory In Vietnam. The Legend of ‘Dust Off: America’s Battlefield Angels.”

The Vietnam War was the only war in American history in which those who served and sacrificed in defense of the country  were not welcomed home with expressions of thanks for their service.

Instead, many veterans on returning home found themselves the subjects of hate-filled attack,  accusations that they were war criminals. Publicly vilified. Shunned in other instances.  Even spat upon.

So hate-filled were the anti-war demonstrators that many troops coming home were advised by their officers not to wear their uniforms to avoid verbal attacks, or worse.

More than nine million Americans — many if not a majority of them draftees — served honorably in defense of the nation in the almost twenty years in which the nation was mired in Vietnam, from November, 1955, to April 30, 1975, when Saigon in South Vietnam fell to the Communists of North Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh.

More than 58,000 thousand American troops gave their lives in the Vietnam War. More than 300,000 were wounded. No matter their personal views of the war, they responded when the country called them to serve.  In fact and in truth: “All gave some, some gave all.”

Further, it must not be forgotten that while those veterans of Vietnam served —no matter what their personal view might be of the war—so did the Blue Star families who had a loved one in service, especially the Gold Star families who had a loved one killed in service.

While the  modern liberal media is likely to ignore or minimize the importance of Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day, it should not be ignored by a grateful nation.

There will be many observances, especially by veterans, at posts of the American Legion, VFW, and other veterans organizations, which welcome the participation of non-veterans in honoring all who honorably served. Go, welcome home the Vietnam Veterans, and their families. And thank them for their service, no matter how belatedly.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER!

© 2025 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

by Rees Lloyd, JD (ret.)

February 22, 2025

February 22, 2025, is the 293rd anniversary of the birth in 1732 of General and President George Washington, the “Father Of Our Country.” He was the most universally respected and admired American in the age of the Founding Fathers, and in the history of America.

For generations, George Washington’s Birthday was a National Holiday celebrated on the actual anniversary of his birth, February 22. On Washington’s Birthday, Americans paused to remember and honor him. Parents and schools taught American children about his life on his birthday; urged the children to learn about the Father Of His [Their] Country; and to follow his example of patriotic love of country, selfless service and sacrifice for freedom, personal honor, dedication to duty, fidelity to principle.

By observing Washington’s Birthday as a National Holiday on his actual birthday, Feb. 22, the focus of the nation was on Washington. However, all that changed in 1971.

Congress — pressured by federal government bureaucrats and other employees and their unions desiring another paid three-day holiday — abolished “Washington’s Birthday” as a National Holiday. It was replaced with “Presidents’ Day,” to be observed on the “third Monday of February,” as a result of the “Uniform Monday Holiday Act,” which gave government employees their sought after three-day weekend.

As a result, Americans in general, and in particular American children in government schools, learn little or nothing about the greatest man in the history of America, George Washington, without whose extraordinary virtues and sacrifices they would not be free.

Further, and ignominiously, Washington’s Birthday was replaced by “President’s Day.” Got it? Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln—who were giants in history — were lumped in with the likes of politicians who held the office of President but did little or nothing to ennoble it, and much to ignoble it by incompetence or moral failure, as exemplified by this generation’s President Joe Biden.

Indeed, it has been a long journey from President George Washington to the utterly corrupt and demented Joe Biden—and all downhill.

No other president has been so universally admired in America — or in the world — as was General George Washington. He was by far the most admired man of the Founding Father’s generation. He was called the “Father Of His Country.” He was America’s first President, and the only President unanimously elected, and unanimously re-elected. He was, as Revolutionary War hero General “Light Horse” Harry Lee memorably said: “First in war. First in peace. First in the hearts of his countrymen.”

George Washington, first, last, and always a soldier serving God and Country, was heralded in his time as the “Apostle of Liberty,” the “Indispensable Man,” having with his ragtag band of American citizen-soldiers of the Revolutionary Army defeated the English Empire, then the most powerful military force in the world, in eight years of war to establish our American independence, our freedom.

Washington did not seek the Presidency–it sought him. He was elected unanimously –twice. He was offered the Presidency for life. But he stunned the world when he refused a third term and even monarchial rule, and, instead walked away from power to return to his home as citizen. He was, is, our American “Cincinatus.” Washington, like that Fifth Century (BC), Roman general, fought the battles of the nation; held unequaled power; but did not covet it, and instead returned to his farm. So was Washington satisfied to be a citizen of a free America, rather than its ruler.

When Washington did that, walked away from ultimate power, even England’s King George III, whom Washington had defeated in our War of Independence, hailed Washington “as the greatest man of his era.”

John Adams, his successor as President, said of him: “If we look over the catalogue of the first magistrates of nations, whether they have been denominated Presidents or Consuls, Kings or Princes, where shall we find one whose commanding talents and virtues, whose overruling good fortune, have so completely united all hearts and voices in his favor?…His example is complete; and it will teach wisdom and virtue to Magistrates, Citizens, and Men, not only in the present age, but in future generations.”

Thomas Jefferson, father of the Declaration of Independence and our third president, said of Washington that he was: ”The only man in the United States who possessed the confidence of all. There was no other one who was considered as anything more than a party leader….And it may be truly said that never did nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great, and to place him in the same constellation with whatever worthies have merited from man an everlasting remembrance.”

Even the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, who admitted his love of power and yielded to no man a claim of greater glory than he himself possessed, spoke of his admiration of Washington: “This great man fought against tyranny: he established the liberty of his country. His memory will always be dear to the French people, as it will be to all freemen.”

Are those words still true to this generation of Americans? Those words of Adams, Jefferson, Gen. Harry Lee, the English King George III and the French Emperor Napoleon, all speaking with awe at the example of Washington’s life as one which would be taught “not only in the present age, but in future generations,” as John Adams said, and his memory “held dear..to all free men” as Napoleon said?

Is Washington still “First in war. First in peace. First in the hearts of his countrymen,” as Gen. “Light Horse” Harry Lee said of him? If not, why not?

Are we Americans better for it, as a people, as a nation, when we honor no longer the one American who was so universally acknowledged in his time — and up to this generation of transformed Americans — as the Greatest American, the Father Of Our Country? He who defeated tyranny, held ultimate power by acclamation and then walked away from it to preserve the freedom he had created as a soldier? He who lived his life for God and Country?

Are the children of a nation, like the children of a family, really better off, better people, by forgetting their father, being without their father, forgetting the virtues their father taught, being orphaned?

We Americans today, whatever our ages, whatever our ancestry, ethnicity, or race, as Americans, are the children of the American Founding Fathers, including in the particular George Washington, whom the Founding Fathers proclaimed the greatest among them, the Father Of Our Country.

May both the God that George Washington so faithfully served bless and keep him; may the Country he so loyally served always remember and honor him; and may the lessons of his life be learned in this and every generation so that the freedom he fought for and created may not wither and weaken, to be destroyed by enemies foreign, or domestic.

Tell Congress to repeal the “Uniform Monday Holiday Act,” no matter the tears and anguish of taxpayer-paid government employees who will be deprived of another three-day holiday — and no matter the loss to the politicians of those government employees’ campaign contributions by which they purchased their uniform three-day weekend holidays from the politicians by elimination of George Washington’s Birthday for the uninspiring “Presidents Day.”

Congress should re-establish George Washington’s Birthday as a National Holiday — and celebrate it on his actual birthday, February 22. The Father Of Our Country deserves no less. The people of our nation, especially the children, deserve no less.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY–NEVER!

© 2025 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

by Rees Lloyd (JD)

February 1, 2025

“Four Chaplains Day” is to be observed annually on February 3 in America by the unanimous resolution of the U.S. Congress in 1988. It is a day to remember February 3, 1943, when one of the most remarkable and inspiring acts of heroism in the history of warfare took place in World War II. It is a day to honor the heroism of the Four Chaplains, who selflessly gave their lives “that others may live.”

However, although veterans in The American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and other veterans organizations, will hold special observances on Four Chaplains Day and weekend, most American media, most American schools, and, therefore, most Americans, will not observe it.

Indeed, most Americans, including children who will not be taught about it in their schools, will not even know that there is a National Four Chaplains day, or why. This is true even though a former soldier who owed his life to them has said: “[T]heir heroism is beyond belief. That is one of the reasons why we must tell the world what these people did.”

FEB. 3, 1943: THE TROOP SHIP “DORCHESTER” IS TORPEDOED IN WWII

On February 3, 1943, the Dorchester, a converted luxury cruise ship, was transporting Army troops to Geenland, escorted by three Coast Guard Cutters and accompanied by two slow moving freighters.

On board were some 900 troops, and four chaplains, of diverse religions and backgrounds, but of a common faith and commitment to serve God, country, and all the troops, regardless of their religious beliefs, or non-belief. The four Chaplains are:

Rev. George Fox (Methodist); Father John Washington (Roman Catholic); Jewish Rabbi Alexander Goode; and Rev. Clark Poling (Dutch Reformed).

At approximately 12:55 a.m., in the dead of a freezing night, the Dorchester was hit by a torpedo fired by German U-boat 233 in an area so infested with German submarines it was known as “Torpedo Junction.”

The blast ripped a hole in the ship from below the waterline to the top deck. The engine room was instantly flooded. Crewmen, who were not scalded to death by steam escaping from broken pipes and the ship’s boiler, were drowned. Hundreds of troops in the flooded lower compartments were drowned, or washed out to the frigid waters, where most would die.

In less than a minute, the Dorchester listed on a 30-degree angle. Troops on deck searched for life jackets in panic, clung to rails and other handholds, saw overloaded life boats overturn in the turgid water, leaped overboard as a last desperate hope for life. Many with life jackets drowned when the life preservers became waterlogged.

Of the 900 troops and crew on board, two-thirds would ultimately die; most of those who survived, had lifelong infirmities and pain from their time in the icy waters.

Dorchester survivors told of the wild pandemonium on board when it was hit and began sinking. Many men had not slept in their clothes and life vests as ordered because of the heat in the crowded quarters below. There was panic, fear, terror; death was no abstraction but real, immediate, seemingly inescapable.

THE FOUR CHAPLAINS SACRIFICE THEIR LIVES TO SAVE OTHERS

The four Chaplains acted together to try to bring some order to the chaos, to calm the panic of the troops, to alleviate their fear and terror, to pray with and for them, to help save their lives. The Chaplains passed out life jackets, helping those too panicked to put them on correctly — until the awful moment arrived when there were no more life jackets to be given out.

It was then that a most remarkable act of heroism, courage, faith, and love took place: Each of the four Chaplains took off his life jacket, and, knowing that act made death certain, put his life jacket on a young soldier who didn’t have one, refusing to listen to any protest that they should not make such a sacrifice.

They continued to help the troops until the last moment. Then, as the ship sank into the raging sea, the four Chaplains linked hands and arms, and could be seen and heard by the survivors praying together, even singing hymns, joined together in faith, love, and unity, as they sacrificed their lives so “that others might live.”

The few survivors testified to the selfless act of the four Chaplains:

“The ship started sinking and as I left the ship, I looked back and saw the chaplains with their hands clasped, praying for the boys. They never made any attempt to save themselves, but they did try to save the others. I think their names should be on the list of  ‘The Greatest Heroes’ of this war”,” testified survivor Grady L. Clark.

“They took off their life belts and gave them to soldiers who had none. The last I saw of them, they were still praying, talking, and preaching to the soldiers,” attested Thomas W. Myers, Jr.

“It is impressed clearly in my mind that these chaplains demonstrated unsurpassed courage and heroism when they willingly gave their life belts to four enlisted men, who, because of the utter confusion and disorder brought about by the torpedoing, had become hysterical. They helped save the lives of many of the troops,” testified John F. Garey.

These testimonies, taken from author Dan Kurzman’s valuable book, “No Greater Glory: The Four Immortal Chaplains and the Sinking of the Dorchester in World War II,” are but some of the sworn statements of grateful survivors upon which Congress awarded the Four Chaplains an unprecedented “Congressional Medal of Valor” in 1961.

Earlier, in 1944, they were awarded Purple Hearts and the Distinguished Service Cross. They did not receive the Medal of Honor because of restrictions limiting that medal to combatants. In 2004, delegates to The American Legion National Convention, then representing some 2.7-million wartime veterans, voted to support making an exception and awarding the Medal of Honor to the Four Chaplains.

Ben Epstein, a Jewish survivor who often spoke to audiences about the Four Chaplains, was quoted by author Kurzman as describing the meaning of their sacrifice by putting a question to himself, and, thereby, to all other Americans:

“I ask myself, could I do it? Take my life preserver and give it to someone else? Absolutely not. I don’t think I could do it. I didn’t do it. And I ask you in the audience, how many of you could do it? And I don’t want an answer. That’s why I say their bravery; their heroism is beyond belief. That is one of the reasons why we must tell the world what these people did.”

AMERICA’S MOST DECORATED LIVING VETERAN, MAJ. GEN. PATRICK BRADY: “I WILL ALWAYS BE IN AWE OF THEM, THE FOUR CHAPLAINS.”

One American who knows something about courage in war and who honors the Four Chaplains is Maj.Gen. Patrick H. Brady (USA, ret.). A recipient of the Medal of Honor in the Vietnam War as a “Dust Off” medical evacuation combat helicopter pilot, Gen. Brady is credited with saving some 5,000 wounded soldiers from combat zones, flying where no one had flown before to save the wounded as battle raged. (See his book: “Dead Men Flying: Victory in Viet Nam—The legend of Dust-off: America’s Battlefield Angeles”)

For his bravery in combat, Gen. Brady is considered today to be the most decorated living American veteran. But he defers to the Four Chaplains when it comes to bravery.

“The heroism of the Four Chaplains, their courage, is of  a different order,” Gen. Brady explained to me in an interview.

“I, and others who have received the Medal of Honor and other decorations for bravery, did what we did in the heat of battle. That is one kind of courage,” Gen. Brady said.

“But what the Four Chaplains did was deliberate, thought out, willed. I fought in combat knowing I might die, but not wanting to die. They had the extraordinary, different kind of courage and heroism to do what they were doing knowing it meant death was certain—and they went ahead did it. They deliberately sacrificed  their lives so others, those young troops, might live.

“I will always be in awe of them, the Four Chaplains,” Gen. Brady concluded.

THE ETERNAL VALUE OF THE EXAMPLE OF THE FOUR CHAPLAINS

At the dedication of the Chapel of the Four Chaplains in 1951, then-President Harry Truman said their sacrifice reflected the fact that: “[T]he unity of our country is a unity under God.…This interfaith shrine will stand through long generations to teach Americans that as men can die heroically as brothers, so should they live together in mutual faith and good will.”

Those are inspiring words, and truths. They will stir the hearts of patriots and  especially veterans who know what it means to serve as they gather in their American Legion, VFW, and other veterans’ Posts to honor the Four Chaplains, hopefully joined by other members of their communities.

But a question is raised on this Four Chaplains Day, Feb. 3, 2025: Do Americans of this era, in government, in the media, in the public schools as teachers or administrators, still believe in those truths?  Will Americans  express that belief by honoring the Four Chaplains as once the American nation did?

On Four Chaplains Day, Feb. 3, 2025— the 82nd anniversary of the day in which the Four Chaplains sacrificed their lives “so that others may live.” —will the media again fail to report on it, and the schools fail to teach it, and Americans, in the main, fail to observe it?

May God bless and keep the Four Chaplains, and may the America they so selflessly, patriotically, and faithfully served, always remember and honor them.

© 2025 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

by Rees Lloyd

December 7, 2024

December 7, 2024, Pearl Harbor Day, marks the 83rd anniversary of the Japanese air attack on U.S. naval and air installations at Pearl Harbor, HI, at 7:53 a.m., Dec. 7, 1941 — without a declaration of war.

It was then the worst attack on American soil in history: Some 2,403 died, 2008 of them Navy personnel; another 1,178 were wounded

Eighteen Navy ships, including the U.S.S. Arizona, were sunk or damaged. Almost all the planes at the island bases were destroyed or damaged while still on the ground.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt memorably called December 7, 1941, “a day which will live in infamy” in his dramatic speech to Congress, which then declared war on Japan.

Only the sneak attack on America by radical Islamic terrorists on 9-11-2001 in New York resulted in more deaths. But for many Americans of this generation — and millions of immigrants, legal and illegal — the meaning, the significance of Pearl Harbor, is not fully known, or appreciated.

One American for whom the Patriot Harbor attack did “live in infamy” for all of his long, productive, and patriotic 100-year life, was Pearl Harbor survivor Shelby John (“S.J.”) Hemker of Banning, California. Although he has now gone to God, his story reveals the nature of those Americans who served at Pearl Harbor; indeed, his story reveals the nature of America— then.

Shelby John (“SJ”) Hemker, a poor “country boy” whose childhood was the Great Depression, joined the Navy at 17. He was at Pearl Harbor near the end of his first four-year tour of duty when the Japanese attacked. He survived that horror, and went on to be a three-war combat Navy veteran — WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. After retirement from the Navy, he continued to serve America in peacetime as a life member of The American Legion.

Hemker, by his giving, patriotic life of service to God and country in war and in peace, was an exemplar of the Greatest Generation of WWII. Beloved by his comrade wartime veterans and his community, S.J. Hemker was honored by both on January 10, 2019, at a celebration of his 100th Birthday.

Representatives of the linked San Gorgonio Pass cities of Banning and Beaumont in Riverside County, CA, presented him with Proclamations honoring him. Commendations were presented by his American Legion San Gorgonio Post 428 and other Posts, and veterans organizations from as far away as Patriot Outreach based in Kansas.

Many words were spoken there about Pearl Harbor, its horror, and its meaning, then and now. The most poignant of those words were those of S.J. Hemker, himself, in a remembrance of Pearl Habor, and of what it should mean, in an earlier interview with me. It was my honor to read those words of S.H. Hemker about Pearl Harbor at the celebration of his life, and is an honor to publish his own words here:

“Ordinarily, we would have been at sea, We were at Pearl Harbor because we had to repair an engine that had been sabotaged at the shipyard back in California. I was up on the fantail of our ship, the USS New Orleans, a heavy cruiser, with the Chief Master at Arms. The Quartermaster was there, getting ready to raise the flag,” S.J. Hemker recalled.

“It was 7:53 a.m. when we saw the Japanese planes. They were flying so low I could see the pilots’ faces in the cockpit. They were grinning at us as they went down toward Battle Ship Row. Grinning at me and the Chief. They were so close, you could have thrown something at them and hit them. A potato, maybe. They were that close. Just skimming the top of the water. Torpedo planes. The pilots grinning at us,” Hemker reluctantly, but vividly recalled.

“The loudspeakers blared: ‘Man your battle stations – the Japs are attacking’. All hell broke loose… It was terrible, horrible, …,” he said, pausing in his remembrance.

“I spent the next eight hours down in the magazine loading for our five-inch anti-aircraft guns. We fired everything. If we had been hit, that would have been it for us in the magazine. We would have been blown up. We had a big crane over the top of our ship. I think that’s what saved us,” he stated matter-of-factly as to his own circumstance, then somberly related:

“The Arizona capsized. Thirteen hundred men went down with her. Half the guys I was with in boot camp died on the Arizona. That’s where the Memorial is today. They say that oil still leaks out every day. Those guys…they’re still down there,” Hemker said quietly, his voice trailing off, as if physically turning away from a memory, and reality, which was still too painful to talk about.

Getting Hemker to talk about it at all was no easy task. Like many of his fellow World War II veterans, he didn’t talk about his war experiences, never expected any thanks or gratitude, and never, ever boasted about it, despite the fact that after Pearl Harbor he served America in battles and combat zones for the duration of WWII, in the Korean War, and in Vietnam.

Hempker, a widower, roguishly handsome into his 90’s and possessed of a sly sense of humor, for years charmed the ladies in the American Legion Auxiliary with his country gallantry. He was universally admired by his comrade veterans in the American Legion. “I’m not able to do what I used to do, but I do what I can,” he said.

Hemker’s beloved wife died more than 30 years earlier. For the last thirteen years of her life, Hemker’s wife was bedridden, unable to perform the most basic of everyday tasks of life, totally dependent. It says a great deal about the kind of man S.J. Hemker was, that for all of those thirteen years Hemker cared for her, saw to her every need, lovingly dedicated his life to her care, until her death did them part.

Hemker had four sons. All four, like their father, are veterans who served in the Vietnam war. Hemker had no biological daughter. But, in his declining years, he had for more than fifteen years lived in his own room in the home of a loving “daughter-in-fact” if not of biology, Sue McConnell, and her husband.

No daughter has rendered more loving care to a father than had Sue McConnell to S.J. Hemker.

“I call him my ‘Dad’ because he is that to me. I couldn’t love him more,” Sue, told me. She had known Hemker for thirty-seven years, during which she had often risen up in fury when the VA had not done its duty “to this great man, this hero, my Dad.”

Reflecting on Pearl Harbor after surviving it, Hemker, who had lost his eyesight, but not his vision for America, observed:

“We Americans should never forget. If we forget our past and those who died, we won’t have a future. A free one, anyway. Look at what happened on 9-11. More people were killed on that day than were killed at Pearl Harbor. It can happen again,” he warned.

“I don’t think people remember Pearl Harbor and what it means, the way they used to do,” Hemker concluded. “That’s too bad. A lot of us can’t forget. An awful lot of really good people died to keep America free. They shouldn’t be forgotten.”

These are the last words of S.J. Hemker, veteran and self-described “ordinary American…just a common man,” about the attack on Pearl Harbor, that “day of infamy” on Dec. 7, 1941; about those who died in it; and about those who survived it and continued to serve until victory in WWII, preserving our American freedom.

Hemker, sad to say, is no longer with us. Although reaching his 100th Birthday on January 10, 2019, Hemker later in the year “transferred to Post Everlasting,” as we, his American Legion comrades, say.

Although S.J. Hemker may no longer be with us physically, he can be and should be with us spiritually—the spirit of patriotic love of country and service in its defense that he exemplified, as did and do so many others of the WWII Greatest Generation. Neither his life nor his words should be forgotten, if, as he warns, we Americans are to remain free.

May the God that S.J. Hemker served so faithfully bless and keep him. May the country he served so faithfully for all of his 100 years on earth, always honor and remember him.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER!

© 2024 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

By Attorney Rees Lloyd

June 6, 2024

June 6, 2024  is the  80th anniversary of  a day which should live in history and in the minds of all generations of Americans as a true milestone of liberty: D-Day, June 6, 1944.

On D-Day in World War II,  in the largest amphibious landing in history, some 156,00 soldiers, sailors, marines, air corps and coast guard members of primarily America, Great Britain, Canada, and also some forces of free France, Poland, and other nations, participated in the allied invasion at Normandy, France, to defeat the totalitarian tyranny of  the National Socialist German Workers Party (NAZI) of Adolf Hitler,  who had conquered all of Europe.

Those who fought at Normandy on D-Day to preserve freedom from defeat by Hitler’s national socialist fascists paid a terrible sacrifice. The beaches at Normandy, with NAZI artillery and machine guns established in cross-fire patterns, were, indeed, “killing fields,” prepared for slaughter. The sea and sands ran red with blood.

The beaches designated Omaha, Utah, and Gold were covered by the wounded and dying. Over 4,000 of them, including 2,500 Americans, were killed in action that single day alone.

In the month long Normandy invasion fighting which began on D-Day,  more than 29,000 Americans were killed in action, and more than 100,000 were wounded. Altogether, more than 400,000 Americans would sacrifice their lives in WWII.

But by their bravery and sacrifice,  they turned the tide of war in what the late famed historian Stephen Ambrose called “the climatic battle of WWII,” in his classic book, “D-Day: June 6, 1944.”

Hitler was convinced — and had convinced most of the western world — that his Fortress Europe could turn back and defeat any attempt to invade occupied Europe by sea. So confident were the NAZI socialists, that their top generals were elsewhere—including Erwin Rommel, the “Desert Fox,” Hitler’s best fighting general who had gained fame in the Africa campaign.  Rommel was on leave in Germany and caught by surprise when the invasion was launched from Great Britain for Normandy — and not for Calais, which the Nazi’s thought would be the point of invasion if one were made.

Hitler was confident his Fortress Europe would defeat any invasion, anywhere, because  Rommel, himself, had overseen the NAZI’s military arrangement of massive armaments all along the coast from Spain to Norway, creating Fortress Europe.

In contrast, on D-Day, June 6, 1944, there was great doubt among the allies that the invasion could succeed. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, and later President of the United States, actually paused to write a statement, in his own hand,  to be released publicly should the D-Day invasion be lost.

Gen. Eisenhower wrote that if the invasion failed, it was entirely his fault, and his alone. He made  no excuses. He emphasized that failure  was not the fault of his subordinate officers or the soldiers who fought it, and did not blame any of the allied nations’ governments, military officers or troops. He, alone, took responsibility for defeat.

After writing that note, Gen. Eisenhower issued a simple order: “OK, let’s go!” American and allied soldiers went on D-Day, June 6, 1944. They fought. They were wounded and killed in the thousands, on that day, and in all the days of WWII.   But, they conquered. They saved the freedom of America, and the world, from the tyranny of Hitler’s national socialist fascists.

How many of us Americans will remember, and have a sense of thankfulness,  on this D-Day 2024,  that we are the heirs of freedom purchased for us by the blood of the thousands of killed and wounded in the D-Day invasion and all the days of  WWII which followed?

Who were those Americans of the WWII generation who fought the NAZI’s on D-Day and thereafter through Europe, while other Americans fought in the Pacific against the Japanese imperialists, more than 400,000 sacrificing their lives?

They were children of the Great Depression. As children, they knew “want,” not wealth. They went from the poverty of the Depression in their childhood, to the horrors of war in their young adulthood.  Many were in their teens. The average educational level of those who saved freedom in WWII was only the “Eighth Grade.” They, too, had their dreams of life. But they went to war to defend American freedom when our country called them to service.

Ultimately, more than 16-million Americans would serve in WWII. They fought. They were wounded—physically, mentally, emotionally. They were killed. They preserved our freedom by their sacrifice.

What were the beliefs, the values of those who served on D-Day and the duration of WWII? The late author Michael Novak, in his important book entitled, “On Two Wings—Humble Faith And Common Sense At the Founding Of America,” cites a study done in the late 1950’s on the values of Americans.

What the study found was that the Americans whose values were closest to the Founding Fathers’ values were the American families whose loved ones  had served in WWII.  Think deeply of the implications of that fact, especially in considering the dominant values of America now.

We Americans of this era owe a debt to those Americans who came before us and preserved our freedom. We pay that debt by what we do to preserve the freedom of those Americans who will come after us.

Therefore, a question we Americans must ask ourselves on D-Day 2024, is: If the values of the First Generation and of the WWII Generation no longer abide in America, will we Americans of this era —if necessary — be willing to preserve freedom with our lives as did the Americans on D-Day 1944 and all the days of WWII that followed?

May God bless and keep all those Americans who served on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and the entirety of  WWII, as “all gave some, and some gave all,” that we might be free.

May we, as Americans of this era,  still have the courage, and the values of love of God and Country of the WWII Generation, that led them to fight and die for our freedom.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER!

© 2024 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

Maj. General Patrick H. Brady (USA, ret.), Medal of Honor recipient (Vietnam), is considered to be America’s most decorated living veteran. Along with his daughter, Army veteran Meghan Brady Smith, Gen. Brady  is the author of the memoir, “Dead Men Flying: Victory in Viet Nam, The Legend Of ‘Dust-off:’ America’s Battlefield Angels”). Gen. Brady reminds us on Memorial Day:

“We have no ‘titles of nobility’ under our Constitution.  America’s ‘nobles’ are our veterans. On Memorial Day, what is most important, indeed, most vital, is that we remember, honor, and are grateful for, the courage, love, service and sacrifice of America’s veterans in defense of our freedom—especially those more than 1.3-million veterans who have given their lives defending our country. They are the soul of freedom, the guardians of our Constitution, and the vault for the values of our nation.”

Similarly, the late-General Norman (“Stormin’ Norman”) Schwarzkopf, Commander of forces in the Persian Gulf War (“Desert Storm”), succinctly stated an enduring truth: “Some things are worth living for. Some things are worth dying for. One of those things is freedom.” 

We Americans of this era owe a great debt to those American patriots who came before us, veterans who gave their lives for freedom. We pay that debt to those Americans who came before us by what we are willing to do to preserve freedom for the Americans who will come after us.

Certain truths endure and must be recognized, perhaps especially on Memorial Day, if the American people are going to live in freedom. The first enduring truth is that freedom is not free. It has been purchased by the blood of American patriots, over 1.3-million of whom have given their lives in defense of our freedom.

The second enduring truth is that Americans will not remain free unless this and every generation of Americans is willing to fight and die if necessary in defense of American freedom— as all prior generations have done to preserve freedom. I attach below data on those patriotic veterans who have given their lives for our freedom in all the wars.

We Americans on this Memorial Day must honor those patriot veterans who gave their lives for our freedom, and we must ask ourselves: Are we Americans still a people willing to die to preserve freedom, as did those more than 1.3-million veterans who gave their lives to preserve freedom for us?

I attach also the great war poem In Flanders Fields. Although written in 1915 during the Battle of  Ypres in WWI, it  is as relevant, compelling, and moving  today as it was then. This is most especially true of the final lines, which call on us to take up the “torch” of freedom from the falling hands of those dying, and warns: “If ye break faith with us who die/We shall not sleep, though poppies grow/In Flanders fields.”

If we are to remain free, we  Americans must not “break faith” with those 1.3-million American veterans who have given their lives for American freedom.

May God bless and keep each and all of them; and may we Americans always honor and never forget them.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER!

FREEDOM IS NOT FREE  —  REMEMBER  THE  AMERICANS WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN WAR THAT WE MIGHT BE FREE:

American Wars: Killed In Action

Revolutionary War……………. 25,324
War of 1812……………………….. 2,260
Mexican War…………….……… 13,283
Civil War…………………..…… 650,000
Spanish American War………. 7,166
World War I…………………… 116,708
World War II…………………  408,206
Korean War………………….… 38,686
Vietnam War…………….….…. 58,223
Persian Gulf War…………………. 363
Iraq………………………………..… 4,212

Afghanistan………………..… 2,215+13 

TOTAL KIA:             1,342,219

TOTAL MISSING IN ACTION: 83,126

In Flanders Fields

by [Canadian] Major John McCrae, May 1915, WW 1

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be it yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields. 

By Attorney Rees Lloyd

May 18, 2024

May 18, the third Saturday of May, is Armed Forces Day in America.

But the question raised this Armed Forces Day 2024, is: In these troubled times, will our divided nation, including our governing bodies and mass media, unite to honor for their service and sacrifice in defense of our freedom, all those 1.3-million Americans serving on active duty in the six military branches—Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard — and the 778,539 serving in the Reserves and National Guard?

Veterans who have served, and veterans’ service organizations like The American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, and others, can be counted on to once again act to honor on Armed Forces Day all active duty military personnel and those serving in the Reserves or National Guard.

But it is doubtful that the nation — so transformed from what it was when Armed Forces Day was established in 1950 — will unite as Americans once did to honor on Armed Forces Day 2024 those patriotic Americans serving on active military duty or in the Reserves or National Guard in this era of progressive liberal “woke” ideology dominating the federal government and dominating the modern “woke” mass media — both of which never met a pervert it didn’t love, nor a patriot it didn’t despise.
Consider, among other points, that:

— Armed Forces Day 2024 takes place when the nation is facing unprecedented division and threats to our freedom, our sovereignty, our currency, our status internationally, including being threatened economically and militarily by the Chinese Communist Party, and being dragged into what may become WWIII in Europe if the war between Russia and the Ukraine is not resolved by negotiation rather than escalating warfare.

— We are being invaded at our southern border as never before. Literally millions of illegal aliens —a high percentage of which are military age males— are invading as if they have a “right” to invade our country, instead of having the courage to do what is necessary to stand and fight to right-the-wrongs of the governments in their home countries. It is manifest that the situation at the southern border is out of control.

It is also manifest that no nation can maintain its national unity when its national culture, values, and heritage are overwhelmed by illegal alien invasion. Rome died when there were more unassimilated illegal alien immigrants in Rome than Roman patriots.

— Thousands of patriotic military members of our all-volunteer armed forces were purged in the Covid Pandemic by the “Woke” Department of Defense of the “Woke” Democrat Party Biden regime for declining to submit — on religious grounds—to injection of experimental Covid vaccines. The courts issued injunctions stopping the Biden regime purges pending full trials, and the government’s lies about the Covid Crisis are being exposed more and more.

— At the same time that the “Wokified” Biden DOD has purged out thousands of patriotic military personnel for declining Covid jabs, the DOD has announced failure to meet recruitment goals. Recently, the DOD, when questioned as to whether it was acting to reinstate the thousands of military members purged over declining the Covid shots, responded only that the purged could “re-apply.”

In contrast, former President Donald Trump has stated publicly that, if re-elected president, he will order the purged patriots reinstated with a make-whole remedy.

—The Biden regime has sent over $100-billion to the Ukraine government —without any demand of accountability—in the Russia-Ukraine war, along with more and more sophisticated weapons, ammunitions, and oil from our strategic reserve, in what appears to be a proxy war with Russia, while not building up the funds, weapons, ammunition, and oil needed by our own armed forces to protect America.

— Among these and other such policies of providing billions to the Ukraine—considered the third most corrupt government on the planet —the Democrat Biden regime is actually paying, with U.S. taxpayer dollars, the “pensions” of retired corrupt Ukraine government office holders and employees. At the same time, the overwhelming majority American blue collar workers— outside of government employees — don’t have “pensions.”

— Most recently, a new Ukrainian corruption scandal was exposed in the Ukrainian Supreme Court, resulting in the chief justice being arrested. This while it is learned that many of our armed forces personnel families at home are paid so little that they qualify for, and are receiving, “food stamps.” In contrast, illegal aliens are being provided phones, free medical care (overwhelming hospitals in border States), and housed in hotels at hundreds of dollars a night in NYC and elsewhere (apparently with room service, as well).

Thus, these and other facts indicate that it is unlikely that the elitist Democrat “Wokist” government regime, and the “Wokist” mainstream media, will give anything but “lip service” to honoring all active duty personnel and members of the Reserves or National Guard on Armed Forces Day 2024—unless American citizens stand up to the “Woke” governing authorities, and to the “Woke” media, and demand that that patriotic Americans in the Armed Forces be honored on Armed Forces Day as they deserve to be honored.

Indeed, once upon a time in America, when Armed Forces Day was created, Americans gathered together to hold parades and other communal celebrations to honor our Armed Forces. So did governing bodies and the media.

So should it be again on every Armed Forces Day, and every day.

May God bless and keep all those more than 1.3-million patriotic Americans who by their service and sacrifice on active duty in the armed forces or in the Reserves or National Guard protect and defend the freedom of all 340-million of the rest of us Americans.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER!

© 2024 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

by Rees Lloyd, Attorney

April 10, 2024

The “NO VA RESOURCES FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS ACT,” filed as H.R. 6744 in the House by Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost (R-Il), and in the Senate as S.3490, by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), should be supported by all Americans in general, and by all veterans in particular.

The Act was filed only after revelations that the VA in the Biden Administration is processing health care claims for illegal aliens while veterans have long waits for healthcare—and hundreds of  thousands of claims by veterans remain backlogged and unprocessed.

The VA has denied it has been providing direct health care for illegal aliens—but admits it processes illegal aliens’ medical claims for ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement.)

The “NO VA RESOURCES FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS ACT” provides: “The Secretary of Veterans Affairs may not provide health care to, and may not engage in claims processing for health care for, any individual unlawfully present in the United States who is not eligible for health care under the laws administered by the Secretary.”

House VA Committee Chairman and principle sponsor Mike Bost (R-ILL), said in filing the Act (H.R. 6744):

“As a Marine, I believe any dollar taken away from a veteran is a promise broken to those who served. I’ve demanded answers from the Biden Administration and been stonewalled every step of the way. Until I get the response our veterans deserve, I’ll use every available tool of my chairmanship to end this practice and put our veterans first.”

Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), a member of the Senate’s VA Committee who introduced a companion Act in the Senate (S.3490), said:

“Joe Biden is putting illegal immigrants over America’s veterans. It is outrageous. Our veterans should not be forced to wait in long lines at VA medical centers and clinics to get the care they EARNED while illegal immigrants waltz across our open border and get taxpayer funded health care they NEVER earned. Our veterans should have the best health care we can provide—and illegals who have no right to be in this country don’t deserve a dime from the taxpayer. Congress needs to pass this legislation to stop Joe Biden from robbing veterans to payoff illegals.”

Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), a co-sponsor of the Act, has made written demand on Denis R. McDonough, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, to provide factual information and legal authority pertaining to VA’s resources being used to the benefit of illegal aliens in any manner. She wrote in part:

“I write to express my deep concern regarding recent reports that the  Department of Veterans affairs is prioritizing medical care and veterans benefits for illegal immigrants at the expense of both American veterans and taxpayers. ln fiscal year 2022 alone, taxpayers shouldered the cost for $94.3 million worth of medical expenses for detained migrants, money that should have been used to support American veterans who bravely served this nation. Additionally, in fiscal year 2021, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) health care arm budgeted more than $74 million for the VA’s contractor to assist with outside referrals and medical claims processing.

“Yet at the same time, veterans and their families are rewarded for their sacrifice with months—and years—long waiting times for their claims to be processed. Currently, 1,048,765 veterans are waiting for staff to process their claims.[Emphasis added]

“The VA was created to support those who have served and protected this nation, and now senior VA officials have seemingly placed these veterans on a tier below the flood of illegal immigrants that are crossing our porous border….It is unacceptable to see the VA redirect its resources away from those who defended this country in favor of those who flout its laws without remorse. As such, I ask that the VA immediately stop allocating its resources to the care and claims of illegal immigrants.”

There are an estimated 16-million living American veterans. Many, many, of them need VA care and have earned that care by their service in defense of America—and of Americans. We, each one of us, including each veteran, should stand with those veterans for whom VA was created and demand that VA resources go exclusively to and for those who have earned it—the veterans. Period.

Demand that House and Senate pass the “NO VA RESOURCES FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS ACT”—Now!

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER!

© 2024 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

by Rees Lloyd, Attorney

March 31, 2024

“I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men!” — Cesar Chavez

Cesar Chavez Day is an official State holiday in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, and is observed in several other States (including Colorado, Michigan, Nevada, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin) on the anniversary of his birth on March 31, 1927, of an extraordinary American — Cesar Estrada Chavez, the late co-founder and president of the United Farm Workers of America who became a legend in his own time in the Civil Rights Era.

In his honor, his headquarters for the UFW, which he named “La Paz” (“The Peace”), in the Tehachapi Mountains in Keene, CA, on Highway 58 between Bakersfield and Tehachapi, is now officially the U.S. Cesar Chavez National Monument, established by the federal government.

The U.S. Navy, of which he was a WWII veteran, has named a ship for him.

He was posthumously awarded the highest civilian award for service to America, the Medal of Freedom, which was accepted by his widow, Helen Chavez.

Many States, counties, cities, towns, villages, have named streets, schools, libraries and other public buildings in his honor.

But there are many Americans today who are unaware that there is a Cesar Chavez Day (the major media ignore it), or why there should be a holiday honoring him.

There are also malicious myths tainting the life and the memory of Cesar Chavez that need to be repudiated, most particularly the lies that he was not an American but a Mexican national, and that he was a “Communist,” both of which were first promulgated by the John Birch Society. They are utterly false.

I had the honor of working with Cesar Chavez for some twenty years, starting in 1973, when I was a young long haul trucker participating in a nationwide strike of some 100,000 independent truckers in protest against escalating fuel costs —and escalating profits of the big oil companies—in the so-called “Arab Oil Embargo.”

I was helping coordinate the truckers’ nationwide “Shutdown” at the Triple T Truckstop in Tucson, AZ, as a member of the steering committee of the “Truckers For Justice.”

Cesar Chavez mentored me in that strike. It remained non-violent because of Cesar Chavez’ demands in mentoring me that there should be no violence. “Rees, if there is violence, it is your fault,” Cesar Chavez admonished me, insisting: “Violence is a failure of creative intelligence; violence is a failure of creative intelligence.”

After that strike was broken, an alliance between the Truckers For Justice and the United Farm Workers of America was established. During that work, in which we refused to haul non-union (“scab”) lettuce and grapes, Cesar told me I needed to go to law school as I could do more good as a lawyer. His recommendation got me into law school.

I worked with UFW lawyers while in law school, and after graduating and passing the California Bar in 1979, I became one of Cesar Chavez’ lawyers until the day of his death on April 23, 1993, and for the UFW thereafter as called upon. I have remained to this day exclusively a civil rights, workers rights, veterans rights attorney. (I have written in more detail about experiences with Cesar Chavez in an earlier tribute, available here.)

I can attest based on that long “up close and personal” experience that Cesar Chavez was, in his own way, a true American hero; that there are valuable lessons to be learned from his honorable life; and that he is deserving of recognition by all Americans for his service and sacrifice for others, no matter their race, color, or creed.

However, in order to understand that, it is necessary, first, to overcome the lies and myths which continue to distort the truth of who and what Cesar Chavez was.

These are myths by those who hated and maligned him for their own political purposes; and by those who want to exploit who and what he was in order to appropriate him based on race, ethnicity, or nationality for their own political ends.

The most malicious of those myths are, as stated above, first, that he was not an American but a “Mexican” national; and, second, that he was a “Communist.”
These malicious myths were first promulgated, utterly falsely and politically deliberately, by the John Birch Society in the 1960’s. Over sixty years later, they are repeated to this day.

First, as to nationality, the truth is that Cesar Chavez was a native-born American, not a “Mexican.” While proud of his Mexican-American heritage, he was a third-generation American, born on his grandfather’s small ranch in Arizona in the Yuma area. No matter the indisputability of those facts, Wikipedia, for example, on which many students and others rely, informed:“Chavez was born on the Mexico Texas border and therefore has dual citizenship.” Utterly false.

Second, Cesar Chavez was no “Communist.” He was a devoted Catholic Christian. He was attempting, humbly, to live his Christian faith as faithfully as he was able by sacrifice and service for others as taught and exemplified by Jesus the Christ, not Marx the Communist.

Perhaps the best proof, although none should be needed, that Cesar Chavez was not a Communist but a devoted Catholic Christian living his faith, is the fact that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), in its U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults, which is taught to all adults seeking to become members of the Catholic Church, chose as the exemplar of living a “life in Christ” and “the principles of the Christian moral life”—Cesar E. Chavez. (See, USCCB Catholic Catechism for Adults, Chapter 24, “Life In Christ-Part Two,” pages 233-234).

Moreover, almost never mentioned by those who hate Cesar Chavez and define him as a “communist” and a “Mexican” rather than an American, is that Cesar Chavez, in 1944 at the age of 17, enlisted in the U.S. Navy in WWII and served for the duration of the war in the Pacific in defense of the country of his birth, the United States of America.

Ironically, those who claim to love Cesar Chavez make themselves accomplices of those who hate him (and them) by obscuring Cesar Chavez’ American birth — and by almost never mentioning that he was an American veteran of WWII. They do this not to honor Cesar, but in order to appropriate Cesar Chavez on race or ethnic grounds as a “Mexican,” “Chicano,” or “Raza” race-based civil rights movement leader rather than as an American hero who should be honored by all Americans — as an American hero.

In regard to that, Cesar Chavez, while proud of his ancestral heritage, always identified himself as a “labor” or “union” leader,” not as a civil rights leader of Mexican-Americans, Chicanos, Latinos, Hispanics, or La Raza.

In fact, in the some twenty years I worked with him, Cesar never defined himself as a “Mexican,” or “Chicano,” “Latino,” etc., and, regarding the identification “La Raza” (“The Race”) he told me he didn’t use it because he considered it racialist.

Thus, those who condemn him as a “Mexican” and “Communist,” and those who claim a possessory interest him as a leader of a race-based “Chicano” or “La Raza” civil rights movement, are both wrong: He defined himself as, and acted as, what he was—a “trade union leader,” and most importantly, a devout Catholic Christian living his faith.

In truth, Cesar Chavez, as he lived his Catholic Christian faith, was the inspiring moral heart of the American labor movement.

He built the first viable farm workers union in American history, the United Farm Workers of America. As president of the UFW, Cesar Chavez represented all farm workers, whatever their race, ethnicity, or nationality.

One example which refutes the myths of both those who hate Chavez and those who appropriate him based on race, and shows the willingness of both to corrupt historical truth to suit their political ends, is Chavez’ acts regarding illegal immigration, which was then and remains now at the center of national controversy and division.

In 1969, Cesar Chavez famously led a march from Indio, CA, to the border. It is portrayed today as primarily a march in protest against discrimination by racist growers oppressing Mexican and other Hispanic farmworkers. That is false historical revisionism.

The primary purpose of the 1969 march to the Mexican border was a protest against the federal government’s failure to secure the border from importation of illegal immigrants who were being used to keep wages and working conditions down and to break strikes and the farmworkers union entirely. Indeed, as UFW members set up picket lines waving “Huelga” (“Strike”) flags, buses would arrive from Mexico to unload strike breakers.

In short, Cesar Chavez’ 1969 march to the Mexican border was for the same purpose that the Minutemen later went to the border in the 70’s and 80’s— to secure the border and demand that the government stop illegal immigration. (It should be noted that the Minutemen were widely condemned as “racists” for doing just what Cesar Chavez did. Was Cesar Chavez a racist?)

In the 1970’s, Cesar Chavez fell out of favor with race-based civil rights groups, white liberals, Leftists including open Socialist and Communist organizations, and liberal media. He was criticized because he adopted the position of calling upon and aiding the then-Immigration And Naturalization Service (INS) to deport strikebreakers illegally in the country.

Among other things, Cesar Chavez testified before Congress about immigration. He testified that illegal immigration had to be stopped, and the border secured, as illegal immigrants were used to hold wages and working conditions down, and to break strikes, defeating efforts of farmworkers to build a union to improve their wages, hours, working conditions, and lives.

Today, Cesar Chavez’ 1969 march from Indio to the border is historically revised to be a protest against racist growers and his Congressional testimony is rarely cited, to satisfy the political ends of race-based la raza groups and non-raza liberals who want to transform him from what he was, i.e., a leader of a labor movement to improve the lives of all farmworkers, to what they want him to be, i.e., a race-based political leader.

Meanwhile, many conservatives continue the original wrong and error of the John Birch Society when it falsely slandered and branded Cesar Chavez as a non-American and a “communist.” That continually repeated malicious lie has alienated not only many Americans, including many Mexican-American and other Hispanics for whom Cesar Chavez is, rightly, a hero, as he should be for all Americans.

In his lifetime, although he became nationally and internationally renown, Cesar Chavez never sought personal fame, wealth, or celebrity. It was all about “La Causa,” the cause, not about him.

Indeed, Cesar Chavez turned down millions of dollars offered for the rights to make a movie of his life, Similarly, he rejected all offers to write an autobiography or for the right to produce an “authorized” biography. All that he would authorize was the “Autobiography of La Causa,” by Jaques Levy, who didn’t “buy” the right but earned it by working in la causa.

Cesar Chavez’ achievement is monumental. Farmworkers, and domestic workers, were exempted from the right to organize into unions provided to all other workers by the National Labor Relations Act. There were no State laws creating a right of farmworkers to support unionization. They could be and were fired and “blacklisted” with impunity by employers who suspected them of supporting a union. Farmworkers were also migrant, moving from employer to employer on the migrant trail during harvesting seasons.

There were more than a hundred attempts to organize migrant farmworkers by major international unions with money, members, and paid full time organizers. All failed. It was thought impossible to organize migrant farmworkers.

Then came Cesar Chavez. He had nothing. No money, no members, no paid staff. Nothing but the belief that the only way to help farmworkers was to build a union in which they could themselves achieve better working conditions — and dignity. He succeeded by touching the hearts of Americans by his non-violent “boycotts” and exposure of the dangerous and miserable working conditions of farm workers.

He, himself, had become a migrant farmworker at the age of ten when the ranch of his grandfather on which he was born was lost on foreclosure in the Depression and taken over by the Bruce Church Corp., largest lettuce grower in Arizona. He had little education, attending some fifty different elementary schools as his family followed the migrant farmworker trail. After his service in the U.S. Navy, he went back to working in the fields. He married his sweetheart, Helen, also a farm worker, in Delano, CA. Together they worked the fields, ultimately having had eight kids.

The story has been told now in many articles, books, documentaries, and a relatively recent movie of how Cesar Chavez, while working as an organizer in Los Angeles, became convinced a union for farmworkers had to be created if working conditions were to be improved. He quit his job. He and Helen loaded up their old station wagon with the kids and a mimeograph machine, and headed to Delano. There, they rented a house, set up the mimeograph machine, and sent out a flyer calling for a house meeting, the first step in creating what would become the United Farm Workers of America.

How did Cesar Chavez succeed where all others had failed? By touching the hearts of Americans and the conscience of the nation by exposing the true working conditions of migrant farmworkers through creative, non-violent acts and actions, including his fasts and boycotts, and by his manifest personal selfless service and sacrifice.

Cesar Chavez did not merely say: “I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men!”

He lived it. By doing so, he succeeded where so many others failed. He achieved what was thought impossible. He inspired and taught by his example, humbly serving and sacrificing for others, and thereby has enriched the lives not only of farmworkers, but the lives of millions of Americans, of all races, all colors, all creeds, including my own life.

It was Jesus Christ whom Cesar Chavez worshipped, followed, and humbly attempted to emulate by service to others through living his Catholic Christian faith.

I am greatly indebted to Cesar Chavez, especially for the example of his humble, selfless life in service for others. I will always walk in his shadow.

May the God he so faithfully served bless and keep him. May the country he so faithfully served, always remember and honor him.

<— Cesar Chavez and Rees Lloyd are shown at a press conference in Tucson, AZ, announcing the establishment of an Alliance of the United Farm Workers of America and the Truckers For Justice during a nationwide truckers’ shutdown opposing huge increases in the costs of fuel —and oil company profits—during the so-called “Arab Oil Embargo” in 1973.

© 2024 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

by Rees Lloyd, Attorney

March 29, 2024

March 29, 2024, is the 51st Anniversary of the day in 1973 that America terminated the “U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam” — a/k/a the Vietnam War — and the day the last American troops left Vietnam for home.

March 29, 2024, is also National Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day, by Act of Congress signed into law by former President Donald J. Trump in 2017.

The Vietnam War divided the nation to an extent exceeded only by the Civil War itself, although our present era of mutual political and social animus also appears to be careening toward mutual self-destruction.

While more than nine million Americans served when the country called them to defend the nation of South Vietnam from aggression by Communist North Vietnam led by Ho Chi Minh,  anti-war demonstrations involved many thousands who condemned not only the war, but those who were sent to fight it.

This condemnation of those who served in Vietnam by those who never served, led to the nation never to realize that many, many of the American troops engaged in humanitarian acts unprecedented in war. 

For that aspect of the Vietnam War, I respectfully refer you to the truth-telling book of Maj. Gen. Patrick Henry Brady, (Ret), Medal Of Honor, Vietnam. He is considered America’s most decorated living veteran.  

As a Medical Evacuation helicopter pilot  he flew over 2,000 combat missions and rescued more than 5,000 wounded, including enemy wounded. His enlightening book: Dead Men Flying: Victory In Vietnam. The Legend of ‘Dust Off: America’s Battlefield Angels.” (WND Books.) 

The Vietnam War was the only war in American history in which those who served and sacrificed in defense of the country  were not welcomed home with expressions of thanks for their service.

Instead, many on returning home found themselves the subjects of hate-filled attack,  accusations that they were war criminals. Publicly vilified. Shunned in other instances.  Even spat upon.

So hate-filled were the anti-war demonstrators that many troops coming home were advised by their officers not to wear their uniforms to avoid verbal attacks, or worse.

More than nine million Americans — many if not a majority of them draftees — served honorably in defense of the nation in the almost twenty years in which the nation was mired in Vietnam, from November, 1955, to April 30, 1975, when Saigon in South Vietnam fell to the Communists of North Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh.

More than 58,000 thousand American troops gave their lives in the Vietnam War. More than 300,000 were wounded. No matter their personal views of the war, they responded when the country called them to serve.  In fact and in truth: “All gave some, some gave all.”

Further, it must not be forgotten that while those veterans of Vietnam served —no matter what their personal view might be of the war—so did their families serve, and suffer, in all the nine million Blue Star families who had a loved one in service, and especially the Gold Star families who had a loved one killed in service.

While the  modern liberal media is likely to ignore or minimize the importance of Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day, it should not be ignored by a grateful nation.

There will be many observances, especially by veterans, at posts of the American Legion, VFW, and other veterans organizations, which welcome the participation of non-veterans in honoring all who honorably served. Go, welcome the Vietnam Veterans home, and be welcomed by them.

© 2024 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

By Attorney Rees Lloyd

February 22, 2024

February 22, 2022, is the 290th anniversary of the birth in 1732 of General and President George Washington, the “Father Of Our Country.” He was the most universally respected and admired American in the age of the Founding Fathers, and in the history of America.

For generations, George Washington’s Birthday was a National Holiday celebrated on the actual anniversary of his birth, February 22. On Washington’s Birthday. Americans paused to remember and honor him. Parents and schools taught American children about his life on his birthday; urged the children to learn about the Father Of His [Their] Country; and to follow his example of patriotic love of country, selfless service and sacrifice for freedom, personal honor, dedication to duty, fidelity to principle.

By observing Washington’s Birthday as a National Holiday on his actual birth date, Feb. 22, the focus of the nation was on Washington. However, all that changed in 1971. Congress — pressured by federal government bureaucrats and other employees and their unions  desiring another paid three-day holiday — abolished “Washington’s Birthday” as a National Holiday. It was replaced with “Presidents’ Day,” to be observed on the “third Monday of February,” as a result of the “Uniform Monday Holiday Act,” which gave government employees their sought after three-day weekend.

As a result, Americans in general, and in particular American children in government schools, learn little or nothing about the greatest man in the history of America, George Washington, without whose extraordinary virtues and sacrifices they would not be free.

Further, and ignominiously, Washington’s Birthday was it was replaced by “President’s Day.” Got it? Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln—who were giants in history, were lumped in with the likes of politicians who held the office of President, but did little or nothing to ennoble it, and much to ignoble it by incompetence or moral failure.

No other president has been so universally admired in America — or in the world — as was General George Washington. Washington was by far the most admired man of the Founding Father’s generation. He was called the “Father Of His Country.” He was America’s first President, and the only President unanimously elected, and unanimously re-elected. He was, as Revolutionary War hero General “Light Horse” Harry Lee memorably said: “First in war. First in peace. First in the hearts of his countrymen.”

Can that be said today, when Washington’s Birthday  is no longer a National Holiday, and the nation’s children learn more in progressive liberal, politically correct, cultural-relativist government schools about  “the life of Mohammad” than the life of George Washington?

When schools, politicians, and media celebrate such farcical concocted “holidays” as “Kwanzaa” (never a holiday or observed  in Africa) or  “Cinco de Mayo” (never a holiday or observed in Mexico), while George Washington’s Birthday Holiday is no more?

George Washington, first, last, and always a soldier serving God and Country, was heralded in his time as the “Apostle of Liberty,” the “Indispensable Man,” having with his ragtag band of American citizen-soldiers of the Revolutionary Army defeated the English Empire, then the most powerful military force in the world, in eight years of war to establish our American independence, our freedom.

Washington did not seek the Presidency–it sought him. He was elected unanimously –twice. He was offered the Presidency for life.  But he stunned the world when he refused a third term  and even monarchial rule, and, instead walked away from power to return to his home as citizen. He was, is, our American “Cincinatus.” Washington, like that Fifth Century (BC), Roman general, fought the battles of the nation; held unequaled power; but did not covet it, and instead returned to his farm. So was Washington satisfied to be a citizen of a free America, rather than its ruler.

When Washington did that, walked away from ultimate power, even England’s King George III, whom Washington had defeated in our War of Independence, hailed Washington “as the greatest man of his era.”

John Adams, his successor as President, said of him: “If we look over the catalogue of the first magistrates of nations, whether they have been denominated Presidents or Consuls, Kings or Princes, where shall we find one whose commanding talents and virtues, whose overruling good fortune, have so completely united all hearts and voices in his favor?…His example is complete; and it will teach wisdom and virtue  to Magistrates, Citizens, and Men, not only in the present age, but in future generations.”

Thomas Jefferson, father of the Declaration of Independence and our third president, said of Washington that he was: ”The only man in the United States who possessed the confidence of all. There was no other one who was considered as anything more than a party leader….And it may be truly said that never did nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great, and to place him in the same constellation with whatever worthies have merited from man an everlasting remembrance.”

Even the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, who admitted his love of power and yielded to no man a claim of greater glory than he himself possessed, spoke of his admiration of Washington: “This great man fought against tyranny: he established the liberty of his country. His memory will always be dear to the French people, as it will be to all freemen.”

Are those words  still true to this generation of Americans? Those words of Adams, Jefferson, Gen. Harry Lee, the English King George III and the French Emperor Napoleon, all speaking with awe at the example of Washington’s life as one which would be taught “not only in the present age, but in future generations,” as John Adams said, and his memory “held dear..to all free men” as Napoleon said?

Is Washington still  “First in war. First in peace. First in the hearts of his countrymen,” as Gen. “Light Horse” Harry Lee said of him? If not, why not?

Are we Americans better for it, as a people, as a nation, when we honor no longer the one American who was so universally acknowledged in his time —  and up to this generation of transformed Americans —  as the Greatest American, the Father Of Our Country? He who defeated tyranny, held ultimate power by acclamation and then walked away from it to preserve the freedom he had created as a soldier? He who lived his life for God and Country?

Are the children of a nation, like the children of a family, really better off, better people, by forgetting their father, being without their father, forgetting the virtues their father taught, being orphaned?

We Americans today, whatever our ages, whatever our ancestry, ethnicity, or race, as Americans, are the children of the American  Founding Fathers, including in the particular George Washington, whom the Founding Fathers proclaimed the greatest among them, the Father Of Our Country.

May both the God that George Washington so faithfully served bless and keep him; may the Country he so loyally served always remember and honor him;  and may the lessons of his life be learned in this and every generation so that the freedom he fought for and created may not wither and weaken, to be destroyed by enemies foreign, or domestic.

Tell Congress to repeal the “Uniform Monday Holiday Act,” no matter the tears and anguish of taxpayer-paid government employees who will be deprived of another  three-day holiday — and no matter the loss to the politicians of those government employees’ campaign contributions by which they purchased their uniform three-day weekend holidays from the politicians by elimination of George Washington’s Birthday for the uninspiring “Presidents Day.”

Congress should re-establish George Washington’s Birthday as a National Holiday — and celebrate it on his actual birth day, February 22. The Father Of Our Country deserves no less. The people of our nation, especially the children, deserve no less.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY–NEVER!

© 2024 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

By Rees Lloyd

February 15, 2024

February 15, 2024 is the Fifty First Anniversary of a shining moment in American history: It was on that day in 1973 that American prisoners of war began the repatriation process that would finally bring them home from Vietnam with their honor intact.

They had suffered unspeakably harsh treatment and depravation, many for over five, six, or seven years—and two for nearly nine years. The abuses and torture of American POWs were applied by the North Vietnamese communists, and their leader, Communist Ho Chi Minh.

It was a day of great importance in 1973, in an America divided by the war in Vietnam. And, it is a day to remember all these years later in an even more divided America. It is important for what it teaches about duty, honor, sacrifice and country. It is about who we are and what we can be.

The Vietnam War had severely divided Americans. It was and remains the first time in American history that veterans came home from war not to be honored for their service and sacrifice, but to be vilified, defamed as “war criminals,” told by their military commanders not to wear their uniforms in traveling home, many even spat upon as they arrived home at airports, train or bus stations.

Our younger generations need to realize how our valiant POW’s were vilified by Progressive Liberal Democrats and celebrities like actress Jane Fonda; her Leftist husband Tom Hayden—a founder of Students For A Democratic Society (“SDS”); the “Prairie Fire” communist domestic terrorist bombers like Bill Ayers (a multi-millionaire’s son) and his wife, Bernadine Dorn (a wealthy lawyer’s daughter) ; and self-promoting Democrat political opportunists like John Kerry, who publicly accused American troops of war crimes in Congressional testimony without ever being able to offer any proof. Kerry, once Democrat Party nominee for the Presidency, was thoroughly exposed as an utter and contemptible self-promoting liar by the book “Unfit For Command,” but he remains to this day a leader in the Democrat Party, most recently as its Climate Czar

These Leftist, Progressive Liberal Democrats, Socialists, Communists, Anarchists, and Communists supporting Marxist Democrats, publicly, viciously, and blatantly falsely denounced the POWs as “liars” in claiming “torture.” They insisted that Ho Chi Minh was but a benevolent nationalist Vietnamese patriot who would not engage in torture.

Only after the war was the overwhelming evidence acknowledged that Ho Chi Minh was in fact a dedicated Communist dictator who was in fact responsible for, and had personally ordered, the torture of POWs. Violating basic tenets of international rules for treatment of POWs, Ho refused to follow the Geneva Accords. Today, those facts are indisputable.

Most of the American prisoners of war were American pilots. The very first pilot captured was Lt(jg) [later Commander 0-5] Everett Alvarez, Jr., of Salinas, CA. He was shot down on August 5, 1964, and was held captive of the Communists for over eight years, until February 12, 1973, when Operation Homecoming began.

The only American to serve longer than Everett Alvarez as a POW was Army Green Beret, Colonel Floyd James (“Jim”), Thompson. He was an enlisted man who became a Special Forces officer. He was captured on March 26, 1964. He remained a captive until March, 1973, only ten days short of nine years as a POW — years in which he suffered almost unbelievable torture.

There were 776 Americans taken prisoner of war; 114 of them died in Communist captivity. The Communists under Ho Chi Minh refused to recognize them as Prisoners of War. Instead, the Communists declared them to be “war criminals” and blatantly violated the Geneva Convention. In what became known by the POWs as the “Hanoi Hilton,” and like prisons, the POWs were kept in filthy, windowless, vermin-infested, airless cells, and suffered excruciating torture.

Those seen as “ringleaders” of the resistance, like ranking officers of the resisters in what became known as the “Alcatraz Eleven,” James Stockdale, who would later receive the Medal of Honor, and his second in command, Jeremiah Denton, who received the Navy Cross, would be locked in solitary confinement for over four long years, in which horrific torture was inflicted on them, and the other resisters.

The fact of torture was not confirmed until 1966. Then, the Communists attempted to force Jeremiah Denton to participate in a propaganda broadcast to be filmed by a Japanese crew for international distribution.

Instead, Denton not only did not say what the Communists wanted him to say, but he blinked his eyes as if he had an eye problem. He was in fact blinking in Morse Code: “T-O-R-T-U-R-E.” Naval intelligence immediately understood what Denton was communicating. When the Communists later realized what Denton had done, they tortured him nearly to death, as he recounts in his now classic book on what POWs endured: “When Hell Was In Session.” (WND Books)

Overwhelming post-war proof of torture beyond any reasonable doubt has given the lie to torture-deniers Fonda, Hayden, Kerry, et al. Accounts of torture are related in the many books by or about the POWs. These include,

“POW,” by John Hubbell, the first extensive history of the POWs in Vietnam; “Honor Bound,” the seminal tome of facts by Stuart Rochester and Frederick Kiley; the late Admiral Jeremiah Denton’s classic “When Hell Was In Session;” “Surviving Hell,” by the late Col. Leo Thorsness (USAF, ret.; Medal of Honor); “The Passing Of The Night,” by the late Colonel Robinson Risner (USAF); “American Patriot,” the biography of the late and legendary POW and Air Force combat pilot Colonel Bud Day, a hero in three wars (WWII, Korea, Vietnam), and Medal of Honor recipient who was the most decorated veteran of his era; “Chained Eagle,” by Everett Alvarez, Jr., who, as stated above, was the first pilot shot down, a POW for almost nine years;

And, among other books, “Faith of my Fathers,” by the late Sen. John McCain— who refused an offer of early release by the Communists because his father was the Commanding Admiral, and suffered horrendous torture for his refusal. Whatever thoughts may be today regarding McCain’s actions as a U.S. Senator, McCain was a true hero as a POW; was recognized as such by his fellow POWs; and was left permanently crippled in his arms by torture.

More recently, author Alvin Townley has written a book magnificently telling the true story of the torture POW’s endured in Vietnam, and what their families endured at home: “DEFIANT: The POWs Who Endured Vietnam’s Most Infamous Prison; The Women Who Fought For Them, And The One Who Never Returned.”

It was not until February, 1973, that the breakthrough in Paris peace talks came and Operation Homecoming began. The first flight of emancipated POWs out of Vietnam to Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines was on Feb. 12, 1973. At Clark, the elected spokesman for the POWs, then-Captain Jeremiah Denton, in military uniform, stepped to the microphone, and spoke in short stroke words which began the stirring of the heart of a divided nation:

“We are honored to have had the opportunity to serve our country under difficult circumstances. We are profoundly grateful to our Commander-in-Chief and to our nation for this day. God Bless America.”

Then came that shining moment three days later on February 15, 1973, when Denton, Jim Mulligan, and the others of the first group of POWs landed at the Portsmouth Naval base in Virginia, back on American soil. Their wives and children rushed to embrace them, as, to the POWs surprise, a huge crowd of Americans roared with cheers for them, waving flags, laughing, some weeping with joyful emotion, Americans at last embracing the Americans they sent to war, welcoming them home — as all Vietnam veterans should have been welcomed.

Many of the Vietnam POWs are no longer with us, including Vice Admiral James Stockdale, Rear Admiral Jeremiah Denton, Col. Bud Day, and many others. But their example is with us challenging us to great accomplishments.

One of those exemplars, though he humbly eschews special recognition, is Lt. Col. Orson Swindle, a much decorated retired Marine combat pilot who flew over 200 combat missions. He was shot down on November 11, 1966, on his 205th and last scheduled mission. He endured six years and four months of torture at the hands of the North Vietnamese Communists who targeted him as one of the worst of the “resisters.” At home, he continued to serve in the Marine Corps until retirement. As a civilian, he held several high positions in the Reagan administration. Lt.Col. Swindle expressed to me in an interview for NewsWithViews.com, why he believes it is important now to remember what the POW’s did then. Lt. Col. Swindle said:

“I think it is very important to remember and honor the service and sacrifice of the Vietnam War POWs because our democracy depends on our people doing the right thing. The Vietnam POWs did that, in the face of great adversity. We held on for five, six, seven, and even eight years of torture. We did the right thing. We just said ‘No!’

“We knew our country isn’t perfect. But, even knowing the warts and all, our country has offered all people more freedom, and more opportunity than any country ever, and is still, the greatest nation on earth. Deserving of our support, our sacrifice, even our love. That is why we did what we did.

“In the interrogations, in which we were often beaten, abused, or tortured, it would have been so easy to escape punishment by saying what the Communists wanted to hear. But, we said ‘No.’ We often got beaten up, but we said ‘No.’

“I was, I believe, POW Number 144. Ultimately, there would be over 700. I learned so much from those who came before me. They were remarkable leaders who set the example. Men like [Admiral] James Stockdale [Medal of Honor recipient] and [Rear Admiral] Jeremiah Denton [Navy Cross recipient], and Bud Day [as stated above, legendary Air Force combat pilot, Medal of Honor recipient, hero in three wars —WWII, Korea, and Vietnam—and considered the most decorated veteran of his era]. They and the other POWs who followed them ought to be remembered, honored, and followed.

“Following their example, we suffered, but we wouldn’t surrender, through years of abuse, beatings, and torture. We would just say—‘No!’ And we did that time after time.

“I confess that I am greatly concerned about what is happening in our country today. No one seems to be held accountable. We had a debacle in Afghanistan in which Americans were left behind. We have an invasion at our southern border. We have rising inflation. We have crime escalating all across the country. We have had unprecedented mandates telling us we can’t leave our homes, or enter restaurants without masks, or go to church during the Covid pandemic. We have had hundreds if not thousands of our military members purged for raising religious objections to vaccination of experimental drugs. We have had hundreds of violent riots, looting, burning, police being injured. There is one crisis after another. We are being lied to repeatedly. But, no one is being held accountable. I am afraid if we don’t wake up and stand up against this, and against so-called “Woke” culture, we are not going to have a country.

“So, I believe,” Lt. Col. Swindle concluded, “citizens need to do today what the POWs did even in the face of terrible torture—do the right thing, and just say ‘No’!”

Amen. May the God the POWs served bless and keep them; may the country for which the POWs served and sacrificed so courageously and honorably always remember and honor them—and their families, who also suffered.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER!

© 2023 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

by Rees Lloyd

December 7, 2023

December 7, 2023 , Pearl Harbor Day, marks the 82nd anniversary of the Japanese air attack on U.S. naval and air installations at Pearl Harbor, HI, at 7:53 a.m., Dec. 7, 1941 — without a declaration of war.

It was then the worst attack on American soil in history: Some 2,403 died, 2008 of them Navy personnel; another 1,178 were wounded

Eighteen Navy ships, including the U.S.S. Arizona, were sunk or damaged. Almost all the planes at the island bases were destroyed or damaged while still on the ground.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt memorably called December 7, 1941, “a day which will live in infamy” in his dramatic speech to Congress, which then declared war on Japan.

Only the sneak attack on America by radical Islamic terrorists on 9-11-2001 in New York resulted in more deaths. But for many Americans of this generation — and millions of immigrants, legal and illegal — the meaning, the significance of Pearl Harbor, is not fully known, or appreciated.

One American for whom the Patriot Harbor attack did “live in infamy” for all of his long, productive, and patriotic  100-year life,  was  Pearl Harbor survivor Shelby John (“S.J.”) Hemker of Banning, California. Although he has now gone to God, his story reveals the nature of those Americans who  served at Pearl Harbor; indeed, his story reveals the nature of America— then.

Shelby John (“SJ”) Hemker, a poor “country boy” whose childhood was the Great Depression, joined the Navy at 17. He was at Pearl Harbor near the end of his first four-year tour of duty when the Japanese attacked. He survived that horror, and went on to be a three-war combat Navy veteran — WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. After retirement from the Navy, he continued to serve America in peacetime as a life member of The American Legion.

Hemker, by his giving, patriotic life of service to God and country  in war and in peace,  was an exemplar of the Greatest Generation of WWII. Beloved by his comrade wartime veterans and his community, S.J. Hemker was honored by both on January 10, 2019, at a celebration of his 100th Birthday.

Representatives of the linked San Gorgonio Pass cities of Banning and Beaumont in Riverside County, CA, presented him with Proclamations honoring him. Commendations were presented by his American Legion San Gorgonio Post 428 and other Posts, and veterans organizations from as far away as Patriot Outreach based in Kansas.

Many  words were spoken there about Pearl Harbor, its horror, and its meaning, then and now. The most poignant of those words were those of S.J. Hemker, himself, in a remembrance of Pearl Habor, and of what it should mean, in an earlier interview with me.  It was my honor to read those words of S.H. Hemker about Pearl Harbor at the celebration of his life, and is an honor to publish his own words here:

“Ordinarily, we would have been at sea, We were at Pearl Harbor because we had to repair an engine that had been sabotaged at the shipyard back in California. I was up on the fantail of our ship, the USS New Orleans, a heavy cruiser, with the Chief Master at Arms. The Quartermaster was there, getting ready to raise the flag,” S.J. Hemker recalled.

“It was 7:53 a.m. when we saw the Japanese planes. They were flying so low I could see the pilots’ faces in the cockpit. They were grinning at us as they went down toward Battle Ship Row. Grinning at me and the Chief. They were so close, you could have thrown something at them and hit them. A potato, maybe. They were that close. Just skimming the top of the water. Torpedo planes. The pilots grinning at us,” Hemker reluctantly, but vividly recalled.

“The loudspeakers blared: ‘Man your battle stations – the Japs are attacking’. All hell broke loose… It was terrible, horrible, …,” he said, pausing in his remembrance.

“I spent the next eight hours down in the magazine loading for our five-inch anti-aircraft guns. We fired everything. If we had been hit, that would have been it for us in the magazine. We would have been blown up. We had a big crane over the top of our ship. I think that’s what saved us,” he stated matter-of-factly as to his own circumstance, then somberly related:

“The Arizona capsized. Thirteen hundred men went down with her. Half the guys I was with in boot camp died on the Arizona. That’s where the Memorial is today. They say that oil still leaks out every day. Those guys…they’re still down there,” Hemker said quietly, his voice trailing off, as if physically turning away from a memory, and reality, which was still too painful to talk about.

Getting Hemker to talk about it at all was no easy task. Like many of his fellow World War II veterans, he didn’t talk about his war experiences, never expected any thanks or gratitude, and never, ever boasted about it, despite the fact that after Pearl Harbor he served America in battles and combat zones for the duration of WWII, in the Korean War, and in Vietnam.

Hempker, a widower, roguishly handsome into his 90’s and possessed of a sly sense of humor, for years charmed the ladies in the American Legion Auxiliary with his country gallantry. He was universally admired by his comrade veterans in the American Legion. “I’m not able to do what I used to do, but I do what I can,” he said.

Hemker’s beloved wife died more than 30 years earlier. For the last thirteen years of her life, Hemker’s wife was bedridden, unable to perform the most basic of everyday tasks of life, totally dependent. It says a great deal about the kind of man S.J. Hemker was, that for all of those thirteen years Hemker cared for her, saw to her every need, lovingly dedicated his life to her care, until her death did them part.

Hemker had four sons. All four,  like their father, are veterans who served in the Vietnam war. Hemker had no biological daughter. But, in his declining years, he had for more than fifteen years lived in his own room in the home of a loving “daughter-in-fact” if not of biology, Sue McConnell, and her husband,

No daughter has rendered more loving care to a father than had Sue McConnell to S.J. Hemker.

“I call him my ‘Dad’ because he is that to me. I couldn’t love him more,”  Sue,told me. She had known Hemker for thirty-seven years, during which she had often risen up in fury when the VA had not done its duty “to this great man, this hero, my Dad.”

Reflecting on Pearl Harbor after surviving it, Hemker, who had lost his eyesight,  but not his vision for America, observed:

“We Americans should never forget. If we forget our past and those who died, we won’t have a future. A free one, anyway. Look at what happened on 9-11. More people were killed on that day than were killed at Pearl Harbor. It can happen again,” he warned.

“I don’t think people remember Pearl Harbor and what it means, the way they used to do,” Hemker concluded. “That’s too bad. A lot of us can’t forget. An awful lot of really good people died to keep America free. They shouldn’t be forgotten.”

These are the last words of S.J. Hemker, veteran and self-described “ordinary American…just a common man,”  about the attack on Pearl Harbor,  that “day of infamy” on Dec. 7, 1941;  about those who died in it;  and about those who survived it and continued to serve until victory in WWII, preserving our American freedom.

Hemker, sad to say, is no longer with us. Although reaching his 100th Birthday on January 10, 2019, Hemker later in the year “transferred to Post Everlasting,” as we, his American Legion comrades, say.

Although S.J. Hemker may no longer be with us physically, he can be and should be with us spiritually—the spirit of patriotic love of  country and service in its defense that he exemplified, as did and do so many others of the WWII Greatest Generation. Neither his life nor his words should be forgotten, if, as he warns, we Americans are to remain free.

May the God that S.J. Hemker served so faithfully bless and keep him. May the country he served so faithfully for all of his 100 years on earth, always honor and remember him.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER!

© 2023 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

By Rees Lloyd

November 10, 2023

“The cost of war is in two parts: The cost of the battle itself, which is immediate; and the cost of care for those sent to fight the battle. Since most of those fighting the battle are young, that cost can continue for sixty years, or even longer. But when the country needs veterans, it gets veterans; when it feels it no longer needs veterans, it forgets veterans.”

These are the poignant words of a now deceased 100% disabled combat veteran of the Vietnam War generation.  The truth of his words should long survive him, and should be remembered not only on this Veterans Day, November 11,  2023, but every day — if we Americans are to “keep faith” with all those veterans who have served and sacrificed in defense of American freedom.

Maj. Gen. Patrick H. Brady (USA, ret.), a recipient of the Medal of Honor for his heroism in the Vietnam War who is regarded as America’s most decorated living veteran, has written in tribute to America’s veterans:  “America, under our Constitution, has no hereditary class of ‘nobility.’ America’s nobles are her veterans.”

There are an estimated more than 18-million living American veterans. It has rightly been said of them, and of all Veterans who have served in defense of freedom, including those serving now:  “All gave some, some gave all.”

As to giving “all,” over 1.4-million veterans have given their lives in all the wars in defense of American freedom. Many thousands are still “Missing in Action.” Many millions more have survived but suffered devastating wounds lasting their entire lives. In the modern era, due to advances in medical care, many veterans are surviving wounds that would have been fatal in earlier wars. They will need continuing care for decades, long after the close of wars in which they served.

It is they who must not be forgotten when actual war recedes; it is they with whom Americans must “keep faith.” Patriotic warriors for freedom were mostly young when wounded.  They will need continuing care, even when the attention of  political office holders and Americans generally tends to shove them out of sight and out of mind as other problems take the center of attention.

There are over 9-million of those veterans who are receiving medical care today through the Veterans Administration hospitals and medical facilities for the wounds of war—physical, mental, and emotional. They are survivors from WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, the War Against Terror in the Middle East,  including combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. They all deserve, and must receive, the medical care they were promised by the nation that they would receive for their military service.

But that will require that the Americans whose freedom was purchased by the service of veterans must “keep faith” with America’s veterans.

It has generally been thought among veterans that the medical care provided by doctors and nurses of the VA is good —  “if you can get it.” Too often, that needed care has been delayed, and thereby denied.

For years, there have been  stories of long waits to actually see a physician—waits sometimes so long that veterans have died waiting.  There  also have been horror stories of mistreatment of veterans by career bureaucrat administrators at the VA, including deliberate falsification of records to hide the bureaucrats’ failures. Regarding those abuses, it was until recently all but impossible to remove the VA bureaucrats responsible for the problems.

Thanks to reforms initiated and fought for by former President Donald J. Trump in his first term starting in 2016, long waits have been cut down by allowing veterans “freedom to choose” to seek help from private physicians when the VA is unable to provide timely help.

The Trump reforms include the ability to terminate those VA bureaucrats and employees who fail to properly serve the veterans. Several thousand VA bureaucrats and other VA employees  were reportedly fired  during the Trump administration for abuses. The result has been that President Trump received  an approval rating among veterans being served by VA of an astonishing “91%.”

Veterans need the vigilance and support of Americans to ensure that the promises made to veterans for their service are fulfilled.

The late General Norman (“Stormin’ Norman”) Schwarzkopf, who led the victory in Desert Storm which brought down the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq, famously said: “Some things are worth living for. Some things are worth dying for. One of those things is freedom.”

America’s veterans are those men and women who took an oath to “defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Every single one of them took that oath and entered military service knowing that they might be required to die, or suffer horrible wounds, in defense of freedom. Yet, they served. As noted, some 1.4-million American veterans have died in defense of our freedom. Countless millions suffered the wounds of war, many lasting a lifetime. Those veterans need the vigilance and support of Americans to ensure that the promises made to veterans for their service are fulfilled.

There can be no doubt that we of this generation of Americans owe a great debt to America’s veterans who preserved and protected our freedom by their service—including all those veterans who are serving now.

We pay our debt to those who have served, in part, by remembering, honoring, and “keeping  faith” with veterans by insuring that the promises made to them are kept.

This Veterans Day 2023, we Americans would do well to honor veterans and reflect on just what Veterans Day means.

Veterans Day was originally “Armistice Day,” honoring WWI veterans. Congress later amended it to “Veterans Day” to honor all veterans.  Veterans Day observances traditionally commence at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year, the anniversary of the date and time of the signing of the Armistice ending combat in World War I on November 11, 1918.

WWI was a horrible war of slaughter: There were over over 10-million casualties. It began in 1914. The first of some 4-million Americans who would serve in —and win that war — began arriving in France in June, 1917, when it looked as if Germany would be victorious.

The first Americans to die were three soldiers who were killed in combat on Nov. 3, 1917. By the time the Armistice was signed a year later, on Nov. 11, 1918, some 117,000 Americans — almost 10,000 per month of combat—had given their lives in service.

The horror of WWI, presented side-by-side with the sacrifices of those Americans and allied forces who served, fought, and died — and the need for us to “keep the faith” with those who served —is expressed most profoundly by the poem, “Flanders Fields.” It is perhaps the most moving poem ever written about war, and sacrifice,  honor, and the need for those who live not to “break faith” with those who served, were wounded, or died for freedom.

“Flanders Fields”  was written by then-Major John McCrae, MD, a surgeon in the Canadian Army who was born in 1872 and would die in 1918, the year that terrible war ended. Dr. McCrae wrote the poem in the devastation of the battle of Ypres in WWI, days after his best comrade had been killed. His words reach across more than a century to bring home the reality of all the wars, and the need to “keep faith” with those who served.

On Veterans Day 2023, may God bless all the veterans who have served in defense of our freedom in all the wars. And may the country whose freedom they preserved honor them on Veterans Day and on every day. They kept the faith with us; and, as expressed in the haunting words of “Flanders Field,” we must not “break faith” with them.

IN FLANDERS FIELDS

By Lt. Col. John McCrae, Army of Canada, WWI

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow,
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be it yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Field.

© 2023 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

by Rees Lloyd, Attorney

September 27, 2023

Scandalous conditions in military barracks housing American troops have been exposed by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in a scathing “Report to Congressional Committees.”

The GAO report, entitled “MILITARY BARRACKS: Poor Living Conditions Undermine Quality of Life and Readiness,” was released on September 19, 2023, after a study of conditions in twelve military installations found troops enduring “deplorable” living conditions.

The more than 100-page study, replete with photographic evidence, details rat and other rodent infestation; mold; sewage overflows; undrinkable “brown water” and other plumbing problems creating a nauseating noxious smell; and, among other things, lack of security so great that “squatters” enter in the barracks and remain until forced out.

The GAO report concludes: “Military barracks house hundreds of thousands of service members on U.S. military installations globally and all enlisted service members begin their careers living in barracks. Poor living conditions in these facilities affect service members’ quality of life and undermine readiness and mission….We observed barracks in substandard conditions that potentially pose serious health and safety risks.”

The GAO lays responsibility for these conditions on the Department Of Defense, and each of the Departments–Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marines— and sets forth thirty one (31) Recommendations for curative action. The DOD has reportedly agreed to 23 of the 31 recommendations, but has not yet agreed with eight. The GAO reportedly continues its position that all 31 recommendations need to be implemented.

The context in which these revelations of the horrid living conditions of troops required to live in the barracks, should be noted:

At the same time our troops are living in “deplorable” conditions in barracks, illegal aliens invading our country are being housed in high-priced hotel rooms, provided with three-meals a day, given telephones, cash, and flying free to invade destinations of their choice, all at American taxpayer expense.

The context also includes the fact that while the troops are living in “deplorable” conditions in barracks at home and overseas, more billions of tax payer dollars are being given by the current administration to the corrupt Ukraine government, without any condition of accountability of how those funds are spent.

In that regard, the head of the Ukraine defense apparatus, and six others in top leadership, were fired recently for “corruption” involving funds intended for military defense. Why the delay in discovering this corruption? Why almost no reporting on how it happened and what is being done to prevent its recurrence?

Further as to context, it should be noted that the American troops hurt the worst by the deplorable conditions of the military barracks are young, single, enlisted American troops, who are required to live in barracks and are the lowest paid members of the military.

Moreover, the context is that all of the military services are falling very short in their recruitment goals. Notwithstanding, the military leaders callously subject to “deplorable” living conditions young, patriotic troops who are willing to give their lives defending American freedom if necessary.

In short, this is a disgrace. It is another disgusting anti-American, anti-America, outrage. It is America and Americans “last,” in action.

Americans, particularly veterans, should rise up in support of our troops, who live in squalor in “deplorable” barracks, and demand that their living conditions should be brought up to “standard” whatever the cost. (The full GAO investigation report is available at: GAO-23-105797)

[Editor’s Note: In Democrat run states and cities illegal’s that break our laws, sneak across the border are put up in the best fancy hotels in NYC, LA, etc. with 3 meals a day, free cell phones, $2,500 a month, all at taxpayers expense. No wonder they’re coming by the millions, while our veterans who sacrificed everything for our country live in deplorable conditions. SHAME on the Democrats that keep getting re-elected and the churches for their silence.]

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER!

© 2023 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

by Attorney Rees Lloyd

July 4, 2023

“The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves… .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 conquer, or die.”

These are the now immortal words of General George Washington in his Order of July 2, 1776, issued following the vote on that date by the Continental Congress to adopt the “Lee Resolution”  of Virginia to separate from England.

Two days later, on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence, authored primarily by Thomas Jefferson,  was adopted by the Continental Congress. By that act, the United States of America became the first government in the history of the world to be established by “the consent of the governed.” America is now,  after its birth on July 4, 1776, 247 years ago, the longest lasting free republic in the world.

The American founders generation went to war against the  abuses of the English Empire, then the most powerful military force in the world, in order to create their freedom—and ours. Indeed, we Americans of this generation are among those “untold millions” whose future freedom was dependent on the willingness of the founders’ generation to serve and sacrifice their lives in the War of Independence, as General Washington wrote in his July 2, 1776 Order.

Serve and sacrifice they did. Ultimately, 25,000 American patriots—out of a total population of only 2.5-million in all thirteen colonies— would give their lives for freedom. They were citizen soldiers, patriots, who left their farms, jobs, homes, and families, and went to war for freedom. Almost all brought their own  guns from home.

These citizen soldiers, with no formal military training, rose up to fight for freedom  against the greatest military power in the world at the time, the English Empire. English King George III had the best trained, best armed, best equipped, best experienced army and navy in the world. King George III and the English elitists of that era  scoffed at the idea England could be defeated by what they ridiculed as a “ragtag” American army, that was untrained, barely equipped, with no experience, with no cavalry, and with no war experienced navy, while England ruled the waves of the world.

The American patriots suffered one disastrous military defeat after another in the months following the July 4th Declaration of Independence. The conditions in which they fought were horrendous. They lacked food, shoes, clothes, supplies, medicines, ammunition, medical care.

Only a third of the population supported the war; another third was neutral; and the final third—“Tories”— was actively in support of England,  desiring to remain “subjects” of King George III rather than free “citizens” of America.

Yet, the American patriots fought on. The first really significant American victory after the Declaration of Independence came on the day after Christmas, December 26,1776, the now famous crossing of the Delaware River in a freezing winter storm led by Gen. George Washington to win the Battle of Trenton.

That victory brought hope and inspiration that the war for freedom could be won. It would take until 1783 for the revolutionary war to be ultimately won with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. It was the longest war in our American history until Vietnam.

Freedom was achieved by the American patriots despite all odds. The indispensable American in this victory for liberty was General George Washington, who would not give up. He was universally admired, respected, by the troops, who were inspired by him. He placed himself in danger with the troops countless times in the heat of battle, mounted and visible to the troops and the enemy.  When at war’s end many credited Gen. Washington with being the cause of the victory, he demurred, saying  victory came only by  the intercession of “Providence” or “the hand of God.”

Gen. George Washington later was unanimously elected to preside over the Constitutional Convention,  which created in 1787 the  Constitution under which we live now as free Americans.

George Washington would be unanimously elected as the First President of the United States of America. He was unanimously elected to a second four year term. After his second term, George Washington was offered a third term, or to be “President for life,” or even “King.” George Washington refused it all, saying to serve more than two terms as President would be improper. Instead, he relinquished all power and authority, and went home to his farm, content to be a private American citizen.

In walking away from all power and authority, George Washington shocked not only the country, but the world.  Even England’s King George III, whom Washington had defeated, said that George Washington was “the most distinguished of any man living…the greatest character of the age.” Napoleon, who had no doubt of his own eminence, said:  “This great man fought against tyranny; he established the liberty of his country….George Washington is the greatest man of his era.”

Similarly, at home, George Washington would be universally recognized as “The Father Of Our Country.” Revolutionary War hero Harry “Light Horse Harry” Lee (father of Robert E. Lee), summed up the feelings of the nation for George Washington: “First in war. First in Peace. First in the hearts of his countrymen.”

On this July 4th 2023, 247th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence and the birth day of our United States of America, we Americans ought to remember, honor, emulate and give thanks to the patriots of July 4th 1776 — from Gen. George Washington, the Father of Our Country, to the least ranked unknown soldier of the Revolutionary Army, whose service and sacrifice created our freedom.

Indeed, on this Independence Day, July 4, 2023, we Americans must search our souls and answer the question:  Are we Americans willing to fight, to sacrifice, and to give our lives if necessary, in defense of American freedom now, as the Americans of the Founding Fathers generation did then, on July 4, 1776?

May God bless and keep each and all of them, and may our nation never cease to honor  and emulate them in defense of freedom.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER!

© 2023 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

By Attorney Rees Lloyd

June 6, 2023

June 6, 2023  is the  79th anniversary of a day which should live in history and in the minds of all generations of Americans as a true milestone of liberty: D-Day, June 6, 1944 .

On D-Day in World War II,  in the largest amphibious landing in history, some 156,00 soldiers, sailors, marines, air corps and coast guard members of primarily America, Great Britain, Canada, and also some forces of free France, Poland, and other nations, participated in the allied invasion at Normandy, France, to defeat the totalitarian tyranny of  the National Socialist German Workers Party (NAZI) of Adolf Hitler,  who had conquered all of Europe.

Those who fought at Normandy on D-Day to preserve freedom from defeat by Hitler’s national socialist fascists paid a terrible sacrifice. The beaches at Normandy, with NAZI artillery and machine guns established in cross-fire patterns, were, indeed, “killing fields,” prepared for slaughter. The sea and sands ran red with blood.

The beaches designated Omaha, Utah, and Gold were covered by the wounded and dying. Over 4,000 of them, including 2,500 Americans, were killed in action that single day alone.

In the month long Normandy invasion fighting which began on D-Day,  more than 29,000 Americans were killed in action, and more than 100,000 were wounded. Altogether, more than 400,000 Americans would sacrifice their lives in WWII.

But by their bravery and sacrifice,  they turned the tide of war in what the late famed historian Stephen Ambrose called “the climatic battle of WWII,” in his classic book, “D-Day: June 6, 1944.”

Hitler was convinced — and had convinced most of the western world — that his Fortress Europe could turn back and defeat any attempt to invade occupied Europe by sea. So confident were the NAZI socialists, that their top generals were elsewhere—including Erwin Rommel, the “Desert Fox,” Hitler’s best fighting general who had gained fame in the Africa campaign.  Rommel was on leave in Germany and caught by surprise when the invasion was launched from Great Britain for Normandy — and not for Calais, which the Nazi’s thought would be the point of invasion if one were made.

Hitler was confident his Fortress Europe would defeat any invasion, anywhere, because  Rommel, himself, had overseen the NAZI’s military arrangement of massive armaments all along the coast from Spain to Norway, creating Fortress Europe.

In contrast, on D-Day, June 6, 1944, there was great doubt among the allies that the invasion could succeed. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, and later President of the United States, actually paused to write a statement, in his own hand,  to be released publicly should the D-Day invasion be lost.

Gen. Eisenhower wrote that if the invasion failed, it was entirely his fault, and his alone. He made  no excuses. He emphasized that failure  was not the fault of his subordinate officers or the soldiers who fought it, and did not blame any of the allied nations’ governments, military officers or troops. He, alone, took responsibility for defeat

After writing that note, Gen. Eisenhower issued a simple order: “OK, let’s go!” American and allied soldiers went on D-Day, June 6, 1944. They fought. They were wounded and killed in the thousands, on that day, and in all the days of WWII.   But, they conquered. They saved the freedom of America, and the world, from the tyranny of Hilter’s national socialist fascists.

How many of us Americans will remember, and have a sense of thankfulness,  on this D-Day 2023,  that we are the heirs of freedom purchased for us by the blood of the thousands of killed and wounded in the D-Day invasion and all the days of  WWII which followed?

Who were those Americans of the WWII generation who fought the NAZI’s on D-Day and thereafter through Europe, while other Americans fought in the Pacific against the Japanese imperialists, more than 400,000 sacrificing their lives?

They were children of the Great Depression. As children, they knew “want,” not wealth. They went from the poverty of the Depression in their childhood, to the horrors of war in their young adulthood.  Many were in their teens. The average educational level of those who saved freedom in WWII was only the “Eighth Grade.” They, too, had their dreams of life. But they went to war to defend American freedom when our country called them to service.

Ultimately, more than 16-million Americans would serve in WWII. They fought. They were wounded—physically, mentally, emotionally. They were killed. They preserved our freedom by their sacrifice.

What were the beliefs, the values of those who served on D-Day and the duration of WWII? The late author Michael Novak, in his important book entitled, “On Two Wings—Humble Faith And Common Sense At the Founding Of America,” cites a study done in the late 1950’s on the values of Americans.

What the study found was that the Americans whose values were closest to the Founding Fathers’ values were the American families who had served in WWII.  Think deeply of the implications of that fact, especially in considering the dominant values of America now.

We Americans of this era owe a debt to those Americans who came before us and preserved our freedom. We pay that debt by what we do to preserve the freedom of those Americans who will come after us.

Therefore, a question we Americans must ask ourselves on D-Day 2023, is: if the values of the First Generation and of the WWII Generation no longer abide in America, will we Americans of this era —if necessary — be willing to preserve freedom with our lives as did the Americans on D-Day 1944 and all the days of WWII that followed?

May God bless and keep all those Americans who served on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and the entirety of  WWII, as “all gave some, and some gave all,” that we might be free.

May we, as Americans of this era,  still have the courage, and the values of love of God and Country of the WWII Generation, that led them to fight and die for our freedom.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER!

© 2023 Rees Llloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

by Rees Lloyd

May 26, 2023

Memorial Day is a day to remember what should be remembered every day–the  service and sacrifice of the more than 1.3-million American veterans who have given their lives in war so that we, their posterity, might live as free Americans. (See attached below a chart of casualties in all the wars from the War of Independence to Iraq and Afghanistan.) 

But Memorial Day 2023 differs from past Memorial Day observances. Our nation is more divided on this Memorial Day than perhaps any time since the Civil War. Indeed, the country has been experiencing accelerating transformation from being “one nation under God” into a divided nation without God, resulting in seething, increasingly violent, animus and mutual distrust.

The original national motto —“E Pluribus Unum” (“Out of  Many, One”) is scarcely ever referenced, even as a goal, let alone as a reality. Cries of “racist!” fill the air at any disagreement over policy and social interaction. Riots and looting,  and the threat thereof  — forms of “social extortion” in the name of “social justice” —replace good faith attempts to seek solutions for the common good.

The goal of the original Civil Rights Movement of a “color-blind society” in which all are treated equally under the law regardless of “color,” has been replaced by a creed of color-consciousness underlying every governmental or social action.

The goal of “equality” under the law, with all being treated equally without regard for race, has been abandoned in favor of all actions being consciously based on race, and “racial preference,” in the name now of “equity,” (i.e., equal results) — instead of “equality,” (i.e., equal opportunity).

Treating Americans differently based upon their race is by definition “racism,” even when postured as “anti-racism” in search of “equity”

The simple, undeniable reality is that all racism is evil—no matter the color of the perpetrator, no matter the color of the victim.

Certain truths endure and must be recognized, perhaps especially on Memorial Day, if the American people are going to continue to live in freedom:

The first enduring truth of our American freedom is that freedom is not free, but has been purchased by the blood of American patriots, over 1.3-million of whom have given their lives in defense of our freedom.

We Americans of this era owe a great debt to those American patriots who came before us, veterans who gave their lives for freedom. We pay that debt to those Americans who came before us by what we are willing to do to preserve freedom for the Americans who will come after us.

Maj. General Patrick H. Brady (USA, ret.), Medal of Honor recipient (Vietnam) is considered to be America’s most decorated living veteran. Along with his daughter, Army veteran Meghan Brady Smith, Gen. Brady  is the author of the memoir, “Dead Men Flying: Victory in Viet Nam, The Legend Of ‘Dust-off:’ America’s Battlefield Angels”). Gen. Brady reminds us on Memorial Day:

“We have no ‘titles of nobility’ under our Constitution.  America’s ‘nobles’ are our veterans. On Memorial Day, what is most important, indeed, most vital, is that we remember, honor, and are grateful for, the courage, love, service and sacrifice of America’s veterans in defense of our freedom—especially those more than 1.3-million veterans who have given their lives defending our country. They are the soul of freedom, the guardians of our Constitution, and the vault for the values of our nation.”

Similarly, the late-General Norman (“Stormin’ Norman”) Schwarzkopf, Commander of forces in the Persian Gulf War (“Desert Storm”), succinctly stated an enduring truth: “Some things are worth living for. Some things are worth dying for. One of those things is freedom.”

We Americans on this Memorial Day must honor those veterans who gave their lives for our freedom, and we must ask ourselves: Are we Americans still a people willing to die to preserve freedom, as did those 1.3-million Americans who gave their lives for us?

I attach below data on those who have given their lives for our freedom in all the wars. Each one of those veterans — and their families — should be remembered and honored on Memorial Day, and every day.

I attach also the greatest war poem ever written, Flanders Fields. Although written in 1915 during the Battle of  Ypres in WWI, it  is as relevant, compelling, and moving  today as it was then. This is most especially true of the final lines, which call on us to take up the “torch” of freedom from the falling hands of those dying, and warns: “If ye break faith with us who die/We shall not sleep, though poppies grow/In Flanders fields.”

If we are to remain free, we  Americans must not “break faith” with those 1.3-million American veterans who have given their lives for America, for freedom.  May God bless and keep each and all of them;  and may we Americans never forget, and always honor them.

Finally, may we have the courage, the integrity, the love of God, family, comrades, and country, to make the choice they did if we are called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice for freedom.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER!

FREEDOM IS NOT FREE  —  REMEMBER  THE  AMERICANS WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN WAR THAT WE MIGHT BE FREE:

American Wars: Killed In Action

Revolutionary War…………….25,324
War of 1812……………………..2,260
Mexican War……………………13,283
Civil War…………………………650,000
Spanish American War………. 7,166
World War I……………………   116,708
World War II……………………  408,206
Korean War………………………38,686
Vietnam War……………………..58,223
Persian Gulf War………………..363
Iraq…………………………………4,212

Afghanistan………………………2,215+13

TOTAL KIA:             1,342,219

TOTAL MISSING IN ACTION:    83,126

In Flanders Fields

by [Canadian] Major John McCrae, May 1915

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

[For the full story on Flanders Fields and the Poppy tradition]

© 2023 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

By Attorney Rees Lloyd

May 20, 2023

May 20, the third Saturday of May, is  Armed Forces Day in America.

But the question raised this Armed Forces Day 2023, is:  In these troubled times, will our divided nation, including our governing bodies and mass media,  unite to honor for their service and sacrifice in defense of our freedom, all those 1.3-million Americans serving on active duty in the six military branches—Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard — and  in the Reserves and  National Guard?

While veterans service organizations like The American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, and others will once again act to honor active duty military personnel on Armed Forces Day, it is doubtful that the nation — so transformed from what it was when Armed Forces Day was established in 1950 — will unite to honor active duty military members on Armed Forces Day under the progressive liberal “woke” ideology of the ruling Democrat Party and of the modern “woke” mass media — both of  which never met a pervert it didn’t love, nor a patriot it didn’t despise.

Consider, among other points, that:

— Armed Forces Day 2023 takes place when the nation is facing unprecedented division and threats to our freedom, our sovereignty, our currency, our status internationally, including being threatened economically and militarily by the Chinese Communist Party, and being dragged into what may become WWIII in Europe if the  war between Russia and the Ukraine is not resolved by negotiation rather than escalating warfare.

— We are being invaded at our southern border as never before. Literally millions of illegal aliens are invading as if they have a “right” to invade our country, instead of having the courage to do what is necessary to right-the-wrongs of the governments in their home countries. It is manifest that the situation at the southern border is out of control.

It is also manifest that  no nation can maintain its national unity when its national culture, values, and heritage  are overwhelmed by illegal alien invasion. Rome died when there were more unassimilated illegal alien immigrants in Rome than Roman patriots.

—Thousands of patriotic military members of our all-volunteer armed forces have been purged  by the Department of Defense of the “Woke” Democrat Party Biden regime for declining to submit — on religious grounds—to vaccination by the experimental Covid drugs. The courts have issued injunctions stopping the Biden regime purges pending full trials. At the same time that the “Wokified” Biden DOD has purged out thousands of patriotic military personnel for declining Covid jabs, the DOD has announced failure to meet recruitment goals. Recently, the DOD, when questioned as to whether it was acting to reinstate the thousands of military members purged over declining the Covid shots, responded only that the purged could “re-apply.” In contrast, former President Donald Trump has stated publicly that, if re-elected president, he will order the purged patriots reinstated with a make-whole remedy.

—The Biden regime has sent over $100-billion to the Ukraine government in the Russia-Ukraine war, along with more and more sophisticated weapons, ammunitions, and oil from our strategic reserve, in what appears to be a proxy war with Russia, while not building up the funds, weapons,  ammunition, and oil  needed  by our armed forces to protect America.

—Among these and other such policies of providing billions to the Ukraine—considered the third most corrupt government on the planet —the Democrat Biden regime is actually paying, with U.S. taxpayer dollars,  the “pensions” of retired corrupt Ukraine government office holders and employees. Most recently, a new Ukrainian corruption scandal was exposed in the Ukrainian Supreme Court, resulting in the chief justice being arrested. This while it is learned that many of our armed forces personnel families at home are paid so low that they qualify for, and are receiving, “food stamps.” In contrast,  illegal aliens are being provided phones, free medical care (overwhelming hospitals in border States), and housed in hotels at hundreds of dollars a night in NYC and elsewhere (apparently with room service, as well).

Thus, these and other facts indicate that it is unlikely that the elitist Democrat “Wokist” government regime, and the “Wokist” mainstream media, will give anything but “lip service” to honoring all active duty personnel on Armed Forces Day —unless American citizens stand up to the “Woke” governing authorities, and to the “Woke” media,  and demand that that patriotic Americans on active duty be honored as they deserve to be honored.

Indeed,  once upon a time in America, when Armed Forces Day was created, Americans gathered together to hold parades and other communal celebrations to honor  our Armed Forces. So did governing bodies and the media.

So should it be again on every Armed Forces Day, and every day.

May God bless and keep all those more than 1.3-million patriotic Americans who by their service and sacrifice on active duty in the armed forces protect and defend the freedom of all 340-million of the rest of us Americans.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER!

© 2023 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

By Rees Lloyd, Attorney

March 31, 2023

“I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men!” — Cesar Chavez

Cesar Chavez Day is an official State holiday in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, and is observed in several other States (including Colorado, Michigan, Nevada, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin)  on the anniversary of his   birth on March 31, 1927, of an extraordinary American — Cesar Estrada Chavez, the late co-founder and president of the United Farm Workers of America who became a legend in his own time in the Civil Rights Era.

In his honor, his headquarters for the UFW, which he named “La Paz” (“The Peace”), in the Tehachapi Mountains in Keene, CA, on Highway 58 between Bakersfield and Tehachapi, is now officially the U.S. Cesar Chavez National Monument, established by the federal government.

The U.S. Navy, of which he was a WWII veteran, has named a ship for him.

He was posthumously awarded the the highest civilian award for service to America, the Medal of Freedom, which was accepted by his widow, Helen Chavez.

Many States, counties, cities, towns, villages, have named streets, schools, libraries and other public buildings in his honor.

But there are many Americans today who are unaware that  there is a Cesar Chavez Day  (the major media ignore it), or why there should be a holiday honoring him.

There are also malicious myths tainting the life and the memory of Cesar Chavez that need to be repudiated, most particularly the lies that he was not an American but a Mexican national, and that he was a “Communist,” both of which were first promulgated by the John Birch Society. They are utterly false.

I had the honor of working with Cesar Chavez for some twenty years, starting in 1973, when I was a young long haul trucker participating in a nationwide strike of some 100,000 independent truckers in protest against escalating fuel costs in the so-called “Arab Oil Embargo.”

I was helping coordinate the truckers’ “Shutdown” at the Triple T Truckstop in Tucson, AZ, as a member of the steering committee of the “Truckers For Justice.”

Cesar Chavez mentored  me in that strike, which remained non-violent because of his demands in mentoring me that there should be no violence. “Rees, if there is violence, it is your fault,” Cesar Chavez admonished me, insisting: “Violence is a failure of creative intelligence; violence is a failure of creative intelligence.”

After that strike was broken, an alliance between the Truckers For Justice and the United Farm Workers of America was established. During that work, in which we refused to haul non-union (“scab”) lettuce and grapes, Cesar told me I needed to go to law school as I could do more good as a lawyer. His recommendation got me into law school.

I worked with UFW lawyers while in law school, and after graduating and passing the California Bar in 1979, I became one of Cesar Chavez’ lawyers until the day of his death on April 23, 1993, and for the UFW thereafter as called upon. I have remained to this day exclusively a civil rights, workers rights, veterans rights attorney. (I have written in more detail about experiences with Cesar Chavez in an earlier tribute, available here.)

I can attest based on that long “up close and personal” experience that Cesar Chavez was, in his own way, a true American hero;  that there are valuable lessons to be learned from his honorable life; and that he is deserving of recognition by all Americans for his service and sacrifice for others, no matter their race, color, or creed.

However, in order to understand that, it is necessary, first, to overcome the lies and myths which continue to distort the truth of who and what Cesar Chavez was.

These are myths by those who hated and maligned him for their own political purposes; and by those who want to exploit who and what he was in order to appropriate him based on race, ethnicity, or nationality for their own political ends.

The most malicious of those myths are, as stated above, first, that he was not an American but a “Mexican” national; and, second, that he was a “Communist.”

These malicious myths were first promulgated, utterly falsely and politically deliberately, by the John Birch Society in the 1960’s. over sixty years later, they are repeated to this day.

First, as to nationality, the truth is that Cesar Chavez was a native-born American, not a “Mexican.”  While proud of his Mexican-American heritage, he was a third-generation American, born on his grandfather’s small ranch in Arizona in the Yuma area.  No matter the indisputability of those facts, Wikipedia, for example, on which many students and others rely, informed:“Chavez was born on the Mexico Texas border and therefore has dual citizenship.” Utterly false.

Second, Cesar Chavez was no “communist.” He was a devoted Catholic Christian. He was attempting, humbly,  to live his Christian faith as faithfully as he was able by sacrifice and service for others as taught and exemplified by Jesus the Christ, not Marx the Communist.

Perhaps the best proof, although none should be needed, that Cesar Chavez was not a Communist  but a devoted Catholic Christian living his faith, is the fact that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), in its U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults, which is taught to all adults seeking to become members of the Catholic Church, chose as the exemplar of living a  “life in Christ” and “the principles of the Christian moral life”—Cesar E. Chavez. (See, USCCB Catholic Catechism for Adults, Chapter 24, “Life In Christ-Part Two,” pages 233-234).

Moreover, almost never mentioned by those who hate  Cesar Chavez  and define him as a “communist” and a “Mexican” rather than an American, is that Cesar Chavez, in 1944 at the age of 17, enlisted in the U.S. Navy in WWII and served for the duration of the war in the Pacific in defense of the country of his birth, the United States of America.

Ironically, those who claim to love Cesar Chavez make themselves accomplices of those who hate him (and them)  by obscuring  Cesar Chavez’ American birth — and  by almost never mentioning that he was an American veteran of WWII.  They do this not to honor Cesar, but in order to appropriate Cesar Chavez on race or ethnic grounds as a “Mexican,” “Chicano,” or “Raza” race-based civil rights movement leader rather than as an American hero who should be honored by all Americans — as an American hero.

In regard to that, Cesar Chavez, while proud of his ancestral heritage, always identified himself as a “labor” or “union leader,” not as a civil rights leader of Mexican-Americans, Chicanos, Latinos, Hispanics, or La Raza.

In fact, in the some twenty years I worked with him,  Cesar never defined himself as a “Mexican,” or “Chicano,” “Latino,” etc., and, regarding the identification “La Raza” (“The Race”) he told me he didn’t use it because he considered it racialist.

Thus, those who condemn him as a “Mexican” and “Communist,” and those who claim a possessory interest him as  a leader of a race-based “Chicano” or “La Raza” civil rights movement, are both wrong: He defined himself as, and acted as, what he was—a “trade union leader,” and most importantly, a devout Catholic Christian living his faith.

In truth, Cesar Chavez, as he lived his Catholic Christian faith,  was the inspiring moral heart of the American labor movement.

He built the first viable farm workers union in American history, the United Farm Workers of America. As president of the UFW, Cesar Chavez represented all farm workers, whatever their race, ethnicity, or nationality.

One example which refutes the myths of both those who hate Chavez and those who appropriate him based on race, and shows the willingness of both to corrupt historical truth to suit their political ends, is Chavez’ acts regarding illegal immigration, which was then and remains now  at the center of national controversy and division.

In 1969, Cesar Chavez famously led a march from Indio, CA, to the border. It is portrayed today as primarily a march in protest against discrimination by racist growers oppressing Mexican and other Hispanic farmworkers. That is false historical revisionism.

The primary purpose of the 1969 march to the Mexican border was a protest against the federal government’s failure to secure the border from importation of illegal immigrants who were being used to keep wages and working conditions down and to break strikes and the farmworkers union entirely. Indeed, as UFW members set up picket lines waving “Huelga” (“Strike”) flags, buses would arrive from Mexico to unload strike breakers.

In short, Cesar Chavez’ 1969 march to the Mexican border was for the same purpose that the Minutemen later went to the border in the 70’s and 80’s— to secure the border and demand that the government stop illegal immigration. (It should be noted that the Minutemen were widely condemned as  “racists” for doing just what Cesar Chavez did. Was Cesar Chavez a racist? )

In the 1970’s, Cesar Chavez fell out of favor with race-based civil rights groups, white liberals, Leftists including open Socialist and Communist organizations, and liberal media. He was criticized because he adopted the position of calling upon and aiding the then-Immigration And Naturalization Service (INS) to deport strikebreakers illegally in the country.

Among other things, Cesar Chavez testified before Congress about immigration. He testified that illegal immigration had to be stopped, and the border secured, as illegal immigrants were used to hold wages and working conditions down, and to break strikes, defeating efforts of farmworkers to build a union to improve their wages, hours, working conditions, and lives.

Today, Cesar Chavez’ 1969 march from Indio to the border is historically revised to be a protest against racist growers and his Congressional testimony is rarely cited, to satisfy the political ends of race-based la raza groups and non-raza liberals who want to transform him from what he was, i.e., a leader of a labor movement to improve the lives of all farmworkers,  to what they want him to be, i.e., a race-based political leader.

Meanwhile, many conservatives continue the original wrong and error of the John Birch Society when it falsely slandered and branded Cesar Chavez as a non-American and a “communist.” That continually repeated malicious lie has alienated not only many Americans, including many Mexican-American and other Hispanics for whom Cesar Chavez is, rightly,  a hero, as he should be for all Americans.

In his lifetime, although he became nationally and internationally renown, Cesar Chavez never sought personal fame, wealth, or celebrity. It was all about “La Causa,” the cause, not about him.

Indeed, Cesar Chavez  turned down millions of dollars offered for the rights to make a movie of his life,  Similarly, he rejected all offers to write an autobiography or for the right to produce an “authorized” biography. All that he would authorize was the “Autobiography of La Causa,” by Jaques Levy, who didn’t “buy” the right but earned it by working with Chavez in la causa for some ten years.

Cesar Chavez’ achievement is monumental. Farmworkers, and domestic workers, were exempted from the right to organize into unions provided to all other workers by the National Labor Relations Act. There were no State laws creating a right of farmworkers to support unionization. They could be and were fired and “blacklisted” with impunity by employers who suspected them of supporting a union. Farmworkers were also migrant, moving from employer to employer on the migrant trail during harvesting seasons.

There were more than a hundred attempts to organize migrant farmworkers by major international unions with money, members, and paid full time organizers. All failed. It was thought impossible to organize migrant farmworkers.

Then came Cesar Chavez. He had nothing. No money, no members, no paid staff. Nothing but the belief that the only way to help farmworkers was to build a union in which they could themselves achieve better working conditions — and dignity.  He succeeded by touching the hearts of Americans by his non-violent “boycotts” and exposure of the dangerous and miserable working conditions of farm workers.

He, himself,  had become a migrant farmworker at the age of ten when the ranch of his grandfather on which he was born was lost on foreclosure in the Depression and taken over by the Bruce Church Corp., largest lettuce grower in Arizona. He had little education, attending some fifty different elementary schools as his family followed the migrant farmworker trail. After his service in the U.S. Navy, he went back to working in the fields. He married his sweetheart, Helen, also a farm worker,  in Delano, CA. Together they worked the fields, ultimately having had eight kids.

The story has been told now in many articles, books, documentaries, and a relatively recent movie of how Cesar Chavez, while working as an organizer in Los Angeles, became convinced a union for farmworkers had to be created if working conditions were to be improved. He quit his job. He and Helen loaded up their old station wagon with the kids and a mimeograph machine, and headed to Delano. There, they rented a house, set up the mimeograph machine, and sent out a flyer calling for a house meeting, the first step in creating what would become the United Farm Workers of America.

How did Cesar Chavez succeed where all others had failed? By touching the hearts of Americans and the conscience of the nation by exposing the true working conditions of migrant farmworkers through creative, non-violent acts and actions, including  his fasts and boycotts, and by his manifest personal selfless service and sacrifice.

Cesar Chavez did not merely say:  “I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men!”

He lived it.  By doing so, he succeeded where so many others failed. He achieved what was thought impossible. He inspired and taught by his example, humbly serving and sacrificing for others, and thereby has enriched the lives not only of farmworkers, but the lives of millions of Americans, of all races, all colors, all creeds, including my own life.

It was Jesus Christ whom Cesar Chavez worshipped, followed, and humbly attempted to emulate by service to others through living his Catholic Christian faith. I have little doubt that in the fullness of time, Cesar Chavez will one day become one of the Blessed of his Catholic faith, if not canonized.

I am greatly indebted to Cesar Chavez, especially for the example of his humble, selfless life in service for others. I will always walk in his shadow. May the God he so faithfully served bless and keep him. May the country he so faithfully served, always remember and honor him.

© 2023 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

by Rees Lloyd, Attorney

March 29, 2023

March 29, 2023, is the 50th Anniversary of the day in 1973 that America terminated the “U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam” — a/k/a the Vietnam War — and the day the last American troops left Vietnam for home.

March 29, 2023, is also National Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day, by Act of Congress signed into law by former President Donald J. Trump in 2017.

The Vietnam War divided the nation to an extent exceeded only by the Civil War itself.

While more than nine million Americans served when the country called them to defend the nation,  anti-war demonstrations involved many thousands who condemned not only the war, but those who were sent to fight it.

The Vietnam War was the only war in American history in which those who served and sacrificed in defense of the country  were not welcomed home with expressions of thanks for their service.

Instead, many on returning home found themselves the subjects of hate-filled attack,  accusations that they were war criminals. Publicly vilified. Shunned in other instances.  Even spat upon.

So hate-filled were the anti-war demonstrators that many troops coming home were advised by their officers not to wear the their uniforms to avoid verbal attacks, or worse.

More than nine million Americans — many if not a majority of them draftees — served honorably in defense of the nation in the almost twenty years in which the nation was mired in Vietnam, from November, 1955, to April 30, 1975, when Saigon in South Vietnam fell to the communists of North Vietnam led by Ho Chi Minh.

More than 58,000 thousand American troops gave their lives in the Vietnam War. More than 300,000 were wounded. No matter their personal views of the war, they responded when the country called them to serve.  In fact and in truth: “All gave some, some gave all.”

Further, it must not be forgotten that while those veterans of Vietnam served —no matter what their personal view might be of the war—so did their families serve, and suffer, in all the nine million Blue Star families who had a loved one in service, and especially the Gold Star families who had a loved one killed in service.

While the  modern liberal media is likely to ignore or minimize the importance of Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day, it should not be ignored by a grateful nation.

There will be many observances, especially by veterans, at posts of the American Legion, VFW, and other veterans organizations, which welcome the participation of non-veterans in honoring all who honorably served. Go, welcome the Vietnam Veterans home, and be welcomed by them.

© 2023 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

by Rees Lloyd

By Attorney Rees Lloyd

March 2, 2023

A modern tale of two cities—Kiev, Ukraine; and Palestine, OH — raises the question: In 2023, have American citizens  become First? Or, Last?

First, the current American President, Democrat Joe Biden, with great media fanfare, has flown to Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.  In a staged appearance with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — which included faked air raid sirens blaring as cameras rolled without any air raid — Biden announced to the world that America, which has already given the Ukraine government over $100-Billion in aid, will provide the Ukraine with another $100-Billion. Further, Biden pledged America will continue to provide more aid “as needed” and as “long as it takes” for the Ukraine to defeat Russia in the war over their common border.

After Biden’s announcement, members of his cabinet and the federal bureaucracy also appeared in the Ukraine to affirm, publicly, covered by the media,  Biden’s pledge of more billions to the Ukraine —without an audit of how the funds are used—for “as long as it takes.”

This financial aid without limits, without duration, and without  accounting, includes American taxpayers  — many of whom have no pensions — paying the salaries and pensions of Ukrainian politicians holding office, and Ukrainians employed in the Ukrainian bureaucracy, or on pensions from government positions, for “as long as it takes.”

Meanwhile, in America, disaster struck the small, blue-collar city of Palestine , OH, when a railroad train de-railing released unknown quantities of toxic chemicals, which were then deliberately set on fire to burn off the dangerous chemicals.

Palestine, OH, unlike the Ukrainian capital in Kiev,  is a small city of some 5,000, mostly “blue collar” Americans. It is a very poor city, its former industry having left the area some time ago and moved on. Their water, and their land, have been polluted with toxic chemicals related in the train wreck.  It is unknown how much danger is presented, and whether there will be long term effects which may not be known for years. They fear, most of all, for their children.

Those 5,000 or so basically blue collar, basically white,  Americans, from the very moment of that rail disaster, have been in desperate need of Federal Government help, as they were enveloped by air and water contamination from the fires. They are one of the many small American villages, towns, and cities that have only a “volunteer” Fire Department. They also do not have the resources to know what the dangers were and are of the toxic chemicals released by the train wreck, and the burn-off. Many if not most do not have the financial ability to move elsewhere.

But they, the Americans of Palestine, OH, found themselves treated like an irritating nuisance by the Federal Government in the Biden regime. President Joe Biden, who flew tens of thousands of miles to strut before the cameras with Zelensky in Ukraine,   did not take action to assist the people of Palestine, let alone travel the relatively short distance to make an appearance in Palestine to help them, provide assurances to them, and evidence concern and determination to stand by them in this disaster.

FEMA, the federal agency to assist Americans in disasters, told the city leaders that Palestine “did not qualify” for FEMA assistance. Although Biden now claims that his Environmental Protection Agency acted within “two hours” to contact the people in Palestine, in fact, the EPA, FEMA, and the Federal bureaucracy, provided almost no help— until former President Donald J. Trump announced he would be going to Palestine to help as he could.

Until President Trump acted, no Biden regime cabinet members or Department leaders,  acted to go to Palestine to help. Only when President Trump acted, did the Federal political office holders, appointees, and bureaucrats, announce that, oh, yes, they were going to help Palestine. FEMA, after some two weeks of claiming the city didn’t qualify for help, and doing nothing, suddenly found, after President Trump’s announcement of his intent to go to Palestine, that the City did qualify.

Thus, we have a tale of two cities: The city in Ukraine, Kiev, which now has a guarantee of unlimited funding by American taxpayers for “as long as it takes,”  from a President who personally traveled to the Ukraine to grandstand as he dispensed American taxpayer funds in the billions with no accounting; and the other city, the American city, of Palestine, OH, treated like an annoying nuisance.

It is a disgusting tale of “America last”  in this era of progressive  liberal elitists in Washington, DC, who hold working class, white, blue collar Americans, in contempt.

Americans need to rise up to demand that Americans come first, not last. Americans should and must  demand that not another dollar should go to the Ukraine without an accounting of every dime flowing to that nation—which has long been regarded as the “third most corrupt country in the world.”

Further, it is utter farce — manifest liberal political  and intellectual flatulence — for Biden, and the politicians and media who profit from propagandizing for him, to assert that  American taxpayers  must provide unlimited funds for “as long it takes” to the Ukraine, without any accounting —  in order to “defend democracy.”

The Ukraine, under Zelensky, the former actor and comedian who will play any role if it makes money for himself and the other Ukrainian elite,   is the farthest thing from a democracy.

Among other things, the Zelensky government in the Ukraine has now outlawed all other political parties. Zelensky has shut down all media the government does not control. Zelensky has outlawed the ancient Russian Orthodox Church— and Zelensky, who is Jewish, is actually arresting Christian Priests and Nuns.

That is the “democracy” of Ukraine under Zelensky, which Washington, D.C., under the present Biden regime is causing American taxpayers to fund “for as long as it takes.” It is not defense of “democracy.” It is a disgrace.

© 2023 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

by Rees Lloyd, Attorney

February 15, 2023

February 15, 2023 is the 50th anniversary of a shining moment in American history: It was on that day in 1973 that American prisoners of war began the repatriation process that would finally bring them home from Vietnam with their honor intact.

They had suffered unspeakably harsh treatment and depravation, many  for over five, six, or seven years—and two for nearly nine years.  The abuses and torture of American POWs  were applied by the North Vietnamese  communists, and their leader, Communist Ho Chi Minh.

It was a day of great importance in 1973, in an America divided by the war in Vietnam. And, it is a day to remember all these years later in an even more divided America. It is important for what it teaches about duty, honor, sacrifice and country.  It is about who we are and what we can be.

The Vietnam War had severely divided Americans. It was and remains the first time in American history that veterans came home from war not to be honored for their service and sacrifice, but to be vilified, defamed as “war criminals,” told by their military commanders not to wear their uniforms in traveling home, many even spat upon as they arrived home at airports, train or bus stations.

Our younger generations need to realize how our valiant POW’s were vilified by Progressive Liberal Democrats and celebrities like actress Jane Fonda; her Leftist husband Tom Hayden—a founder of Students For A Democratic Society (“SDS”); the “Prairie Fire” communist domestic terrorist bombers like Bill Ayers (a multi-millionaire’s son) and his wife, Bernadine Dorn (a wealthy lawyer’s daughter) ; and self-promoting Democrat political opportunists like John Kerry, who publicly accused American troops of war crimes in Congressional testimony without ever being able to offer any proof. Kerry, once Democrat Party nominee for the Presidency, was thoroughly exposed as an utter and contemptible self-promoting liar by the book “Unfit For Command,” but remains to this day a leader in the Democrat Party.

These Leftist, Progressive Liberal Democrats, Socialists, Communists, Anarchists, and Communist supporting Democrats, publicly, viciously, and blatantly falsely denounced the POWs as “liars” in claiming “torture.” They insisted that Ho Chi Minh was but a benevolent nationalist Vietnamese patriot who would not engage in torture.

Only after the war was the overwhelming evidence acknowledged that Ho Chi Minh was in fact a dedicated Communist dictator who was in fact responsible for, and had personally ordered, the torture of POWs. Violating basic tenets of international rules for treatment of POWs, Ho refused to follow the Geneva Accords. Today, those facts are indisputable.

Most of the American prisoners of war were American pilots.  The very first pilot captured was Lt(jg) [later Commander 0-5] Everett Alvarez, Jr., of Salinas, CA. He was shot down on August 5, 1964, and was held captive of the Communists for over eight years, until February 12, 1973, when  Operation Homecoming began.

The only American to serve longer than Everett Alvarez as a POW was Army Green Beret, Colonel Floyd James (“Jim”), Thompson. He was an enlisted man who became a Special Forces officer. He was captured on March 26, 1964. He remained a captive until March, 1973, only ten days short of nine years as a POW — years in which he suffered almost unbelievable torture.

There were 776  Americans taken prisoner of war; 114 of them died in Communist captivity.  The Communists under Ho Chi Minh refused to recognize them as Prisoners of War. Instead, the Communists declared them to be “war criminals” and blatantly violated the Geneva Convention. In what became known by the POWs as the “Hanoi Hilton,” and like prisons, the POWs were kept in filthy, windowless, vermin-infested, airless cells, and suffered excruciating torture.

Those seen as “ringleaders” of the resistance, like ranking officers of the resisters in what became known as the “Alcatraz Eleven,” James Stockdale, who would later receive the Medal of Honor, and his second in command, Jeremiah Denton, who received the Navy Cross, would be locked in solitary confinement for over four long years, in which horrific torture was inflicted on them, and the other resisters.

The fact of torture was not confirmed until 1966. Then, the Communists attempted to force Jeremiah Denton to participate in a propaganda broadcast to be filmed by a Japanese crew for international distribution.

Instead, Denton not only did not say what the Communists wanted him to say, but he blinked his eyes as if he had an eye problem. He was in fact blinking in Morse Code: “T-O-R-T-U-R-E.” Naval intelligence immediately understood what Denton was communicating.  When the Communists later realized what Denton had done, they tortured him nearly to death, as he recounts in his now classic book on what POWs endured: “When Hell Was In Session.” (WND Books)

Overwhelming post-war proof of torture beyond any reasonable doubt has given the lie to torture-deniers Fonda, Hayden, Kerry, et al.  Accounts of torture are related in the many books by or about the POWs. These include,

“POW,” by John Hubbell, the first extensive history of the POWs in Vietnam; “Honor Bound,” the seminal tome of facts by Stuart Rochester and Frederick Kiley; the late Admiral Jeremiah Denton’s classic “When Hell Was In Session;”  “Surviving Hell,” by the late Col. Leo Thorsness (USAF, ret.; Medal of Honor); “The Passing Of The Night,” by the late Colonel Robinson Risner (USAF); “American Patriot,” the biography of the late and legendary  POW and Air Force combat pilot Colonel Bud Day, a hero in three wars (WWII, Korea, Vietnam), and Medal of Honor recipient  who was the most decorated veteran of his era; “Chained Eagle,” by Everett Alvarez, Jr., who, as stated above, was the first pilot shot down, a POW for almost nine years;

And, among other books, “Faith of my Fathers,” by the late Sen. John McCain— who refused an offer of early release by the Communists because his father was the Commanding Admiral, and suffered horrendous torture for his refusal.  Whatever thoughts may be today regarding McCain’s actions as a U.S. Senator, McCain was a true hero as a POW; was recognized as such by his fellow POWs; and was left permanently crippled in his arms by torture.

More recently, author Alvin Townley has written a book magnificently telling the true story of the torture POW’s endured in Vietnam, and what  their families endured at home: “DEFIANT: The POWs Who Endured Vietnam’s Most Infamous Prison; The Women Who Fought For Them, And The One Who Never Returned.”

It was not until February, 1973, that the breakthrough in Paris peace talks came and Operation Homecoming began. The first flight of emancipated POWs out of Vietnam to Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines was on Feb. 12, 1973. At Clark, the elected spokesman for the POWs, then-Captain Jeremiah Denton, in military uniform, stepped to the microphone, and spoke in short stroke words which began the stirring of the heart of a divided nation:

“We are honored to have had the opportunity to serve our country under difficult circumstances. We are profoundly grateful to our Commander-in-Chief and to our nation for this day. God Bless America.”

Then came that shining moment three days later on February 15, 1973, when Denton, Jim Mulligan, and the others of the first group of POWs landed at the Portsmouth Naval base in Virginia, back on American soil. Their wives and children rushed to embrace them, as, to the POWs surprise, a huge crowd of Americans roared with cheers for them, waving flags, laughing, some weeping with joyful emotion, Americans at last embracing the Americans they sent to war, welcoming them home — as all Vietnam veterans should have been welcomed.

Many of the Vietnam POWs are no longer with us, including  Vice Admiral James Stockdale, Rear Admiral Jeremiah Denton, Col. Bud Day, and many others. But their example is with us challenging us to great accomplishments.

One of those exemplars, though he humbly eschews special recognition, is Lt. Col. Orson Swindle, a much decorated retired Marine combat pilot who flew over 200 combat missions. He was shot down on November 11, 1966, on his 205th and last scheduled mission. He endured six years and four months of torture at the hands of the North Vietnamese Communists who targeted him as one of the worst of the “resisters.”  At home, he continued to serve in the Marine Corps until retirement. As a civilian, he held several high positions in the Reagan administration. In an interview, Lt.Col. Swindle expressed why he believes it is important now to remember what the POW’s did then. He said:

“I think it is very important to remember and honor the service and sacrifice of the Vietnam War POWs because our democracy depends on our people doing the right thing. The Vietnam POWs did that, in the face of great adversity. We held on for five, six, seven, and even eight years of torture. We did the right thing. We just said ‘No!’

“We knew our country isn’t perfect. But, even knowing the warts and all, our country  has offered all people more freedom, and more opportunity than any country ever, and is still, the greatest nation on earth. Deserving of our support, our sacrifice, even our love. That  is why we did what we did.

“In the interrogations, in which we were often beaten, abused, or tortured, it would have been so easy to escape punishment by saying what the Communists wanted to hear. But, we said ‘No.’ We often got beaten up, but we said ‘No.’

“I was, I believe, POW Number 144. Ultimately, there would be over 700. I learned so much from those who came before me. They were remarkable leaders who set the example. Men like [Admiral] James Stockdale [Medal of Honor recipient]  and [Rear Admiral] Jeremiah Denton [Navy Cross recipient], and Bud Day [as stated above, legendary Air Force combat pilot, Medal of Honor recipient, hero in three wars —WWII, Korea, and Vietnam—and considered the most decorated veteran of his era]. They and the other POWs who followed them ought to be remembered, honored, and followed.

“Following their example, we suffered, but we wouldn’t surrender, through years of abuse, beatings, and torture. We would just say—‘No!’ And we did that time after time.

“I confess that I am greatly concerned about what is happening in our country today. No one seems to be held accountable. We have a debacle in Afghanistan in which Americans were left behind. We have an invasion at our southern border. We have rising inflation. We have crime escalating all across the country. We have mandates telling us we can’t leave our homes, or enter restaurants without masks, or go to church. We have had hundreds of violent riots, looting, burning, police being injured. There is one crisis after another. We are being lied to repeatedly. But, no one is being held accountable. I am afraid if we don’t wake up and stand up against this, and against so-called “Woke” culture, we are not going to have a country.

“So, I believe,” Lt. Col. Swindle concluded, “citizens need to do today what the POWs did even in the face of terrible torture—do the right thing, and just say ‘No’!”

Amen. May the God the POWs served bless and keep them; may the country for which the POWs served and sacrificed so courageously and honorably always remember and honor them—and their families, who also suffered.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER

© 2023 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

by Rees Lloyd

January 31, 2023

“Four Chaplains Day” is to be observed annually on February 3 in America by the unanimous resolution of the U.S. Congress in 1988. It is a day to remember February 3, 1943, when one of the most remarkable and inspiring acts of heroism in the history of warfare took place in World War II. It is a day to honor the heroism of the Four Chaplains, who selflessly gave their lives “that others may live.”

However, although veterans in The American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and other veterans organizations, will hold special observances on Four Chaplains Day and weekend, most American media, most American schools, and, therefore, most Americans, will not observe it.

Indeed, most Americans, including children who will not be taught about it in their schools, will not even know that there is a National Four Chaplains day, or why. This is true even though a former soldier who owed his life to them has said: “[T]heir heroism is beyond belief. That is one of the reasons why we must tell the world what these people did.”

FEB. 3, 1943: THE TROOP SHIP “DORCHESTER” IS TORPEDOED IN WWII

On February 3, 1943, the Dorchester, a converted luxury cruise ship, was transporting Army troops to Geenland, escorted by three Coast Guard Cutters and accompanied by two slow moving freighters.

On board were some 900 troops, and four chaplains, of diverse religions and backgrounds, but of a common faith and commitment to serve God, country, and all the troops, regardless of their religious beliefs, or non-belief. The four Chaplains are:

Rev. George Fox (Methodist); Father John Washington (Roman Catholic); Jewish Rabbi Alexander Goode; and Rev. Clark Poling (Dutch Reformed).

At approximately 12:55 a.m., in the dead of a freezing night, the Dorchester was hit by a torpedo fired by German U-boat 233 in an area so infested with German submarines it was known as “Torpedo Junction.”

The blast ripped a hole in the ship from below the waterline to the top deck. The engine room was instantly flooded. Crewmen, who were not scalded to death by steam escaping from broken pipes and the ship’s boiler, were drowned. Hundreds of troops in the flooded lower compartments were drowned, or washed out to the frigid waters, where most would die.

In less than a minute, the Dorchester listed on a 30-degree angle. Troops on deck searched for life jackets in panic, clung to rails and other handholds, saw overloaded life boats overturn in the turgid water, leaped overboard as a last desperate hope for life. Many with life jackets drowned when the life preservers became waterlogged.

Of the 900 troops and crew on board, two-thirds would ultimately die; most of those who survived, had lifelong infirmities and pain from their time in the icy waters.

Dorchester survivors told of the wild pandemonium on board when it was hit and began sinking. Many men had not slept in their clothes and life vests as ordered because of the heat in the crowded quarters below. There was panic, fear, terror; death was no abstraction but real, immediate, seemingly inescapable.

THE FOUR CHAPLAINS SACRIFICE THEIR LIVES TO SAVE OTHERS

The four Chaplains acted together to try to bring some order to the chaos, to calm the panic of the troops, to alleviate their fear and terror, to pray with and for them, to help save their lives. The Chaplains passed out life jackets, helping those too panicked to put them on correctly — until the awful moment arrived when there were no more life jackets to be given out.

It was then that a most remarkable act of heroism, courage, faith, and love took place: Each of the four Chaplains took off his life jacket, and, knowing that act made death certain, put his life jacket on a young soldier who didn’t have one, refusing to listen to any protest that they should not make such a sacrifice.

They continued to help the troops until the last moment. Then, as the ship sank into the raging sea, the four Chaplains linked hands and arms, and could be seen and heard by the survivors praying together, even singing hymns, joined together in faith, love, and unity, as they sacrificed their lives so “that others might live.”

The few survivors testified to the selfless act of the four Chaplains:

“The ship started sinking and as I left the ship, I looked back and saw the chaplains with their hands clasped, praying for the boys. They never made any attempt to save themselves, but they did try to save the others. I think their names should be on the list of  ‘The Greatest Heroes’ of this war”,” testified survivor Grady L. Clark.

“They took off their life belts and gave them to soldiers who had none. The last I saw of them, they were still praying, talking, and preaching to the soldiers,” attested Thomas W. Myers, Jr.

“It is impressed clearly in my mind that these chaplains demonstrated unsurpassed courage and heroism when they willingly gave their life belts to four enlisted men, who, because of the utter confusion and disorder brought about by the torpedoing, had become hysterical. They helped save the lives of many of the troops,” testified John F. Garey.

These testimonies, taken from author Dan Kurzman’s valuable book, “No Greater Glory: The Four Immortal Chaplains and the Sinking of the Dorchester in World War II,” are but some of the sworn statements of grateful survivors upon which Congress awarded the Four Chaplains an unprecedented “Congressional Medal of Valor” in 1961.

Earlier, in 1944, they were awarded Purple Hearts and the Distinguished Service Cross. They did not receive the Medal of Honor because of restrictions limiting that medal to combatants. In 2004, delegates to The American Legion National Convention, then representing some 2.7-million wartime veterans, voted to support making an exception and awarding the Medal of Honor to the Four Chaplains.

Ben Epstein, a Jewish survivor who often spoke to audiences about the Four Chaplains, was quoted by author Kurzman as describing the meaning of their sacrifice by putting a question to himself, and, thereby, to all other Americans:

“I ask myself, could I do it? Take my life preserver and give it to someone else? Absolutely not. I don’t think I could do it. I didn’t do it. And I ask you in the audience, how many of you could do it? And I don’t want an answer. That’s why I say their bravery; their heroism is beyond belief. That is one of the reasons why we must tell the world what these people did.”

AMERICA’S MOST DECORATED LIVING VETERAN, MAJ. GEN. PATRICK BRADY: “I WILL ALWAYS BE IN AWE OF THEM, THE FOUR CHAPLAINS.”

One American who knows something about courage in war and who honors the Four Chaplains is Maj.Gen. Patrick H. Brady (USA, ret.). A recipient of the Medal of Honor in the Vietnam War as a “Dust Off” medical evacuation combat helicopter pilot, Gen. Brady is credited with saving some 5,000 wounded soldiers from combat zones, flying where no one had flown before to save the wounded as battle raged. (See his book: “Dead Men Flying: Victory in Viet Nam—The legend of Dust-off: America’s Battlefield Angeles”)

For his bravery in combat, Gen. Brady is considered today to be the most decorated living American veteran. But he defers to the Four Chaplains when it comes to bravery.

“The heroism of the Four Chaplains, their courage, is of  a different order,” Gen. Brady explained to me in an interview.

“I, and others who have received the Medal of Honor and other decorations for bravery, did what we did in the heat of battle. That is one kind of courage,” Gen. Brady said.

“But what the Four Chaplains did was deliberate, thought out, willed. I fought in combat knowing I might die, but not wanting to die. They had the extraordinary, different kind of courage and heroism to do what they were doing knowing it meant death was certain—and they went ahead did it. They deliberately sacrificed  their lives so others, those young troops, might live.

“I will always be in awe of them, the Four Chaplains,” Gen. Brady concluded.

THE ETERNAL VALUE OF THE EXAMPLE OF THE FOUR CHAPLAINS

At the dedication of the Chapel of the Four Chaplains in 1951, then-President Harry Truman said their sacrifice reflected the fact that: “[T]he unity of our country is a unity under God.…This interfaith shrine will stand through long generations to teach Americans that as men can die heroically as brothers, so should they live together in mutual faith and good will.”

Those are inspiring words, and truths. They will stir the hearts of patriots and  especially veterans who know what it means to serve as they gather in their American Legion, VFW, and other veterans’ Posts to honor the Four Chaplains, hopefully joined by other members of their communities.

But a question is raised on this Four Chaplains Day, Feb. 3, 2023: Do Americans of this era, in government, in the media, in the public schools as teachers or administrators, still believe in those truths?  Will Americans  express that belief by honoring the Four Chaplains as once the American nation did?

On Four Chaplains Day, Feb. 3, 2023— the 80th anniversary of the day in which the Four Chaplains sacrificed their lives “so that others may live.” —will the media again fail to report on it, and the schools fail to teach it, and Americans, in the main, fail to observe it?

May God bless and keep the Four Chaplains, and may the America they so selflessly, patriotically, and faithfully served, always remember and honor them, and be willing to emulate them.

© 2023 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

by Rees Lloyd

December 7, 2022

December 7, 2022 ,Pearl Harbor Day, marks the 81st anniversary of the Japanese air attack on U.S. naval and air installations at Pearl Harbor, HI, at 7:53 a.m., Dec. 7, 1941 — without a declaration of war.

It was then the worst attack on American soil in history: Some 2,403 died, 2008 of them Navy personnel; another 1,178 were wounded

Eighteen Navy ships, including the U.S.S. Arizona, were sunk or damaged. Almost all the planes at the island bases were destroyed or damaged while still on the ground.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt memorably called December 7, 1941, “a day which will live in infamy” in his dramatic speech to Congress, which then declared war on Japan.

Only the sneak attack on America by radical Islamic terrorists on 9-11-2001 in New York resulted in more deaths. But for many Americans of this generation — and millions of immigrants, legal and illegal — the meaning, the significance of Pearl Harbor, is not fully known, or appreciated.

One American for whom the Patriot Harbor attack did “live in infamy” for all of his long, productive, and patriotic  100-year life,  was  Pearl Harbor survivor Shelby John (“S.J.”) Hemker of Banning, California. Although he has now gone to God, his story reveals the nature of those Americans who  served at Pearl Harbor; indeed, his story reveals the nature of America— then.

Shelby John (“SJ”) Hemker, a poor “country boy” whose childhood was the Great Depression, joined the Navy at 17. He was at Pearl Harbor near the end of his first four-year tour of duty when the Japanese attacked. He survived that horror, and went on to be a three-war combat Navy veteran — WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. After retirement from the Navy, he continued to serve America in peacetime as a life member of The American Legion.

Hemker, by his giving, patriotic life of service to God and country  in war and in peace,  was an exemplar of the Greatest Generation of WWII. Beloved by his comrade wartime veterans and his community, S.J. Hemker was honored by both on January 10, 2019, at a celebration of his 100th Birthday.

Representatives of the linked San Gorgonio Pass cities of Banning and Beaumont in Riverside County, CA, presented him with Proclamations honoring him. Commendations were presented by his American Legion Post 428 and other Posts, and veterans organizations from as far away as Patriot Outreach based in Kansas.

Many  words were spoken there about Pearl Harbor, its horror, and its meaning, then and now. The most poignant of those words were those of S.J. Hemker, himself, in a remembrance of Pearl Habor, and of what it should mean, in an earlier interview with me.  It was my honor to read those words of S.H. Hemker about Pearl Harbor at the celebration of his life, and is an honor to publish his own words here on www.NewsWithViews.com:

“Ordinarily, we would have been at sea, We were at Pearl Harbor because we had to repair an engine that had been sabotaged at the shipyard back in California. I was up on the fantail of our ship, the USS New Orleans, a heavy cruiser, with the Chief Master at Arms. The Quartermaster was there, getting ready to raise the flag,” S.J. Hemker recalled.

“It was 7:53 a.m. when we saw the Japanese planes. They were flying so low I could see the pilots’ faces in the cockpit. They were grinning at us as they went down toward Battle Ship Row. Grinning at me and the Chief. They were so close, you could have thrown something at them and hit them. A potato, maybe. They were that close. Just skimming the top of the water. Torpedo planes. The pilots grinning at us,” Hemker reluctantly, but vividly recalled.

“The loudspeakers blared: ‘Man your battle stations – the Japs are attacking’. All hell broke loose… It was terrible, horrible, …,” he said, pausing in his remembrance.

“I spent the next eight hours down in the magazine loading for our five-inch anti-aircraft guns. We fired everything. If we had been hit, that would have been it for us in the magazine. We would have been blown up. We had a big crane over the top of our ship. I think that’s what saved us,” he stated matter-of-factly as to his own circumstance, then somberly related:

“The Arizona capsized. Thirteen hundred men went down with her. Half the guys I was with in boot camp died on the Arizona. That’s where the Memorial is today. They say that oil still leaks out every day. Those guys…they’re still down there,” Hemker said quietly, his voice trailing off, as if physically turning away from a memory, and reality, which was still too painful to talk about.

Getting Hemker to talk about it at all was no easy task. Like many of his fellow World War II veterans, he didn’t talk about his war experiences, never expected any thanks or gratitude, and never, ever boasted about it, despite the fact that after Pearl Harbor he served America in battles and combat zones for the duration of WWII, in the Korean War, and in Vietnam.

Hempker, a widower, roguishly handsome into his 90’s and possessed of a sly sense of humor, for years charmed the ladies in the American Legion Auxiliary with his country gallantry. He was universally admired by his comrade veterans in the American Legion. “I’m not able to do what I used to do, but I do what I can,” he said.

Hemker’s beloved wife died more than 30 years earlier. For the last thirteen years of her life, Hemker’s wife was bedridden, unable to perform the most basic of everyday tasks of life, totally dependent. It says a great deal about the kind of man S.J. Hemker was, that for all of those thirteen years Hemker cared for her, saw to her every need, lovingly dedicated his life to her care, until her death did them part.

Hemker had four sons. All four,  like their father, are veterans who served in the Vietnam war. Hemker had no biological daughter. But, in his declining years, he had for more than fifteen years lived in his own room in the home of a loving “daughter-in-fact” if not of biology, Sue McConnell, and her husband,

No daughter has rendered more loving care to a father than had Sue McConnell to S.J. Hemker.

“I call him my ‘Dad’ because he is that to me. I couldn’t love him more,”  Sue,told me. She had known Hemker for thirty-seven years, during which she had often risen up in fury when the VA had not done its duty “to this great man, this hero, my Dad.”

Reflecting on Pearl Harbor seventy-seven years after surviving it, Hemker, who had lost his eyesight,  but not his vision for America, observed.

“We Americans should never forget. If we forget our past and those who died, we won’t have a future. A free one, anyway. Look at what happened on 9-11. More people were killed on that day than were killed at Pearl Harbor. It can happen again,” he warned.

“I don’t think people remember Pearl Harbor and what it means, the way they used to do,” Hemker concluded. “That’s too bad. A lot of us can’t forget. An awful lot of really good people died to keep America free. They shouldn’t be forgotten.”

These are the last words of S.J. Hemker, veteran and self-described “ordinary American…just a common man,”  about the attack on Pearl Harbor,  that “day of infamy” on Dec. 7, 1941;  about those who died in it;  and about those who survived it and continued to serve until victory in WWII, preserving our American freedom.

Hemker, sad to say, is no longer with us. Although reaching his 100th Birthday on January 10, 2019, Hemker later in the year “transferred to Post Everlasting,” as we, his American Legion comrades, say.

Although S.J. Hemker may no longer be with us physically, he can be and should be with us spiritually—the spirit of patriotic love of  country and service in its defense that he exemplified, as did and do so many others of the WWII Greatest Generation. Neither his life nor his words should be forgotten, if, as he warns, we Americans are to remain free.

May the God that S.J. Hemker served so faithfully bless and keep him. May the country he served so faithfully for all of his 100 years on earth, always honor and remember him.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER!

© 2022 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

By Rees Lloyd

November 11, 2022

“The cost of war is in two parts: The cost of the battle itself, which is immediate; and the cost of care for those sent to fight the battle. Since most of those fighting the battle are young, that cost can continue for sixty years, or even longer. But when the country needs veterans, it gets veterans; when it feels it no longer needs veterans, it forgets veterans.”

These are the poignant words of a now deceased 100% disabled combat veteran of the Vietnam War generation.  The truth of his words should long survive him, and should be remembered not only on this Veterans Day, November 11,  2022, but every day — if we Americans are to “keep faith” with all those veterans who have served and sacrificed in defense of American freedom.

Maj. Gen. Patrick H. Brady (USA, ret.), a recipient of the Medal of Honor for his heroism in the Vietnam War who is regarded as America’s most decorated living veteran, has written in tribute to America’s veterans:  “America, under our Constitution, has no hereditary class of ‘nobility.’ America’s nobles are her veterans.”

There are an estimated more than 18-million living American veterans. It has rightly been said of them, and of all Veterans who have served in defense of freedom, including those serving now:  “All gave some, some gave all.”

As to giving “all,” over 1.4-million veterans have given their lives in all the wars in defense of American freedom. Many thousands are still “Missing in Action.” Many millions more have survived but suffered devastating wounds lasting their entire lives. In the modern era, many veterans are surviving wounds that would have been fatal in earlier wars due to advances in medical care. They will need continuing care for decades, long after the close of wars in which they served.

It is they who must not be forgotten when actual war recedes; it is they with whom Americans must “keep faith.” Patriotic warriors for freedom were mostly young when wounded.  They will need continuing care, even when the attention of  political office holders and Americans generally tends to shove them out of sight and out of mind as other problems take the center of attention.

There are over 9-million of those veterans who are receiving medical care today through the Veterans Administration hospitals and medical facilities for the wounds of war—physical, mental, and emotional. They are survivors from WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, the War Against Terror in the Middle East,  including combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. They all deserve, and must receive, the medical care they were promised by the nation that they would receive for their military service.

But that will require that the Americans whose freedom was purchased by the service of veterans must “keep faith” with America’s veterans.

It has generally been thought among veterans that the medical care provided by doctors and nurses of the VA is good —  “if you can get it.” Too often, that needed care has been delayed, and thereby denied.

For years, there have been  stories of long waits to actually see a physician—waits sometimes so long that veterans have died waiting.  There  also have been horror stories of mistreatment of veterans by career bureaucrat administrators at the VA, including deliberate falsification of records to hide the bureaucrats’ failures. Regarding those abuses, it was until recently all but impossible to remove the VA bureaucrats responsible for the problems.

Thanks to reforms initiated and fought for by former President Donald J. Trump in his first term starting in 2016, long waits have been cut down by allowing veterans “freedom to choose” to seek help from private physicians when the VA is unable to provide timely help.

The Trump reforms include the ability to terminate those VA bureaucrats and employees who fail to properly serve the veterans. Several thousand VA bureaucrats and other VA employees  were reportedly fired  during the Trump administration for abuses. The result has been that President Trump received  an approval rating among veterans being served by VA of an astonishing “91%.”

Veterans need the vigilance and support of Americans to ensure that the promises made to veterans for their service are fulfilled.

The late General Norman (“Stormin’ Norman”) Schwarzkopf, who led the victory in Desert Storm which brought down the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq, famously said: “Some things are worth living for. Some things are worth dying for. One of those things is freedom.”

America’s veterans are those men and women who took an oath to “defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Every single one of them took that oath and entered military service knowing that they might be required to die, or suffer horrible wounds, in defense of freedom. Yet, they served. As noted, some 1.4-million American veterans have died in defense of our freedom. Countless millions suffered the wounds of war, many lasting a lifetime. Those veterans need the vigilance and support of Americans to ensure that the promises made to veterans for their service are fulfilled.

There can be no doubt that we of this generation of Americans owe a great debt to America’s veterans who preserved and protected our freedom by their service—including all those veterans who are serving now.

We pay our debt to those who have served, in part, by remembering, honoring, and “keeping  faith” with veterans by insuring that the promises made to them are kept.

This Veterans Day 2022, we Americans would do well to honor veterans and reflect on just what Veterans Day means.

Veterans Day was originally “Armistice Day,” honoring WWI veterans. Congress later amended it to “Veterans Day” to honor all veterans.  Veterans Day observances traditionally commence at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year, the anniversary of the date and time of the signing of the Armistice ending combat in World War I on November 11, 1918.

WWI was a horrible war of slaughter: There were over over 10-million casualties. It began in 1914. The first of some 4-million Americans who would serve in —and win that war — began arriving in France in June, 1917, when it looked as if Germany would be victorious.

The first Americans to die were three soldiers who were killed in combat on Nov. 3, 1917. By the time the Armistice was signed a year later, on Nov. 11, 1918, some 117,000 Americans — almost 10,000 per month of combat—had given their lives in service.

The horror of WWI, presented side-by-side with the sacrifices of those Americans and allied forces who served, fought, and died — and the need for us to “keep the faith” with those who served —is expressed most profoundly by the poem, “Flanders Fields.” It is perhaps the most moving poem ever written about war, and sacrifice,  honor, and the need for those who live not to “break faith” with those who served, were wounded, or died for freedom.

“Flanders Fields”  was written by then-Major John McCrae, MD, a surgeon in the Canadian Army who was born in 1872 and would die in 1918, the year that terrible war ended. Dr. McCrae wrote the poem in the devastation of the battle of Ypres in WWI, days after his best comrade had been killed. His words reach across more than a century to bring home the reality of all the wars, and the need to “keep faith” with those who served.

On Veterans Day 2022, may God bless all the veterans who have served in defense of our freedom in all the wars. And may the country whose freedom they preserved honor them on Veterans Day and on every day. They kept the faith with us; and, as expressed in the haunting words of “Flanders Field,” we must not “break faith” with them.

IN FLANDERS FIELDS

By Lt. Col. John McCrae, Army of Canada, WWI

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow,
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be it yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Field.

© 2022 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

by Rees Lloyd

September 16, 2022

By Act of Congress in 1979, the third Friday of September, while not a national holiday, is observed annually as “POW-MIA RECOGNITION DAY.” Its purpose is to remember and honor all those veterans who suffered as prisoners of war, and all those many thousands who were and are still missing in action.

POW-MIA Recognition Day 2022 is Friday, September 16. There will be observances all across the country at military installations, state and national governmental facilities, and by veterans organizations including many of the more than 12,000 Posts of The American Legion (see www.Legion.org), Veterans of Foreign Wars (www.VFW.org), and other veterans service organizations, as well as at other patriotic organizations.

Perhaps most poignantly, many of the observances will include members of the National League of POW-MIA Families (www.powmiafamilies.org), which will have its own observances as well.

For them, the families, the wars have never ended. Their grief has never ended. The pain has never ended of not knowing what ultimately happened to their beloved family members who went off to serve in defense of the nation, and are still missing in action, their actual fates endlessly wondered about, but unknown.

It is because of the efforts of the National League of POW-MIA Families that, by act of Congress, the now famous POW-MIA Flag —which they created — will fly right below our American Flag on National POW-MIA Recognition Day. It is the only flag which is allowed to be on the same standard as our national Flag. Congress acted in 1988 to allow the POW-MIA Flag to be so flown also on Independence Day (Fourth of July); Veterans Day; Memorial Day; Armed Forces Day, and Flag Day).

Many Americans if not most — and certainly most immigrants, legal and illegal — are unaware of how many other Americans have suffered as POWs, or were or still are missing in action, as a result of serving to preserve American freedom.

For one reason, many if not most of the media do not report on National POW-MIA Recognition Day; and almost all if not all government schools, under domination of the liberal teachers union, do not teach the children about it. (For further example, September 17 is “Constitution Day”— celebrating the signing of the American Constitution on September 17, 1787. It  is also virtually ignored by major media, and in government schools.)

Regarding POWs, the Congressional Research Service has determined that: In World War II, 130,201 American military suffered as POW’s, of whom 14,072 died in captivity. In the Korean War, there were 7,140 POWs, of whom 2,701 died while imprisoned. In the Vietnam War, 725 were taken prisoner, 64 of whom died at the hands of their Communist captors from torture or disease. In the Gulf wars since 1991, 37 were taken prisoner; none of whom are still in captivity.

Regarding MIAs, the Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency, reports that some 83,114 Americans are still missing in action from WWII to the present. That is: 73,515 are still missing in action from WWII; from Korea, 7,841 are still missing; 1,626 still missing from the Vietnam War; 126 from the Cold War; and 6 since 1991 in the conflicts in the Middle East.

The Communist dictator Joseph Stalin once infamously observed: “One death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.”

The figures cited above are not “just statistics” for the families of the POWs and MIAs. Nor should they be for us. Each one who suffered or died in captivity, each one who is missing in action—over 80,000 despite the continuing efforts of the U.S. to account for all the missing — is a personal tragedy, a continuing loss, and, continuing grief of families who do not know what actually became of their loved ones who went to war for them, for our country, for us, and never returned, disappeared in action without a trace.

Thus, for their families, there has been no closure. They should not be alone.

On National POW-MIA Recognition Day, we Americans, all of us, have the opportunity to remember and honor all of the POWs and all the MIAs, by participating in one of the many observances, or, if not able to do so, to pause in our busy lives to honor and remember them and to stand with their families in their continuing grief and suffering.

May God bless and keep them all— all the POWs, and all the MIAs, and all their families. May we Americans never forget them and their sacrifices but always remember and honor each and all of them, and their families. (Support the National League of POW-MIA Families at www.powmiafamilies.org).

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER!

© 2022 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

by Rees Lloyd

July 19, 2022

President Joseph Biden began his first days as Commander-in-Chief of America’s armed forces by a disastrous surrender to the Taliban and a disgraceful withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Now, the question must be raised: Is Commander-in-Chief Joseph Biden, who never served a day in defense of America, going to war—against Veterans serving now, and Veterans who have served?

This question is necessitated by at least three of the Biden regime’s policies:

BIDEN REGIME COVID VACCINE MANDATE PUNISHMENTS

First, tens of thousands of active duty military, National Guard, and Reserves, are facing “adverse administrative action,” up to and including “discharge,” for declining to submit to mandatory CCP Covid shots—including on religious objection grounds.

Over 700 Air Force pilots and more than 40,000 members of the Army National Guard and 22,000 reservists, are facing loss of pay or benefits —and possible discharge—for failure to submit to mandatory CCP Covid shots, many of whom have claimed exemption on religious grounds.

The deadline for National Guard members and Reservists to submit to two shots passed on June 30, 2022. The next day, July 1, the Army announced that it would begin enforcing the vaccine mandate, threatening that all those without a pending or  approved exemption would be subject to “adverse administrative actions.”

As of July 1, 13% of the Guard and 12% of the Reserve remained unvaccinated; and over 1,000 active-duty soldiers were purged from the service for failure to take the shots.

Americans who volunteer to defend the nation with their lives do not lose their constitutional rights when entering military service.

A number of lawsuits have been filed across the country alleging that the Biden Covid shots mandate violates the military members’ Constitutional First Amendment right to Free Exercise of Religion, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and the military’s duty to “accommodate” religious claims.

Several courts have issued restraining orders against the Biden policy, and at least two have certified the complaints as “ class actions.”

The first injunction was issued in a case brought for a single Air Force officer in Georgia by the Thomas More Society, which is now seeking class action status.

First Liberty Institute in Texas has achieved a preliminary injunction and class action status in a case brought for Navy SEALS which now protects all serving in the Navy. (U.S. Navy SEALS 1-26 v. Austin).

Another important action is pending in Nebraska, brought by 36 Air Force active duty, National Guard and Reserve, 17 of whom are “pilots” fully and expensively trained to fly the most sophisticated air craft, according to  their attorney, Kris Kobach, General Counsel of the Alliance for Free Citizens. He alleges that despite its duty to accommodate, “the Air force has granted only 17 religious exemption requests, but has denied 4,637 of them.”

The most recent court decision was on July 14, 2022, in the case of Doster vs. Kendall in the Southern District of Ohio. U.S. District Court Judge  Matthew W. McFarland granted a restraining order against Biden’s policy, and certified the case as a class action protecting all Air Force personnel.

In doing so, he made this finding, which appears to be applicable generally to Biden’s policy as Commander-in-Chief:

“The facts show Defendants have engaged in a pattern of denying religious accommodation requests. Indeed, of the over nine thousand religious exemption requests, only 109 have been granted by either initial determination or appeal.…This amounts to only 1% of religious accommodation requests being granted. ‘It is hard to imagine a more consistent display of discrimination.” (Quoting the discrimination finding of the Texas court in U.S. Navy Seals 1-26 v. Austin.”

BIDEN PLAN TO DIVERT VA RESOURCES TO THE BORDER

Second, the Biden administration has been forced to admit that it has been developing a plan to divert Veterans Administration doctors, nurses, other medical personnel, and funds, from providing medical care to Veterans who have defended America, to serving aliens at the southern border who are illegally breaking the immigration laws of America.

Admission that such planning was taking place was reluctantly made by Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary,  Alejandro  Mayorkas, only after persistent questioning by Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) at hearings of the House Appropriates Committee at the end of April.

In response to that revelation, Senate Bill S.4082 to block the diversion of funds and medical personnel from the VA to the border has been filed, sponsored  by Sen. John Boozman (R-AR), joined by ten Senators so far (all Republicans).

Significantly, The American Legion—the nation’s largest veterans’ service  organization — is in support of Senate Bill S.4082,  in order to protect VA resources for Veterans (as  was confirmed to me upon inquiry to the Legion’s Legislative Dept.)

BIDEN REGIME’S ILLEGAL SUSPENSION OF VA BENEFITS

Third, in an outrageous case, the Biden administration has illegally suspended the earned VA benefits of a disabled American veteran solely on the “accusation” that he participated in the Jan 6 protests  in Washington D.C.

Disabled veteran Kenneth Harrelson, and his wife, Angel, received notification from the VA that it was suspending earned VA benefits pursuant to “38 U.S. Code Sec. 38 U.S. Code Sec. 6105 — Forfeiture for subversive activities,” because he had been “indicted” by the Grand Jury apparently in last June.

What makes the VA’s action so outrageous is that 38 U.S. Code Sec. 6105 — expressly states that it authorizes suspension of benefits only after a “conviction” of a veteran, not an accusation, which is what an indictment is.

Further, It must be noted that disabled veteran, Kenneth Harrelson, has been in jail, without trial or right to bail, since being arrested at his home in Florida in March 2021. That is, he has been in jail for almost a year and a half. No “speedy trial.” No bail. And now, illegal suspension of earned VA benefits.

It should be noticed that there is no allegation that Harrelson had personally engaged in any violent conduct against any person  on Jan 6.

I note that because too he estimated 574 violent riots of the self-declared Marxist Black Lives Matter (BLM) and its Marxist allies in Antifa, violent riots which included millions of dollars in damage to personal businesses, and governmental buildings (e.g. burned down police precinct in Minneapolis, attempts to burn down the Federal Court House in Portland, OR), and physical injury to hundreds of police and others, while chanting “burn it down.” As far as is known, there has not been a single prosecution for “Seditious Conspiracy”  of BLM or Antifa members.

The manifestly illegal suspension of VA benefits has hit Kenneth, Angel, and their three kids hard, as they are dependent on Kenneth’s earned VA benefits.He remains incarcerated, denied bail.

Whatever anyone’s position is regarding Jan 6, it is absolutely clear that there is a failure of “equal protection of the law” in this case, manifest discriminatory enforcement of the law, and a clear violation of the rights of the Harrelson.

Notwithstanding, the media has generally ignored this story.

The Patriot Freedom Project has denounced  as outrageous actions of the  DOJ,  the VA, and the Biden regime; and is attempting to assist the family — which they desperately need, and deserve.

© 2022 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

by Attorney Rees Lloyd

July 4, 2022

“The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves… .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 conquer, or die.”

These are the now immortal words of General George Washington in his Order of July 2, 1776, following the vote on that date by the Continental Congress to adopt the American  Declaration of Independence. It was signed by John Hancock on July 2, and would be deemed complete when all delegates had signed on July 4,1776.

The United States of America by that act became the first government in the history of the world to be established by the consent of the governed—“by the people, of the people, for the people.” America is now after its birth on July 4, 1776, 246 years ago, the longest lasting free republic in the world.

The American founders generation went to war against the  English Empire, then the most powerful military force in the world, in order to create their freedom—and ours. Indeed, we Americans of this generation are among those “untold millions” whose future freedom was dependent on the willingness of the founders’ generation to serve and sacrifice their lives in the War of Independence, as General Washington wrote in his July 2, 1776 Order.

Serve and sacrifice they did. Ultimately, 25,000 American patriots would give their lives for freedom. They were citizen soldiers, patriots, who left their farms, jobs, homes, and families, and went to war for freedom. Almost all brought their own  guns from home.

These citizen soldiers, with no formal military training, rose up to fight for freedom  against the greatest military power in the world at the time, the English Empire. English King George III had the best trained, best armed, best equipped, best experienced army and navy in the world. King George III and the English elitists of that era  scoffed at the idea England could be defeated by what they ridiculed as a “ragtag” American army, that was untrained, barely equipped, with no experience, no cavalry, and no navy while England ruled the waves of the world.

The American patriots suffered one disastrous military defeat after another in the months following the July 4th Declaration of Independence. The conditions in which they fought were horrendous. They lacked food, shoes clothes, supplies, medicines, ammunition, medical care. Only a third of the population supported the war; another third was neutral; and the final third—Tories— was actively in support of England,  desiring to remain subjects of King George III rather than free citizens of America.

Yet, the American patriots fought on. The first really significant American victory after the Declaration of Independence came on Christmas Day, December 25,1776, the now famous crossing of the Delaware River in a freezing winter storm led by Gen. George Washington to win the Battle of Trenton.

That victory brought hope and inspiration that the war for freedom could be won. It would take until 1783 for the revolutionary war to be ultimately won with the signing of the treaty of Paris. It was the longest war in our American history until Vietnam.

Freedom was achieved by the American patriots despite all odds. The indispensable American in this victory for liberty was General George Washington, who would not give up. He was universally admired, respected, by the troops, who were inspired by him. He placed himself in danger with the troops countless times in the heart of battle, mounted and visible to the troops and the enemy.  When at war’s end many credited Gen. Washington with being the cause of the victory, he demurred, saying  victory came only by  the intercession of “Providence” or “the hand of God.”

Gen. George Washington later was unanimously elected to preside over the Constitutional Convention,  which created then the  Constitution under which we live now as free Americans.

George Washington would go on to be unanimously elected as the First President of the United States of America. He was unanimously elected to a second four year term. After his second term, George Washington was offered a third term, or to be “President for life,” or even “King.” George Washington refused it all, saying to serve more than two terms as President would be improper. Instead, he relinquished all power and authority, and went home to his farm, content to be a private American citizen.

In walking away from all power and authority, George Washington shocked not only the country, but the world.  Even England’s King George III, whom Washington had defeated, said that George Washington was “the most distinguished of any man living…the greatest character of the age.” Napoleon, who had no doubt of his own eminence, said:  “This great man fought against tyranny; he established the liberty of his country… .George Washington is the greatest man of his era.”

Similarly, at home, George Washington would be universally recognized as “The Father Of Our Country.” Revolutionary War hero Harry “Light Horse Harry” Lee (father of Robert E. Lee), summed up the feelings of the nation for George Washington: “First in war. First in Peace. First in the hearts of his countrymen.”

On this July 4th 2022, 246th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence and the birth day of our United States of America, and on every day, we Americans ought to remember, honor, emulate and give thanks for the patriots of July 4th 1776 — from Gen. George Washington, the Father of Our Country, to the least ranked unknown soldier of the Revolutionary Army, whose service and sacrifice created our freedom.

May God bless and keep each and all of them, and may our nation never cease to honor  and emulate them in defense of freedom.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER!

© 2022 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

by Rees Lloyd

May 28, 2022

Memorial Day is a day to remember what should be remembered every day–the  service and sacrifice of the more than 1.3-million American veterans who have given their their lives in war so that we, their posterity, might live as free Americans. (See attached below a chart of casualties in all the wars from the War of Independence to Iraq and Afghanistan.) 

But Memorial Day 2022 differs from past Memorial Day observances. Our nation is more divided on this Memorial Day than perhaps any time since the Civil War. Indeed, the country has been transformed from “one nation under God” into a divided nation without God, resulting in seething, increasingly violent, animus and mutual distrust.

The national motto—“E Pluribus Unum” (“From Many, One”) is scarcely ever referenced, even as a goal, let alone as a reality. Cries of “racist!” fill the air at any disagreement over policy and social interaction,  and riots and the threat thereof  — forms of social “extortion”—replace good faith attempts to seek solutions for the common good.

The goal of the original Civil Rights Movement of a “color-blind society” in which all are treated equally under the law regardless of “color,” has been replaced by a creed of color-consciousness underlying every governmental and social action.

The goal of “equality” under the law, with all being treated equally without regard for race, has been abandoned in favor of all actions being consciously based on race, and “racial preference,” in the name now of “equity” — not “equality.”

Treating Americans differently based upon their race is by definition “racism,” even when postured as “anti-racism” in search of “equity”

The simple, undeniable reality is that all racism is evil—no matter the color of the perpetrator, no matter the color of the victim.

Certain truths endure and must be recognized, perhaps especially on Memorial Day, if the American people are going to continue to live in freedom:

The first enduring truth of our American freedom is that freedom is not free, but has been purchased by the blood of American patriots, over 1.3-million of whom have given their lives in defense of our freedom.

We Americans of this era owe a great debt to those American patriots who came before us, veterans who gave their lives for freedom. We pay that debt to those Americans who came before us by what we are willing to do to preserve freedom for the Americans who will come after us.

The late General Norman (“Stormin’ Norman”) Schwarzkopf, Commander of forces in the Persian Gulf War (“Desert Storm”), succinctly stated an enduring truth: “Some things are worth living for. Some things are worth dying for. One of those things is freedom.”

We Americans on this Memorial Day must honor those veterans who gave their lives for our freedom, and we must ask ourselves: Are we Americans still a people willing to die to preserve freedom, as did those 1.3-million Americans who gave their lives, for us?

I attach below data on those who have given their lives for our freedom in all the wars. Each one of them — and their families — should be remembered and honored on Memorial Day, and every day.

Finally, I close by attaching the greatest war poem ever written, Flanders Fields. Although written in 1915 during the Battle of  Ypres in WWI, it  is as relevant, compelling, and moving  today as it was then. This is most especially true of the final lines, which call on us to take up the “torch” of freedom from the falling hands of those dying, and warns: “If ye break faith with us who die/We shall not sleep, though poppies grow/In Flanders fields.”

If we are to remain free, we  Americans must not “break faith” with those 1.3-million American veterans who have given their lives for America, for freedom.  May God bless and keep each and all of them; may we Americans never forget, and always honor them. May we have the courage, the integrity, the love of God, family, comrades, and country, to make the choice they did when called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice for freedom.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER

FREEDOM IS NOT FREE  —  REMEMBER  THE  AMERICANS WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN WAR THAT WE MIGHT BE FREE:

American Wars: Killed In Action

Revolutionary War………………………….  25,324
War of 1812……………………………..…….     2,260
Mexican War………………………….………  13,283
Civil War……………………………………..  650,000
Spanish American War……………..…….    7,166
World War I…………………………………   116,708
World War II…………………………….…  408,206
Korean War………………………………..…   54,246
Vietnam War…………………………….…..   58,223
Persian Gul War…………………………..……    363
Afghanistan……………………………………     2,215
Iraq………………………………………….…..      4,212

TOTAL KIA:             1,342,206

TOTAL MISSING IN ACTION:    83,126

In Flanders Fields

by [Canadian] Major John McCrae, May 1915

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields. 

[For the full story on Flanders Fields and the Poppy tradition]

© 2022 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

By Rees Lloyd

March 31, 2022

“I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men!” — Cesar Chavez

“Cesar Chavez Day” is an official State holiday in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, and is observed in several other States (including Colorado, Michigan, Nevada, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin)  on the anniversary of his birth on March 31, 1927, of an extraordinary American — Cesar Estrada Chavez, the late co-founder and president of the United Farm Workers of America who became a legend in his own time in the civil rights era.

In his honor, his headquarters for the UFW, which he named “La Paz” (“The Peace”), in the Tehachapi Mountains in Keene, CA, on Highway 58 between Bakersfield and Tehachapi, is now officially the U.S. Cesar Chavez National Monument, established by the federal government.

The U.S. Navy, of which he was a WWII veteran, has named a ship for him.

He was posthumously awarded the the highest civilian award for service to America, the Medal of Freedom, which was accepted by his widow, Helen Chavez.

Many States, counties, cities, towns, villages, have named streets, schools, libraries and other public buildings in his honor.

But there are many Americans today who are unaware that  there is a Cesar Chavez Day  (the major media ignore it), or why there should be a holiday honoring him.

There are also  malicious myths tainting the life and the memory of Cesar Chavez that need to be repudiated, most particularly the lies that he was  not an American but a Mexican national, and that he was a “Communist,” both of which were first promulgated by the John Birch Society. They are utterly false.

I had the honor of working with Cesar Chavez for some twenty years, starting in 1973, when I was a young long haul trucker participating in a nationwide strike of some 100,000 independent truckers in protest against escalating fuel costs in the so-called “Arab Oil Embargo.”

I was helping coordinate the truckers’ “Shutdown” at the Triple T Truck stop in Tucson, AZ, as a member of the steering committee of the “Truckers For Justice.”

Cesar Chavez mentored  me in that strike, which remained non-violent because of his demands in mentoring me that there should be no violence. “Rees, if there is violence, it is your fault,” Cesar Chavez admonished me, insisting: “Violence is a failure of creative intelligence; violence is failure of creative intelligence.”

After that strike was broken, an alliance between the Truckers For Justice and the United Farm Workers of America was established. During that work, in which we refused to haul non-union (“scab”) lettuce and grapes, Cesar told me I needed to go to law school as I could do more good as a lawyer. His recommendation got me into law school.

I worked with UFW lawyers while in law school, and after graduating and passing the California Bar in 1979, I became one of Cesar Chavez’ lawyers until the day of his death on April 23, 1993, and for the UFW thereafter as called upon. I have remained to this day exclusively a civil rights, workers rights, veterans rights attorney. (I have written in more detail about experiences with Cesar Chavez in an earlier tribute, available here.)

I can attest based on that long “up close and personal” experience that Cesar Chavez was, in his own way, a true American hero;  that there are valuable lessons to be learned from his honorable life; and that he is deserving of recognition by all Americans for his service and sacrifice for others, no matter their race, color, or creed.

However, in order to understand that, it is necessary, first, to overcome the lies and myths which continue to distort the truth of who and what Cesar Chavez was.

These are myths by those who hated and maligned him for their own political purposes; and by those who want to exploit who and what he was in order to appropriate him based on race, ethnicity, or nationality for their own political ends.

The most malicious of those myths are, as stated above, first, that he was not an American but a “Mexican” national; and, second, that he was a “Communist.”

These malicious myths were first promulgated, utterly falsely and politically deliberately, by the John Birch Society in the 1960’s. over sixty years later, they are repeated to this day.

First, as to nationality, the truth is that Cesar Chavez was a native-born American, not a “Mexican.” While proud of his Mexican-American heritage, he was a third-generation American, born on his grandfather’s small ranch in Arizona in the Yuma area.  No matter the indisputability of those facts, Wikipedia, for example, on which many students and others rely, informed: “Chavez was born on the Mexico Texas border and therefore has dual citizenship.” Utterly false.

Second, Cesar Chavez was no “communist.” He was a devoted Catholic Christian. He was attempting, humbly,  to live his Christian faith as faithfully as he was able by sacrifice and service for others as taught and exemplified by Jesus the Christ, not Marx the Communist.

Perhaps the best proof, although none should be needed, that Cesar Chavez was not a Communist  but a devoted Catholic Christian living his faith, is the fact that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), in its U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults, which is taught to all adults seeking to become members of the Catholic Church, chose as the exemplar of living a  “life in Christ” and “the principles of the Christian moral life”—Cesar E. Chavez. (See, USCCB Catholic Catechism for Adults, Chapter 24, “Life In Christ-Part Two,” pages 233-234).

Moreover, almost never mentioned by those who hate  Cesar Chavez  and define him as a “communist” and a “Mexican” rather than an American, is that Cesar Chavez, in 1944 at the age of 17, enlisted in the U.S. Navy in WWII and served for the duration of the war in the Pacific in defense of the country of his birth, the United States of America.

Ironically, those who claim to love Cesar Chavez make themselves accomplices of those who hate him (and them)  by obscuring  Cesar Chavez’ American birth — and  by almost never mentioning that he was an American veteran of WWII.  They do this not to honor Cesar, but in order to appropriate Cesar Chavez on race or ethnic grounds as a “Mexican,” “Chicano,” or “Raza” race-based civil rights movement leader rather than as an American hero who should be honored by all Americans — as an American hero.

In regard to that, Cesar Chavez, while proud of his ancestral heritage, always identified himself as a “labor” or “union leader,” not as a civil rights leader of Mexican-Americans, Chicanos, Latinos, Hispanics, or La Raza.

In fact, in the some twenty years I worked with him,  Cesar never defined himself as a “Mexican,” or “Chicano,” “Latino,” etc., and, regarding the identification “La Raza” (“The Race”) he told me he didn’t use it because he considered it racialist.

Thus, those who condemn him as a “Mexican” and “Communist,” and those who claim a possessory interest him as  a leader of a race-based “Chicano” or “La Raza” civil rights movement, are both wrong: He defined himself as, and acted as, what he was—a “trade union leader,” and most importantly, a devout Catholic Christian living his faith.

In truth, Cesar Chavez, as he lived his Catholic Christian faith,  was the inspiring moral heart of the American labor movement.

He built the first viable farm workers union in American history, the United Farm Workers of America. As president of the UFW, Cesar Chavez represented all farm workers, whatever their race, ethnicity, or nationality.

One example which refutes the myths of both those who hate Chavez and those who appropriate him based on race, and shows the willingness of both to corrupt historical truth to suit their political ends, is Chavez’ acts regarding illegal immigration, which was then and remains now  at the center of national controversy and division.

In 1969, Cesar Chavez famously led a march from Indio, CA, to the border. It is portrayed today as primarily a march in protest against discrimination by racist growers oppressing Mexican and other Hispanic farmworkers. That is false historical revisionism.

The primary purpose of the 1969 march to the Mexican border was a protest against the federal government’s failure to secure the border from importation of illegal immigrants who were being used to keep wages and working conditions down and to break strikes and the farmworkers union entirely. Indeed, as UFW members set up picket lines waving “Huelga” (“Strike”) flags, buses would arrive from Mexico to unload strike breakers.

In short, Cesar Chavez’ 1969 march to the Mexican border was for the same purpose that the Minutemen later went to the border in the 70’s and 80’s— to secure the border and demand that the government stop illegal immigration. (It should be noted that the Minutemen were widely condemned as  “racists” for doing just what Cesar Chavez did. Was Cesar Chavez a racist? )

In the 1970’s, Cesar Chavez fell out of favor with race-based civil rights groups, white liberals, Leftists including open Socialist and Communist organizations, and liberal media. He was criticized because he adopted the position of calling upon and aiding the then-Immigration And Naturalization Service (INS) to deport strikebreakers illegally in the country.

Among other things, Cesar Chavez testified before Congress about immigration. He testified that illegal immigration had to be stopped, and the border secured, as illegal immigrants were used to hold wages and working conditions down, and to break strikes, defeating efforts of farmworkers to build a union to improve their wages, hours, working conditions, and lives.

Today, Cesar Chavez’ 1969 march from Indio to the border is historically revised to be a protest against racist growers and his Congressional testimony is rarely cited, to satisfy the political ends of race-based la raza groups and non-raza liberals who want to transform him from what he was, i.e., a leader of a labor movement to improve the lives of all farmworkers,  to what they want him to be, i.e., a race-based political leader.

Meanwhile, many conservatives continue the original wrong and error of the John Birch Society when it falsely slandered and branded Cesar Chavez as a non-American and a “communist.” That continually repeated malicious lie has alienated not only many Americans, including many Mexican-American and other Hispanics for whom Cesar Chavez is, rightly,  a hero, as he should be for all Americans.

In his lifetime, although he became nationally and internationally renown, Cesar Chavez never sought personal fame, wealth, or celebrity. It was all about “La Causa,”the cause, not about him.

Indeed, Cesar Chavez  turned down millions of dollars offered for the rights to make a movie of his life,  Similarly, he rejected all offers to write an autobiography or for the right to produce an “authorized” biography. All that he would authorize was the “Autobiography of La Causa,” by Jaques Levy, who didn’t “buy” the right but earned it by working with Chavez in la causa for some ten years.

Cesar Chavez’ achievement is monumental. Farmworkers, and domestic workers, were exempted from the right to organize into unions provided to all other workers by the National Labor Relations Act. There were no State laws creating a right of farmworkers to support unionization. They could be and were fired and “blacklisted” with impunity by employers who suspected them of supporting a union. Farmworkers were also migrant, moving from employer to employer on the migrant trail during harvesting seasons.

There were more than a hundred attempts to organize migrant farmworkers by major international unions with money, members, and paid full time organizers. All failed. It was thought impossible to organize migrant farmworkers.

Then came Cesar Chavez. He had nothing. No money, no members, no paid staff. Nothing but the belief that the only way to help farmworkers was to build a union in which they could themselves achieve better working conditions — and dignity.  He succeeded by touching the hearts of Americans by his non-violent “boycotts” and exposure of the miserable working conditions of farm workers.

He, himself,  had become a migrant farmworker at the age of ten when the ranch of his grandfather on which he was born was lost on foreclosure in the Depression and taken over by the Bruce Church Corp., largest lettuce grower in Arizona. He had little education, attending some fifty different elementary schools as his family followed the migrant farmworker trail. After his service in the U.S. Navy, he went back to working in the fields. He married his sweetheart, Helen, also a farm worker,  in Delano, CA. Together they worked the fields, ultimately having had eight kids.

The story has been told now in many articles, books, documentaries, and a relatively recent movie of how Cesar Chavez, while working as an organizer in Los Angeles, became convinced a union for farmworkers had to be created if working conditions were to be improved. He quit his job. He and Helen loaded up their old station wagon with the kids and a mimeograph machine, and headed to Delano. There, they rented a house, set up the mimeograph machine, and sent out a flyer calling for a house meeting, the first step in creating what would become the United Farm Workers of America.

How did Cesar Chavez succeed where all others had failed? By touching the hearts of Americans and the conscience of the nation by exposing the true working conditions of migrant farmworkers through creative, non-violent acts and actions, including  his fasts and boycotts, and by his manifest personal selfless service and sacrifice.

Cesar Chavez did not merely say:  “I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men!”

He lived it.  By doing so, he succeeded where so many others failed. He achieved what was thought impossible. He inspired and taught by his example, humbly serving and sacrificing for others, and thereby has enriched the lives not only of farmworkers, but the lives of millions of Americans, of all races, all colors, all creeds, including my own life.

It was Jesus Christ whom Cesar Chavez worshipped, followed, and humbly attempted to emulate by service to others through living his Catholic Christian faith. I have little doubt that in the fullness of time, Cesar Chavez will one day become one of the Blessed of his Catholic faith, if not canonized.

I am greatly indebted to Cesar Chavez, especially for the example of his humble, selfless life in service for others. I will always walk in his shadow. May the God he so faithfully served bless and keep him. May the country he so faithfully served, always remember and honor him.

CESAR CHAVEZ AND REES LLOYD

At Press Conference during truckers strike in Tucson, AZ, in 1973, announcing alliance of Truckers For Justice and United Farm Workers of America (UFWA)

© 2022 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

By Rees Lloyd

February 21, 2022

Repeal The Uniform Monday Holiday Act

February 22, 2022, is the 290th anniversary of the birth in 1732 of General and President George Washington, the “Father Of Our Country.” He was the most universally respected and admired American in the age of the Founding Fathers, and in the history of America.

For generations, George Washington’s Birthday was a National Holiday celebrated on the actual anniversary of his birth, February 22. On Washington’s Birthday. Americans paused to remember and honor him. Parents and schools taught American children about his life on his birthday; urged the children to learn about the Father Of His [Their] Country; and to follow his example of patriotic love of country, selfless service and sacrifice for freedom, personal honor, dedication to duty, fidelity to principle.

By observing Washington’s Birthday as a National Holiday on his actual birth date, Feb. 22, the focus of the nation was on Washington.However, all that changed in 1971. Congress — pressured by federal government bureaucrats and other employees and their unions  desiring another paid three-day holiday — abolished “Washington’s Birthday” as a National Holiday. It was replaced with “Presidents’ Day,” to be observed on the “third Monday of February,” as a result of the “Uniform Monday Holiday Act,” which gave government employees their sought after three-day weekend.

As a result, Americans in general, and in particular American children in government schools, learn little or nothing about the greatest man in the history of America, George Washington, without whose extraordinary virtues and sacrifices they would not be free.

Further, and ignominiously, Washington’s Birthday was it was replaced by “President’s Day.” Got it? Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln—who were giants in history, were lumped in with the likes of politicians who held the office of President, but did little or nothing to ennoble it, and much to ignoble it by incompetence or moral failure.

No other president has been so universally admired in America — or in the world — as was General George Washington. Washington was by far the most admired man of the Founding Father’s generation. He was called the “Father Of His Country.” He was America’s first President, and the only President unanimously elected, and unanimously re-elected. He was, as Revolutionary War hero General “Light Horse” Harry Lee memorably said: “First in war. First in peace. First in the hearts of his countrymen.”

Can that be said today, when Washington’s Birthday  is no longer a National Holiday, and the nation’s children learn more in progressive liberal, politically correct, cultural-relativist government schools about  “the life of Mohammad” than the life of George Washington?

When schools, politicians, and media celebrate such farcical concocted “holidays” as “Kwanzaa” (never a holiday or observed  in Africa) or  “Cinco de Mayo” (never a holiday or observed in Mexico), while George Washington’s Birthday Holiday is no more?

George Washington, first, last, and always a soldier serving God and Country, was heralded in his time as the “Apostle of Liberty,” the “Indispensable Man,” having with his ragtag band of American citizen-soldiers of the Revolutionary Army defeated the English Empire, then the most powerful military force in the world, in eight years of war to establish our American independence, our freedom.

Washington did not seek the Presidency–it sought him. He was elected unanimously –twice. He was offered the Presidency for life.  But he stunned the world when he refused a third term  and even monarchical rule, and, instead walked away from power to return to his home as citizen. He was, is, our American “Cincinatus.” Washington, like that Fifth Century (BC), Roman general, fought the battles of the nation; held unequaled power; but did not covet it, and instead returned to his farm. So was Washington satisfied to be a citizen of a free America, rather than its ruler.

When Washington did that, walked away from ultimate power, even England’s King George III, whom Washington had defeated in our War of Independence, hailed Washington “as the greatest man of his era.”

John Adams, his successor as President, said of him: “If we look over the catalogue of the first magistrates of nations, whether they have been denominated Presidents or Consuls, Kings or Princes, where shall we find one whose commanding talents and virtues, whose overruling good fortune, have so completely united all hearts and voices in his favor?…His example is complete; and it will teach wisdom and virtue  to Magistrates, Citizens, and Men, not only in the present age, but in future generations.”

Thomas Jefferson, father of the Declaration of Independence and our third president, said of Washington that he was: ”The only man in the United States who possessed the confidence of all. There was no other one who was considered as anything more than a party leader….And it may be truly said that never did nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great, and to place him in the same constellation with whatever worthies have merited from man an everlasting remembrance.”

Even the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, who admitted his love of power and yielded to no man a claim of greater glory than he himself possessed, spoke of his admiration of Washington: “This great man fought against tyranny: he established the liberty of his country. His memory will always be dear to the French people, as it will be to all freemen.”

Are those words  still true to this generation of Americans? Those words of Adams, Jefferson, Gen. Harry Lee, the English King George III and the French Emperor Napoleon, all speaking with awe at the example of Washington’s life as one which would be taught “not only in the present age, but in future generations,” as John Adams said, and his memory “held dear..to all free men” as Napoleon said?

Is Washington still  “First in war. First in peace. First in the hearts of his countrymen,” as Gen. “Light Horse” Harry Lee said of him? If not, why not?

Are we Americans better for it, as a people, as a nation, when we honor no longer the one American who was so universally acknowledged in his time —  and up to this generation of transformed Americans —  as the Greatest American, the Father Of Our Country? He who defeated tyranny, held ultimate power by acclamation and then walked away from it to preserve the freedom he had created as a soldier? He who lived his life for God and Country?

Are the children of a nation, like the children of a family, really better off, better people, by forgetting their father, being without their father, forgetting the virtues their father taught, being orphaned?

We Americans today, whatever our ages, whatever our ancestry, ethnicity, or race, as Americans, are the children of the American  Founding Fathers, including in the particular George Washington, whom the Founding Fathers proclaimed the greatest among them, the Father Of Our Country.

May both the God that George Washington so faithfully served bless and keep him; may the Country he so loyally served always remember and honor him;  and may the lessons of his life be learned in this and every generation so that the freedom he fought for and created may not wither and weaken, to be destroyed by enemies foreign, or domestic.

Tell Congress to repeal the “Uniform Monday Holiday Act,” no matter the tears and anguish of taxpayer-paid government employees who will be deprived of another  three-day holiday — and no matter the loss to the politicians of those government employees’ campaign contributions by which they purchased their uniform three-day weekend holidays from the politicians by elimination of George Washington’s Birthday for the uninspiring “Presidents Day.”

Congress should re-establish George Washington’s Birthday as a National Holiday — and celebrate it on his actual birth day, February 22. The Father Of Our Country deserves no less. The people of our nation, especially the children, deserve no less.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY–NEVER!

© 2022 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

by Rees Lloyd

February 15, 2022

February 15, 2022 is the 49th  anniversary of a shining moment in American history: It was on that day in 1973 that American prisoners of war came home from Vietnam with their honor intact,  after suffering unspeakable torture, some for over seven years, at the hands of  North Vietnam led by dedicated Communist Ho Chi Minh.

It was a day of great importance in 1973 in an America divided by the war in Vietnam. And it is a day to remember all these years later in an even more  divided America.It is important for what it teaches about honor, duty, country, and who and what we are as Americans.

The Vietnam War had divided Americans as never before. It was and remains the first time in American history that veterans came home from war not to be honored for their service and sacrifice, but to be vilified, defamed as “war criminals,” told by their military commanders not to wear their uniforms in traveling home, many even spat upon as they arrived home at airports, train or bus stations.

Of the Americans who served, the Prisoners of War who exposed the inhuman torture of POW’s by their North Vietnam captors under the leadership of dedicated Communist Ho Chi Minh, were the most despised, and vilified by celebrities like Progressive Liberal Jane Fonda; her Leftist husband Tom Hayden—a founder of Students For A Democratic Society (“SDS”); the “Prairie Fire” communist domestic terrorist bombers like Bill Ayers (a multi-millionaire’s son) and his wife, Bernadine Dorn (a wealthy lawyer’s daughter) ; and self-promoting Democrat political opportunists like John Kerry, who publicly accused American troops of war crimes in Congressional testimony without ever being able to offer any proof. He was later thoroughly exposed as an utter and contemptible self-promoting liar by the book “Unfit For Command,”  but remains to this day a leader in the Democrat Party.

These Leftist, Progressive Liberal Democrats, Socialists, Communists, and Communist supporting Democrats, publicly, viciously, and blatantly falsely denounced the POW’s as “liars” in claiming “torture.” They insisted that Ho Chi Minh was but a benevolent nationalist patriot who would not engage in torture. Only after the war was the overwhelming evidence acknowledged that Ho Chi Minh was in fact a dedicated Communist dictator who was in fact responsible for, and had personally ordered, the torture of POW’s on his refusal to follow the Geneva Accords.

The American prisoners of war were almost all American pilots, who resisted Communist demands that they betray America despite appalling, inhumane, torture, ordered and orchestrated by dedicated Communist Ho Chi Minh right up to the day of his death. Today, those facts are indisputable.

There were 776 Americans taken prisoner of war; 114 of them died in Communist captivity.  The Communists under Ho Chi Minh refused to recognize them as Prisoners of War. Instead, the Communists declared them to be “war criminals” and blatantly violated the Geneva Convention. In what became known by the POW’s as the “Hanoi Hilton,” and like prisons, the POWs were kept in filthy, windowless, vermin-infested, airless cells.

Those seen as “ringleaders” of the resistance, like ranking officers of the resisters in what became known as the “Alcatraz Eleven,” James Stockdale, who would later receive the Medal of Honor, and his second in command, Jeremiah Denton, who receive the Navy Cross, would be locked in solitary confinement for over four long years, in which horrific torture was inflicted on them, and the other resisters.

The fact of torture was not confirmed until 1966. Then, the Communists attempted to force Jeremiah Denton to participate in a propaganda broadcast to be filmed by a Japanese crew for international distribution.

Instead, Denton not only did not say what the Communists wanted him to say, but he blinked his eyes as if he had an eye problem. He was in fact  blinking in Morse Code: “T-O-R-T-U-R-E.” Naval intelligence immediately understood what Denton was communicating.  When the Communists later realized what Denton had done, they tortured him nearly to death, as he recounts in his now classic book on what POW’s endured: “When Hell Was In Session.” (WND Book)

Overwhelming post-war proof of torture beyond any reasonable doubt has given the lie  to Fonda, Hayden, Kerry, et al, including books by many of the POWs. These include, the late Admiral Jeremiah Denton’s classic “When Hell Was In Session;”  “Surviving Hell,” by Col. Leo Thorsness (USAF, ret.; Medal of Honor); “The Passing Of The Night,” by the late Gen. Robinson Risner (USAF); “American Patriot,” the biography of the late and legendary Air Force combat pilot Col. Bud Day,a hero in three wars (WWII, Korea, Vietnam), Medal of Honor recipient  who was the most decorated veteran of his era; “Chained Eagle,” by Everett Alvarez, Jr., the first pilot shot down, a POW for eight years; and, among others, “Faith of my Fathers,”  by the late Sen. John McCain who refused an offer of early release by the Communists because his father was the Commanding Admiral, and suffered horrendous torture for his refusal.  Whatever thoughts may be today be regarding McCain’s actions as a politician, McCain was a true hero as a POW; was recognized as such by his fellow POWs; and was left permanently crippled in his arms by torture.

More recently, Author Alvin Townley has written a book magnificently telling the true story of the torture POW’s endured in Vietnam, and what  their families endured at home: “DEFIANT: The POWs Who Endured Vietnam’s Most Infamous Prison; The Women Who Fought For Them, And The One Who Never Returned.”

The nation was and remained terribly divided over Vietnam. It was not until February, 1973, that the  breakthrough in Paris peace talks came and Operation Homecoming began. The first flight of emancipated POWs out of Vietnam to Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines was on Feb. 12, 1973. At Clark, the elected spokesman for the POWs, then-Captain Jeremiah Denton, in military uniform, stepped to the microphone, and spoke in short stroke words which began the stirring of the heart of a divided nation:

“We are honored to have had the opportunity to serve our country under difficult circumstances. We are profoundly grateful to our Commander-in-Chief and to our nation for this day. God Bless America.”

Then came that shining moment three days later on February 15, 1973, when Denton, Jim Mulligan, and the others of the first group of POW’s landed at the Portsmouth Naval base in Virginia, back on American soil. Their wives and children rushed to embrace them, as, to the POWs surprise, a huge crowd of Americans roared with cheers for them, waving flags, laughing, some weeping with joyful emotion, Americans at last embracing  the Americans they sent to war, welcoming them home as all Vietnam veterans should have been welcomed.

Many of the Vietnam POW’s are no longer with us, including  Admiral James Stockdale, Admiral Jeremiah Denton, Col. Bud Day, and many others. But their example is with us, and it is a challenge.

Lt. Col. Orson Swindle,  a much decorated retired Marine combat pilot who flew over 200 missions before being shot down on November 11, 1966, is one of the surviving POW’s. He endured six years and four months of torture at the hands of the North Vietnamese Communists who targeted him as one of the worst of the “resisters.” He is universally admired and recognized in almost all of the memoirs of the former POW’s, and other books on the POW’s.  The late POW Col. Leo Thorsness once described Col. Swindle to me as “the toughest of the tough” resisters.

As the 49th Anniversary of the POW’s return in honor approached, I asked Lt.Col. Swindle why he believes it is important now to remember what the POW’s did then. He said:

“I think it is very important to remember and honor the service and sacrifice of the Vietnam War POW’s because our democracy depends on our people doing the right thing. The Vietnam POW’s did that, in the face of great adversity. We held on for five, six, seven, and even eight years of torture. We did the right thing. We just said ‘No!”

“We knew our country isn’t perfect. But, even knowing the warts and all, our country  has offered all people more freedom, and more opportunity than any country ever, and is still, the greatest nation on earth. Deserving of our support, our sacrifice, even our love. That  is why we did what we did.

“In the interrogations, in which we were often beaten, abused, or tortured, it would have been so easy to escape punishment by saying what the Communists wanted to hear. But, we said “No.” We often got beaten up, but we said “No.”

I was, I believe, POW Number 144. Ultimately, there would be over 700. I learned so much from those who came before me. They were remarkable leaders who set the example. Men like [later Admiral and Medal of Honor recipient] James Stockdale, [later Admiral, and Navy Cross recipient] Jeremiah Denton, and Bud Day [Air Force combat pilot, Medal of Honor recipient, hero in three wars —WWII, Korea, and Vietnam—, and considered the most decorated veteran of his era]. They and the other POW’s who followed them ought to be remembered, honored, and followed.

“Following their example, we suffered, but we wouldn’t surrender, through years of abuse, beatings, and torture. We would just say—‘No!” And we did that time after time.

I confess that I am greatly concerned about what is happening in our country today. No one seems to be held accountable. We have a debacle in Afghanistan in which Americans were left behind. We have an invasion at our southern border. We have rising inflation. We have crime escalating all across the country. We have mandates telling us we can’t leave our homes, or enter restaurants without masks, or go to church. We have had hundreds of violent riots, looting, burning, police being injured. There is one crisis after another. We are being lied to repeatedly. But  no one is being held accountable. I am afraid if we don’t wake up and stand up against this, and against so-called “Woke” culture, we are not going to have a country.

“So, I believe Citizens need to do today what the POW’s did even in the face of terrible torture—do the right thing, and just say ‘No!”

Amen. May the God the  POW’s served bless and keep them; may the country for which the POW’s  served and sacrificed so courageously and honorably always remember and honor them—and their families.

© 2022 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

by Rees Lloyd

December 7, 2021

December 7, 2021,Pearl Harbor Day, marks the 80th anniversary of the Japanese air attack on U.S. naval and air installations at Pearl Harbor, HI, at 7:53 a.m., Dec. 7, 1941 — without a declaration of war.

It was then the worst attack on American soil in history: Some 2,403 died, 2008 of them Navy personnel; another 1,178 were wounded

Eighteen Navy ships, including the U.S.S. Arizona, were sunk or damaged. Almost all the planes at the island bases were destroyed or damaged while still on the ground.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt memorably called December 7, 1941, “a day which will live in infamy” in his dramatic speech to Congress, which then declared war on Japan.

Only the sneak attack on America by radical Islamic terrorists on 9-11-2001 in New York resulted in more deaths. But for many Americans of this generation — and millions of immigrants, legal and illegal — the meaning, the significance of Pearl Harbor, is not fully known, or appreciated.

One American for whom the Patriot Harbor attack did “live in infamy” for all of his long, productive, and patriotic  100-year life time was,  Pearl Harbor survivor Shelby John (“S.J.”) Hemker of Banning, California. Although he has now gone to God, his story reveals the nature of those Americans who  served at Pearl Harbor—indeed, his story reveals the nature of America— then.

Shelby John (“SJ”) Hemker, a poor “country boy” whose childhood was the Great Depression, joined the Navy at 17. He was at Pearl Harbor near the end of his first four-year tour of duty when the Japanese attacked. He survived that horror, and went on to be a three-war combat Navy veteran — WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. After retirement from the Navy, he continued to serve America in peacetime as a life member of The American Legion.

Hemker, by his giving, patriotic life of service to God and country  in war and in peace,  was an exemplar of the Greatest Generation of WWII. Beloved by his comrade wartime veterans and his community, S.J. Hemker was honored by both on January 10, 2019, at a celebration of his 100th Birthday.

Representatives of the linked San Gorgonio Pass cities of Banning and Beaumont in Riverside County, presented him with Proclamations honoring him; commendations were presented by his American Legion Post 428 and other Posts, and veterans organizations from as far away as Patriot Outreach based in Kansas.

Many  words were spoken there about Pearl Harbor, its horror, and its meaning, then and now. The most poignant of those words were those of S.J. Hemker, himself, in a remembrance of Pearl Habor, and of what it should mean, in an earlier interview with me.  It was my honor to read those words of S.H. Hemker about Pearl Harbor at the celebration of his life, and is an honor publish his own words here:

“Ordinarily, we would have been at sea, We were at Pearl Harbor because we had to repair an engine that had been sabotaged at the shipyard back in California. I was up on the fantail of our ship, the USS New Orleans, a heavy cruiser, with the Chief Master at Arms. The Quartermaster was there, getting ready to raise the flag,” S.J. Hemker recalled in an interview with me.

“It was 7:53 a.m. when we saw the Japanese planes. They were flying so low I could see the pilots’ faces in the cockpit. They were grinning at us as they went down toward Battle Ship Row. Grinning at me and the Chief. They were so close, you could have thrown something at them and hit them. A potato, maybe. They were that close. Just skimming the top of the water. Torpedo planes. The pilots grinning at us,” Hemker reluctantly, but vividly recalled.

“The loudspeakers blared: ‘Man your battle stations – the Japs are attacking’. All hell broke loose… It was terrible, horrible, …,” he said pausing in his remembrance.

“I spent the next eight hours down in the magazine loading for our five-inch anti-aircraft guns. We fired everything. If we had been hit, that would have been it for us in the magazine. We would have been blown up. We had a big crane over the top of our ship. I think that’s what saved us,” he stated matter-of-factly as to his own circumstance, then somberly related:

“The Arizona capsized. Thirteen hundred men went down with her. Half the guys I was with in boot camp died on the Arizona. That’s where the Memorial is today. They say that oil still leaks out every day. Those guys…they’re still down there,” Hemker said quietly, his voice trailing off, as if physically turning away from a memory, and reality, which was still too painful to talk about.

Getting Hemker to talk about it at all was no easy task. Like many of his fellow World War II veterans, he didn’t talk about his war experiences, never expected any thanks or gratitude, and never, ever boasted about it, despite the fact that after Pearl Harbor he served America in battles and combat zones for the duration of WWII, in the Korean War, and in Vietnam.

Hempker, a widower, roguishly handsome into his 90’s and possessed of a sly sense of humor, for years charmed the ladies in the American Legion Auxiliary with his country gallantry. He was universally admired by his comrade veterans in the American Legion. “I’m not able to do what I used to do, but I do what I can,” he said.

Hemker’s beloved wife died more than 30 years earlier. For the last thirteen years of her life, Hemker’s wife was bedridden, unable to perform the most basic of everyday tasks of life, totally dependent. It says a great deal about the kind of man S.J. Hemker was, that for all of those thirteen years Hemker cared for her, saw to her every need, lovingly dedicated his life to her care, until her death did them part.

Hemker had four sons. All four,  like their father, are veterans who served in the Vietnam war. Hemker had no biological daughter. But, in his declining years, he had for more than fifteen years lived in his own room in the home of a loving “daughter-in-fact” if not of biology, Sue McConnell, and her husband,

No daughter has rendered more loving care to a father than had Sue McConnell to S.J. Hemker.

“I call him my ‘Dad’ because he is that to me. I couldn’t love him more,”  Sue,told me. She had known Hemker for thirty-seven years, during which she had often risen up in fury when the VA had not done its duty “to this great man, this hero, my Dad.”

Reflecting on Pearl Harbor seventy-seven years after surviving it, Hemker, who had lost his eyesight,  but not his vision for America, observed.

“We Americans should never forget. If we forget our past and those who died, we won’t have a future. A free one, anyway. Look at what happened on 9-11. More people were killed on that day than were killed at Pearl Harbor. It can happen again,” he warned.

“I don’t think people remember Pearl Harbor and what it means, the way they used to do,” Hemker concluded. “That’s too bad. A lot of us can’t forget. An awful lot of really good people died to keep America free. They shouldn’t be forgotten.”

These are the last words of S.J. Hemker, veteran and self-described “ordinary American…just a common man,”  about the attack on Pearl Harbor,  that “day of infamy” on Dec. 7, 1941;  about those who died in it;  and about those who survived it and continued to serve until victory in WWII, preserving our American freedom.

Hemker, sad to say, is no longer with us. Although reaching his 100th Birthday on January 10, 2019, Hemker later in the year “transferred to Post Everlasting,” as we, his American Legion comrades, say.

Although S.J. Hemker may no longer be with us physically, he can be and should be with us spiritually—the spirit of patriotic love of  country and service in its defense that he exemplified, as did and do so many others of the WWII Greatest Generation. Neither his life nor his words should be forgotten, if, as he warns, we Americans are to remain free.

May the God that S.J. Hemker served so faithfully bless and keep him. May the country he served so faithfully for all of his 100 years on earth, always honor and remember him.

© 2021 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

By Rees Lloyd

November 11, 2021

“The cost of war is in two parts: The cost of the battle itself, which is immediate; and the cost of care for those sent to fight the battle. Since most of those fighting the battle are young, that cost can continue for sixty years, or even longer. But when the country needs veterans, it gets veterans; when it feels it no longer needs veterans, it forgets veterans.”

These are the poignant words of a now deceased 100% disabled combat veteran of the Vietnam War generation.  The truth of his words should long survive him, and should be remembered not only on this Veterans Day 2021, but every day — if we Americans are to “keep faith” with all those veterans who have served and sacrificed in defense of American freedom.

Maj. Gen. Patrick H. Brady (USA, ret.), a recipient of the Medal of Honor for his heroism in the Vietnam War, has written in tribute to America’s veterans:  “America, under our Constitution, has no hereditary class of ‘nobility.’ America’s nobles are her veterans.”

There are an estimated 23-million living American veterans. It has rightly been said of them, and of all Veterans who have served in defense of freedom, including those serving now:  “All gave some, some gave all.”

As to giving “all,” over 1.4-million veterans have given their lives in all the wars in defense of American freedom. Many thousands are still “Missing in Action.” Many millions more have survived but suffered devastating wounds lasting their entire lives. In the modern era, many veterans are surviving wounds that would have been fatal in earlier wars due to advances in medical care. They will need continuing care for decades, long after the close of wars in which they served.

It is they who must not be forgotten when actual war recedes; it is they with whom Americans must “keep faith.” Patriotic warriors for freedom were mostly the young when wounded.  They will need continuing care, even when the attention of  political office holders and Americans generally tends to shove them out of sight and out of mind as other problems take the center of attention.

There are over 9-million of those veterans who are receiving medical care today through the Veterans Administration hospitals and medical facilities for the wounds of war—physical, mental, and emotional. They are survivors from WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, the War Against Terror in the Middle East,  including combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. They all deserve, and must receive, the medical care they were promised by the nation that they would receive for their military service.

But that will require that the Americans whose freedom was purchased by the service of veterans must “keep faith” with America’s veterans.

It has generally been thought among veterans that the medical care provided by doctors and nurses of the VA is good —  “if you can get it.” Too often, that needed care has been delayed, and thereby denied.

For years, there have been  stories of long waits to actually see a physician—waits sometimes so long that veterans have died waiting.  There  also have been horror stories of mistreatment of veterans by career bureaucrat administrators at the VA, including deliberate falsification of records to hide the bureaucrats’ failures. Regarding those abuses, it was until recently all but impossible to remove the VA bureaucrats responsible for the problems.

Thanks to reforms initiated and fought for by former President Donald J. Trump in his first term starting in 2016, long waits have been cut down by allowing veterans “freedom to choose” to seek help from private physicians when the VA is unable to provide timely help.

The Trump reforms include the ability to terminate those VA bureaucrats and employees who fail to properly serve the veterans. Several thousand VA bureaucrats and other VA employees  have reportedly been fired for abuses. The result has been that President Trump received  an approval rating among veterans being served by VA to an astonishing “91%.”

Whether those successful policies will remain under the current Progressive Liberal Democrat Party “Green” regime nominally led by Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer, is unknown. It is known, that they and Democrats in House and Senate generally opposed the Trump reforms, including Democrats on the Veterans Affairs and other military-related committees. Therefore, veterans need the vigilance and support of Americans to ensure that the promises made to veterans for their service are fulfilled.

The late General Norman (“Stormin’ Norman”) Shwartzgoff, who led the victory in Desert Storm which brought down the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq, famously said: “Some things are worth living for. Some things are worth dying for. One of those things is freedom.”

America’s veterans are those men and women who took an oath to “defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Every single one of them took that oath and entered military service knowing that they might be required to die, or suffer horrible wounds, in defense of freedom. Yet, they served. As noted, some 1.4-million American veterans have died in defense of our freedom. Countless millions suffered the wounds of war, many lasting a lifetime.

There can be no doubt that we of this generation of Americans owe a great debt to America’s veterans who preserved and protected our freedom by their service—including all those veterans who are serving now.

We pay our debt to those who have served, in part, by remembering, honoring, and “keeping  faith” with veterans by insuring that the promises made to them are kept.

This Veterans Day 2021, although traditional parades and ceremonies have been curtailed due to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Covid 19 virus pandemic, we would do well to honor veterans and reflect on just what Veterans Day means.

Veterans Day was originally “Armistice Day,” honoring WWI veterans. Congress later amended it to “Veterans Day” to honor all veterans.  Veterans Day observances traditionally commence at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year, the anniversary of the date and time of the signing of the Armistice ending combat in World War I on November 11, 1918.

WWI was a horrible war of slaughter: There were over over 10-million casualties. It began in 1914. The first of some 4-million Americans who would serve in —and win that war — began arriving in France in June, 1917, when it looked as if Germany would be victorious.

The first Americans to die were three soldiers who were killed in combat on Nov. 3, 1917. By the time the Armistice was signed a year later, on Nov. 11, 1918, some 117,000 Americans — almost 10,000 per month of combat—had given their lives in service.

The horror of WWI, presented side-by-side with the sacrifices of those Americans and allied forces who served, fought, and died — and the need for us to “keep the faith” with those who served —is expressed most profoundly by the poem, “Flanders Fields.” It is perhaps the most moving poem ever written about war, and sacrifice,  honor, and the need for those who live not to “break faith” with those who served, were wounded, or died for freedom.

“Flanders Fields”  was written by then-Major John McCrae, MD, a surgeon in the Canadian Army who was born in 1872 and would die in 1918, the year that terrible war ended. Dr. McCrae wrote the poem in the devastation of the battle of Ypres in WWI, days after his best comrade had been killed. His words reach across more than a century to bring home the reality of all the wars, and the need to “keep faith” with those who served.

On Veterans Day 2021, may God bless all the veterans who have served in defense of our freedom in all the wars. And may the country whose freedom they preserved honor them on Veterans Day and on every day. They kept the faith with us; and, as expressed in the haunting words of “Flanders Field,” we must not “break faith” with them.

IN FLANDERS FIELDS

By Lt. Col. John McCrae, Army of Canada, WWI

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow,
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be it yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Field.

© 2021 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

by Rees Lloyd

Memorial Day is a day to remember what should be remembered every day–the  service and sacrifice of the more than 1.3-million American veterans who have given their their lives in war so that we, their posterity, might live as free Americans. (See attached below a chart of casualties in all the wars from the War of Independence to Iraq and Afghanistan.) 

But Memorial Day 2021 differs from past Memorial Day observances. Our nation is more divided on this Memorial Day than perhaps any time since the Civil War. Indeed, the country has been transformed from “one nation under God” into a divided nation without God, resulting in seething, increasingly violent, animus and mutual distrust.

The national motto—“E Pluribus Unum” (“From Many, One” ) is scarcely ever referenced, even as a goal, let alone as a reality. Cries of “racist!” fill the air at any disagreement over policy and social interaction,  and riots and the threat thereof  — forms of social “extortion”—replace good faith attempts to seek solutions for the common good.

The goal of the Civil Rights Movement of a color-blind society in which all are treated equally regardless of “color,” has been replaced by a creed of color-consciousness underlying every governmental and social action.

The goal of “equality,” with all being treated equally under the law without regard for race, has been abandoned in favor of all actions being consciously based on race,

and racial preference, in the name of ambiguous “inequity” rather than “equality.”

Thus, decision-making based on race—that is, deliberate, systemic, governmental and social “racism”— is to be followed in order to defeat  “racism.”

The reality that all racism is evil, no matter the color of the victim, no matter the color of the perpetrator, has been retreated from in favor of preference based on race, i.e., racism.

Notwithstanding such racist phenomena obtaining today in the name of anti-racism,  certain truths endure and must be recognized, perhaps especially on Memorial Day, if the American people are going to continue to live in freedom:

The first enduring truth — all rhetoric to the contrary from the political, academic, media, and economic elite notwithstanding —  is that freedom is not free, but has been purchased by the blood of veterans who have loved America, over 1.3-million of whom gave their lives for our freedom.

We Americans of this era owe those American patriots who came before us, veterans who gave their lives for freedom, a great debt —our freedom. We pay that debt by what we are willing to do to preserve freedom for the Americans who will come after us.

The late General Norman (“Stormin’ Norman”) Schwarzkopf, Commander of forces in the Persian Gulf War (“Desert Storm”), succinctly stated an enduring truth: “Some things are worth living for. Some things are worth dying for. One of those things is freedom.”

We Americans on this Memorial Day must honor those veterans who gave their lives for our freedom, and we must ask ourselves: Are we Americans still a people willing to die to preserve freedom, as did those 1.3-million Americans who gave their lives, for us?

I close this Memorial Day 2021 commentary by appending data on those who have given their lives for our freedom in all the wars. Each one of them should be remembered and honored on Memorial Day, and every day.

Finally, I close by attaching the the greatest war poem ever written, Flanders Fields. Although written in 1915 during the Battle of  Ypres in WWI, it  is as relevant, compelling, and moving  today as it was then. This is most especially true of the final lines, which call on us to take up the “torch” of freedom from the falling hands of those dying, and warns: “If ye break faith with us who die/We shall not sleep, though poppies grow/In Flanders fields.”

If we are to remain free, we  Americans must not “break faith” with those 1.3-million American veterans who have given their lives for America, for freedom.  May God bless and keep each and all of them; may we Americans never forget, and always honor them. May we have the courage, the integrity, the love of God, family, comrades, and country, to make the choice they did when called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice for freedom.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER

FREEDOM IS NOT FREE  —  REMEMBER  THE  AMERICANS WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN WAR THAT WE MIGHT BE FREE:

American Wars: Killed In Action

Revolutionary War………………………….  25,324
War of 1812………………………………….     2,260
Mexican War…………………………………  13,283
Civil War……………………………………..  650,000
Spanish American War…………………….    7,166
World War I…………………………………   116,708
World War II…………………………………  408,206
Korean War…………………………………   54,246
Vietnam War………………………………..   58,223
Persian Gul War……………………………        363
Afghanistan…………………………………     2,215|
Iraq…………………………………………..      4,212

TOTAL KIA:             1,342,206

TOTAL MISSING IN ACTION:    83,126

In Flanders Fields

by [Canadian] Major John McCrae, May 1915

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields. 

[For the full story on Flanders Fields and the Poppy tradition]

© 2021 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

By Rees Lloyd

It was Jesus Christ whom Cesar Chavez worshipped, followed, and humbly attempted to emulate by service to others through living his Catholic Christian faith. I have little doubt that in the fullness of time, Cesar Chavez will one day become one of the Blessed of his Catholic faith, if not canonized.

© 2021 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

By Rees Lloyd

December 7, 2020 ,Pearl Harbor Day, marks the 79th anniversary of the Japanese air attack on U.S. naval and air installations at Pearl Harbor, HI, at 7:53 a.m., Dec. 7, 1941 — without a declaration of war.

It was then the worst attack on American soil in history: Some 2,403 died, 2008 of them Navy personnel; another 1,178 were wounded

Eighteen Navy ships, including the U.S.S. Arizona, were sunk or damaged. Almost all the planes at the island bases were destroyed or damaged while still on the ground.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt memorably called December 7, 1941, “a day which will live in infamy” in his dramatic speech to Congress, which then declared war on Japan.

Only the sneak attack on America by radical Islamic terrorists on 9-11-2001 in New York resulted in more deaths. But for many Americans of this generation — and millions of immigrants, legal and illegal — the meaning, the significance of Pearl Harbor, is not fully known, or appreciated.

One American for whom the Patriot Harbor attack did “live in infamy” for all of his long, productive, and patriotic  100-year lifetimewas,  Pearl Harbor survivor Shelby John (“S.J.”) Hemker of Banning, California.

Hemker, a poor “country boy” whose childhood was the Great Depression, joined the Navy at 17. He was at Pearl Harbor near the end of his first four-year tour of duty when the Japanese attacked. He survived that horror, and went on to be a three-war combat Navy veteran — WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. After retirement from the Navy, he continued to serve America in peacetime as a life member of The American Legion.

Hemker, by his giving, patriotic life of service to God and country  in war and in peace,  was an exemplar of the Greatest Generation of WWII. Beloved by his comrade wartime veterans and his community, S.J. Hemker was honored by both on January 10, 2019, at a celebration of his 100th Birthday. Representatives of the linked San Gorgonio Pass cities of Banning and Beaumont in Riverside County, presented him with Proclamations honoring him; commendations were presented by his American Legion Post 428 and other Posts, and veterans organizations from as far away as Patriot Outreach based in Kansas.

Many  words were spoken there about Pearl Harbor, its horror, and its meaning, then and now. The most poignant of those words were those of S.J. Hemker, himself, in a remembrance of Pearl Habor, and of what it should mean, in an earlier interview with me.  It was my honor to read those words of S.H. Hemker about Pearl Harbor at the celebration of his life, and is to publish them here:

“Ordinarily, we would have been at sea. We were at Pearl Harbor because we had to repair an engine that had been sabotaged at the shipyard back in California. I was up on the fantail of our ship, the USS New Orleans, a heavy cruiser, with the Chief Master at Arms. The Quartermaster was there, getting ready to raise the flag,” Hemker recalled in an interview with me.

“It was 7:53 a.m. when we saw the Japanese planes. They were flying so low I could see the pilots’ faces in the cockpit. They were grinning at us as they went down toward Battle Ship Row. Grinning at me and the Chief. They were so close, you could have thrown something at them and hit them. A potato, maybe. They were that close. Just skimming the top of the water. Torpedo planes. The pilots grinning at us,” Hemker reluctantly, but vividly recalled.

“The loudspeakers blared: ‘Man your battle stations – the Japs are attacking’. All hell broke loose… It was terrible, horrible, …,” he said pausing in his remembrance.

“I spent the next eight hours down in the magazine loading for our five-inch anti-aircraft guns. We fired everything. If we had been hit, that would have been it for us in the magazine. We would have been blown up. We had a big crane over the top of our ship. I think that’s what saved us,” he stated matter-of-factly as to his own circumstance, then somberly related:

“The Arizona capsized. Thirteen hundred men went down with her. Half the guys I was with in boot camp died on the Arizona. That’s where the Memorial is today. They say that oil still leaks out every day. Those guys…they’re still down there,” Hemker said quietly, his voice trailing off, as if physically turning away from a memory, and reality, which was still too painful to talk about.

Getting Hemker to talk about it at all was no easy task. Like many of his fellow World War II veterans, he didn’t talk about his war experiences, never expected any thanks or gratitude, and never, ever boasted about it, despite the fact that after Pearl Harbor he served America in battles and combat zones for the duration of WWII, in the Korean War, and in Vietnam.

Hempker, a widower, roguishly handsome into his 90’s and possessed of a sly sense of humor, for years charmed the ladies in the American Legion Auxiliary with his country gallantry. He was universally admired by his comrade veterans in the American Legion. “I’m not able to do what I used to do, but I do what I can,” he said.

Hemker’s beloved wife died more than 30 years ago. For the last thirteen years of her life, Hemker’s wife was bedridden, unable to perform the most basic of everyday tasks of life, totally dependent. It says a great deal about the kind of man S.J. Hemker was, that for all of those thirteen years Hemker cared for her, saw to her every need, lovingly dedicated his life to her care, until her death did them part.

Hemker had four sons. All four,  like their father, are veterans who served in the Vietnam war. Hemker had no biological daughter. But, in his declining years, he had for more than fifteen years lived in his own room in the home of a loving “daughter-in-fact” if not of biology, Sue McConnell, and her husband,

No daughter has rendered more loving care to a father than had Sue McConnell to S.J. Hemker.

“I call him my ‘Dad’ because he is that to me. I couldn’t love him more,”  Sue,told me. She had known Hemker for thirty-seven years, during which she had often risen up in fury when the VA had not done its duty “to this great man, this hero, my Dad.”

Reflecting on Pearl Harbor seventy-seven years after surviving it, Hemker, who had lost his eyesight,  but not his vision for America, observed.

“We Americans should never forget. If we forget our past and those who died, we won’t have a future. A free one, anyway. Look at what happened on 9-11. More people were killed on that day than were killed at Pearl Harbor. It can happen again,” he warned.

“I don’t think people remember Pearl Harbor and what it means, the way they used to do,” Hemker concluded. “That’s too bad. A lot of us can’t forget. An awful lot of really good people died to keep America free. They shouldn’t be forgotten.”

***

These are the last words of S.J. Hemker, veteran and self-described “ordinary American…just a common man,”  about the attack on Pearl Harbor,  that “day of infamy” on Dec. 7, 1941,  about those who died in it, and those who survived it and continued to serve until victory in WWII, preserving our American freedom.

1. J. Hemker, sad to say, is no longer with us. Although reaching his 100th Birthday on January 10, 2019, Hemker later in the year “transferred to Post Everlasting,” as we, his American Legion comrades, say.

Although S.J. Hemker may no longer be with us physically, he can be and should be with us spiritually—the spirit of patriotic love of  country and service in its defense that he exemplified, as did and do so many others of the WWII Greatest Generation. Neither his life nor his words should be forgotten, if, as he warns, we Americans are to remain free.

May the God that S.J. Hemker served so faithfully bless and keep him. May the country he served so faithfully for all of his 100 years on earth, always honor and remember him.

© 2020 NWV – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

[BIO: Rees Lloyd is a longtime civil rights attorney and veterans activist whose work has been honored by, among others, the California Senate and Assembly, the Board of Supervisors of Los Angeles County, the City of Los Angeles, and nu-merous civil rights, workers rights, veterans rights, and religious organizations. He is the co-founder and attorney for the Defense of Veterans Memorials Project. As such, he has participated in successful litigation up to the U.S. Supreme Court to save Christian Crosses at veterans memorials, representing the American Legion Department of California, its District 21 and Posts 79 and 291; and representing also the Patriot Outreach veterans service organization based in Kansas, which he currently serves as legal counsel. Attorney Lloyd has testified as a constitutional expert at hearings before the U.S. House and Senate representing the National American Legion. In 2018, the Alliance Defending Freedom, one of America’s premier defenders of religious freedom, honored Lloyd with its “Bronze Service Award” for “over 2,500 hours of pro bono attorney work for the Body of Christ.” Lloyd has received also the Defender of the Faith award of the California Pacific School of Theology, presented by its internationally famed founder, the late Rev. Dr. I.D.E. Thomas.

Attorney Lloyd has been profiled, and his work featured, by such varied print me-dia as the Los Angeles Times and American Legion Magazine, and such broad-cast media as ABC’s Nightline and 20/20, Fox News In The Morning, and, among others, by Sean Hannity. His writings have appeared in a variety of national, re-gional, and local newspaper, magazine, and other publications. He is a frequent radio commentator, and speaker.]

By Rees Lloyd

“The cost of war is in two parts: The cost of the battle itself, which is immediate; and the cost of care for those sent to fight the battle. Since most of those fighting the battle are young, that cost can continue for seventy years, or even longer. But when the country needs veterans, it gets veterans; when it feels it no longer needs veterans, it forgets veterans.”

These are the poignant words of a now deceased 100% disabled combat veteran of the Vietnam War generation.  The truth of his words should long survive him, and should be remembered not only on this Veterans Day 2020, but every day — if we Americans are to “keep faith” with all those veterans who have served and sacrificed in defense of American freedom.

Maj. Gen. Patrick H. Brady (USA, ret.), a recipient of the Medal of Honor for his heroism in the Vietnam War, has written in tribute to America’s veterans:  “America, under our Constitution, has no hereditary class of ‘nobility.’ America’s nobles are her veterans.”

There are an estimated 23-million living American veterans. It has rightly been said of them, and of all Veterans who have served in defense of freedom, including those serving now:  “All gave some, some gave all.”

As to giving “all,” over 1.4-million veterans have given their lives in all the wars in defense of American freedom. Many thousands are still “Missing in Action.” Many millions more have survived but suffered devastating wounds lasting their entire lives. In the modern era, many veterans are surviving wounds that would have been fatal in earlier wars due to advances in medical care. They will need continuing care for decades, long after the close of wars in which they served.

It is they who must not be forgotten when actual war recedes; it is they with whom Americans must “keep faith.” Patriotic warriors for freedom were mostly the young when wounded.  They will need continuing care, even when the attention of  political office holders and Americans generally tends to shove them out of sight and out of mind as other problems take the center of attention.

There are over 9-million of those veterans who are receiving medical care today through the Veterans Administration hospitals and medical facilities for the wounds of war—physical, mental, and emotional. They are survivors from WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, the War Against Terror in the Middle East,  including combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. They all deserve, and must receive, the medical care they were promised by the nation that they would receive for their military service.

But that will require that the Americans whose freedom was purchased by the service of veterans must “keep faith” with America’s veterans.

It has generally been thought among veterans that the medical care provided by doctors and nurses of the VA is good —  “if you can get it.” Too often, that needed care has been delayed, and thereby denied.

For years, there have been  stories of long waits to actually see a physician—waits sometimes so long that veterans have died waiting.  There  also have been horror stories of mistreatment of veterans by career bureaucrat administrators at the VA, including deliberate falsification of records to hide the bureaucrats’ failures. Regarding those abuses, it was until recently all but impossible to remove the VA bureaucrats responsible for the problems.

Thanks to reforms initiated and fought for by President Donald J. Trump in his first term starting in 2016, long waits have been cut down by allowing veterans “freedom to choose” to seek help from private physicians when the VA is unable to provide timely help.

The Trump reforms include the ability to terminate those VA bureaucrats and employees who fail to properly serve the veterans. Several thousand VA bureaucrats and other VA employees  have reportedly been fired for abuses. The result has been that President Trump has received  an approval rating among veterans being served by VA to an astonishing “91%.”

Whether those successful policies will remain if there is a change in the Presidency, is unknown. It is known, that Democrats in House and Senate generally opposed the Trump reforms, including Democrats on the Veterans Affairs and other military-related committees. Therefore, veterans need the vigilance and support of Americans to ensure that the promises made to veterans for their service are fulfilled.

The late General Norman (“Stormin’ Norman”) Shwartzgoff, who led the victory in Desert Storm which brought down the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq, famously said: “Some things are worth living for. Some things are worth dying for. One of those things is freedom.”

America’s veterans are those men and women who took an oath to “defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Every single one of them took that oath and entered military service knowing that they might be required to die, or suffer horrible wounds, in defense of freedom. Yet, they served. As noted, some 1.4-million American veterans have died in defense of our freedom. Countless millions suffered the wounds of war, many lasting a lifetime.

There can be no doubt that we of this generation of Americans owe a great debt to America’s veterans who preserved and protected our freedom by their service—including all those veterans who are serving now.

We pay our debt to those who have served, in part, by remembering, honoring, and “keeping  faith” with veterans by insuring that the promises made to them are kept.

This Veterans Day 2020, although traditional parades and ceremonies have been curtailed due to the Chinese Communist Party virus pandemic, we would do well to honor veterans and reflect on just what Veterans Day means.

Veterans Day was originally “Armistice Day,” honoring WWI veterans. Congress later amended it to “Veterans Day” to honor all veterans.  Veterans Day observances traditionally commence at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year, the anniversary of the date and time of the signing of the Armistice ending combat in World War I on November 11, 1918.

WWI was a horrible war of slaughter: There were over over 10-million casualties. It began in 1914. The first of some 4-million Americans who would serve in —and win that war — began arriving in France in June, 1917, when it looked as if Germany would be victorious.

The first Americans to die were three soldiers who were killed in combat on Nov. 3, 1917. By the time the Armistice was signed a year later, on Nov. 11, 1918, some 117,000 Americans — almost 10,000 per month of combat—had given their lives in service.

The horror of WWI, presented side-by-side with the sacrifices of those Americans and allied forces who served, fought, and died — and the need for us to “keep the faith” with those who served —is expressed most profoundly by the poem, “Flanders Fields.” It is perhaps the most moving poem ever written about war, and sacrifice,  honor, and the need for those who live not to “break faith” with those who died for freedom.

“Flanders Fields”  was written by then-Major John McCrae, MD, a surgeon in the Canadian Army who was born in 1872 and would die in 1918, the year that terrible war ended. Dr. McCrae wrote the poem in the devastation of the battle of Yres in WWI, days after his best comrade had been killed. His words reach across more than a century to bring home the reality of all the wars, and the need to “keep faith” with those who served.

On this Veterans Day 2020, may God bless all the veterans who have served in defense of our freedom in all the wars. And may the country whose freedom they preserved honor them on Veterans Day and on every day. They kept the faith with us; and, as expressed in the haunting words of “Flanders Field,” we must not “break faith” with them.

IN FLANDERS FIELDS

By Lt. Col. John McCrae, Army of Canada, WWI

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow,
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be it yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Field.

© 2020 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

by Rees Lloyd

It is increasingly clear that the spirit of the WWII Generation which saved American freedom from “foreign enemies,” is needed to save America from the treasonous violent protests by the “domestic enemies” of the contemporary Misguided Generation.

From Victory Over Japan (VJ Day),  August 15, 1945, to VJ  Day 2020,  America has devolved from the patriotic heroism of the WWII Generation based on love of God, Country, and Freedom, to a treasonous insurrectionist segment of the contemporary generation —ungrateful descendants of the WWII Generation — seeking to overthrow the American Constitutional Republic by force and violence, based on hatred of God, Country, and Freedom in favor of Marxist Socialism/Communism.

“VJ-Day,” August 15, 2020, was the 75th anniversary of the surrender of the Japanese Empire in WWII. Germany under Adolph Hitler’s “National Socialist Workers Party (NAZI), surrendered on May 8, 1945. Thus, the Japanese surrender effectively ended WWII—the deadliest war in the history of the world.

WWII was won by the tremendous service and sacrifice of the WWII Generation, often referred to as The Greatest Generation. More than 16-million Americans served in the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard. More than 1-million of those veterans were wounded, and 400,000 gave their lives for our freedom.

Every one of those veterans took the same oath, which includes “to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” The WWII Generation fulfilled that oath, defeating all “foreign enemies.”  Every American living today owes his or her freedom to the sacrifices made by the WWII Generation.

Ironically, 75 years after the Japanese surrender on VJ Day, America and American freedom are under attack by “domestic enemies” —  descendants of the WWII Generation. They are attempting by insurrectionist force and violence to destroy American freedom by rioting, looting, burning of businesses, buildings, and the Flag under which all veterans have served, establishing self-governing “autonomous” zones in cities, invasion of suburban residential areas demanding White people turn over their homes, beating, maiming, and even murdering police officers and innocent people, including children.

While most Americans are appalled by this violence, progressive liberal elitist political, media, academic, and corporate leaders in business, are turning their backs on ordinary, law abiding, taxpaying Americans — the great majority in America— and instead bowing and kowtowing to the insurrectionists, attempting to appease them, out of fear and moral cowardice. The result is continuing violence, from which the elitists are shielded but ordinary Americans are not.

We Americans have devolved so far from the WWII Generation, as free Americans,  that polls show that some two-thirds of the citizens of this free nation are now afraid to speak the truth of their own political, social, or religious beliefs, for fear of adverse retaliation, including being physically attacked,  or branded a “racist” or “bigot,” losing businesses or employment opportunities, or being “canceled in the “cancel culture.”

Manifestly, “none dare call it treason” when a self-righteous, small but dangerous segment of the population — a tiny segment in a population of 340-million— engages in insurrectionist violence all in the name of “fighting racism.”

Further, while we all are lectured that we must denounce “racism,” none must ever, ever, ever note that “Black racism” also exists, e.g., purported “Black leaders,” Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Louis Farrakhan, Maxine Waters, the White-hating “Squad” in Congress, the Black Supremacist self-declared “Marxist” (Communist) leaders of Black Lives Matter and multiple-named White-hating, Black-racist organizations.

This is no longer a side-show that will go away if the rioters are just placated, and extort a few more benefits and quiet down for awhile. No, they are serious revolutionists, self-declared “Marxists.”  They cannot be appeased for the same reason Adolph Hitler couldn’t be appeased: It is about power, it is not about making the country better; it is about taking the country over.

They are intent on taking over, not making over, the country. They will not be appeased and satisfied even if the elite becomes so cowardly as to grant their outrageous demand for “reparations”—a manifestly preposterous, racist demand that contemporary White people who have never been slave owners must pay “reparations” to Black people who never have been slaves. Notwithstanding, Democrat Party leaders have publicly stated they support “reparations.”

The reality must be recognized: What is happening is the real, revolutionary,  thing: Black Lives Matter, its allied domestic terrorists of Antifa, their affiliated racial or Marxist allies, are not “reformist organizations” and individuals attempting to make America better. They are revolutionary organizations and individuals seeking to overthrow America and transform it into a Marxist Socialist/Communist dictatorship like all those which have started out crying for “social justice” and ending in tyranny.

In short, what is happening is no “reform,” it is revolution. It is treason.

There is only one way to stop this revolutionary violence, this treason: Americans of this generation must adopt the love of God, Country, and Freedom —and Courage—of the  WWII Generation and stand and fight tyranny. Period.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER!

© 2020 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

By Rees Lloyd

“I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men!” —Cesar Chavez

March 31 is an official State holiday in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, and is observed in several other States (including Colorado, Michigan, Nevada, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin)  in honor of the birth on March 31, 1927, of an extraordinary American — Cesar Estrada Chavez, the late co-founder and president of the United Farm Workers of America who became a legend in his own time in the civil rights era.

In his honor, his headquarters for the UFW, which he named “La Paz” (“The Peace”), in the Tehachapi Mountains in Keene, CA, on Highway 58 between Bakersfield and Tehachapi, is now officially the U.S. Cesar Chavez National Monument, established by the federal government.

The U.S. Navy, of which he was a WWII veteran, has named a ship for him.

He was posthumously awarded the the highest civilian award for service to America, the Medal of Freedom, which was accepted by his widow, Helen Chavez.

Many States, counties, cities, towns, villages, have named streets, schools, libraries and other public buildings in his honor.

But there are many Americans today who are unaware that  there is a Cesar Chavez Day (the major media ignore it), or why there should be a holiday honoring him.

There are also  malicious myths tainting the life and the memory of Cesar Chavez that need to be repudiated, most particularly the lies that he was  not an American but a Mexican national, and that he was a “Communist,” both of which were first promulgated by the John Birch Society. They are utterly false.

I had the honor of working with Cesar Chavez for some twenty years, starting in 1973, when I was a young long haul trucker participating in a nationwide strike of some 100,000 independent truckers in protest against escalating fuel costs in the so-called “Arab Oil Embargo.”

I was helping coordinate the truckers’ “Shutdown” at the Triple T Truck stop in Tucson, AZ, as a member of the steering committee of the “Truckers For Justice.”

Cesar Chavez mentored  me in that strike, which remained non-violent because of his demands in mentoring me that there should be no violence.“Rees, if there is violence, it is your fault,” Cesar Chavez admonished me, insisting: “Violence is a failure of creative intelligence; violence is failure of creative intelligence.”

After that strike was broken, an alliance between the Truckers For Justice and the United Farm Workers of America was established. During that work, in which we refused to haul non-union (“scab”) lettuce and grapes, Cesar told me I needed to go to law school as I could do more good as a lawyer.His recommendation got me into law school.

I worked with UFW lawyers while in law school, and after graduating and passing the California Bar in 1979, I became one of Cesar Chavez’ lawyers until the day of his death on April 23, 1993, and for the UFW there after as called upon. I have remained to this day exclusively a civil rights, workers rights, veterans rights attorney. (I have written in more detail about experiences with Cesar Chavez in an earlier tribute, available here.)

I can attest based on that long “up close and personal” experience that Cesar Chavez was, in his own way, a true American hero;  that there are valuable lessons to be learned from his honorable life; and that he is deserving of recognition by all Americans for his service and sacrifice for others, no matter their race, color, or creed.

However, in order to understand that, it is necessary, first, to overcome the lies and myths which continue to distort the truth of who and what Cesar Chavez was.

These are myths by those who hated and maligned him for their own political purposes; and by those who want to exploit who and what he was in order to appropriate him based on race, ethnicity, or nationality for their own political ends.

The most malicious of those myths are, as stated above, first, that he was not an American but a “Mexican” national; and, second, that he was a “Communist.”

These malicious myths were first promulgated, utterly falsely and politically deliberately, by the John Birch Society in the 1960’s. Almost sixty years later, they are repeated to this day.

First, as to nationality, the truth is that Cesar Chavez was a native-born American, not a “Mexican.”  While proud of his Mexican-American heritage, he was a third-generation American, born on his grandfather’s small ranch in Arizona in the Yuma area.  No matter the indisputability of those facts, Wikipedia, for example, on which many students and others rely, informed:“Chavez was born on the Mexico Texas border and therefore has dual citizenship.” Utterly false.

Second, Cesar Chavez was no “communist.” He was a devoted Catholic Christian. He was attempting, humbly,  to live his Christian faith as faithfully as he was able by sacrifice and service for others as taught and exemplified by Jesus the Christ, not Marx the Communist.

Perhaps the best proof, although none should be needed, that Cesar Chavez was not a Communist  but a devoted Catholic Christian living his faith, is the fact that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), in its U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults, which is taught to all adults seeking to become members of the Catholic Church, chose as the exemplar of living a  “life in Christ” and “the principles of the Christian moral life”—Cesar E. Chavez. (See, USCCB Catholic Catechism for Adults, Chapter 24, “Life In Christ-Part Two,” pages 233-234).

Moreover, almost never mentioned by those who hate  Cesar Chavez  and define him as a “communist” and a “Mexican” rather than an American, is that Cesar Chavez, in 1944 at the age of 17, enlisted in the U.S. Navy in WWII and served for the duration of the war in the Pacific in defense of the country of his birth, the United States of America.

Ironically, those who claim to love Cesar Chavez make themselves accomplices of those who hate him (and them)  by obscuring  Cesar Chavez’ American birth — and  by almost never mentioning that he was an American veteran of WWII.  They do this not to honor Cesar, but in order to appropriate Cesar Chavez on race or ethnic grounds as a “Mexican,” “Chicano,” or “Raza” race-based civil rights movement leader rather than as an American hero who should be honored by all Americans — as an American hero.

In regard to that, Cesar Chavez, while proud of his ancestral heritage, always identified himself as a “labor” or “union leader,” not as a civil rights leader of Mexican-Americans, Chicanos, Latinos, Hispanics, or La Raza.

In fact, in the some twenty years I worked with him,  Cesar never defined himself as a “Mexican,” or “Chicano,” “Latino,” etc., and, regarding the identification “La Raza” (“The Race”) he told me he didn’t use it because he considered it racialist.

Thus, those who condemn him as a “Mexican” and “Communist,” and those who claim a possessory interest him as  a leader of a race-based “Chicano” or “La Raza” civil rights movement, are both wrong: He defined himself as, and acted as, what he was—a “trade union leader,” and most importantly, a devout Catholic Christian living his faith.

In truth, Cesar Chavez, as he lived his Catholic Christian faith,  was the inspiring moral heart of the American labor movement.

He built the first viable farm workers union in American history, the United Farm Workers of America. As president of the UFW, Cesar Chavez represented all farm workers, whatever their race, ethnicity, or nationality.

One example which refutes the myths of both those who hate Chavez and those who appropriate him based on race, and shows the willingness of both to corrupt historical truth to suit their political ends, is Chavez’ acts regarding illegal immigration, which was then and remains now  at the center of national controversy and division.

In 1969, Cesar Chavez famously led a march from Indio, CA, to the border. It is portrayed today as primarily a march in protest against discrimination by racist growers oppressing Mexican and other Hispanic farm workers. That is false historical revisionism.

The primary purpose of the 1969 march to the Mexican border was a protest against the federal government’s failure to secure the border from importation of illegal immigrants who were being used to keep wages and working conditions down and to break strikes and the farm workers union entirely. Indeed, as UFW members set up picket lines waving “Huelga” (“Strike”) flags, buses would arrive from Mexico to unload strike breakers.

In short, Cesar Chavez’ 1969 march to the Mexican border was for the same purpose that the Minutemen later went to the border in the 70’s and 80’s— to secure the border and demand that the government stop illegal immigration. (It should be noted that the Minutemen were widely condemned as  “racists” for doing just what Cesar Chavez did. Was Cesar Chavez a racist? )

In the 1970’s, Cesar Chavez fell out of favor with race-based civil rights groups, white liberals, Leftists including open Socialist and Communist organizations, and liberal media. He was criticized because he adopted the position of calling upon and aiding the then-Immigration And Naturalization Service (INS) to deport strikebreakers illegally in the country.

Among other things, Cesar Chavez testified before Congress about immigration. He testified that illegal immigration had to be stopped, and the border secured, as illegal immigrants were used to hold wages and working conditions down, and to break strikes, defeating efforts of farm workers to build a union to improve their wages, hours, working conditions, and lives.

Today, Cesar Chavez’ 1969 march from Indio to the border is historically revised to be a protest against racist growers and his Congressional testimony is rarely cited, to satisfy the political ends of race-based La Raza groups and non-raza liberals who want to transform him from what he was, i.e., a leader of a labor movement to improve the lives of all farm workers,  to what they want him to be, i.e., a race-based political leader.

Meanwhile, many conservatives continue the original wrong and error of the John Birch Society when it falsely slandered and branded Cesar Chavez as a non-American and a “communist.” That continually repeated malicious lie has alienated not only many Americans, including many Mexican-American and other Hispanics for whom Cesar Chavez is, rightly,  a hero, as he should be for all Americans.

In his lifetime, although he became nationally and internationally renown, Cesar Chavez never sought personal fame, wealth, or celebrity. It was all about “La Causa,”the cause, not about him.

Indeed, Cesar Chavez  turned down millions of dollars offered for the rights to make a movie of his life,  Similarly, he rejected all offers to write an autobiography or for the right to produce an “authorized” biography. All that he would authorize was the “Autobiography of La Causa,” by Jaques Levy, who didn’t “buy” the right but earned it by working with Chavez in La Causa for some ten years.

Cesar Chavez’ achievement is monumental. Farm workers, and domestic workers, were exempted from the right to organize into unions provided to all other workers by the National Labor Relations Act. There were no State laws creating a right of farm workers to support unionization. They could be and were fired and “blacklisted” with impunity by employers who suspected them of supporting a union. Farm workers were also migrant, moving from employer to employer on the migrant trail during harvesting seasons.

There were more than a hundred attempts to organize migrant farm workers by major international unions with money, members, and paid full time organizers. All failed. It was thought impossible to organize migrant farm workers.

Then came Cesar Chavez. He had nothing. No money, no members, no paid staff. Nothing but the belief that the only way to help farm workers was to build a union in which they could themselves achieve better working conditions — and dignity.  He succeeded by touching the hearts of Americans by his non-violent “boycotts” and exposure of the miserable working conditions of farm workers.

He, himself,  had become a migrant farm worker at the age of ten when the ranch of his grandfather on which he was born was lost on foreclosure in the Depression and taken over by the Bruce Church Corp., largest lettuce grower in Arizona.He had little education, attending some fifty different elementary schools as his family followed the migrant farm worker trail. After his service in the U.S. Navy, he went back to working in the fields. He married his sweetheart, Helen, also a farm worker,  in Delano, CA. Together they worked the fields, ultimately having had eight kids.

The story has been told now in many articles, books, documentaries, and a relatively recent movie of how Cesar Chavez, while working as an organizer in Los Angeles, became convinced a union for farm workers had to be created if working conditions were to be improved. He quit his job. He and Helen loaded up their old station wagon with the kids and a mimeograph machine, and headed to Delano. There, they rented a house, set up the mimeograph machine, and sent out a flyer calling for a house meeting, the first step in creating what would become the United Farm Workers of America.

How did Cesar Chavez succeed where all others had failed? By touching the hearts of Americans and the conscience of the nation by exposing the true working conditions of migrant farm workers through creative, non-violent acts and actions, including  his fasts and boycotts, and by his manifest personal selfless service and sacrifice.

Cesar Chavez did not merely say:  “I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men!”

He lived it.  By doing so, he succeeded where so many others failed. He achieved what was thought impossible. He inspired and taught by his example, humbly serving and sacrificing for others, and thereby has enriched the lives not only of farm workers, but the lives of millions of Americans, of all races, all colors, all creeds, including my own life.

It was Jesus Christ whom Cesar Chavez worshipped, followed, and humbly attempted to emulate by service to others through living his Catholic Christian faith. I have little doubt that in the fullness of time, Cesar Chavez will one day become one of the Blessed of his Catholic faith, if not canonized.

I am greatly indebted to Cesar Chavez, especially for the example of his humble, selfless life in service for others. I will always walk in his shadow. May the God he so faithfully served bless and keep him. May the country he so faithfully served, always remember and honor him.

CESAR CHAVEZ AND REES LLOYD

At Press Conference during truckers strike in Tucson, AZ, in 1973, announcing alliance of Truckers For Justice and United Farm Workers of America (UFWA)

© 2020 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

by Rees Lloyd

Repeal The Uniform Monday Holiday Act

February 22, 2020, is the 288th anniversary of the birth in 1732 of General and President George Washington, the “Father Of Our Country.” He is the most universally respected and admired American in the age of the Founding Fathers, and in the history of America.

For generations, George Washington’s Birthday was a National Holiday celebrated on the actual anniversary of his birth, February 22. On Washington’s Birthday. Americans paused to remember and honor him. Parents and schools taught American children about his life on his birthday; urged the children to learn about the Father Of His [Their] Country, and to follow his example of patriotic love of country, selfless service and sacrifice for freedom, personal honor, dedication to duty, fidelity to principle.

By observing Washington’s Birthday as a National Holiday on his actual birth date, Feb. 22, the focus of the nation was on Washington, on the example he set by his extraordinary life, establishing him as “the Greatest American.”

However, all that changed in 1971. Congress — pressured by federal government bureaucrats and other employees and their unions  desiring another three-day holiday — abolished “Washington’s Birthday” as a National Holiday. It was replaced with “Presidents’ Day,” to be observed on the “third Monday of February,” as a result of the “Uniform Monday Holiday Act,” which gave government employees their sought after three-day weekend.

As a result, Americans in general, and in particular American children in government schools, learn little or nothing about the greatest man in the history of America, George Washington, without whose extraordinary virtues and sacrifices they would not be free.

The “Uniform Monday Holiday Act [For Government Employees Convenience]” should be repealed. “Washington’s Birthday” should be reinstated as a National Holiday, and should be celebrated on Washington’s actual birthday: February 22, and not be just another three-day weekend holiday for pampered “public servants” in government employment (while most private sector workers, i.e., taxpayers, worked).

No other president has been so universally admired in America or in the world as was General George Washington. Washington was by far the most admired man of the Founding Father’s generation. He was called the “Father Of His Country.” He was the only President and unanimously elected, and unanimously re-elected. He was, as Revolutionary War hero Gen. “Light Horse” Harry Lee memorably said: “First in war. First in peace. First in the hearts of his countrymen.”

Can that be said today, when Washington’s Birthday  is no longer a National Holiday, and the nation’s children learn more in progressive liberal, politically correct, cultural-relativist government schools about  “the life of Mohammad” than the life of George Washington?

When schools, politicians, and media celebrate such farcical concocted “holidays” as “Kwanzaa” (never a holiday or observed  in Africa) or  “Cinco de Mayo” (never a holiday or observed in Mexico), while George Washington’s Birthday Holiday is no more?

George Washington, first, last, and always a soldier serving God and Country, was heralded in his time as the “Apostle of Liberty,” the “Indispensable Man,” having with his ragtag band of American citizen-soldiers of the Revolutionary Army defeated the English Empire, then the most powerful military force in the world, in eight years of war to establish our American independence, our freedom.

Washington did not seek the Presidency–it sought him. He was elected unanimously –twice. He was offered the Presidency for life.  But he stunned the world when he refused a third term  and even monarchial rule, and, instead walked away from power to return to his home as citizen. He was, is, our American “Cincinatus.” Washington, like that Fifth Century (BC), Roman general, fought the battles of the nation; held unequaled power; but did not covet it, and instead returned to his farm. So was Washington satisfied to be a citizen of a free America, rather than its ruler.

When Washington did that, walked away from ultimate power, even England’s King George III, whom Washington had defeated, hailed Washington “as the greatest man of his era.”

John Adams, his successor as President, said of him: “If we look over the catalogue of the first magistrates of nations, whether they have been denominated Presidents or Consuls, Kings or Princes, where shall we find one whose commanding talents and virtues, whose overruling good fortune, have so completely united all hearts and voices in his favor?…His example is complete; and it will teach wisdom and virtue  to Magistrates, Citizens, and Men, not only in the present age, but in future generations.”

Thomas Jefferson, father of the Declaration of Independence and our third president, said of Washington that he was: ”The only man in the United States who possessed the confidence of all. There was no other one who was considered as anything more than a party leader….And it may be truly said that never did nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great, and to place him in the same constellation with whatever worthies have merited from man an everlasting remembrance.”

Even the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, who admitted his love of power and yielded to no man a claim of greater glory than he himself possessed, spoke of his admiration of Washington: “This great man fought against tyranny: he established the liberty of his country. His memory will always be dear to the French people, as it will be to all freemen.”

Are those words  still true to this generation of Americans? Those words of Adams, Jefferson, Gen. Harry Lee, the English King George III and the French Emperor Napoleon, all speaking with awe at the example of Washington’s life as one which would be taught “not only in the present age, but in future generations,” as John Adams said, and his memory “held dear..to all free men” as Napoleon said?

Is Washington still  “First in war. First in peace. First in the hearts of his countrymen,” as Gen. “Light Horse” Harry Lee said of him? If not, why not?

Are we Americans better for it, as a people, as a nation, when we honor no longer the one American who was so universally acknowledged in his time —  and up to this generation of transformed Americans —  as the Greatest American, the Father Of Our Country? He who defeated tyranny, held ultimate power by acclamation and then walked away from it to preserve the freedom he had created as a soldier? He who lived his life for God and Country?

Are the children of a nation, like the children of a family, really better off, better people, by forgetting their father, being without their father, forgetting the virtues their father taught, being orphaned?

We Americans today, whatever our ages, whatever our ancestry, ethnicity, or race, as Americans, are the children of the American  Founding Fathers, including in the particular George Washington, whom the Founding Fathers proclaimed the greatest among them, the Father Of Our Country.

May both the God that George Washington so faithfully served bless and keep him; may the Country he so loyally served always remember and honor him;  and may the lessons of his life be learned in this and every generation so that the freedom he fought for and created may not wither and weaken, to be destroyed by enemies foreign, or domestic.

Tell Congress to repeal the “Uniform Monday Holiday Act,” no matter the tears and anguish of taxpayer-paid government employees who will be deprived of another  three-day holiday — and no matter the loss to the politicians of those government employees’ campaign contributions by which they purchased their uniform three-day weekend holidays from the politicians by elimination of George Washington’s Birthday for the uninspiring “Presidents Day.”

Congress should re-establish George Washington’s Birthday as a National Holiday — and celebrate it on his actual birth day, February 22. The Father Of Our Country deserves no less. The people of our nation, especially the children, deserve no less.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY–NEVER!

© 2020 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

Rees Lloyd

December 7, 2019 ,Pearl Harbor Day, marks the 78th anniversary of the Japanese air attack on U.S. naval and air installations at Pearl Harbor, HI, at 7:53 a.m., Dec. 7, 1941 — without a declaration of war.

It was then the worst attack on American soil in history: Some 2,403 died, 2008 of them Navy personnel; another 1,178 were wounded.

Eighteen Navy ships, including the U.S.S. Arizona, were sunk or damaged. Almost all the planes at the island bases were destroyed or damaged while still on the ground.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt memorably called December 7, 1941, “a day which will live in infamy” in his dramatic speech to Congress, which then declared war on Japan.

Only the sneak attack on America by radical Islamic terrorists on 9-11-2001 in New York resulted in more deaths. But for many Americans of this generation — and millions of immigrants, legal and illegal — the meaning, the significance of Pearl Harbor, is not fully known, or appreciated.

One American for whom the Patriot Harbor attack did “live in infamy” for all of his long, productive, and patriotic  100-year lifetime, was Pearl Harbor survivor Shelby John (“S.J.”) Hemker of Banning, California.

Hemker, a poor “country boy” whose childhood was the Great Depression, joined the Navy at 17. He was at Pearl Harbor near the end of his first four-year tour of duty when the Japanese attacked. He survived that horror, and went on to be a three-war combat Navy veteran — WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. After retirement from the Navy, he continued to serve America in peacetime as a life member of The American Legion.

Hemker, by his giving, patriotic life of service to God and country  in war and in peace,  was an exemplar of the Greatest Generation of WWII. Beloved by his comrade wartime veterans and his community, S.J. Hemker was honored by both on January 10, 2019, at a celebration of his 100th Birthday. Representatives of the linked San Gorgonio Pass cities of Banning and Beaumont in Riverside County, presented him with Proclamations honoring him; commendations were presented by his American Legion Post 428 and other Posts, and veterans organizations from as far away as Patriot Outreach based in Kansas.

Many  words were spoken there about Pearl Harbor, its horror, and its meaning, then and now. The most poignant of those words were those of S.J. Hemker, himself, in a remembrance of Pearl Habor, and of what it should mean, in an earlier interview with me.  It was my honor to read those words of S.H. Hemker about Pearl Harbor at the celebration of his life, and is to publish them here:

“Ordinarily, we would have been at sea. We were at Pearl Harbor because we had to repair an engine that had been sabotaged at the shipyard back in California. I was up on the fantail of our ship, the USS New Orleans, a heavy cruiser, with the Chief Master at Arms. The Quartermaster was there, getting ready to raise the flag,” Hemker recalled in an interview with me.

“It was 7:53 a.m. when we saw the Japanese planes. They were flying so low I could see the pilots’ faces in the cockpit. They were grinning at us as they went down toward Battle Ship Row. Grinning at me and the Chief. They were so close, you could have thrown something at them and hit them. A potato, maybe. They were that close. Just skimming the top of the water. Torpedo planes. The pilots grinning at us,” Hemker reluctantly, but vividly recalled.

“The loudspeakers blared: ‘Man your battle stations – the Japs are attacking’. All hell broke loose… It was terrible, horrible, …,” he said pausing in his remembrance.

“I spent the next eight hours down in the magazine loading for our five-inch anti-aircraft guns. We fired everything. If we had been hit, that would have been it for us in the magazine. We would have been blown up. We had a big crane over the top of our ship. I think that’s what saved us,” he stated matter-of-factly as to his own circumstance, then somberly related:

“The Arizona capsized. Thirteen hundred men went down with her. Half the guys I was with in boot camp died on the Arizona. That’s where the Memorial is today. They say that oil still leaks out every day. Those guys…they’re still down there,” Hemker said quietly, his voice trailing off, as if physically turning away from a memory, and reality, which was still too painful to talk about.

Getting Hemker to talk about it at all was no easy task. Like many of his fellow World War II veterans, he didn’t talk about his war experiences, never expected any thanks or gratitude, and never, ever boasted about it, despite the fact that after Pearl Harbor he served America in battles and combat zones for the duration of WWII, in the Korean War, and in Vietnam.

Hempker, a widower, roguishly handsome into his 90’s and possessed of a sly sense of humor, for years charmed the ladies in the American Legion Auxiliary with his country gallantry. He was universally admired by his comrade veterans in the American Legion. “I’m not able to do what I used to do, but I do what I can,” he said.

Hemker’s beloved wife died more than 30 years ago. For the last thirteen years of her life, Hemker’s wife was bedridden, unable to perform the most basic of everyday tasks of life, totally dependent. It says a great deal about the kind of man S.J. Hemker was, that for all of those thirteen years Hemker cared for her, saw to her every need, lovingly dedicated his life to her care, until her death did them part.

Hemker had four sons. All four,  like their father, are veterans who served in the Vietnam war. Hemker had no biological daughter. But, in his declining years, he had for more than fifteen years lived in his own room in the home of a loving “daughter-in-fact” if not of biology, Sue McConnell, and her husband,

No daughter has rendered more loving care to a father than had Sue McConnell to S.J. Hemker.

“I call him my ‘Dad’ because he is that to me. I couldn’t love him more,”  Sue,told me. She had known Hemker for thirty-seven years, during which she had often risen up in fury when the VA had not done its duty to “to this great man, this hero, my Dad.”

Reflecting on Pearl Harbor seventy-seven years after surviving it, Hemker, who had lost his eyesight,  but not his vision for America, observed.

“We Americans should never forget. If we forget our past and those who died, we won’t have a future. A free one, anyway. Look at what happened on 9-11. More people were killed on that day than were killed at Pearl Harbor. It can happen again,” he warned.

“I don’t think people remember Pearl Harbor and what it means, the way they used to do,” Hemker concluded. “That’s too bad. A lot of us can’t forget. An awful lot of really good people died to keep America free. They shouldn’t be forgotten.”

These are the last words of S.J. Hemker, veteran and self-described “ordinary American…just a common man,”  about the attack on Pearl Harbor,  that “day of infamy” on Dec. 7, 1941,  about those who died in it, and those who survived it and continued to serve until victory in WWII, preserving our American freedom.

1- J. Hemker, sad to say, is no longer with us. Although reaching his 100th Birthday on January 10, 2019, Hemker later in the year “transferred to Post Everlasting,” as we, his American Legion comrades, say.

Although S.J. Hemker may no longer be with us physically, he can be and should be with us spiritually—the spirit of patriotic love of  country and service in its defense that he exemplified, as did and do so many others of the WWII Greatest Generation. Neither his life nor his words should be forgotten, if, as he warns, we Americans are to remain free.

May the God that S.J. Hemker served so faithfully bless and keep him. May the country he served so faithfully for all of his 100 years on earth, always honor and remember him.

© 2019 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

“I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men!” —Cesar Chavez

March 31 is an official State holiday in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, and is observed in several other States, in honor of the birth on March 31, 1937, of an extraordinary American — Cesar Estrada Chavez, the late co-founder and president of the United Farm Workers of America who became a legend in his own time in the civil rights era.

In his honor, his headquarters for the UFW, which he named “La Paz” (“The Peace”), in the Tehachapi Mountains in Keene, CA, on Highway 58 between Bakersfield and Tehachapi, is now officially the U.S. Cesar Chavez National Monument, established by the federal government.

The U.S. Navy, of which he was a veteran, has named a ship for him.

He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Freedom, which was accepted by his widow, Helen Chavez.

Many cities have named streets, schools, libraries and other public buildings in his honor.

But there are many Americans today who are unaware that  here is a Cesar Chavez Day  (the major media ignore it), or why there should be a holiday honoring him.

There are also  malicious myths tainting the life and the memory of Cesar Chavez that need to be repudiated, most particularly the lies that he was  not an American but a Mexican national, and that he was a “Communist,” both of which were first promulgated by the John Birch Society. They are utterly false.

I  worked with Cesar Chavez for some twenty years, starting in 1973, when I was a young long haul trucker participating in a nationwide strike of some 100,000 independent truckers in protest against escalating fuel costs in the so-called “Arab Oil Embargo.”

I was helping coordinate the the truckers’ “Shutdown” at the Triple T Truckstop in Tucson, AZ, as a member of the steering committee of the “Truckers For Justice.”

Cesar Chavez mentored  me in that strike, which remained non-violent because of his demands in mentoring me that “violence is a failure of creative intelligence; violence is failure of creative intelligence.”

After that strike was broken, an alliance between the Truckers For Justice and the United Farm Workers of America was established. During that work, in which we refused to haul non-union (“scab”) lettuce and grapes, Cesar told me I needed to go to law school as I could do more good as a lawyer.

His recommendation got me into law school.

I worked with UFW lawyers while in law school, and after graduating and passing the California Bar in 1979, I became one of Cesar Chavez’ lawyers until the day of his death on April 23, 1993, and for the UFW thereafter as called upon. I have remained to this day exclusively a civil rights, workers rights, veterans rights attorney. (I have written in more detail about experiences with Cesar Chavez in an earlier tribute, available here.)

I can attest based on that long “up close and personal” experience that Cesar Chavez was, in his own way, a true American hero;  that there are valuable lessons to be learned from his honorable life; and that he is deserving of recognition by all Americans for his service and sacrifice for others, no matter their race, color, or creed.

However, in order to understand that, it is necessary, first, to overcome the lies and myths which continue to distort the truth of who and what Cesar Chavez was. These are myths by those who hated and maligned him for their own political purposes; and by those who want to exploit who and what he was in order to appropriate him based on race, ethnicity, or nationality for their own political ends.

The most malicious of those myths are, as stated above, first, that he was not an American but a “Mexican” national; and, second, that he was a “Communist.” These malicious myths were first promulgated, utterly falsely and politically deliberately, by the John Birch Society in the 1960’s. Almost sixty years later, they are repeated to this day.

First, as to nationality, the truth is that Cesar Chavez was a native-born American, not a “Mexican.”  While proud of his Mexican-American heritage, he was a third-generation American, born on his grandfather’s small ranch in Arizona in the Yuma area.  No matter the indisputability of those facts, Wikipedia, for example, on which many students and others rely, informs even now: “Chavez was born on the Mexico Texas border and therefore has dual citizenship.” Utterly false.

Second, Cesar Chavez was no “communist.” He was a devoted Catholic Christian. He was attempting, humbly,  to live his Christian faith as faithfully as he was able by sacrifice and service for others as taught and exemplified by Jesus the Christ, not Marx the Communist.

Perhaps the best proof, although none should be needed, that Cesar Chavez was not a Communist  but a devoted Catholic Christian living his faith, is the fact that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), in its U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults, which is taught to all adults seeking to become members of the Catholic Church, chose as the exemplar of living a  “life in Christ” and “the principles of the Christian moral life”—Cesar E. Chavez. (See, USCCB Catholic Catechism for Adults, Chapter 24, “Life In Christ-Part Two,” pages 323-234).

Moreover, almost never mentioned by those who hate  Cesar Chavez  and define him as a “communist” and a “Mexican” rather than an American, is that Cesar Chavez, in 1944 at the age of 17, enlisted in the U.S. Navy in WWII and served for the duration of the war in the Pacific in defense of the country of his birth, the United States of America.

Ironically, those who claim to love Cesar Chavez make themselves accomplices of those who hate him (and them)  by obscuring  Cesar Chavez’ American birth — and  by almost never mentioning that he was an American veteran of WWII.  They do this not to honor Cesar, but in order to appropriate Cesar Chavez on race or ethnic grounds as a “Mexican,” “Chicano,” or “Raza” race-based civil rights movement leader rather than as an American hero who should be honored by all Americans — as an American hero.

In regard to that, Cesar Chavez, while proud of his ancestral heritage, always identified himself as a “labor” or “union leader,” not as a civil rights leader of Mexican-Americans, Chicanos, Latinos, Hispanics, or La Raza.

In fact, in the some twenty years I worked with him,  Cesar never defined himself as a “Mexican,” or “Chicano,” “Latino,” etc., and, regarding the identification “La Raza” (“The Race”) he told me he didn’t use it because he considered it racialist.

Those who condemn him as a “Mexican” and “Communist,,” and those who claim a possessory interest him as  a leader of a race-based “Chicano” or “La Raza” civil rights movement, are both wrong: He defined himself as, and acted as, what he was—a “trade union leader,” and a devout Catholic Christian.

Cesar Chavez, as he lived his Catholic Christian faith,  was the moral heart of the American labor movement.

He built the first viable farm workers union in American history, the United Farm Workers of America. As president of the UFW, Cesar Chavez represented all farm workers, whatever their race, ethnicity, or nationality.

One example which refutes the myths of both those who hate Chavez and those who appropriate him based on race, and shows the willingness of both to corrupt historical truth to suit their political ends, is Chavez’ acts regarding illegal immigration, which was then and remains now  at the center of national controversy and division.

In 1969, Cesar Chavez famously led a march from Indio, CA, to the border. It is portrayed today as primarily a march in protest against discrimination by racist growers oppressing Mexican and other Hispanic farmworkers. That is false historical revisionism.

The primary purpose of the 1969 march to the Mexican border was a protest against the federal government’s failure to secure the border from importation of illegal immigrants who were being used to keep wages and working conditions down and to break strikes and the farmworkers union entirely. Indeed, as UFW members set up picket lines waving “Huelga” (“Strike”) flags, buses would arrive from Mexico to unload strike breakers.

In short, Cesar Chavez’ 1969 march to the Mexican border was for the same purpose that the Minutemen later went to the border in the 70’s and 80’s— to secure the border and demand that the government stop illegal immigration. (It should be noted that the Minutemen were widely condemned as as “racists” for doing just what Cesar Chavez did. Was Cesar Chavez a racist? )

In the 1970’s, Cesar Chavez fell out of favor with race-based civil rights groups, white liberals, Leftists including open Socialist and Communist organizations, and liberal media. He was criticized because he adopted the position of calling upon and aiding the then-Immigration And Naturalization Service (INS) to deport strikebreakers illegally in the country.

In 1979, ten years after the march from Indio to the border to demand enforcement of the immigration laws, Cesar Chavez testified before Congress about immigration. He testified that illegal immigration had to be stopped, and the border secured, as illegal immigrants were used to hold wages and working conditions down, and to break strikes, defeating efforts of farmworkers to build a union to improve their wages, hours, working conditions, and lives.

Today, Cesar Chavez’ 1969 march from Indio to the border is historically revised to be a protest against racist growers and his 1979 Congressional testimony is rarely cited, to satisfy the political ends of race-based la raza groups and non-raza liberals who want to transform him from what he was, i.e., a leader of a labor movement to improve the lives of all farmworkers,  to what they want him to be, i.e., a race-based political leader.

Meanwhile, many conservatives continue the original wrong and error of the John Birch Society when it falsely slandered and branded Cesar Chavez as a non-American and a “communist.” That continually repeated malicious lie has alienated many Mexican-American and other Hispanics for whom Cesar Chavez is, rightly,  a hero, as he should be for all Americans.

In his lifetime, although he became nationally and internationally renown, Cesar Chavez never sought personal fame, wealth, or celebrity. It was all about the cause, la causa, not about him. Indeed, Cesar Chavez  turned down millions of dollars offered for the rights to make a movie of his life. Similarly, he rejected all offers to write an autobiography or for the right to produce an “authorized” biography. All that he would authorize was the “Autobiography of La Causa,” by Jaques Levy, who didn’t “buy” the right but earned it by working with Chavez in la causa for some ten years.

Cesar Chavez’ achievement is monumental. Farmworkers, and domestic workers, were exempted from the right to organize into unions provided to all other workers by the National Labor Relations Act. There were no State laws creating a right of farmworkers to support unionization. They could be and were fired and “blacklisted” with impunity by employers who suspected them of supporting a union. Farmworkers were also migrant, moving from employer to employer on the migrant trail during harvesting seasons. Therefore, more than a hundred attempts to organize migrant farmworkers by major international unions with money, members, and paid full time organizers failed. It was thought impossible to organize migrant farmworkers.

Then came Cesar Chavez. He had nothing. No money, no members, no paid staff. Nothing but the belief that the only way to help farmworkers was to build a union in which they could themselves achieve better working conditions, and dignity.

He himself had become a migrant farmworker at the age of ten when the ranch of his grandfather on which he was born was lost on foreclosure in the Depression and taken over by the Bruce Church Corp., largest lettuce grower in Arizona.

He had little education, attending some fifty different elementary schools as his family followed the migrant farmworker trail. After his service in the U.S. Navy, he had married his sweetheart, Helen, in Delano, CA. Together they had eight kids.

The story has been told now in many articles, books, documentaries, and a relatively recent movie of how Cesar Chavez, while working as an organizer in Los Angeles, became convinced a union for farmworkers had to be created. He quit his job. He and Helen loaded up their old station wagon with the kids and a mimeograph machine, and headed to Delano. There, they rented a house, set up the mimeograph machine, and sent out a flyer calling for a house meeting, the first step in creating what would become the United Farm Workers of America.

How did Cesar Chavez succeed where all others had failed? By touching the hearts of Americans and the conscience of the nation by exposing the true working conditions of migrant farmworkers through creative, non-violent acts and actions, including  his fasts and boycotts, and by his manifest personal selfless service and sacrifice.

Cesar Chavez did not merely say:  “I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men!”

He lived it.  By doing so, he succeeded where so many others failed. He achieved what was thought impossible. He inspired and taught by his example, humbly serving and sacrificing for others, and thereby has enriched the lives not only of farmworkers, but the lives of millions of Americans, of all races, all colors, all creeds, including my own life.

It was Jesus Christ whom Cesar Chavez worshipped, followed, and humbly attempted to emulate by service to others through living his Catholic Christian faith. I have little doubt that in the fullness of time, Cesar Chavez will one day become one of the Blessed of his Catholic faith, if not canonized.

I am greatly indebted to Cesar Chavez, especially for the example of his humble, selfless life in service for others. I will always walk in his shadow.

CESAR CHAVEZ AND REES LLOYD

At Press Conference during truckers strike in Tucson, AZ, in 1973, announcing alliance of Truckers For Justice and United Farm Workers of America (UFWA).

© 2019 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

December 7, 2018, Pearl Harbor Day, marks the 77th anniversary of the Japanese air attack on U.S. naval and air installations at Pearl Harbor, HI, at 7:53 a.m., Dec. 7, 1941, without a declaration of war.

It was then the worst attack on American soil in history: Some 2,403 died, 2008 of them Navy personnel; another 1,178 were wounded.

Eighteen Navy ships, including the U.S.S. Arizona, were sunk or damaged. Almost all the planes at the island bases were destroyed or damaged while still on the ground.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt memorably called December 7, 1941, “a day which will live in infamy” in his dramatic speech to Congress, which then declared war on Japan.

Only the sneak attack on America by radical Islamic terrorists on 9-11-2001 in New York resulted in more deaths. But for many Americans of this generation — and millions of immigrants, legal and illegal — the significance of Pearl Harbor is not fully known, or appreciated.

One for whom it does “live in infamy,” is Pearl Harbor survivor S. J. Hemker of Banning, California,  A retired three-war combat Navy veteran — WWII, Korea, and Vietnam —and an American Legionnaire, Hemker, who will celebrate his 100th Birthday on Jan. 10, 1919, remembers Pearl Harbor up close and personal as if it was yesterday:

“Ordinarily, we would have been at sea. We were at Pearl Harbor because we had to repair an engine that had been sabotaged at the shipyard back in California. I was up on the fantail of our ship, the USS New Orleans, a heavy cruiser, with the Chief Master at Arms. The Quartermaster was there, getting ready to raise the flag,” Hemker recalls.

“It was 7:53 a.m. when we saw the Japanese planes. They were flying so low I could see the pilots’ faces in the cockpit. They were grinning at us as they went down toward Battle Ship Row. Grinning at me and the Chief. They were so close, you could have thrown something at them and hit them. A potato, maybe. They were that close. Just skimming the top of the water. Torpedo planes. The pilots grinning at us,” Hemker reluctantly, but vividly recalls.

“The loudspeakers blared: ‘Man your battle stations – the Japs are attacking’. All hell broke loose… It was terrible, horrible, …,” he says, pausing in his remembrance.

“I spent the next eight hours down in the magazine loading for our five-inch anti-aircraft guns. We fired everything. If we had been hit, that would have been it for us in the magazine. We would have been blown up. We had a big crane over the top of our ship. I think that’s what saved us,” he states matter-of-factly as to his own circumstance, then somberly relates:

“The Arizona capsized. Thirteen hundred men went down with her. Half the guys I was with in boot camp died on the Arizona. That’s where the Memorial is today. They say that oil still leaks out every day. Those guys…they’re still down there,” Hemker says quietly, his voice trailing off, as if physically turning away from a memory, and reality, which is still too painful to talk about.

Getting Hemker to talk about it at all is no easy task. Like many of his fellow World War II veterans, he still doesn’t talk about his war experiences, never expects any thanks or gratitude, and never, ever boasts about it, despite the fact that after Pearl Harbor he served America in battles and combat zones for the duration of WWII, in the Korean War, and in Vietnam.

Hempker, a widower, roguishly handsome into his 90’s and possessed of a sly sense of humor, for years charmed the ladies in the American Legion Auxiliary with his country gallantry. He is universally admired by his comrade veterans in the American Legion. “I’m not able to do what I used to do, but I do what I can,” he says.

Hemker’s beloved wife died more than 30 years ago. For the last thirteen years of her life, Hemker’s wife was bedridden, unable to perform the most basic of everyday tasks of life, totally dependent. It says a great deal about the kind of man S.J. Hemker is, that for all of those thirteen years Hemker cared for her, seeing to her every need, lovingly dedicating his life to her care, until her death did them part.

Hemker had four sons. All four,  like their father, are veterans who served in the Vietnam war. Hemker had no biological daughter. But, in his declining years, he has for more than fifteen years lived in his own room in the home of a loving daughter-in-fact if not of biology, Sue McConnell, and her husband,

No daughter has rendered more loving care to a father than has Sue McConnell to S.J. Hemker.

“I call him my ‘Dad’ because he is that to me. I couldn’t love him more,” says Sue, who has known Hemker for thirty-seven years, which during she has often up risen up in fury when the VA has not done its duty to “to this great man, this hero, my Dad.”

Reflecting on Pearl Harbor seventy-seven years after surviving it, Hemker, who has lost his eyesight,  but not his vision for America, observes:

“We Americans should never forget. If we forget our past and those who died, we won’t have a future. A free one, anyway. Look at what happened on 9-11. More people were killed on that day then were killed at Pearl Harbor. It can happen again,” he warns.

“I don’t think people remember Pearl Harbor and what it means, the way they used to do,” Hemker concludes. “That’s too bad. A lot of us can’t forget. An awful lot of really good people died to keep America free. They shouldn’t be forgotten.”

© 2018 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

“I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men!” —Cesar Chavez

March 31 is an official  State holiday in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, and is observed in several other States, in honor of the birth on March 31, 1937, of an extraordinary American — Cesar Estrada Chavez, the late co-founder and president of the United Farm Workers of America who became a legend in his own time in the civil rights era.

In his honor, his headquarters for the UFW, which he named “La Paz” (“The Peace”), in the Tehachapi Mountains in Keene, CA, on Highway 58 between Bakersfield and Tehachapi, is now officially the U.S. Cesar Chavez National Monument, established by the federal government. The U.S. Navy, of which he was a veteran, has named a ship for him. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Freedom, which was accepted by his widow, Helen Chavez. Many cities have named streets, schools, libraries and other public buildings in his honor.

But there are many Americans today who are unaware there is a Cesar Chavez Day  (the major media ignore it), or why there should be a holiday honoring him. There are also  malicious myths tainting the life and the memory of Cesar Chavez that need to be repudiated, most particularly the lies that he was  not an American but a Mexican national, and that he was a “Communist,” both of which were first promulgated by the John Birch Society. They are utterly false.

I  worked with Cesar Chavez for some twenty years, starting in 1973, when I was a young long haul trucker participating in a nationwide strike of some 100,000 independent truckers in protest against escalating fuel costs in the so-called “Arab Oil Embargo.”

I was helping coordinate the the truckers’ “Shutdown” at the Triple T Truckstop in Tucson, AZ, as a member of the steering committee of the “Truckers For Justice.”

Cesar Chavez mentored  me in that strike, which remained non-violent because of

his demands in mentoring me that “violence is a failure of creative intelligence; violence is failure of creative intelligence.”

After that strike was broken, an alliance between the Truckers For Justice and the United Farm Workers of America was established. During that work, in which we refused to haul non-union (“scab”) lettuce and grapes, Cesar told me I needed to go to law school as I could do more good as a lawyer.  His recommendation got me into law school.

I worked with UFW lawyers while in law school, and after graduating and passing the California Bar in 1979, I became one of Cesar Chavez’ lawyers until the day of his death on April 23, 1993, and for the UFW thereafter as called upon. I have remained to this day exclusively a civil rights, workers rights, veterans rights attorney. (I have written in more detail about experiences with Cesar Chavez in an earlier tribute).

I can attest based on that long “up close and personal” experience that Cesar Chavez was, in his own way, a true American hero;  that there are valuable lessons to be learned from his honorable life; and that he is deserving of recognition by all Americans for his service and sacrifice for others, no matter their race, color, or creed.

However, in order to understand that, it is necessary, first, to overcome the lies and myths which continue to distort the truth of who and what Cesar Chavez was. These are myths by those who hated and maligned him for their own political purposes; and by those who want to exploit who and what he was in order to appropriate him based on race, ethnicity, or nationality for their own political ends.

The most malicious of those myths are, as stated above, first, that he was not an American but a “Mexican” national; and, second, that he was a “Communist.”

These malicious myths were first promulgated, utterly falsely and politically deliberately, by the John Birch Society in the 1960’s. Almost sixty years later, they are repeated to this day.

First, as to nationality, the truth is that Cesar Chavez was a native-born American, not a “Mexican.”  While proud of his Mexican-American heritage, he was a third-generation American, born on his grandfather’s small ranch in Arizona in the Yuma area.  No matter the indisputability of those facts, Wikipedia, for example, on which many students and others rely, informs even now: “Chavez was born on the Mexico Texas border and therefore has dual citizenship.” Utterly false.

Second, Cesar Chavez was no “communist.” He was a devoted Catholic Christian. He was attempting, humbly,  to live his Christian faith as faithfully as he was able by sacrifice and service for others as taught and exemplified by Jesus the Christ, not Marx the Communist.

Perhaps the best proof, although none should be needed, that Cesar Chavez was not a Communist  but a devoted Catholic Christian living his faith, is the fact that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), in its U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults, which is taught to all adults seeking to become members of the Catholic Church, chose as the exemplar of living a  “life in Christ” and “the principles of the Christian moral life”—Cesar E. Chavez. (See, USCCB Catholic Catechism for Adults, Chapter 24, “Life In Christ-Part Two,” pages 323-234).

Moreover, almost never mentioned by those who hate  Cesar Chavez  and define him as a “communist” and a “Mexican” rather than an American, is that Cesar Chavez, in 1944 at the age of 17, enlisted in the U.S. Navy in WWII and served for the duration of the war in the Pacific in defense of the country of his birth, the United States of America.

Ironically, those who claim to love Cesar Chavez make themselves accomplices of those who hate him (and them)  by obscuring  Cesar Chavez’ American birth — and  by almost never mentioning that he was an American veteran of WWII.  They do this not to honor Cesar, but in order to appropriate Cesar Chavez on race or ethnic grounds as a “Mexican,” “Chicano,” or “Raza” race-based civil rights movement leader rather than as an American hero who should be honored by all Americans — as an American hero.

In regard to that, Cesar Chavez, while proud of his ancestral heritage, always identified himself as a “labor” or “union leader,” not as a civil rights leader of Mexican-Americans, Chicanos, Latinos, Hispanics, or La Raza.

In fact, in the some twenty years I worked with him,  Cesar never defined himself as a “Mexican,” or “Chicano,” “Latino,” etc., and, regarding the identification “La Raza” (“The Race”) he told me he didn’t use it because he considered it racialist.

Those who condemn him as a “Mexican” and “Communist,,” and those who claim a possessory interest him as  a leader of a race-based “Chicano” or “La Raza” civil rights movement, are both wrong: He defined himself as, and acted as, what he was—a “trade union leader,” and a devout Catholic Christian.

Cesar Chavez was the moral heart of the American labor movement.

He built the first viable farm workers union in American history, the United Farm Workers of America. As president of the UFW, Cesar Chavez represented all farm workers, whatever their race, ethnicity, or nationality.

One example which refutes the myths of both those who hate Chavez and those who appropriate him based on race, and shows the willingness of both to corrupt historical truth to suit their political ends, is Chavez’ acts regarding illegal immigration, which was then and remains now  at the center of national controversy and division.

In 1969, Cesar Chavez famously led a march from Indio, CA, to the border. It is portrayed today as primarily a march in protest against discrimination by racist growers oppressing Mexican and other Hispanic farmworkers. That is false historical revisionism.

The primary purpose of the 1969 march to the Mexican border was a protest against the federal government’s failure to secure the border from importation of illegal immigrants who were being used to keep wages and working conditions down and to break strikes and the farmworkers union entirely. Indeed, as UFW members set up picket lines waving “Huelga” (“Strike”) flags, buses would arrive from Mexico to unload strike breakers.

In short, Cesar Chavez’ 1969 march to the Mexican border was for the same purpose that the Minutemen later went to the border in the 70’s and 80’s— to secure the border and demand that the government stop illegal immigration. (It should be noted that the Minutemen were widely condemned as as “racists” for doing just what Cesar Chavez did. Was Cesar Chavez a racist? )

In the 1970’s, Cesar Chavez fell out of favor with race-based civil rights groups, white liberals, Leftists including open socialist and communist organizations, and liberal media. He was criticized because he adopted the position of calling upon and aiding the then-Immigration And Naturalization Service (INS) to deport strikebreakers illegally in the country.

In 1979, ten years after the march from Indio to the border to demand enforcement of the immigration laws, Cesar Chavez testified before Congress about immigration. He testified that illegal immigration had to be stopped, and the border secured, as illegal immigrants were used to hold wages and working conditions down, and to break as strikes, defeating efforts of farmworkers to build a union to improve their wages, hours, working conditions, and lives.

Today, Cesar Chavez’ 1969 march from Indio to the border is historically revised to be a protest against racist growers and his 1979 Congressional testimony is rarely cited, to satisfy the political ends of race-based la raza groups and non-raza liberals who want to transform him from what he was, i.e., a leader of a labor movement to improve the lives of all farmworkers,  to what they want him to be, i.e., a race-based political leader..

Meanwhile, many conservatives continue the original wrong and error of the John Birch Society when it falsely slandered and branded Cesar Chavez as a non-American and a “communist.” That continually repeated malicious lie has alienated many Mexican-American and other Hispanics for whom Cesar Chavez is, rightly,  a hero, as he should be for all Americans.

In his lifetime, although he became nationally and internationally renown, Cesar Chavez never sought personal fame, wealth, or celebrity. It was all about the cause, la causa, not about him. Indeed, Cesar Chavez  turned down millions of dollars offered for the rights to make a movie of his life. Similarly, he rejected all offers to write an autobiography or for the right to produce an “authorized” biography. All that he would authorize was the “Autobiography of La Causa,” by Jaques Levy, who didn’t “buy” the right but earned it by working with Chavez in la causa for some ten years.

Cesar Chavez’ achievement is monumental. Farmworkers, and domestic workers, were exempted from the right to organize into unions provided to all other workers by the National Labor Relations Act. There were no State laws creating a right of farmworkers to support unionization. They could be and were fired and “blacklisted” with impunity by employers who suspected them of supporting a union. Farmworkers were also migrant, moving from employer to employer on the migrant trail during harvesting seasons. Therefore, more than a hundred attempts to organize migrant farmworkers by major international unions with money, members, and paid full time organizers failed. It was thought impossible to organize migrant farmworkers.

Then came Cesar Chavez. He had nothing. No money, no members, no paid staff. Nothing but the belief that the only way to help farmworkers was to build a union in which they could themselves achieve better working conditions, and dignity. He himself had become a migrant farmworker at the age of ten when the ranch of his grandfather on which he was born was lost on foreclosure in the Depression and taken over by the Bruce Church Corp., largest lettuce grower in Arizona. He had little education, attending some fifty different elementary schools as his family followed the migrant farmworker trail. After his service in the U.S. Navy, he had married his sweetheart, Helen, in Delano, CA. Together they had eight kids.

The story has been told now in many articles, books, documentaries, and a relatively recent movie of how Cesar Chavez, while working as an organizer in Los Angeles, became convinced a union for farmworkers had to be created. He quit his job. He and Helen loaded up their old station wagon with the kids and a mimeograph machine, and headed to Delano. There, they rented a house, set up the mimeograph machine, and sent out a flyer calling for a house meeting, the first step in creating what would become the United Farm Workers of America.

How did Cesar Chavez succeed where all others had failed? By touching the hearts of Americans and the conscience of the nation by exposing the true working conditions of migrant farmworkers through creative, non-violent acts and actions, including  his fasts and boycotts, and by his manifest personal selfless service and sacrifice.

Cesar Chavez did not merely say:  “I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men!”

He lived it.

By doing so, he succeeded where so many others failed. He achieved what was thought impossible. He inspired and taught by his example, humbly serving and sacrificing for others, and thereby has enriched the lives not only of farmworkers, but the lives of millions of Americans, of all races, all colors, all creeds, including my own life.

I am greatly indebted to Cesar Chavez, especially for the example of his selfless life in service for others. I will always walk in his shadow.

I write this in the early morning hours of Good Friday, the day on which Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, giving his life for others. It was Jesus Christ whom Cesar Chavez worshipped, followed, and humbly attempted to emulate by service to others through living his Catholic Christian faith. I have little doubt that in the fullness of time, Cesar Chavez will one day become one of the Blessed of his Catholic faith, if not canonized.

May the God that Cesar Chavez so faithfully served bless and keep him as one of His adopted sons; may his native country he so faithfully served, the United States of America, always honor and remember Cesar Chavez as one of its greatest native sons, for his life in service to and for others.

CESAR CHAVEZ AND REES LLOYD
At Press Conference during truckers strike in Tucson, AZ, in 1973, announcing alliance of Truckers For Justice and United Farm Workers of America (UFW)

© 2018 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

Repeal The Uniform Monday Holiday Act

February 22, 2018, is the 286th anniversary of the birth in 1732 of General and President George Washington, the “Father Of Our Country,”  the most universally respected and admired American in the age of the Founding Fathers, and in the history of America.

For Generations, George Washington’s Birthday was a National Holiday celebrated on the actual anniversary of his birth, February 22. On Washington’s Birthday, Americans paused to remember and honor him. Parents and schools taught American children about his life on his birthday; urged the children to learn about the Father Of His [Their] Country, and to follow his example of patriotic love of country, selfless service and sacrifice for freedom, personal honor, dedication to duty, fidelity to principle.

By observing Washington’s Birthday as a National Holiday on his actual birthdate, Feb. 22, the focus of the nation was on Washington, on the example he set by his extraordinary life, establishing him as “the Greatest American.”

However, all that changed in 1971. Congress, pressured by federal government bureaucrats and other employees and their unions, abolished “Washington’s Birthday” as a National Holiday. It was replaced with “Presidents’ Day” to be observed on the “third Monday of February” as a result of the “Uniform Monday Holiday Act,” which gave government employees their sought after three-day weekends.

As a result, American children in government schools learn little or nothing about the greatest man in the history of America, without whose extraordinary virtues and sacrifices they would not be free.

The “Uniform Monday Holiday Act [For Government Employees Convenience]” should be repealed. “Washington’s Birthday” should be reinstated as a National Holiday, and should be celebrated on Washington’s actual birthday: February 22, not be just another three-day weekend holiday for pampered “public servants” in government employment.

Nor should Washington be lumped in with other, less deserving presidents in a concocted “Presidents Day.” No other president has been so universally admired in America or in the world as was General George Washington.

Washington was by far the most admired man of the Founding Father’s generation. He was called the “Father Of His Country and unanimously elected and re-elected as our First President because he was, as Revolutionary War hero Gen. “Light Horse” Harry Lee memorably said, “First in war. First in peace. First in the hearts of his countrymen.”

Can that be said today, when Washington’s Birthday  is no longer a National Holiday, and the nation’s children learn more in progressive liberal, politically correct, cultural relativist government schools about “the life of Mohammad” than the life of George Washington? When the schools, politicians, and media celebrate such farcical concocted “holidays” as “Kwanzaa” and “Cinco de Mayo” while George Washington’s Birthday Holiday is no more?

George Washington, first, last, and always a soldier serving God and Country, was heralded in his time as the “Apostle of Liberty,” the “Indispensable Man,” having with his ragtag band of American citizen-soldiers of the Revolutionary Army defeated the most powerful military nation in the world in eight years of war to establish our American independence, our freedom.

He did not seek the Presidency–it sought him. He was elected unanimously –twice. He was offered the Presidency for life.  But he stunned the world when he refused a third term  and even monarchial rule, and, instead walked away from power to return to his home as citizen. He was, is, our American “Cincinatus,” who, like that Fifth Century (BC), Roman general, fought the battles of the nation, held unequaled power, but did not covet it, and instead returned to his farm. So was Washington satisfied to be a citizen of a free America, rather than its ruler.

When Washington did that, walked away from ultimate power, even England’s King George III, whom Washington had defeated, hailed Washington “as the greatest man of his era.”

John Adams, his successor as President, said of him: “If we look over the catalogue of the first magistrates of nations, whether they have been denominated Presidents or Consuls, Kings or Princes, where shall we find one whose commanding talents and virtues, whose overruling good fortune, have so completely united all hearts and voices in his favor?…His example is complete; and it will teach wisdom and virtue  to Magistrates, Citizens, and Men, not only in the present age, but in future generations.”

Thomas Jefferson, father of the Declaration of Independence and our third president, said of Washington that he was: ”The only man in the United States who possessed the confidence of all. There was no other one who was considered as anything more than a party leader….And it may be truly said that never did nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great, and to place him in the same constellation with whatever worthies have merited from man an everlasting remembrance.”

Even the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, who admitted his love of power and yielded to no man a claim of greater glory than he himself possessed, spoke of his admiration of Washington: “This great man fought against tyranny: he established the liberty of his country. His memory will always be dear to the French people, as it will be to all freemen.”

Are those words  still true to this generation of Americans? Those words of Adams, Jefferson, Gen. Harry Lee, the English King George III and the French Emperor Napoleon, all speaking with awe at the example of Washington’s life as one which would be taught “not only in the present age, but in future generations,” as John Adams said, and his memory “held dear..to all free men” as Napoleon said? Is Washington still  “First in war. First in peace. First in the hearts of his countrymen,” as Gen. “Light Horse” Harry Lee said of him?

If not, why not? Are we Americans better for it, as a people, a nation, when we honor no longer the one American who was so universally acknowledged in his time —  and up to this generation of transformed Americans —  as the Greatest American, the Father Of Our Country? He who defeated tyranny, held ultimate power by acclamation and then walked away from it to preserve the freedom he had created as a soldier? He who lived his life for God and Country?

Are the children of a nation, like the children of a family, really better off, better people, by forgetting their father, being without their father, forgetting the virtues their father taught, being orphaned?

We Americans today, whatever our ages, whatever our ancestry, ethnicity, or race, as Americans, are the children of the American  Founding Fathers, including in the particular, George Washington, whom the Founding Fathers proclaimed the greatest among them, the Father Of Our Country.

May both the God that George Washington so faithfully served bless and keep him; may the Country he so loyally served always remember and honor him;  and may the lessons of his life be learned in this and every generation so that the freedom he fought for and created may not wither and weaken, to be destroyed by enemies foreign, or domestic.

Tell Congress to repeal the “Uniform Monday Holiday Act” no matter the tears and anguish of taxpayer-paid government employees who will be deprived of a three-day holiday,  and no matter the loss to the politicians of those government employees’ campaign contributions by which they purchased their uniform three-day weekend holidays from the politicians.

Congress should re-establish George Washington’s Birthday as a National Holiday — and celebrate it on his actual birth day, February 22. The Father Of Our Country deserves no less. The people of our nation, especially the children, deserve no less.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY–NEVER!

© 2018 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

February 15, 2018 is the 45th  anniversary of a shining moment in American history: It was on that day in 1973 that American prisoners of war came home from Vietnam with their honor intact,  after suffering unspeakable torture, some for eight years, at the hands of  North Vietnam led by dedicated Communist Ho Chi Minh.

It was day of great importance in 1973 in a divided America faced with war, and it is day to remember all these years later in a divided America; it is important for what it teaches about honor, duty, country, and who and what we are as Americans.

The Vietnam War had divided Americans as never before. It was and remains the first time in American history that veterans came home from war not to be honored for their service and sacrifice, but to be vilified, defamed as “war criminals,” told by their military commanders not to wear their uniforms in traveling home, many even spat upon as they arrived home at airports, train or bus stations.

Altogether, some 9,137,000 Americans would serve in the Vietnam War-era (1960-1975), constituting 9.7 percent of their generation. Some 2.6-million of them were deployed to Vietnam, of whom between 1-1.6-million either fought in combat, provided close support, or were at least fairly regularly exposed to enemy attack.” (www.VeteransHour.com, from which all statistics are taken.)

Fifty-Eight Thousand Two Hundred And Two (58,202) of those American veterans would give their lives in service to their country. Another 303,704 were wounded; 18% suffered “multiple amputations,” compared with 5.7% in WWII; amputation or crippling wounds to the lower extremities were 300% higher than in WWII, and 70% higher than Korea.

Of the 58,202 who were killed, 61% were 21 or younger. 30.4% were draftees. 79% had a high school education or better (compared with 63% in Korea and 45% in WWII). 76% were of middle/working class grounds. 88.4% of those who actually served in Vietnam were Caucasian, including some 170,000 Hispanics, 3,070 of whom (5.2%) died. Blacks constituted 10.6% (275,000). 86.8% of the men who were killed in combat were were Caucasian; 12.5% were Black (at a time when Blacks were 13.5% of the population).

A later survey of Vietnam veterans showed: 82% of those who saw heavy combat “strongly believe” the war was lost because of lack of political will, with which “nearly 75% of the public” — modernly — agrees it was a failure of political will, not of arms. 97% of Vietnam Era Veterans were honorably discharged. 91% of combat veterans are proud to have served their country. 66% of Vietnam Veterans “say they would serve again if called upon.”

With the passage of time, reports VeteransHour.com, “87% of the public now holds Vietnam Veterans in high esteem.”

If that is true now, it most definitely was not true during the Vietnam War.

Many Americans who never served turned their opposition to the war into vilification of the Americans who were sent to fight it. Many of the more affluent fled to Canada or Sweden or elsewhere to avoid the draft. Some blatantly lied when their draft number came up causing another American to go in their place, most infamously perhaps in the documented case of the utter lies told by William Jefferson Clinton to be excused when his draft number came up. Clinton is the first draft dodger ever to be elected President of the United States—or to any office in House or Senate. Clinton remains today a darling icon of the modern  progressive liberal Democrat Party, more popular, it is said, than Barack Hussein Obama, the only other president since WWII not to have served in the armed forces he would presume to lead as Commander-in-Chief.

Many others did not flee but stayed to aid and abet the North Vietnamese Communists at home, waiving the “Viet Cong” flag, making a hero of Communist torture-master Ho Chi Minh — chanting  “Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh, ‘Uncle Ho’ Is Going To Win!”—and vilifying the Americans who did serve when the country called.

These “anti-war” protestors, were mainly  affluent, self-righteous, elitist, college “radicals,”  conscious aiders-and-abetters of the socialist/communist cause in Vietnam and at home. They were led by pampered celebrities symbolized by Jane Fonda, whose name should live forever in infamy;   never-held-a-job self-proclaimed “revolutionary”  college students like SDS leader Tom Hayden, “Mr. Jane,  Fonda,” later a Democrat Party politician in California; political opportunist John Kerry who, as a leader of the Vietnam Veterans of the War (VVFW) charged “war crimes” by Americans without being able to produce any proof, and earned having his photo in a place of  honor in the Communist’s  War Museum in Hanoi along with Fonda; and out-and-out domestic terrorists like “Weatherman” bombers Billy Ayers and Bernardine Dorn, who would later become the close associates of Barack Hussein Obama, who announced his first run for political  office in Illinois in the living room of Ayers and Dorn.

Of the Americans who served, those who were the most despised, and vilified by Jane Fonda, Hayden, Kerry, et al., were the American prisoners of war, almost all American pilots, who resisted Communist demands that they betray America despite appalling, inhumane, torture, ordered and orchestrated by Ho Chi Minh right up to the day of his death.

There were 770 Americans taken prisoner of war. 113 of them died in Communist captivity.  The Communists refused to recognize them as Prisoners of War, and, instead, declared them to be “ war criminals” and blatantly violated the Geneva Convention. In what became known by the POW’s as the “Hanoi Hilton,” and like prisons, the POWs were kept in filthy, windowless, vermin-infested airless cells only 9 feet long and 3 feet wide. Three feet.

Those seen as “ringleaders” of the resistance, like ranking officers of the resisters in what became known as the “Alcatraz Eleven,”  James Stockdale, who would later receive the Medal of Honor, and second in command  Jeremiah Denton, would be locked in solitary confinement for over four long years, in which horrific torture was inflicted on them, and the other resisters.

The fact of that torture was not confirmed until 1966. Then, the Communists attempted to force Jeremiah Denton to participate in a propaganda broadcast to be filmed by a Japanese crew for international distribution.  Instead, Denton not only did not say what the Communists wanted him to say, but he blinked his eyes as if he had an eye problem. He was in fact  blinking in Morse Code: “T-O-R-T-U-R-E.” Naval intelligence immediately understood what Denton was communicating.  When the Communists later realized what Denton had done, they tortured him nearly to death, as he recounts in his now classic book on what POW’s endured: “When Hell Was In Session.”  (WND Book)

However, Jane Fonda, Hayden, John Kerry, then lying to Congress about alleged war crimes as a member of the VVAW — without, as noted above, being able to produce any evidence to support his allegations — and their progressive liberal followers in the  “anti-war movement” and the media, did not denounce the Communists’ torture, they denounced the POW’s as “liars,” claiming their Communist allies under Uncle Ho Chi Minh were innocent of torture. Fonda, Hayden, Kerry, of course, lied.

Overwhelming post-war proof of torture beyond any reasonable doubt has given the lie  to Fonda, Hayden, Kerry, et al, including books by many of the POWs. These include, the late Admiral Jeremiah Denton’s classic “When Hell Was In Session;”  “Surviving Hell,” by Col. Leo Thorsness (USAF, ret.; Medal of Honor); “The Passing Of The Night,” by the late Gen. Robinson Risner (USAF); “American Patriot,” the biography of the late and legendary Col. Bud Day (USMC, WWII, Korea, Vietnam); “Chained Eagle,” by Everett Alvarez, Jr., the first pilot shot down, a POW for eight years; and, among others, “Faith of my Fathers,”  by Sen. John McCain who refused an offer of early release by the Communists because his father was the Commanding Admiral, and suffered horrendous torture for his refusal.  McCain, a true hero and recognized as such by his fellow POWs, was left permanently crippled in his arms by torture.

More recently, Author Alvin Townley has written a book magnificently telling the true story of the torture POW’s endured in Vietnam, and what  their families endured at home: “DEFIANT: The POWs Who Endured Vietnam’s Most Infamous Prison; The Women Who Fought For Them, And The One Who Never Returned. “ It is highly praised by the surviving POWs themselves  for being at once accurate, and extremely readable. Indeed, although loaded with documented facts, it reads like an adventure novel. It is a must read. (see, for more on “Defiant,” om YouTube.)

The nation was and remained terribly divided over Vietnam. It was not until February, 1973, after POWs like Edward Alvarez, James Stockade, and Jeremiah Denton had endured almost eight years as tortured POWs, four years of which was in solitary confinement for Stockdale and Denton,  and almost as long solitary confinement for others, including (now Texas Congressman) Sam Johnson, who was in solitary for over three years, that the  breakthrough in peace talks came and Operation Homecoming began.

The first flight of emancipated POWs out of Vietnam to Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines was on Feb. 12, 1973, fittingly if coincidentally on the birthday of Abraham Lincoln.

At Clark, the spokesman for the POWs, then-Captain Jeremiah Denton, in military uniform, stepped to the microphone, and spoke in short stroke a few simply stated words which began the stirring of the heart of a divided nation:

“We are honored to have had the opportunity to serve our country under difficult circumstances. We are profoundly grateful to our Commander-in-Chief and to our nation for this day. God Bless America.”

Then came that shining moment three days later on February 15, 1973, when Denton, Jim Mulligan, and the others of the first group of POW’s landed at the Portsmouth Naval base in Virginia, back on American soil. Their wives and children rushed to embrace them, as, to the POWs surprise, a huge crowd of Americans roared with cheers for them, waving flags, laughing, some weeping with joyful emotion, Americans at last embracing  the Americans they sent to war, welcoming them home as all Vietnam veterans should have been welcomed.

Operation Homecoming began an operation of healing some of the division, some of the rancor, some of the hatred in the American atmosphere up to that time in the war. Parades, ceremonies, welcoming events were held in the hometowns of POWs and many other cities, America began to heal, and, for many, to repent of how Americans sent to war were treated on coming home.

“Vietnam had claimed more that 58,000 American lives—young men who would never walk off a plane to public fanfare.  Many of their families would not experience the same outpouring of compassion that their POW/MIA counterparts received. More than 300,000 soldiers returned wounded, some disabled for life. Others returned physically intact, but emotionally shattered. Many never received a welcome of any sort,” author Alvin Townley wrote in “DEFIANT.”

“More  than 770 known Americans were captured during the Vietnam War, and they valiantly upheld those high standards we expect of our servicemen and they in turn expect of themselves; 113 POWs did not survive. Every man has a valuable story and his own unique perspective….To me, they are all heroes, although no more so than the men who fought the war in other places, under different sets of difficult circumstances. I will always remain in awe of what they endured and accomplished. I hope it inspires America like it continues to inspire me,” Townley wrote, concluding: “Finally, to all our POWs and Vietnam veterans: GBU.”

Many of the POW’s are no longer with us, including  Admiral James Stockdale, Admiral Jeremiah Denton, many others. But their example is.

The surviving POWs gathered together for a 40th Reunion at the President Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, CA in 2013. It was taped, and is very moving. It is available at “Vietnam POW 40th Reunion News Coverage-You Tube.”

“Jeremiah” is a very important new documentary on Adm. Jeremiah Denton, and his family. It reveals “up close and personal” what the POWs and their wives and children went through in the long years of separation, never knowing for sure if their POW father was still alive, in what condition, or if he would ever come home. It is as moving as it is informative, showing what it takes by way of service and sacrifice to keep America free.

Who the Vietnam POWs who came home on February 15, 1973, are and what they did, the honor they brought to themselves and  to our country, should be remembered on every February 15, if not every day.  That is because who and what they are is who and what we can be when we are at our very best as Americans.

May the God they served bless and keep them; may the country they served always honor, and never forget them.

© 2018 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

December 7, 2017, Pearl Harbor Day, marks the 75th anniversary of the Japanese air attack on U.S. naval and air installations at Pearl Harbor, HI, at 7:53 a.m., Dec. 7, 1941, without a declaration of war.

It was then the worst attack on American soil in history: Some 2,403 died, 2008 of them Navy personnel; another 1,178 were wounded.

Eighteen Navy ships, including the U.S.S. Arizona, were sunk or damaged. Almost all the planes at the island bases were destroyed or damaged while still on the ground.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt memorably called December 7, 1941, “a day which will live in infamy” in his dramatic speech to Congress, which then declared war on Japan.

Only the sneak attack on America by radical Islamic terrorists on 9-11-2001 in New York resulted in more deaths. But for many Americans of this generation — and millions of immigrants, legal and illegal — the significance of Pearl Harbor is not fully known, or appreciated.

One for whom it does “live in infamy,” is Pearl Harbor survivor S. J. Hemker, now 98, of Banning, California. A retired three-war combat Navy veteran — WWII, Korea, and Vietnam —and an American Legionnaire, Hemker remembers Pearl Harbor up close and personal:

“Ordinarily, we would have been at sea. We were at Pearl Harbor because we had to repair an engine that had been sabotaged at the shipyard back in California. I was up on the fantail of our ship, the USS New Orleans, a heavy cruiser, with the Chief Master at Arms. The Quartermaster was there, getting ready to raise the flag,” Hemker recalls.

“It was 7:53 a.m. when we saw the Japanese planes. They were flying so low I could see the pilots’ faces in the cockpit. They were grinning at us as they went down toward Battle Ship Row. Grinning at me and the Chief. They were so close, you could have thrown something at them and hit them. A potato, maybe. They were that close. Just skimming the top of the water. Torpedo planes. The pilots grinning at us,” Hemker reluctantly, but vividly recalls.

“The loudspeakers blared: ‘Man your battle stations – the Japs are attacking’. All hell broke loose… It was terrible, horrible, …,” he says, pausing in his remembrance.

“I spent the next eight hours down in the magazine loading for our five-inch anti-aircraft guns. We fired everything. If we had been hit, that would have been it for us in the magazine. We would have been blown up. We had a big crane over the top of our ship. I think that’s what saved us,” he states matter-of-factly as to his own circumstance., then somberly relates:

“The Arizona capsized. Thirteen hundred men went down with her. Half the guys I was with in boot camp died on the Arizona. That’s where the Memorial is today. They say that oil still leaks out every day. Those guys…they’re still down there,” Hemker says quietly, his voice trailing off, as if physically turning away from a memory, and reality, which is still too painful to talk about.

Getting Hemker to talk about it at all is no easy task. Like many of his fellow World War II veterans, he still doesn’t talk about his war experiences, never expects any thanks or gratitude, and never, ever boasts about it, despite the fact that after Pearl Harbor he served America in battles and combat zones for the duration of WWII, in the Korean War, and in Vietnam.

Hempker, a widower, roguishly handsome into his 90’s and possessed of a sly sense of humor, for years charmed the ladies in the Legion Auxiliary with his country gallantry. He is universally admired by his comrade veterans in the American Legion. “I’m not able to do what I used to do, but I do what I can,” he says.

Hemker’s beloved wife died more than 30 years ago. For the last thirteen years of her life, Hemker’s wife was bedridden, unable to perform the most basic of everyday tasks of life, totally dependent. It says a great deal about the kind of man S.J. Hemker is, that for all of those thirteen years Hemker cared for her, seeing to her every need, lovingly dedicating his life to her care, until her death did them part.

Hemker had four sons. All four,  like their father, are veterans who served in the Vietnam war. Hemker had no biological daughter. But, in his declining years, he has for more than thirteen years lived in his own room in the home of a loving daughter-in-fact if not of biology, Sue McConnell, and her husband,

No daughter has rendered more loving care to a father than has Sue McConnell to S.J. Hemker.

“I call him my ‘Dad’ because he is that to me. I couldn’t love him more,” says Sue, has known Hemker for thirty-seven years and become his daughter in fact who has through the years as risen up in fury when the VA has done its duty to

Reflecting on Pearl Harbor seventy-five years after surviving it, Hemker, who has lost his eyesight,  but not his vision for America, observes:

“We Americans should never forget. If we forget our past and those who died, we won’t have a future. A free one, anyway. Look at what happened on 9-11. More people were killed on that day then were killed at Pearl Harbor. It can happen again,” he warns.

“I don’t think people remember Pearl Harbor and what it means, the way they used to do,” Hemker concludes. “That’s too bad. A lot of us can’t forget. An awful lot of really good people died to keep America free. They shouldn’t be forgotten.”

© 2017 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

Another “Football Sunday” has passed with Black NFL players continuing to refuse to respect the National Anthem and the Flag, while the NFL and team owners refuse to enforce their own rules requiring players to respect the primary symbols of the American nation.

The American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, the nation’s two largest and most influential wartime veterans organizations,  have now taken stands opposing the NFL players disrespect for the Anthem and Flag — which are not in fact acts of Constitutionally protected “freedom of speech,” as detailed below.

I forward  on this continuing controversy three powerful commentaries on the decision of Black NFL players to refuse to respect the American Flag and Anthem, and thereby the 1.4-million American veterans who have given  their lives to create and preserve the freedom in which Black Americans generally, and Black athletes in particular, have more freedom, more equal opportunity,  and more prosperity than in any nation in history.

That includes the Black African countries which sold into slavery the Black African ancestors of Black Americans for profit, even sending their leaders to testify and protest in the English Parliament against the abolition of  the slave trade because they were making so much money engaging in it. Indeed, Black-on-Black slave trade still thrives in Black Africa, about which millionaire Black athletes and their Black supporters are generally silent in word and deed.

The American Legion and the VFW have now condemned and called for the end of the disrespect for the National Anthem, the Flag, and for veterans, of the Black players protests,  as reported by www.Armytimes.com: “American Legion And VFW ‘Slam’ NFL Players For Anthem Protests.”

Maj. Gen. Patrick H. Brady (USA, ret.), Medal of Honor (Vietnam), considered America’s most decorated living veteran, is one of many veterans denouncing the disrespect of the National Anthem and the Flag, and the veterans who have served and died under that Flag. Gen. Brady has written a powerful column on WND.com: “Limp Wristed Libs Have Ruined Football.”

The third commentary is from the American Legion’s www.BurnPit.US [www.Legion.org]: “NFL Players Take Knee On Day Designated To Remember And Cherish Gold Star Moms.” 

I submit also a legal comment by me: “Are NFL Players Protests Matters Of Constitutional Freedom Of Speech?”

Because of confusion in the ongoing controversy, it is necessary to answer the question: Are the protests of Black NFL Players to disrespect the American Flag and Anthem matters of protected Constitutional “freedom of speech”?  The answer is no, absolutely not, for the following reasons:

The acts of Black NFL players, and the failure of the NFL and team owners to repudiate it, has nothing to do with Constitutional “Free Speech,” as misleadingly claimed by the players; Black and White politically-correct apologists and enabling individuals and organizations; Black race hustlers;  progressive liberal Alinskyite revolutionists-anarchists- socialists-and communists exploiting the devisive issue (under the Marxist and Saul Alinsky rule for radicals that whatever is bad for America is good for them);  and Liberal broadcast media pundits and talking heads.

As any Constitutional attorney will affirm (I am one): First Amendment Constitutional “freedom of speech” only protects Americans from regulation, deprivation, infringement, or punishment of speech by government, not by private parties or entities. Absent government action, so-called “state action,” there cannot be a violation of the First Amendment Constitutional guarantee of “freedom of speech.”

Private, non-government persons and entities include without limitation, employers–who have now and have always had the right to set standards of speech in the work place. The Black players are millionaires because they are the employees of private employers, i.e., the team owners, who provide a product, i.e., professional football, to the public who are willing to pay for it. The players’ protests are taking place in the workplace, i.e., the fields. They are taking place in the course and scope of their employment. The government is not involved.

Therefore, there is no Constitutional right of free speech involved. Acts by the employers, or the owners  to regulate, repudiate, or punish the players activity, including by firing them, is not and cannot be a violation of the players Constitutional “freedom of speech.” They have none in this context. Context, too, matters.

Indeed, under the legal doctrine of respondeat superior the owners’ condonation of that speech activity in disrespect of the Nation, the National Anthem and Flag, and veterans, constitutes ratification of  that activity and makes the owners responsible for the acts of their employees. The owners cannot run from that responsibility by claiming they are protecting the players “freedom of speech” or have no control or responsibility for the employees’ (the players’) acts. The employers are responsible for the acts of their employees in the course and scope of their employment.

Thus,  the acts of Black NFL players, and failure of the NFL and team owners to repudiate it, have nothing to do with Constitutional “Free Speech.”

Simply stated, if the government is not involved, there cannot be a violation of Constitutional freedom of speech. The government is not involved in regulating, depriving, or infringing upon the speech of the NFL players. Therefore, there cannot be a violation of the Constitutional “right of free speech” of the players, as they have no such right as employees of private, non-government owners. Period.

Thus, there should be no more teardrops alleging that the poor, oppressed multi-millionaire black football players are being deprived of “freedom of speech.” They aren’t, as a matter of Constitutional law.

In contrast, the nation, the National Anthem and Flag,  and the 1.4-million veterans who have given their lives for that Nation under that Flag, are being deprived of the respect they deserve from all Americans,  including multimillionaire black athletes, and the NFL and team owners who are condoning and thereby ratifying those acts.

As a veteran and an active member of The American Legion, I am aware that resolutions are circulating raising the question of whether there should be a grass-roots call for an all-out boycott by veterans and other patriots of NFL professional football if the disrespect of the American Anthem, Flag, and veterans who have given their lives for America isn’t stopped by the NFL and owners who are, ultimately, responsible. If they won’t act, let them, and the players, pay the price of their disrespect.

© 2017 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: ReesLloydLaw@gmail.com

The question facing America as the Constitutional Convention deliberated from May to September, 1787, was what kind of country the Founding Fathers would create for the nation. American patriots had won their freedom in a war of independence from England from 1775 until the Treaty of Paris in 1883, led by Commander-in-Chief and later President General George Washington, then and now the Greatest American.

The answer to that question in 1787 was a constitutional republic of limited central (or “federal”) government restrained in its authority to certain enumerated powers, only.  Authority for governance, except for matters expressly enumerated as held by the central government, was to remain with the States and “the people.” This limitation on the federal government’s power would be expressly commanded by the Ninth and Tenth Amendments which would follow with the adoption of the Bill of Rights on December 15, 1791.

Founding Father Benjamin Franklin. when asked by a citizen on the close of the Constitutional Convention, “what kind of a government have you created, Mr. Franklin?,” famously answered:

“A republic, Madam —if you can keep it.”

Ben Franklin’s challenge, “if you can keep it,” was serious: The United States of America was then the only Constitutional Republic, created “on the consent of the governed,” in the world. There was extreme doubt if this American great experiment in freedom, could succeed. The generation of the Founding Fathers did “keep it,” and bequeathed it to us of this generation as their progeny, their descendants in freedom. Will we “keep it” for the generations of Americans who will come after us?

That is, the  question facing America on September 17, 2017, is whether Americans can keep the free constitutional republic of limited central government powers created under the leadership of the Founding Fathers; or whether America will continue to be “transformed”  into a socialist state, with the federal government ignoring the Constitution’s  limitations on its authority and expanding to control, regulate, or dictate seemingly all areas of American life, in the name of “social justice,” transforming  the nation from individual freedom and personal responsibility under a limited government, to Socialism,  what famed economist the late Frederick Hayek aptly named “the road to serfdom.”

While the election of President Donald Trump in November, 2016, represents a defeat for Progressive Liberals seeking to “fundamentally transform” America, as former President Barak Hussein Obama put it,  into a European-style  Socialist State, the foaming-at-the-mouth backlash against the election of President Trump, an avowed “America First” patriot, by Progressive Liberals  in the government, media, and academia, as well as avowed Socialists, Communists,  Liberal Fascists and Black racial supremacists like the Black Lies Matter Movement reacting violently in the streets, evidence that  the fight “to keep” the Constitutional Republic the Founding Fathers created must continue to be waged vigorously if America is not be be “transformed” from a free Constitutional Republic  to Socialism.

Ever since the Presidency of Woodrow Wilson, liberal “Progressives” have sought to undermine the Constitution, and the individual freedom and personal responsibility it at once protects and requires, and instead, by creeping incremental expansion of federal government authority, transform the nation from freedom of thought, religion, conscience, and enterprise, into government-dominated Socialism, all in the name of “social justice.” In that regard, Founding Father Ben Franklin observed also that “those who would exchange freedom for security, will have neither.”

Progressive Liberal Democrat Woodrow Wilson was the first U.S. President to openly argue that the Constitution should be discarded as outdated, and be replaced in by an “Administrative State” in which an elite ruling class of political and academic “experts” heading central (federal) government bureaucracies will create an American socialist utopia, from food stamps to to foreign policy, intruding into and dominating almost every aspect of American life.

An indication of the liberal “progressives” success in transforming American from the vision of the Founding Fathers into their own liberal “progressive” vision of a soft totalitarian state led by “experts,” i.e., themselves, is that few American children in government schools dominated by liberal “progressive” teachers and education bureaucrats, will be taught on Constitution Day 2017, or any day, of the historic importance of September 17, 1787, for our nation, and for the world. Consider just these aspects of that American history on this September 17:

On September 17, 1787, after weeks of often bitter debate by delegates of the States gathered at the Constitutional Convention at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Constitution of the United States, beginning with the words, “We, the People,” was signed by thirty-nine of the fifty-five delegates. The world was changed forever as America began its ‘great experiment’ in self-government.

Never before had a constitution been established in the name of “the People” of a nation, rather than by and in the name of a monarch, a state, or other governmental power. Many of the most erudite thinkers of the so-called “Age of Enlightenment,” did not believe that a constitutional republic of limited government “by, for, and of the people” could survive in a broad land containing a large and diverse population. America is still an ongoing experiment in liberty.

The Constitutional Convention had commenced on May 14, 1787, with a challenge to the conscience and integrity of delegates by George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army which had won the Revolutionary war. Washington, then and now the model American patriot, was elected President of the Constitutional Convention by unanimous vote.

“If to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterward defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the event is in the Hand of God,” said Washington, who would later become the First President of the United States and be regarded as “the Father of his country.”

The delegates were learned American patriots who had studied history deeply to meet the task of creating a constitution fit for a free people. Thomas Jefferson, who authored the Declaration of Independence but did not participate in the Constitutional Convention because he was in Paris representing the United States, wrote of the delegates with utmost respect as “a gathering of demigods.”

The Constitution the framers wrought in the name of “We, the People,” was one creating a government of expressly limited powers – a limited federal government,  not a national government of self-expanding powers.

The subsequently adopted “Bill of Rights,” contained in the First Ten Amendments, for which the efforts of James Madison earned him recognition as “the Father of the Constitution,” begin with five words limiting powers of the federal government over the people:

“Congress shall make no law…,” respecting an establishment of religion nor abridging the fundamental rights of free exercise of religion, freedom of speech, of press, of assembly, of petition for redress of grievance.”

These are rights which the Founding Fathers believed Americans were “endowed by their Creator,” as expressed in the Declaration of Independence. That is, the Founders believed these were natural rights, rights granted by the “hand of God, not the hand of a generous government.,” as the late President John F. Kennedy would express it.

The Ninth and Tenth Amendments reinforced the words “Congress shall make no law…” by mandating that the people and the states retained all rights not enumerated as possessed by the central government.

Never before in history had “We, the people,” had their natural rights so expressly protected by a constitution so expressly limiting the government as to its powers. By changing the relationship of the people and their government, limiting the power of government and making the retained rights of the people superior, the Founding Fathers changed the world. Ever after, the people of the world who have dreamed of the freedoms of Americans, have looked to the values expressed in the American Declaration of Independence, and the United States Constitution, as a model for liberty in a constitutional republic.

The framers of the Constitution, the Founding Fathers of America, were faced with a great challenge, and they met it. The Constitution which they framed was finally ratified by all states by January 10, 1791.

It has now endured for 230 years since it was signed on Sept. 17, 1787. That, the keeping of the free constitutional republic that the Founding Fathers bequeathed to us, is our challenge.

We owe a great debt to all those Founding Fathers and other Americans who came before us who preserved our freedom. We pay that debt by what we do to preserve freedom for those Americans who will come after us.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER!

© 2017 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Rees Lloyd: reeslloyd@aol.com

A Need To Return To Our Root Values

Flag Day until recent years had been observed by generations of Americans with patriotic joy, celebration, parades, and a sense of American unity ever since the Second Continental Congress adopted the first American Flag on June 14, 1777. That same day is also the birthday of the first American Army which would fight and win American independence and freedom by defeating, at great cost of life and limb, England, then the most powerful army and empire in the world.

Flag Day 2017, however, takes place in a nation divided since the presidential elections of November 8, 2016. The election of President Donald Trump ignited a bitter, hate-filled, ongoing intolerant totalitarian political tantrum by those who lost the election.

Thus, Flag Day 2017 does not begin with news of a national celebration of the Flag which is the symbol of the greatest, because most free, nation in the history of the world.

Rather, it begins with news of the attempted assassination of U.S. Congressman Steve Scalise (R-La), the third ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, and other Republican members of Congress, in Alexandria Virginia.

Rep. Scalise was shot as Republican members of Congress engaged in practice for an annual all-American baseball game  between Democrat and Republican members of Congress for charity. A Congressional staff member and two members of the Capital Police detailed to provide protection, were wounded.  Another Congressman, a staff member, and a seance officer had non-bullet injuries.

All were at the baseball diamond were in danger of assassination. It is unclear at this time whether this was an act of terrorism inspired by foreign or domestic enemies, or just a lone wolf  assassination attack by an anti-Trump, anti-Republican, Bernie Sanders supporter.

There is no doubt, however, that the purpose was to terrorize by assassinating Republicans. What is known is that the perpetrator  asked at the baseball field if it was the Democrat or Republican team that was practicing. After he was informed they were Republicans, he attempted to kill the Republicans. The would-be assassin,  now dead, was reportedly fatally shot by a police officer who was herself shot. (I decline to give the would-be assassin glory and celebrity by naming him.)

The would-be assassin has been identified as a  supporter of Socialist Bernie Sanders who volunteered to work in Sanders’ campaign for the Democrat Party nomination. Sanders has condemned his supporter’s attempted assassination of Republican members of Congress.

Of course, no one should blame Socialst Bernie Sanders for the acts of a supporter. This is true even though Democrat Party leaders, including  Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Shumer, and Socialist Sanders, and the liberal media,  have consistently blamed Trump for any inappropriate act of a supporter of Donald Trump.

They do this on a claim  that Trump has created an “atmosphere” of violence. On this pretext, they have blamed Trump even when it is Trump supporters who have been victims of attacks by supporters of the Democrats and opponents of Trump.

These attacks on Trump supporters at Trump rallies and events have been composed of a motley crew of Democrats, Progressive Liberals, Democratic Socialists, Socialists, Communists, Anarchists, Clintonists, Obamists, or Racialists like the Black Lives Movement or the New Black Panther Party, both which were warmly embraced by former President Barak Obama and each of his two Attorney General appointees, Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch.

Not all Democrats are of this noxious totalitarian political ilk, of course. But all of this noxious totalitarian political ilk are anti-Trump supporters of Democrats or Socialist Bernie Sanders. against Trump. As such, they have been coddled in major cities under Democrat administrations. They have rarely prosecuted at all for violence against persons or property in violent demonstrations against Trump before or after his election.

Further, these violent demonstrators against Trump  have never been prosecuted, as far as is known,  for violation of Trump supporters’ civil rights under the federal Civil Rights Acts, including the Ku Klux Klan Act, 42 U.S.Code Section 1985(3), although the civil rights violations are blatant in attacks on Americans attending Trump rallies or events. I have no doubt whatsoever that had white Trump supporters attacked non-white anti-Trump Democrats attending Democrat rallies or events, there would have been multiple prosecutions under the Ku Klux Klan Act and other of the federal Civil Rights Acts.

While blaming Trump, personally, for any wrongful conduct by Trump supporters, Democrat Party leaders, liberal media, liberal politicians spewing hate against Trump, take no responsibility for creating an “atmosphere” in which their supporters carry out violent attacks on Trump supporters, now including attempted assassination of Republican members of Congress.

This “atmosphere” of hate has included open calls for violence against elected Republican President Donald Trump. A great many of these hateful calls have been by entertainment and media “celebrities.”  They have included calls for assassinating President Trump; burning down the White House;  a progressive liberal since-fired CNN hack “comedienne” appearing carrying a bloodied severed head replica of President Trump like those severed heads carried by Islamist terrorists; a “play” on Broadway by theatrical “artists” depicting the assassination of President Trump so repulsive its financial backers have backed out in disgust.

It also involves  an ongoing witch hunt dominating the news in attempting to prove “collusion” between President Trump or his campaign and the Russians in the election — although in seven long months of investigation by the FBI and House and Senate committees, along with daily false and fake news vilification of President Trump, there has not been a finding of any evidence of “collusion.”

Nonetheless, the anti-Trump witch hunt continues with great venomous vitriol as if it is a “scandal” like Watergate, or the real scandal of Benghazi in which the U.S. Ambassador and three other Americans were murdered by Islamist terrorists while then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and then-President Barack Hussein Obama, along with then U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, lied to the nation that it was all just a spontaneous demonstration by Muslims who were offended by a purported trailer to a non-existent film critical of Islam.

All of this media vilification of Trump to bring down his administration, has thus far produced no evidence of conclusion despite  “leaks” from federal employees, much of which is wrong or is revealed as out-and-out “fake news” after investigation. However, how many members of the public exposed to the original false reports actually learn later that the reports are false, is unknown.

All of this is  being done by influential, opinion shaping progressive liberal politicians; media through alleged journalists who have become nothing more than rumor-mongering political gossip columnists; liberal academic “experts;” and most conspicuously, liberal entertainment and media celebrities; as well as assorted other embittered progressive liberals who can’t get over the loss of the election to President Trump.

The would-be Flag Day assassin reportedly fired between “50 and 70 shots” before he was shot. It has to be asked: How many rounds would he have been able to fire if he wasn’t the only one armed, other than the few Capital police detailed to provide protection to Scalise because of his office.  If those police weren’t there, the would-be assassin might have systematically killed all those members of Congress, firing at them from the third-base dugout as they were trapped within the fenced  baseball field

Predictably, the Democrat governor of Virginia, Terry McCauliffe, a Clinton Democrat who is one of the Democrat Party’s and Clinton Foundation’s biggest fundraisers, exploited the tragedy to call for more gun control. Right. Disarm all law-abiding Americans to be helpless targets and victims of armed lawless gangsters, political creeps like this Sanders-Democrat would-be assassin, and by other enemies of America, foreign and domestic.

This assassination attempt is but more evidence that the farther we Americans walk away from the values of the Founding Fathers and the American veterans of the Founding Generation who gave their lives under the American Flag to establish our American freedom, the more we are becoming a First World economic power with a Third World political culture, as more and more people act out violently if they cannot get their way in free elections.

Ironically, great social injustice is being carried out by those proclaiming they are acting in the name of “social justice.” They proclaim rhetorically that they are righteously acting  in the name of “anti-fascism” –and then act in fact like fascist thugs.

Indeed, the progressive liberal/socialist/communist/anarchist violent demonstrators wearing black shirts (and masks) and committing violent acts in liberal Portland, OR, and other cities, as self-identified “anti-fascists” in the “anti-fa” movement, are indistinguishable from the “Black Shirts” of Mussolini in Fascist Italy, and the “Brown Shirts” of Adolph Hitler in Fascist Nazi Germany.

President Donald Trump is the subject of this self-righteous hate and vilification by the rhetorically politically correct but existentially politically incorrect.

He is the target of hate-filled, tantrum-like murderous political venom spilled out from progressive liberal entertainment celebrities, politicians, academics, and irresponsible modern American media inventing fake news to protest their loss of  political power as the de facto “Fourth Estate” or “Fourtrh Branch” of government.

Ironically, despite all this hate and personal attacks on him, President Donald Trump, on the day before Flag Day, continued to call for Americans to “Believe in yourselves. Believe in your future. And believe, once more, in America.”

To do this, to preserve and protect the free Constitutional republic that the Founding Fathers bequeathed to us by the service and sacrifice of those of the Founding Generation who served under the American Flag from its adoption on June 14, 1777, I respectfully suggest on Flag Day, June 14, 2017  that we Americans must remember that we are Americans; we must remember our own American history; our own American heritage; we must return to our root American values, and we must “Walk In The Footsteps of Founders” to preserve the freedom they created.

We can begin that renewal of America, by, on Flag Day and every day, remembering also the history of our Flag, which is briefly but informatively provided by one of America’s greatest patriots –author/essayist, and orator William J. (“Bill”) Federer, in his historical www.AmericanMinute.com on Flag Day.[Link]

It is our Flag, and ought to be revered and held as sacred and protected from physical desecration by passage of the Flag Amendment, H.J. Res. 61, and ratification by vote of “We, the People” in our States, as the symbol of our nation, our history, our heritage, our root values, and of the sacrifice of the 1.3-million American veterans who have given their lives fighting for freedom under our American Flag.

It should be realized, too, that the same kind of people who today express their hatred for President Trump, and for America, by burning or defecating on our Flag, are the same kind of people who will in their self-righteous political fervor attempt to assassinate Republican Members of Congress, or the Republican President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.Or you, or your children, and family members, should you dare to disagree with and oppose their political positions and values.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY–AND TERRORISM –NEVER!

FLAG DAY “Millions of our school children will daily proclaim…dedication of our nation…to the Almighty” -Eisenhower. (www.AmericanMinute.com, [link]

© 2017 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

© 2017 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

FBI Director James (“Captain Courageless”) Comey, fired by President Donald Trump, sought his revenge on President Trump in testimony before the Senate investigating committee on June 8, 2017, resulting in wall-to-wall television and a tsunami of liberal media and political “spin.”

© 2017 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

June 6, 2017  is the 73rd  anniversary of  a day which should live in history and the minds of all generations of Americans as a true milestone of liberty: D-Day, June 6, 1944 — a day to be emulated by Americans if tyranny again makes it necessary to fight and perhaps die for freedom.

On D-Day, in the largest amphibious landing in history, some 156,00 soldiers, sailors, marines, air corps and coast guard members of America, Britain, Canada, free France, Poland, and other nations, participated in the allied invasion at Normandy, France, to defeat the totalitarian tyranny of  the National Workers Socialist Party (NAZI) of Adolf Hitler,  who had conquered all of Europe.

Those who fought at Normandy on D-Day to preserve freedom from defeat by Hitler’s national socialist fascism, paid a terrible sacrifice. The beaches at Normandy, with NAZI artillery and machine guns established in cross-fire patterns, were, indeed, “killing fields,” prepared for slaughter. The sea ran red with blood. There were more than 10,000 casualties. The beaches designated Omaha, Utah, and Gold were covered by the wounded and dying. Over 4,000 of them, including 2,500 Americans, were killed in action. But by their bravery and sacrifice,  they turned the tide of war in what the late famed historian Stephen Ambrose called “the climatic battle of WWII,” in his book “D-Day: June 6, 1944.”

Hitler was convinced — and had convinced most of the western world — that his Fortress Europe could turn back and defeat any attempt to invade Europe by sea. So confident were the NAZI socialists, that their top generals, including Erwin Rommel, the “Desert Fox” who had gained famed in the Africa campaign, were elsewhere. Rommel himself was on leave in Germany, when the invasion was launched from Great Britain for Normandy — and not Calais, which the Nazi’s thought would be the point of invasion if one were made.

But Hitler was confident his Fortress Europe would defeat any invasion, anywhere.  Rommel, his best fighting general, had overseen the NAZI’s military arrangement of massive armaments all along the coast from Spain to Norway, creating Fortress Europe.

On D-Day, June 6, 1944, there was great doubt the invasion could succeed. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, actually paused to write a note in his own hand a statement to be made should the battle be lost. General Eisenhower wrote that if the invasion was lost, it was entirely his fault. He made  no excuses, did not the fault of his subordinate officers or the soldiers who fought it, or blame anyone else. (Compare that American leadership in the WWII generation with “red lines” drawn by Commander-in-Chief Barack Hussein Obama proscribing use of gas or genocide in Syria, which  turn out to be writ in sand and blowing in the wind; or, the excuses of Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Benghazi.)

After writing that note, Gen. Eisenhower issued a simple order, “OK, let’s go!” American and allied soldiers went. They fought. They died, including 400,000 of Americans in WWII.  But, they conquered, they saved the freedom of America, and the world, from the tyranny of Hilter’s national socialist fascism, NAZIism.

It can truly be said that without the bravery and sacrifice of that WWII generation of Americans, we Americans, would not be free today. We would be but the serfs of socialism under the brand of Hitler’s NAZIism, mouthing political platitudes of social justice being achieved under a messiah, Adolf Hitler.

But the question to ask on the 73rd Anniversary D-Day is, how many Americans will remember D-Day, June 6, 1944, on June 6, 2017? How many of us will remember today that we are the heirs of freedom purchased for us by the blood of the 400,000 members of the WWII Generation who gave their lives for freedom, and the 16-million veterans who served in that war – many of whom are still with us, though we are losing them at the rate of some 1,500 a day?

What of the values of the WWII generation who fought in Europe on D-Day and thereafter, and in the Pacific against Japan, often called the Greatest Generation. They were the children of the Depression and the men and women of WWII, not the children of material comfort and privilege of subsequent generations. They had no “safe zones.”

The late author Michale Novak, in his important book entitled, “On Two Wings—Humble Faith And Common Sense At the Founding Of America,” cites a study done in the late 1950’s on the values of Americans. What the study found was that the Americans whose values were closest to the Founding Fathers’ values was —the American families who had served in WWII.

What is the state of the Founding Fathers values in today’s America, especially after eight years in which progressive liberal President Barack Hussein Obama who openly stated his  intent was to “transform America” away from its traditional values, and into a country modeled on European socialism?

Abraham Lincoln once observed: “Show me what the children are being taught in the schools in America today, and I will show you the kind of government America will have in the next generation.”

What will progressive liberal teachers in the government schools of America teach American children on June 6, 2017, about D-Day, June 6, 1944? Will the children be taught that their freedom has been purchased for them by the courage and bravery of American veterans who fought, some 400,000 whom died, beginning at Normandy Beach on June 6, 1944, so that Americans might be free?

We face today another totalitarian ideology as evil as Hilter’s NAZIism—Islamism. Through such Islamist supremacists as al-Queda and IS (Islamic Snake), they are attempting to rule by terror, genocide, just as Hitler did.

Will we Americans today, and will the next generation, respond to fight to the death to preserve freedom from the tyranny of Islamism as did the WWII generation did to fight to preserve freedom from NAZIism?

May God bless and keep all those who served on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and the entire WWII, as all gave some, and some gave all. May we, as Americans, have the love of God and love of Country of the Greatest Generation that led them to fight and die for freedom if we receive the call, as they did from Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower on D-Day: “Let’s go!”

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER!

© 2017 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

The late General Norman (“Stormin’ Norman”) Schwarzkopf, Commander of forces in the Persian Gulf War (“Desert Storm”), succinctly stated an enduring truth: “Some things are worth living for. Some things are worth dying for. One of those things is freedom.”

Another enduring truth is that each of us Americans owes a debt to all of the more than 1.3-million American veterans who came before us and sacrificed their lives for our freedom. We pay that debt by what we do to preserve American freedom for all those who will come after us.

© 2017 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

“I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men!” —Cesar Chavez

March 31 is an official  State holiday in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, and is observed in several other States, in honor of the birth on March 31, 1937, of an extraordinary American — Cesar Estrada Chavez, the late co-founder and president of the United Farm Workers of America who became a legend in his own time in the civil rights era.

But there are many Americans today who are unaware there is a Cesar Chavez Day  (the major media ignore it), or why there should be a holiday honoring him. There are also  malicious myths tainting the life and the memory of Cesar Chavez that need to be repudiated, most particularly the lies that he was  not an American but a Mexican national, and that he was a “Communist,” both of which were first promulgated by the John Birch Society. They are utterly false.

I  worked with Cesar Chavez for some twenty years, starting in 1973, when I was a long haul trucker participating in a nationwide strike in protest against escalating fuel costs in the so-called “Arab Oil Embargo.”

I was helping coordinate the shutdown at the Triple T Truckstop in Tucson, AZ. Cesar Chavez mentored  me in that strike, which remained non-violent because of his demands in mentoring me that “violence is a failure of creative intelligence.”

After that strike was broken, an alliance between the Truckers For Justice and the United Farm Workers of America was established. During that work, in which we refused to haul non-union (scab) lettuce and grapes, Cesar told me I needed to go to law school as I could do more good as a lawyer.  His recommendation got me into law school. I worked with UFW lawyers while in law school, and after graduating and passing the California Bar in 1979, I became one of his lawyers until the day of his death on April 23, 1993, and for the UFW thereafter as called upon. I have remained to this day exclusively a civil rights, workers rights, veterans rights attorney. (I have written in more detail about experiences with Cesar in an earlier tribute, available here)

I can attest based on that long “up close and personal” experience that Cesar Chavez was, in his own way, a true American hero;  that there are valuable lessons to be learned from his honorable life; and that he is deserving of recognition by all Americans for his service and sacrifice for others, no matter their race, color, or creed.

However, in order to understand that, it is necessary, first, to overcome the lies and myths which continue to distort the truth of who and what Cesar Chavez was. These are myths by those who hated and maligned him for their own political purposes; and by those who want to exploit who and what he was in order to appropriate him based on race, ethnicity, or nationality for their own political ends.

The most malicious of those myths are, as stated above, first, that he was not an American but a “Mexican” national; and, second, that he was a “Communist.”

These malicious myths were first promulgated, utterly falsely and politically deliberately, by the John Birch Society in the 1960’s. Almost sixty years later, they are repeated to this day.

First, as to nationality, the truth is that Cesar Chavez was a native-born American, not a “Mexican.”  While proud of his Mexican-American heritage, he was a third-generation American, born on his grandfather’s small ranch in Arizona in the Yuma area.  No matter the indisputability of those facts, Wikipedia, for example, on which many students and others rely, informs even now: “Chavez was born on the Mexico Texas border and therefore has dual citizenship.” Utterly false.

Second, Cesar Chavez was no “communist.” He was a devoted Catholic Christian. He was attempting, humbly,  to live his Christian faith as faithfully as he was able by sacrifice and service for others as taught and exemplified by Jesus the Christ, not Marx the Communist.

Moreover, almost never mentioned by those who hate  Cesar Chavez  and define him as a “communist” and a “Mexican” rather than an American, is that Cesar Chavez, in 1944 at the age of 17, enlisted in the U.S. Navy in WWII and served for the duration of the war in the Pacific in defense of the country of his birth, the United States of America.

Ironically, those who claim to love Cesar Chavez make themselves accomplices of those who hate him (and them)  by obscuring  Cesar Chavez’ American birth — and  by almost never mentioning that he was an American veteran of WWII.  They do this not to honor Cesar, but in order to appropriate Cesar Chavez on race or ethnic grounds as a “Mexican,” “Chicano,” or “Raza” race-based civil rights movement leader rather than as an American hero who should be honored by all Americans — as an American hero.

In regard to that, Cesar Chavez, while proud of his ancestral heritage, always identified himself as a “labor” or “union leader,” not as a civil rights leader of Mexican-Americans, Chicanos, Latinos, Hispanics, or La Raza.

In fact, in the some twenty years I worked with him,  Cesar never defined himself as a “Mexican,” or “Chicano,” “Latino,” etc., and, regarding the identification “La Raza” (“The Race”) he told me he didn’t use it because he considered it racialist.

Those who condemn him as a “Mexican” and “Communist,,” and those who claim a possessory interest him as  a leader of a race-based “Chicano” or “La Raza” civil rights movement, are both wrong: He defined himself as, and acted as, what he was—a “trade union leader,” and a devout Catholic Christian.

Cesar Chavez was the moral heart of the American labor movement.

He built the first viable farm workers union in American history, the United Farm Workers of America. As president of the UFW, Cesar Chavez represented all farm workers, whatever their race, ethnicity, or nationality.

One example which refutes the myths of both those who hate Chavez and those who appropriate him based on race, and shows the willingness of both to corrupt historical truth to suit their political ends, is Chavez’ acts regarding illegal immigration, which was then and remains now  at the center of national controversy and division.

In 1969, Cesar Chavez famously led a march from Indio, CA, to the border. It is portrayed today as primarily a march in protest against discrimination by racist growers oppressing Mexican and other Hispanic farmworkers. That is false historical revisionism.

The primary purpose of the 1969 march to the Mexican border was a protest against the federal government’s failure to secure the border from importation of illegal immigrants who were being used to keep wages and working conditions down and to break strikes and the farmworkers union entirely. Indeed, as UFW members set up picket lines waving “Huelga” (“Strike”) flags, buses would arrive from Mexico to unload strike breakers.

In short, Cesar Chavez’ 1969 march to the Mexican border was for the same purpose that the Minutemen later went to the border in the 70’s and 80’s— to secure the border and demand that the government stop illegal immigration. (It should be noted that the Minutemen were widely condemned as as “racists” for doing just what Cesar Chavez did. Was Cesar Chavez a racist? )

In the 1970’s, Cesar Chavez fell out of favor with race-based civil rights groups, white liberals, Leftists including open socialist and communist organizations, and liberal media. He was was criticized because he adopted the position of calling upon and aiding the then-Immigration And Naturalization Service (INS) to deport strikebreakers illegally in the country.

In 1979, ten years after the march from Indio to the border to demand enforcement of the immigration laws, Cesar Chavez testified before Congress about immigration. He testified that illegal immigration had to be stopped, and the border secured, as illegal immigrants were used to hold wages and working conditions down, and to break as strikes, defeating efforts of farmworkers to build a union to improve their wages, hours, working conditions, and lives.

Today, Cesar Chavez’ 1969 march from Indio to the border is historically revised to be a protest against racist growers and his 1979 Congressional testimony is rarely cited, to satisfy the political ends of race-based la raza groups and non-raza liberals who want to transform him from what he was, i.e., a leader of a labor movement to improve the lives of all farmworkers,  to what they want him to be, i.e., a race-based political leader..

Meanwhile, many conservatives continue the original wrong and error of the John Birch Society when it falsely slandered and branded Cesar Chavez as a non-American and a “communist.” That continually repeated malicious lie has alienated many Mexican-American and other Hispanics for whom Cesar Chavez is, rightly,  a hero, as he should be for all Americans.

In his lifetime, although he became nationally and internationally renown, Cesar Chavez never sought personal fame, wealth, or celebrity. It was all about the cause, la causa, not about him. Indeed, Cesar Chavez  turned down millions of dollars offered for the rights to make a movie of his life. Similarly, he rejected all offers to write an autobiography or for the right to produce an “authorized” biography. All that he would authorize was the “Autobiography of La Causa,” by Jaques Levy, who didn’t “buy” the right but earned it by working with Chavez in la causa for some ten years.

Cesar Chavez’ achievement is monumental. Farmworkers, and domestic workers, were exempted from the right to organize into unions provided to all other workers by the National Labor Relations Act. There were no State laws creating a right of farmworkers to support unionization. They could be and were fired and “blacklisted” with impunity by employers who suspected them of supporting a union. Farmworkers were also migrant, moving from employer to employer on the migrant trail during harvesting seasons. Therefore, more than a hundred attempts to organize migrant farmworkers by major international unions with money, members, and paid full time organizers failed. It was thought impossible to organize migrant farmworkers.

Then came Cesar Chavez. He had nothing. No money, no members, no paid staff. Nothing but the belief that the only way to help farmworkers was to build a union in which they could themselves achieve better working conditions, and dignity. He himself had become a migrant farmworker at the age of ten when the ranch of his grandfather on which he was born was lost on foreclosure in the Depression and taken over by the Bruce Church Corp., largest lettuce grower in Arizona. He had little education, attending some fifty different elementary schools as his family followed the migrant farmworker trail. After his service in the U.S. Navy, he had married his sweetheart, Helen, in Delano, CA. Together they had eight kids.

The story has been told now in many articles, books, documentaries, and a relatively recent movie of how Cesar Chavez, while working as an organizer in Los Angeles, became convinced a union for farmworkers had to be created. He quit his job. He and Helen loaded up their old station wagon with the kids and a mimeograph machine, and headed to Delano. There, they rented a house, set up the mimeograph machine, and sent out a flyer calling for a house meeting, the first step in creating what would become the United Farm Workers of America.

How did Cesar Chavez succeed where all others had failed? By touching the hearts of Americans and the conscience of the nation by exposing the true working conditions of migrant farmworkers through creative, non-violent acts and actions, including  his fasts and boycotts, and by his manifest personal selfless service and sacrifice.

Cesar Chavez did not merely say:  “I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men!”

He lived it.

By doing so, he succeeded where so many others failed. He achieved what was thought impossible. He inspired and taught by his example, humbly serving and sacrificing for others, and thereby has enriched the lives not only of farmworkers, but the lives of millions of Americans, of all races, all colors, all creeds, including my own life.

I am greatly indebted to Cesar Chavez, especially for the example of his selfless life in service for others. I will always walk in his shadow.

CESAR CHAVEZ AND REES LLOYD At Press Conference during truckers strike in Tucson, AZ, in 1973, announcing alliance of Truckers For Justice and United Farm Workers of America (UFW)

© 2017 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

Repeal The Uniform Monday Holiday Act

February 22, 2017, is the 285th anniversary of the birth in 1732 of General and President George Washington, the “Father Of Our Country.” Washington was the most universally respected and admired American in the age of the Founding Fathers, and in the history of America.

Once upon a time, George Washington’s Birthday was a National Holiday celebrated on the actual anniversary of his birth, February 22. On Washington’s Birthday, Americans paused to remember and honor him. Parents and schools taught American children about his life on his birthday; urged the children to learn about the Father Of His [Their] Country, and to follow his example of patriotic love of country, selfless service and sacrifice for freedom, personal honor, dedication to duty, fidelity to principle.

By observing Washington’s Birthday as a National Holiday on his actual birthdate, Feb. 22, the focus of the nation was on Washington, on the example he set by his extraordinary life, establishing him as “the Greatest American.”

However, all that changed in 1971. Congress, pressured by federal government bureaucrats and other employees and their unions, abolished “Washington’s Birthday” as a National Holiday. It was replaced with “Presidents’ Day” to be observed on the “third Monday of February” as a result of the “Uniform Monday Holiday Act,” which gave government employees their sought after three-day weekends.

As a result, American children in government schools learn little or nothing about the greatest man in the history of America, without whose extraordinary virtues and sacrifices they would not be free.

Therefore, I urge that “Washington’s Birthday” should be reinstated as a National Holiday. It should be celebrated on Washington’s actual birthday: February 22, not another day for the three-day holiday convenience of alleged “public servants” in government employment. Nor should Washington be lumped in with other, less deserving presidents in a concocted “Presidents Day.”

George Washington was acknowledged at the genesis of the United States of America as the “Father Of His Country,” the greatest of all Americans. He received such honors for good reasons that endure and should not be forgotten, or never taught to succeeding generations. He set an enduring example of fidelity to God and Country. His life should be known, remembered, honored, and emulated by Americans of this and and future generations, as he was by the generation of the Founding Fathers who knew him best.

George Washington was the most admired American by the Americans of the Founding Generation who created the free, Constitutional republic of America: “First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen,” as Washington was described by Revolutionary War hero Henry (“Light Horse Harry”) Lee. No president, no American, has every been so universally respected and admired as was Washington.

Washington set an enduring example in war by his conduct as Commanding General of the American Revolutionary Army in the War of Independence, 1776-1883, in which he was regarded as the “indispensable man” without whose leadership freedom would never have been achieved in the war against England, then the greatest military power on earth.

Washington continued setting the example in peace when he was elected by acclamation as president of the Constitutional Convention, and thereafter elected as the First President of the United States.

He set perhaps an even greater example by walking away from power and returning home to Virginia as a private citizen after his second term, refusing offers that he be president for life.

His act of humbly declining power as President and returning home stunned the world, in which the United States was then the only republic in a world of monarchs and potentates. He was hailed as a (then) modern “Cincinnatus,” the Roman general who walked away from imperial power when Rome ruled the world. When others grasped for power—then and now—George Washington, singularly, relinquished power, setting an unprecedented example of duty, honor, country, first.

After his death on Dec. 14, 1799, George Washington was hailed in the western world as “the greatest man of his age.” Even Napoleon, who had no small estimation of his own greatness, deferred to Washington, saying (on Feb. 9, 1800) : “This great man fought against tyranny; he established the liberty of his country. His memory will always be dear to the French people, as it will be to all freemen of the two worlds.”

Americans once believed those words. George Washington was the first American to be honored with a federal holiday. “Washington’s Birthday” was established by Act of Congress in 1879. As noted above,”Washington’s Birthday” holiday was observed on the anniversary of Washington’s birthday, February 22, until Congress, putting the care, comfort and convenience of government employees first, adopted the “Uniform Monday Holiday Act,” which became effective on Jan. 1, 1971.

That Act effectively subordinated remembrance of the example of George Washington’s life, and maintaining or inculcating those virtues in the national character, especially of the young, and immigrants who would be Americans, for the higher purpose of insuring that federal and other government employees will have nice three-day weekend holidays, while the rest of the country goes to work.

“Washington’s Birthday” holiday was in effect abolished from national consciousness in the 1970’s, when the the holiday was renamed “President’s Day,” submerging America’s greatest president, George Washington, into an undifferentiated mass of competent men and con men, the good, the bad, the ugly, the avaricious, meretricious, and salacious, who have managed, often by hook and crook, and lying through their teeth, to get themselves elected President.

With the abolition of George Washington’s Birthday, and Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday to satisfy government employees three-day weekend demands, the only American in all of history now to have a National Holiday in his name is Martin Luther King.

Concisely stated: It is the singular, unprecedented virtues, character, and example of George Washington which ought to be remembered and honored, singularly, on his actual birthday, February 22, as a National Holiday.

Therefore, let us Americans of this generation demand that Congress restore the “Washington’s Birthday” National Holiday to be observed on February 22, annually, the actual birth date of George Washington, no matter the lamentations of government bureaucrats and employees who may suffer the oppression of one less three-day weekend holiday.

© 2017 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

There have been many instances during and after the election for the presidency of dem-onstrators burning or defecating on the Flag of the United States– all, or almost all, self-defined disaffected Democrats, progressive liberals, socialists, communists, or race-or-sex based political activists.

This desecration of the Flag is the result of a decision in 1989 by five lawyer-judges on the Supreme Court in Texas vs. Johnson that burning the Flag, or defecating upon it, is “speech” protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Although the people of the United States had the ability from the very founding of the country to 1989 to protect the Flag from desecration by law in their communities and States, those five lawyer-judges on the Supreme Court — the other four disagreeing — nullified all the laws that had been enacted in all of the States to protect the Flag from desecration. The American people, after 213 years, lost the ability to decide if and how to protect the Flag.

Almost immediately, American patriots, particularly veterans, acted to reverse that 5-to-4 Supreme Court decision. Congress and States, passed laws to protect the Flag. However, they we’re dead on arrival in the Supreme Court. Therefore, there is no option: The only way to pro-tect the Flag is to pass a Constitutional amendment giving Congress the authority to enact pro-tective legislation..

The Citizens Flag Alliance, involving some 140 veterans, civic, business, and fraternal organizations, was created to urge Congress to adopt a Flag Amendment stating simply: “The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.” The Flag Amendment does not dictate what a Congressional enactment should state; it only empowers Congress to legislate to protect the Flag from desecration.

The Citizens Flag Alliance, led by its first chairman, Maj. Gen. Patrick H. Brady, a Medal of Honor recipient (Vietnam) who is regarded as America’s most decorated living vet-eran, succeeded in convincing the House to adopt the Flag Amendment six times with each new Congress, and came within one (1) vote in the Senate of adoption in 2006, which would send the Flag Amendment to the States for ratification by vote of the people.

However, in the November elections in that same year, 2006, the Democrats regained control of the Congress, stalling the Flag Amendment effort. With the election of Barack Obama as President in 2008, the effort to pass the Flag Amendment appeared, and was, futile.

All that has been changed by the 2016 election of President Donald Trump, who has called for “consequences” for desecration of the Flag; election of a Republican majority in House and Senate; and what appears to be a renewed patriotic spirit in America.

“We are revitalizing and relaunching the Citizens Flag Alliance campaign to persuade Congress to adopt the Flag Amendment in the new 115th Congress, and send it to the States for ratification by vote of the people,” said Jill Druskis of the American Legion, president of the Citizens Flag Alliance.

Gen. Brady, who led the Citizens Flag Alliance for ten years before stepping down as chairman in 2007, has issued a call for all veterans and other patriots to join with the CFA in actively urging Congress to adopt the Flag Amendment.

“If ever there was a time to revitalize the Flag Amendment movement, it is now,” said Gen. Brady. “We need to re-energize the Citizens Flag Alliance and create a nationwide grass roots movement to convince the new 115th Congress to pass the Flag Amendment, and restore to the American people their right to decide if and how our Flag should be protected.

There are 23-million living American veterans. As one, I believe that burning the Flag, or defecating on the Flag, is an insult to every American veteran who is serving, or has served–including the 1.4-million veterans who have given their lives in war in defense of America under the Flag.

Further, as a Constitutional and Civil Rights attorney, I believe that the five lawyers on the Supreme Court who have decided that “burning” or “defecating” on the Flag is a form of “speech,” are not only wrong in a jurisprudential sense, but as a matter of common sense exer-cised by non-lawyer mere mortals. Indeed, I believe that any lawyer-judge who dictates to the nation that “defecation” is “speech” is not only guilty of judicial tyranny, but is talking out of the wrong orifice himself or herself and should be impeached for inanity if not insanity.

Does any American possessed of common sense really believe that Founding Fathers Gen. George Washington, presiding officer at the Constitutional Convention, our first American President, the Father Of Our Country, or Thomas Jefferson, Father of the Declaration of Inde-pendence, or James Madison, Father of the Constitution, or any of the Founding Fathers who established the Constitution believed that burning or “defecating” on the Flag was not only “speech” but speech the Founding Fathers, patriots all, intended to be protected in the First Amendment?

Only lawyers could reach such an absurd decision, and then impose it on the American people. However, that decision by five lawyer-judges on the Supreme Court while the other four lawyer-judges disagreed, makes burning or defecating on the Flag a “legal right,” only. It does not make it “right” to do.

Burning the Flag or defecating on the Flag is a cowardly, narcissistic, morally despicable “wrong.” The Flag must be protected from such disgraceful actions. Supreme Court decisions are not writ in stone; they are reversible by the ultimate American sovereign–“We, the People.”

Join and support the call of the Citizens Flag Alliance and of Gen. Patrick Brady to de-mand that Congress pass the Flag Amendment to protect the Flag from desecration and send it to the States for ratification so that “We, the People” may have the “right,” again, to decide whether and how the Flag should be protected from desecration.

For more information: CitizensFlagAlliance.org,

HONOR OUR FLAG —PASS THE FLAG AMENDMENT

© 2017 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

I write this in exasperation at encountering news on the internet, television, and radio all about Megan Kelly moving from Fox News to NBC. Why is this news? On what basis is fame awarded to those who only read, announce, or chatter about the news made by other people who actually do something other than “observe” what others do and report or comment on it? Why, for the first time, have those whose role it is to report the “news,” become the “news”?

This particularly applies to Megan Kelly. She, and more and more other television “journalists,” think and act like they are the story; they are the celebrities; and those who actually make the news by doing things are just props for the “reporters” to put on a show in which the reporter is the star. For Kelly, as a “reporter,” its “all about her,” as the reporter, instead of who she is reporting on.

It wasn’t always this way. Once upon a time many years ago, I was what is called “an award winning investigative reporter” for a large circulation newspaper in one the most corrupt urban areas of the country. Among other things, I wrote a series of more than twenty parts on corruption, drugs, gambling, bookie joints, whore houses, public housing and other corrupt “poverty programs” that made organized crime, government officials, and “poverty program pimps,” rich by payoffs and graft.

Death threats began after the first installment of the series appeared. By the third day, I was ordered into the managing editor’s office. Two FBI agents informed me they believed the death threats were serious Thereafter, although death threats continued as the series went on day after day, I had 24-hour FBI-supervised protection, Where I went, they went. As I slept, they guarded. A corrupt mayor and a number of other government figures ultimately went to prison for corruption. That was professional journalism, and I was proud to be a small part of it.

But that was a long time ago and far, far way from contemporary television broadcast journalism, epitomized by Megan Kelly. Today, purported professional journalist Megan Kelly has become a celebrity broadcast journalist whose career move is reported on endlessly by other “journalists” in a breathless worshipful manner that used to be reserved for teenage readers of fan magazines. “Will she or won’t she?” “What will Megan do”? “Megan Kelly announces she will…! Provoking the question: Knowing how Megan Kelly has cheapened journalism, why should anyone care where she sells her soul?

This celebration of purported journalist Megan Kelly in endless purported “news reports” by other purported journalists takes place even as she almost nightly cheapens the profession of journalism.

Kelly has cheapened professional journalism by cheapening herself, to the present and future injury of other women who really are or want to be ethical professional journalists, but don’t want to be hired, promoted, or judged on an “eye-candy” standard of sexual attractiveness, allure, or suggestiveness.

Consider: What is the lesson of Kelly’s career actions for other women, especially young women, if they want to get ahead and be respected as a professional journalist ?

First, following the Kelly model, what a woman needs to do to get ahead in television journalism is to pretend to be a professional journalist but dress on television “news programs” like a high class call girl on her on her way to an assignation as soon as the broadcast ends.

And do such other things as Kelly has done to promote herself, such as: Going on the Howard Stern Show and chatting all smiles with Dirty Howard about matters sexual. Giggle without objection as Kelly did when drooling Howard complimented her leeringly as “a great piece of ass.” Carry on with Howard as Kelly did in titillating banter about sexual acts and practices like a low class hooker being probed, so to speak, by Dirty Howard, and enjoying it. Really high class, professional journalist conduct by Kelley to get ahead.

Or, following the Kelly model, do a “come-and-get-it” soft-porn photo spread for GQ or similar magazine, as Kelly did, while simultaneously insisting all you want to be recognized for is your professionalism as a journalist and not as a woman trying to get ahead on her sexual attractiveness and attributes.

Most importantly, exploit your position, as Kelly did on Fox as its eye-candy news queen, to make yourself famous by doing something really cheap but self-promoting, as Kelly did in ambushing Donald Trump in the first presidential campaign debate with an accusation posing as a journalistic question regarding Trump being abusive of women by, inter alia, calling Rosie O’Donell a “pig.” ( That apparently is being abusive of women even if true about Rosie O’Donnell, at least to the degree that Rosie O’Donnell is one, although it isn’t clear that she “identifies” as one.)

Kelly gained fame by her cheap ambush of Trump, but by the same act she lost all credibility personally as an objective journalist, and cheapened the profession. But that doesn’t mean Kelly won’t get ahead at NBC, which, especially through MSNBC, has evidenced that it has even less journalistic integrity than Kelly, and will say or do anything if it is self-promoting, no matter how cheap.

In sum, Kelly has cheapened journalism by the way she has sought advancement by figuratively selling sex. There is a word for that when the sale is literal rather than figurative. That word sometimes fits when the sale, replete with come on, remains figurative. That word, in my opinion, fits Megan Kelly, and fits the kind of “journalism” of which she is the exemplar.

Megan Kelly’s is not the kind of professional journalism that should be celebrated by “journalists” as “news” in story upon story about Meagan Kelly’s career change. Cheap is as cheap does, and Kelly does it cheap, indeed. All that needs be said of her are words that are ancient, but wise, and fitting for Megan Kelly: “Go, and sin no more.”

© 2017 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

A widely distributed political cartoon shows Barack Hussein Obama embracing Raul Castro, the totalitarian Communist leader of Cuba, and the Ayatollah leading the fascist Islamic Republic of Iran. It is one of the best evidences of Obama’s self-promoting hypocrisy and Machiavellian duplicity.

This is especially true since it was published on “another day which will live in infamy” — Dec. 23, 2016. That is the day on which the United States, two days before Christmas, by order of Barack Hussein Obama, aided and abetted the Muslim dominated United Nations General Assembly, fascistic Islamic theocracies, and overt Islamic terrorist organizations like ISIS, al-Queda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Palestine Liberation Organization, in adopting a resolution condemning Israel in the Israel-Palestinian conflict and declaring as a matter of international law (since U.N. resolutions have that status) that Jews have no right to settle outside of the 1948 borders of Israel, forbidding them to live even in the “Jewish Quarter” of Jerusalem.

Eight years of Barack Hussein Obama ruling by race in the U.S. and by pro-Islamist policies in the world, has come to this disgraceful end of his presidency in the U.N.

If anyone needed further proof that Obama — America’s first and hopefully last Affirmative Actiion President who was elected not because of his achievements but because of, not in spite of, his race — is an utter conmann who deceived Americans as to what he really is at his progressive liberal neo-socialist anti-American core in which it is and always has been “all about him.”

The duped and deceived by Obama include in particular Israel supporting American Jews, secular and observing, who voted for him despite his utter lack of achievement and contributed millions in support of his elections in a percentage almost as high as American blacks who voted by race (96% in 2008; 93% in 2012).

Note that Obama waited until after the 2016 election — that is, after American Jews had contributed their financial support all but exclusively to Hillary Clinton and the Democrat Party — to reverse American policy by abandoning Israel by “abstaining” on the resolution condemning Israel in the U.N.

Indeed, the Machiavellian hypocrisy is blatant— the U.S. vetoed the same resolution in 2011 when Obama was running to be re-elected in 2012. Now, when Obama’s term is ending and he cannot run again, Obama reverses the U.S. position of 2011 and stabs Israel in the back.

Thus, Obama betrays and makes dupes of all Americans who believed him, and in him, including the American Jews whose millions in campaign contributions helped to elect him twice when in both campaigns Obama gave assurances that U.S. unwavering relationship in support of Israel would not change if he was elected.

Further, while Obama issued the order to “abstain” and thus effectively support the Muslim UN attack on Israel, Obama claims his disgraceful decision was taken with the support of Democrat Party leaders Hillary Clinton, who ran in 2016; John Kerry, who ran in 2004, and Joe Biden, who now says he will run for President, again, in 2020. Thus, they, too, and the Democrat Party which they lead, are guilty.

But it is Obama who issued the order and owns this disgraceful decision to align the U.S. with the totalitarian Islamic theocracies in the U.S. and to weaken Israel. This despicable decision is further evidence, if any was needed, that Obama is not only the “First Black U.S. President” he is also the “Worst U.S. President.”

Now that his presidency has ended and he can’t run again, watch Obama campaign, overtly and as well as covertly, to be elected Secretary General of the U.N. He will be able to tell the Muslim nations which have numerical superiority in the General Assembly to remember how he sided with them in his presidency, from his “Apology For America Tour” and kowtowing to Islam “Cairo Speech” in the beginning of his presidency in 2009, to the U.S. action in the U.N.on Dec. 23, 2016.

President-elect Donald Trump denounced this anti-Israel dirty deal of Obama and the U.N. and promised that American policy will change on July 20, 2016, when he is inaugurated as President. Not a minute too soon.

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This shameful overt anti-Israeli U.N. action, which manifestly strengthens and supports totalitarian Islamic governments and Islamic terrorist organizations, and weakens Israel — the only democracy and America’s only true ally in the Middle East — is an infamous betrayal of America as well as of Israel.

It should be the last straw for “We, the People” of America regarding the value of the U.N. as presently constituted; and regarding “the value,” first and foremost, of Barak Hussein Obama and his “historic election as the first black president,” as well as “the value” of Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Joe Biden, and the other leaders of the Democrat party who supported and are responsible for this disgrace in the U.N.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER!

© 2016 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

John Glenn, Boy Scout, Marine, Astronaut, Senator, Patriot, was a great American hero, and also that very rare being: A great man who was also a good man, a humble man, a man who went to the heavens not only in a space ship, but in his heart, with an abiding faith in God.

There are many many tributes to John Glenn on his passing at age 95 on Dec. 8, 2016, for his heroic achievements. But for me, what struck me was a story I read years ago in the book “Right Stuff” about the Apollo Astronauts. The very “down to earth” story about Glenn, as a man, as a husband, went like this:

Then Vice President Lyndon Johnson decided that a great publicity opportunity presented itself should Johnson go to Glenn’s home to comfort Mrs. Glenn while John was off on astronaut duty with the whole country watching in anticipation. So, Johnson arrived in his limousine and his entourage, including media, at the Glenn home.

John’s wife, however, was very shy, including about a stutter in her speech, and did not want to have to participate in any media event. So, she wouldn’t let Vice President Johnson in. Instead, she locked the door and telephoned John, informing him of what was going on and that it distressed her.

John Glenn, whom the media dubbed “the Boy Scout among the Apollo Astronauts,” knew, of course, that embarrassing the Vice President could mean the end of Glenn’s Astronaut career. So, what did Glenn do? He stood up for his wife, no matter the risk of outraging Vice President Johnson and ending John’s career. John told his wife not to let Johnson in, and went on to raise holy hell that Johnson would do what he did to the distress of Mrs. Glenn, which would not be tolerated even if Johnson was Vice President.

John Glenn had incredible courage, indeed — from sitting alone atop the Apollo when there was a very high risk that he might die at any moment from an explosion at blastoff (one in four attempts failed), in Space, or coming home. But he also had the courage, the manly chivalry, to stand up in defense of his wife, even though the offender was the Vice President of the U.S. who had the power to end Glenn’s career in a peeve.

So, Mrs. Glenn remained inside behind her locked door as the uninvited visitor, VP Lyndon Johnson, sat outside stewing in embarrassment as the Boy Scout, Marine, Astronaut, American Hero — the “Man,” John Glenn, would not retreat. “What a man,” as used to be said of such men as John Glenn “back in the day” before the Feminist Movement emasculation of American males.

John Glenn survived his Apollo flight, the first American to orbit the earth in space, and survived his face-down with the Vice President of the U.S. in defense of his wife’s right to choose with whom to speak, when, and how. That was perhaps a “little thing,” a small act in the scope of all that John Glenn did in a magnificent, honorable, heroic life, including returning to outer space at the age of 77. But that “little thing,” standing up for his wife no matter the risk to his career, meant a lot to me when I first read it, and now, about what kind of man John Glenn was. That love, that marriage of the Glenns, lasted seventy (70) years by the time of John Glenn’s death.

John Glenn was an extraordinary American hero, but he was also what American men used to want to be, and were: First and foremost– “A Protector.” Males willing to do what is necessary to protect others, including females, no matter the consequences (and no matter the shrieks and howls of the politically correct elitists and the feminists i.e., female supremacists perpetually aggrieved by manliness).

John Glenn, a great man who was also a good man, a humble hero, said his historic Apollo flight into space, while a great scientific achievement, made his faith in God stronger, not weaker. May the God John Glenn served now embrace and keep him; may the country which he served always honor and never forget him. Godspeed, John Glenn. Godspeed.

© 2016 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

December 7, 2016, Pearl Harbor Day, marks the 75th anniversary of the Japanese air attack on U.S. naval and air installations at Pearl Harbor, HI, at 7:53 a.m., Dec. 7, 1941, without a declaration of war.

It was then the worst attack on American soil in history: Some 2,403 died, 2008 of them Navy personnel; another 1,178 were wounded.

Eighteen Navy ships, including the U.S.S. Arizona, were sunk or damaged. Almost all the planes at the island bases were destroyed or damaged while still on the ground.

President Franklyn D. Roosevelt memorably called December 7, 1941, “a day which will live in infamy” in his dramatic speech to Congress, which then declared war on Japan.

Only the sneak attack on America by radical Islamic terrorists on 9-11-2001 in New York resulted in more deaths. But for many Americans of this generation — and millions of immigrants, legal and illegal — the significance of Pearl Harbor is not fully known, or appreciated.

One for whom it does “live in infamy,” is Pearl Harbor survivor S. J. Hemker, now 97, of Banning, California. A retired three-war combat Navy veteran, and an American Legionnaire, Hemker remembers Pearl Harbor up close and personal:

“Ordinarily, we would have been at sea. We were at Pearl Harbor because we had to repair an engine that had been sabotaged at the shipyard back in California. I was up on the fantail of our ship, the USS New Orleans, a heavy cruiser, with the Chief Master at Arms. The Quartermaster was there, getting ready to raise the flag,” Hemker recalls.

“It was 7:53 a.m. when we saw the Japanese planes. They were flying so low I could see the pilots’ faces in the cockpit. They were grinning at us as they went down toward Battle Ship Row. Grinning at me and the Chief. They were so close, you could have thrown something at them and hit them. A potato, maybe. They were that close. Just skimming the top of the water. Torpedo planes. The pilots grinning at us,” Hemker reluctantly, but vividly recalls.

“The loudspeakers blared: ‘Man your battle stations – the Japs are attacking’. All hell broke loose.. It was terrible, horrible, …,” he says, pausing in his remembrance.

“I spent the next eight hours down in the magazine loading for our five-inch anti-aircraft guns. We fired everything. If we had been hit, that would have been it for us in the magazine. We would have been blown up. We had a big crane over the top of our ship. I think that’s what saved us,” he states matter-of-factly as to his own circumstance., then somberly relates:

“The Arizona capsized. Thirteen hundred men went down with her. Half the guys I was with in boot camp died on the Arizona. That’s where the Memorial is today. They say that oil still leaks out every day. Those guys…they’re still down there,” Hemker says quietly, his voice trailing off, as if physically turning away from a memory, and reality, which is still too painful to talk about.

Getting Hemker to talk about it at all is no easy task. Like many of his fellow World War II veterans, he still doesn’t talk about his war experiences, never expects any thanks or gratitude, and never, ever boasts about it, despite the fact that after Pearl Harbor he served America in battles and combat zones for the duration of WWII, in the Korean War, and in Vietnam.

Hemker is a widower whose wife died more than 20 years ago. He has three sons. All served in the Vietnam War. Hempker, still roguishly handsome and possessed of a sly sense of humor, charms the ladies in the Legion Auxiliary with country gallantry.

He is universally admired by his comrade veterans in the American Legion. “I’m not able to do what I used to do, but I do what I can,” he says.

Reflecting on Pearl Harbor seventy-five years after surviving it, Hemker, who has lost his eyesight but not his vision for America, observes:

“We Americans should never forget. If we forget our past and those who died, we won’t have a future. A free one, anyway. Look at what happened on 9-11. More people were killed on that day then were killed at Pearl Harbor. It can happen again,” he warns.

“I don’t think people remember Pearl Harbor and what it means, the way they used to do,” Hemker concludes. “That’s too bad. A lot of us can’t forget. An awful lot of really good people died to keep America free. They shouldn’t be forgotten.”

© 2016 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

Veterans and other patriots participate in annual Veterans Day ceremonies on November 11th to “keep the faith” with those who fought and died in World War I to safeguard our American democracy, just as today Americans who have picked up “the torch” of freedom once held high by WWI veterans are fighting, and dying, in combatting tyrannical Islamic jihadist terrorism.

However, many more Americans and others in America, not only ordinary citizens but many politicians, office holders and policy makers — not to mention the estimated 11-million or more aliens illegally living in America while still bearing allegiance to and flying the flag of the countries of their origin — know there is a “Veterans Day Holiday,” but either do not remember or have never learned of the truth of the costs of freedom paid by veterans from Flanders Fields in WWI to Veterans Day 2016, or even why there is a “National Veterans Day” with roots in WWI.

The history of the Veterans Day Holiday should be known, including being taught to school children of the rising generation (instead of being taught by progressive liberal government school teachers and bureaucrats such farcical multi-cultural concocted non-holidays as “Kwanza” [not in fact an African tradition] or “Cinco de Mayo”[not in fact a Mexican tradition] ), if we are to “keep faith” with American veterans, from the time of WWI battles in Flanders Fields, through all the wars, to the battles being fought against radical Islamic tyranny in the Middle East.

Veterans Day observances traditionally commence at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year, the anniversary of the date and time of the signing of the Armistice ending combat in World War I on November 11, 1918.

It was World War I, “The War To End War,” “The War To Make The World Safe For Democracy,” which gave birth to what was originally Armistice Day, to honor WWI veterans. It was thought then that WWI was so terrible that there could not be another such war. Only twenty years later, the even more terrible World War II began in Europe. By Act of Congress, WWI Armistice Day is now Veterans Day, honoring all veterans of all the wars.

It has to be remembered that WWI was a most terrible war, the horrors of which are difficult to comprehend. The spark which set off WWI was the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the crown in Austria, and his wife, on June 28, 1914, in Sarajevo, Bosnia, by a Serbian nationalist. But scholars debate to this date who and what actually caused the war to escalate as it did into a world war, and why, in fact, it was fought. Each side blamed the other. Whatever the answer, a complex web of entangling alliances and mutual defense treaties set off what would become the most horrendous war in the history of the world.

An estimated 10-million combatants were killed in that war; an estimated 22-million were wounded. It was a war in which almost 100,000 died from poison gas, use of which has since then been banned as a war crime. It was a war fought on the model of earlier “trench warfare” in which waves of soldiers charged across fields to combat the enemy in an opposing trench often in bayonet and hand-to-hand combat. The difference was that in WWI it was not soldiers with rifles and bayonets in the opposing trench; it was a trench defended with machine guns which did not exist in the earlier wars. Troops were slaughtered in those fields by the tens of thousands in single days of fighting in the new reality of WWI, while their generals drew battle plans based on outdated tactics of the last war.

For but one example, the battle of Verdun, regarded as the most momentous battle of WWI, began in mid-February, 1916, when the Germans launched an offensive. By mid-March, more than 90,000 French troops had been killed in that one month. The battle of Verdun went on for seven (7) months in which more than 700,000 troops died, a hundred thousand dead soldiers per month.

The United States did not enter the war until 1917. President Woodrow Wilson, a Princeton academic progressive liberal politician who believed the U.S. Constitution was outdated, ran for re-election in 1916 as the Democrat Party candidate in a campaign based on the slogan, “He Kept Us Out Of War.”

Wilson was sworn in on March 4, 1917. Only a month later, his deceitful campaign slogan no longer needed, Wilson called on Congress to declare war on Germany, which it did on April 6, 1917. The first of some 4-million Americans who would serve in that war began arriving in France in June, 1917.

There is no doubt that the Allies defeated the Central Powers – Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Muslim Ottoman Empire –because of the American sacrifice. Prior to the entrance of the U.S. into the war, Germany was victorious and advancing on three fronts. By 1915, Great Britain so feared defeat that it established a naval blockade in an attempt to literally starve Germany into surrender. In response to the starvation blockade, which is today generally regarded as a violation of international law by scholars, the Germans declared all the seas around Great Berlin and Ireland to be a “war zone” and all shipping subject to German submarine U-Boat attack. Wilson, after his re-election, cited the submarine threat to American shipping as the reason to declare war on Germany. The tide of war turned when the Americans arrived, and not before.

The first Americans to die were three soldiers who were killed in combat on Nov. 3, 1917. By the time the Armistice was signed a year later, on Nov. 11, 1918, some 117,000 Americans, almost 10,000 per month of combat, had given their lives in service.

The horror of WWI, side-by-side with the honor of those Americans and allied forces who served, fought, and died, is expressed most profoundly by the poem, “Flanders Fields”, written by then-Major John McCrae, MD, a surgeon in the Canadian Army who was born in 1872 and would die in 1918, the year that terrible war ended.

Although “Flanders Fields” was written by a grieving Dr. McCrae in the devastation of the battle of Yres in WWI, days after his best comrade had been killed, his words reach across the more than a century to bring home the reality of all the wars, and of the service and sacrifice of all those Americans who have served when our country has called, believing that the defense of freedom was why they were serving, and was worth dying for if necessary. It is a poem which calls on us not to “break faith” with those who gave their lives so that we might be free.

May God bless all of them, all the veterans who have served in defense of our freedom in all the wars, and may the country whose freedom they preserved honor them on Veterans Day and on every day. They kept the faith with us; and, as expressed in the haunting words of “Flanders Field,” we must not “break faith” with them.

IN FLANDERS FIELDS

By Lt. Col. John McCrae, Army of Canada, WWI

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow,
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be it yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Field.

© 2016 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

“Never give up — never, never, never give up!” —Winston Churchill

Victory has finally been achieved in the Mt. Soledad National Veterans Memorial Cross Case, the longest running, most important current Establishment of Religion case: After twenty-seven years of litigation to destroy the Cross by the extremists of the ACLU, which has become the Taliban of American liberal secularism, the Cross has been saved “as it was, where it was” since 1954. It will now continue to honor veterans into perpetuity as a universally recognized symbol of selfless service and sacrifice for others.

U.S. District Judge Lawrence Byrne’s final order in Trunk vs. City of San Diego was filed on Sept. 13, 2016. It dismissed the ACLU’s lawsuit once and forever as moot, due to the transfer of the Mt. Soledad Memorial from the federal Department of Defense to the private, non-profit Mt. Soledad Memorial Association by purchase for $1.4-million. The purchase was authorized by Congress in legislation sponsored by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), the former combat Marine who represents the District.

Many thanks for this victory are owed attorneys and members of the Liberty Institute in Texas, the Alliance Defending Freedom in Arizona, the Thomas More Law Center in Michigan, the Pacific Legal Foundation in California; former Congressmen Jerry Lewis (R-CA), Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), former Rep. John Hostettler (R-Indiana) and other legislators; veterans of The American Legion, and other veterans service organizations, as well as individual veterans and other patriots; and most of all to San Diego Attorney Charles S. LiMandri, founder of the Free-dom of Conscience Defense Fund (FCDF) who has done more than any other single American to save the Mt. Soledad Cross “as it was, where it was,” to honor veterans.

WHY MT. SOLEDAD CROSS VICTORY IS SO IMPORTANT

The importance of this victory cannot be overemphasized. What has been at stake in the Mt. Soledad Cross Case, and the companion Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial Cross Case, is whether 300-million Americans will continue to have the ability to honor their war dead as they choose in their communities, including by use of the Cross or other symbol or expression with a religious aspect; or whether intolerant atheists, agnostics, or extremist progressive liberal secu-larists epitomized by the ACLU, who are “offended” by the sight of the Cross, the Ten Com-mandments, or a monument bearing a religious symbol or expression honoring veterans, will have a veto power over those choices.

What is beyond any doubt is that, if the Mt. Soledad Case had been lost, the precedent estab-lished would create a tsunami of lawsuits by the ACLU, or other progressive liberal extremist organizations of its ilk, suing veterans memorials all across the country at which the Cross, or monuments containing any religious expression, exists honoring veterans.

In each of those cases the ACLU would seek judge ordered-taxpayer-paid attorney fee “awards” for destroying the Cross. Indeed, most Americans are unaware that the ACLU has reaped mil-lions of dollars in profits through judge-ordered, taxpayer-paid attorney fee “awards” in Estab-lishment of Religion Clause lawsuits which most Americans abhor, cases to destroy Crosses, the Ten Commandments, public seals, or monuments containing religious quotations or expressions.

HISTORY OF VETERANS ROLE IN VICTORY NEEDS TO BE KNOWN, EMULATED

Veterans played a significant role in fighting the ACLU to preserve the traditional Crosses at Mt. Soledad and Mojave Desert Veterans Memorials. That history needs to be known to inspire the same kind of commitment in other important “grass roots” battles for the preservation of freedom and traditional American values against rich and powerful special interests, like the ACLU, who would destroy those values. Therefore, without diminishing the importance of the efforts of all veterans and patriots in the victory, the history of the role of veterans of the American Legion will be focused on as it sheds light on what can be achieved when veterans and patriots unite to fight with “Audacity, Audacity, Audacity — always Audacity,” as Gen. George Patton taught, and to “never, never, never give up,” as Winston Churchill taught.

There has been a Cross at Mt. Soledad, in various forms, since 1913. In 1954, Mt. Soledad, in La Jolla, CA, but owned by the City of San Diego, became a memorial honoring the veterans of the Korean War. The American Legion Post in La Jolla played a leading role in its creation. Later, the scope of the memorial was expanded to honor all veterans. As the memorial grew, so did the Cross honoring veterans. Today, it is 29 feet tall, mounted on a 43-foot base, a majestic presence above more than 3,000 plaques honoring veterans on circular walls below.

ACLU ATTACKS MT. SOLEDAD MEMORIAL CROSS IN 1989

ACLU litigation to destroy the Cross began in 1989. A single atheist who claimed he was “of-fended” by the Cross, Phillip K. Paulson, a Vietnam veteran, sued to destroy the Cross as in vio-lation of the Establishment of Religion Clause. (Paulson -vs- City of San Diego). In 1991, based on this complaint by a single atheist, the U.S. District Court in San Diego ordered the Cross removed or destroyed. Appeals, related litigation and legislation, ensued, including a referendum in which San Diego citizens voted overwhelmingly (i.e., by 76 per cent) to override the San Diego City council vote to surrender and remove the Cross, and instead to retain the memorial “as it is, where it is” with Cross intact.

The legal defense of the Mt. Soledad Memorial Cross was led from the beginning by San Diego Attorney Charles S. LiMandri, who has expended untold attorney hours pro bono to save it “as it where it is,” including later as founder of the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund. (www.FCDF.org.)

ACLU ATTACKS MOJAVE DESERT MEMORIAL CROSS IN 2000

As the Mt. Soledad Cross litigation progressed, the extremist ACLU in 2000 filed a related law-suit to destroy the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial Cross. That Cross was erected in 1934 by members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars to honor their fallen comrades who died in WWI. The Cross consisted of two pipes strapped together and mounted on a rock outcrop known as Sunrise Rock in the remote Mojave Desert, twelve miles off of the highway. It is necessary to drive to it to be offended by it.

For sixty-six years, there had not been a single complaint against the old rugged cross in the de-sert. Nonetheless, Frank Buono, Ass’t Mojave Preserve Superintendent, waited until he retired, moved to Oregon on his federal pension, then, as ACLU’s poster boy plaintiff, sued to destroy the Mojave Cross honoring veterans 1,000 miles away because it “offended” him. He was later joined by a Jewish member of the VFW who admitted in his deposition he had never seen the Cross in person, but was offended by it just knowing it was out there in the desert. The U.S. District Court in Riverside, CA, ordered the Cross destroyed in 2002, which was upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. (Buono vs. Salazar).

THE AMERICAN LEGION ENTERS BATTLE AGAINST ACLU IN 2002

The American Legion fightback against the ACLU’s Cross-destroying campaign began in 2002 when it was learned the Mojave Cross was ordered destroyed by the U.S. District Court in Riverside, CA.

As Judge Advocate of San Gorgonio Pass Post 428, I contacted then-Congressman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) and requested he initiate Congressional action to save the Mojave Desert Memorial. Rep. Lewis did. Lewis introduced legislation authorizing the one-acre Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial on public land to be exchanged for five acres of private land owned and donated by patriotic desert ranchers Henry and Wanda Sandoz. For many years they had been volunteer caretakers of the Mojave Memorial in fulfillment of a death-bed request of a VFW member who helped erect the Cross in 1934.

In 2003, as San Gorgonio Pass Post 428 Commander, I wrote a resolution entitled “Support Leg-islation Of Rep. Jerry Lewis To Save Mojave Memorial.” It was adopted by the California De-partment Convention 2003. At the National Convention, it was referred to the Standing Committee for further study, then was later adopted by vote of the National Executive Board. That put the American Legion, the nation’s largest veterans service organization, solidly behind Rep. Lewis’ land-exchange legislation to save the Mojave Memorial.

In 2004, I wrote a second resolution to fight the ACLU. It was initiated by Riverside Post 79, then adopted at the Department of California Convention 2004. Sponsored by California, it was adopted at the 2004 National Convention as Resolution 326, “Preserve Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial.” It calls for Congress to rescind the authority of judges to order “taxpayer paid” at-torney fee “awards” under the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.Code Section 1988, to the ACLU, or anyone else, who sues to destroy the Cross or other religious symbols, including the Ten Com-mandments, or religious expressions at veterans memorials or other public places.

This Congressional reform is necessary because the very threat of having to pay ACLU’s attor-ney fees in Establishment of Religion Clause cases has been used as a club by the ACLU to bludgeon towns, cities, counties, school boards and other public entities into surrendering rather than fighting against ACLU’s secular-cleansing demands to destroy Crosses, public seals, or other public expressions of religion for fear that taxpayer-funds will be diverted from needed community services to pay ACLU “attorney fee awards” ordered by judges. Therefore, the original Resolution 326, has been reiterated biannually at every American Legion National Convention on even years and introduced in each new Congress.

LEGION FIGHTS ACLU: “IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE FOUNDERS”

Adoption of Resolution 326 by the 2004 National Convention authorized the National Legion to launch, for the first time, a nationwide fightback against the ACLU’s abusive Establishment of Religion Clause attacks against Crosses, the Ten Commandments, the Boy Scouts, public seals, and seemingly any expression of religion at veterans’ cemeteries or other public spaces. As author of Resolution 326, I was asked by National to participate in drafting a guide on making that fight. The final version is entitled: “In The Footsteps Of The Founders: Grassroots Guide For Fighting The ACLU.” It had a first printing of 50,000 copies distributed to the then-15,000 Legion Posts. It was followed by additional printings.

In 2005, a third resolution, Equal Access To Justice, which I authored and was adopted by Riv-erside Post 79, the California Department Convention, and ultimately the National Convention 2005. It calls on Congress to rescind the authority of judges to award taxpayer-paid attorney fee “awards” to the ACLU, or anyone else, in Establishment of Religion Clause lawsuits not only under the the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.Code Sec. 1988 but under any and all federal statutes. It has been reiterated with every new Congress by incorporation in the reiteration of the original Resolution 326.

2006: COURT ORDERS MT. SOLEDAD CROSS DESTROYED; FIGHT ESCALATES

In 2006, the U.S. Judge in San Diego ordered San Diego to remove or destroy the Mt. Soledad Cross or he would fine the city taxpayers $5,000 per day, escalating the fight.

In response, in order to enter the litigation, Attorney Joseph Infranco of the Alliance Defending Freedom based in Arizona, and I co-founded the Defense of Veterans Memorials Project of the Department of California and the ADF. The Department Executive Committee voted unani-mously and enthusiastically to establish the Project in March, 2006.

A press conference was held at Mt. Soledad, beneath the Cross, to announce that the American Legion, for the first time, was entering litigation to fight the ACLU in support of the efforts of attorney Charles S. LiMandri, founder of the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund (FCDF), lead attorney in the fight against ACLU to save Mt. Soledad “as it is, where it is,” with Cross intact. The California Defense of Veterans Memorials Project thereafter participated in the court court fight by filing friend-of-the-court briefs in the California Court of Appeal, the U.S. District Court(s), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal, and in the U.S.Supreme Court.

The National American Legion, after the initial action by the Department to enter the Mt. Sole-dad litigation in San Diego, also entered the litigation at all stages, represented by the Liberty Institute in Texas, which, like the ADF, specializes in defense of religious liberty. The California Defense of Veterans Memorials Project was adopted as a National American Legion Project in 2007.

In Congress in 2006, two bills of great importance in this fight had different fates:

First, then-Rep. John Hostettler (R-Ind.), joined by Rep. Jerry Lewis and other Republican Rep-resentatives as well as some Democrats, sponsored a Legion-sponsored bill pursuant to Resolu-tion 326, entitled Veterans Memorials, Boy Scouts, Public Seals, and Other Public Expressions of Religion Act (“PERA”). It would rescind the power of judges to grant taxpayer-paid attorney fees to the ACLU, or anyone else, in Establishment of Religion Clause cases attacking Crosses at veterans memorials and other public expressions of religion. I had the honor being appointed to represent the National American Legion at hearings on the PERA bill before the U.S. House and Senate.

The day of the vote in the House, every member of the House received a joint statement in sup-port of the PERA bill by two of America’s greatest military heroes: Maj. Gen. Patrick H. Brady, Medal of Honor (Vietnam), considered America’s most decorated living veteran, and the late Rear Admiral Jeremiah A. Denton, Navy Cross, legendary P.O.W. resistor for seven years, seven-months in Vietnam and later U.S. Senator for Alabama. The PERA Bill was adopted by the House by a substantial margin.

However, PERA was blocked from being voted on in the Senate by then Republican, later De-mocrat, Arlen Spector, then head of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Spector stalled the PERA Bill in Committee and blocked a floor vote so long that the Democrats took control of Congress in the elections of November 2006, and effectively killed the PERA Bill.

However, also in 2006, and of great importance, the legislation sponsored by Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), which authorized the land swap transferring the one-acre Mojave Memorial from public land to the private hands of Henry and Wanda Sandoz for their five-acres of private land, was adopted by Congress—unanimously by the House, and without opposition in the Senate.

It was thought that had saved the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial. But the Taliban-like fanaticism of the extremist ACLU knows no bounds: The ACLU then filed a new lawsuit in Riverside U.S. District Court, this time suing Congress itself. ACLU alleged that Congress violated the Establishment of Religion Clause because its real intent was not to preserve a memorial in order to honor veterans, but to advocate a particular religion, Christianity, by preserving the Cross. The then-Federal Judge in Riverside nullified the Act of Congress, and ordered then-President George Bush to destroy the Cross. President Bush didn’t. Appeals were filed against the destruction order.

VICTORY IN USSC IN MOJAVE DESERT CROSS CASE; ACLU SURRENDERS

In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the Cross destruction order of the U.S. District Court in Riverside, and the Ninth Circuit decision upholding the destruction order. The Supreme Court held the District Court exceeded its authority in nullifying an Act of Congress, and remanded the entire case back to the Riverside Federal Court for action in light of the Supreme Court’s opinion.

In April, 2012, after ten years of litigation to destroy the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial Cross, the ACLU finally surrendered. It agreed to cease its litigation to destroy the Cross — after the government agreed to give ACLU an undisclosed amount in taxpayer-paid attorney fees.

Meanwhile, the Mt. Soledad Cross had not been destroyed because Congress exercised the power of eminent domain to put Mt. Soledad in control of the Department of Defense. That nullified the order of the federal court in San Diego to destroy the Cross. The ACLU then filed a new suit against the DOD.

The original plaintiff, Paulson, had died. He was replaced as plaintiff by another atheist, Stephen Trunk. ACLU, which is its custom, sought to divide and conquer and pit people against one another by joining as plaintiffs with atheist Trunk: A Jewish M.D. and his Muslim wife, who said they were “offended” when they visited her relatives in San Diego because they could see the Mt. Soledad Cross from the relatives’ house; a female Jewish lawyer who said she was “offended” when seeing the Cross when driving to work; and the Jewish War Veterans (the national organization but not the San Diego chapter, which voted to support Mt. Soledad “as it is, where it is” with cross intact).

MT. SOLEDAD CROSS CONTINUES FOUR MORE YEARS UNTIL ACLU SURRENDER

In 2008, U.S.Federal Judge Lawrence Byrnes, who had been assigned to the new ACLU case against DOD ruled that the Cross did not violate the Establishment of Religion Clause because a reasonable person would perceive it as honoring veterans for their service, and would not per-ceive it as the federal government advocating one religion, Christianity, over any other, or advocating religion generally. ACLU appealed to the Ninth Circuit.

The Mount Soledad litigation would continue four more years after the Mojave Desert Cross case was won. Then an ironic thing took place: The ACLU had cited the Mojave Desert Case as a precedent for destroying the Mt. Soledad Memorial prior to the Supreme Court’s decision in 2010. However, after that decision, the Mojave Desert Cross case became a precedent for sav-ing Mt. Soledad.

That is, as the litigation continued, Congressman Duncan Hunter sponsored legislation for a land swap, similar to Rep. Jerry Lewis’ land exchange authorized by Congress in the Mojave Desert case. Rep. Hunter’s bill authorized transferring Mt. Soledad by sale to the private, nonprofit Mt. Soledad Memorial Association for $1.4-million. That legislation was passed and an agreement was reached for the sale in July, 2015. While the ACLU continued the litigation for another year, seeking, among other things, attorney fees, the ACLU finally surrendered. The Ninth Circuit declared ACLU’s lawsuit “moot,” and directed Judge Byrne to dismiss it. Judge Byrne did, ending the long Mt. Soledad Memorial fight once and for all on Sept. 13, 2016, twenty-seven years after it began.

LESSONS OF THE HISTORY OF VETERANS FIGHT AGAINST ACLU

I have written long on part of the history of veterans’ role in the the fight to save Crosses honoring veterans at the Mt. Soledad and Mojave Desert Veterans Memorials, because it has been a long battle, and this history of the grass roots victory over the ACLU needs to be known, and emulated, as there are many more causes to fight with the same determination, the same commitment. the same spirit.

Veterans were told when this fight with the ACLU began that it could not be won—“ACLU has too much money, too many lawyers; you just can’t beat them.” But veterans stood, fought, heard the echo of Churchill’s words “Never give up—never, never, never give up,” and ultimately with other patriots, won an honorable battle to preserve the Mt. Soledad National Veterans Memorial, and the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial.

This victory could not have been without the litigative efforts in court of lawyers like Charles LiMandri of Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund, lawyers of Liberty Institute, the Alliance Defending Freedom, Thomas More Law Center, and Pacific Legal Foundation, and the legisla-tive efforts of members of Congress like former Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) and Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), who authored and sponsored the land exchange bills in both cases, and former Rep. John Hostettler (R-Ind.), who was primary author and sponsor of the Veterans Memorials, Boy Scouts, Public Seals, And Other Public Expressions Of Religion Act (PERA).

But each of them, or members of their staffs, have communicated to me that this very long, very important battle with the ACLU, fought on many fronts, could not have been won without the grass-roots efforts led by veterans along with other patriots. In the end, they have told me, it was veterans who made the difference, veterans who never surrendered, who never, ever gave up, until ultimate victory, saving the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial, and the Mt. Soledad Na-tional Veterans Memorial, as they were intended to be, where they were intended to be, with Crosses intact, honoring veterans. Forever.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER!

© 2016 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

“US MARINE SHOT IN SOUTH LA WHILE ON MILITARY LEAVE DIES:
“The 19-year-old U.S. Marine who was shot in the head while on military leave in South L.A. last week has died, officials said.”

So reads the headline and lead sentence of the ABC news report of September 20, 2016, on the death of Carlos Segovia, U.S. Marine Corps, only 19 years old. (ABC News report)

Marine Segovia, was not shot down in Iraq, Afghanistan, or other foreign terrorist war zone in the heat of battle with foreign enemies of America. He was murdered in cold blood on the streets of So. Central Los Angeles, apparently by urban thugs or gangsters, domestic enemies of America, terrorizing communities and turning urban areas like So. Central LA into domestic war zones with mounting death tolls.

According to police, Marine Segovia, while home on leave from Camp Pendleton, was shot in the head, twice, on Sept. 16, 2016, at approximately 11:30 p.m.,as he sat behind the wheel of his car waiting for a traffic light to change at 31st and Washington streets in So. Central L.A . The shots came from the car next to him, which apparently drove off when the light changed. Four days later, Marine Segovia was declared dead on Sept. 20, 2016. As of this writing, the murderers remain at large to continue on their murderous way, once again killing with impunity.

This is apparently the new norm of “America transformed” under Barack Hussein Obama. Life is now that cheap and dangerous, and death so random, in L.A. and other American cities, even the life of a Marine who is living his life in service to America.

It is so much the new norm that, outside of local media reporting, the death, the wanton murder, of U.S. Marine Carlos Segovia in So. Central L.A. has not been deemed “news worthy” enough by the media to be the subject of national news media reportage, nor media demands for action to stop such murders. The “talking heads” of television political punditry are not talking about the outrage of a Marine being cold bloodily murdered in So. Central L.A. There is no media outrage.

But, the most important question is not about just the failure of outrage or even concern over the murder of Marine Carlos Segovia by the political whores of the liberal national media who are so willingly pimped by progressive liberals in political power from the White House on down. The most important question to be asked is:

Where is Obama, Hillary Clinton, Attorney General Lynch, the Democrats most beloved Vietnam draft dodger, sexual predator, disbarred lawyer (for perjury) and Impeached President Bill (“BJ”) Clinton, California Governor Jerry Brown, LA Mayor Garcetti, progressive liberal Democrats all, to denounce as an outrage the murder on South L.A. streets of a Marine home on leave, to pledge and take action to search out the murderers, and to vigorously prosecute the killers of this Marine?

After eight years of ruling-by-race of the Obama regime, eight years of unequal enforcement or non-enforcement of the law based on race, eight years of refusal to act against urban gangsterism and thuggism and instead to appease, coddle, and make excuses for preening urban terrorist thugs who have no fear of prosecution and burn, loot, rob, rape and murder with apparent impunity, American urban streets are no longer safe, even for Marines.

Even the murder of a U.S. Marine home on leave draws no immediate expression of outrage from the progressive liberal Obama regime in Washington or the progressive liberal regime of Jerry Brown in Sacramento. There are no “executive” or other orders to finally take effective action against self-proclaimed urban terrorist gangster thugs from the government whose primary job is to keep Americans safe, at which Obama has been and is an abject failed President and Commander-In-Chief.

Obama, the Narcissist-In-Chief, the Peacock President, preened before his election in 2008 that “we are the ones we have been waiting for,” and that he and they would “fundamentally transform” America.

Indeed, he and they are the “ones [they] have been waiting for” and he and they have “fundamentally transform[ed] America: The streets of major American cities are now of “third world” danger under a corrupt government, where even a Marine home on leave can be murdered without a peep of protest from the same President Obama and Would-be President Hillary Clinton who are so quick to condemn our police, or our military if they should commit an act of political incorrectness even in war, and to condemn “white” American patriots generally as “racists,” “bigots,” or “deplorables.”

The names of thugs whose own misconduct has resulted in them being shot by police are now household names. They are made famous, rather than infamous. They are made “victims” of “police racism” rather than racist urban thugs terrorizing their communities, perpetrators not victims of crimes, whose deaths are decried as “racism” by police and whites generally.

The President of the United States aids-and-abets them, excuses their misconduct, refuses to hold them equally responsible under the law for their acts. Obama even speculated in one famous case that “if I had a son he would look like” the black alleged victim of a racist, unlawful homicide. Thus, before any evidence was in making an alleged victim of racist violence one who, when the evidence was in, was shown to be the perpetrator of violence who died due to his own violent acts.

More generally, Obama, the purported “post racial” president further infamously observed that non-Harvardonian, Yalean, or other Ivy League-educated white people are just backward, racist, bigots “clinging to their guns and religion.” Not to be outdone, she who would be President, Hillary Clinton, the Hillarybeast of Benghazi, recently informed all of America and the world that those Americans opposing her election are just a “basket of deplorables,” who are “irredeemable.”

Why shouldn’t urban terrorist thugs and gangsters believe they can get away with rioting, burning, looting, beating, knifing, shooting and killing, and murder of a U.S. Marine on American city streets when government in the Age of Obama reassures them constantly they are but victims of racism and not responsible for their own choices and acts, and the media make them famous as “heroes” to other thugs and gangsters by wall-to-wall coverage of their anarchic riots, interviewing them on national television in all their posturing self-glory as they riot, burn, and loot in alleged protest against “racism”?

Why shouldn’t such despicable cretins believe they can with impunity stop at a traffic light, and open fire on the driver of the car next to them, murdering the driver, in this case a U.S. Marine, in an America “fundamentally transform[ed]” after eight years of Obama, and the prospect of more of the same by Hillary Clinton? They are but “victims,” after all, not to be equally held to the same standards of conduct as others.

Here is a name that Obama, Hillary, all of those who are “the ones we [progressive liberals] have been waiting for,” those “fundamentally transform[ing] America, and the media which is pimped by them should make a “household name” known to all Americans, of all races:

CARLOS SEGOVIA, United States Marine, wantonly murdered on the streets of Los Angeles while home on leave from his chosen duty as a U.S. Marine to keep Americans, all Americans, safe from harm from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Dead at 19.

May the God U.S. Marine Carlos Segovia served bless and keep him; may America and the Americans he served as a Marine remember and cherish him. May he not have lived, served, or died in vain.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—INCLUDING THUG TYRANNY — NEVER!

© 2016 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

Why Are We Ransoming Dual Citizen Iranians?

At the risk of being accused of political incorrectness, allow me comment that not only is the news that Obama has paid $400-million to Iran illegally – through a scam of flying U.S. dollars to Europe and converting the dollars to Euros and Francs — further evidence of the utter totalitariaan arrogance and deceitfulness of the Progressive Liberal Obama-Hillary Democrat Regime— it also raises the question:

Why are all of these men who just cost Americans $400-million called “Americans,” and not what some if not all are, i.e., Iranian “dual citizens” of America and Iran?

I have a problem with that–I don’t know how to swear exclusive allegiance to America and America’s terrorist enemy, the Islamic Terrorist Republic of Iran, at the same time.

Why were dual citizen Iranians back in Iran in the first place, knowing the knowing the risk created by the totalitarian reality of the terrorist Muslim theocracy from which they or their families fled, in which they may even remain “citizens”?

Why should Americans pay $400-million for the release of pseudo- Americans, or Americans “for convenience,” who gain legal American citizenship but maintain dual citizenship in Iran or other Islamic cesshole?

If they or other Muslims are still citizens of Iran, then they should go there and stay there. If their Iranian co-citizens toss them in jail, they should stay there without demanding that non-“dual” American citizens pay a ransom for their return.

Any Iranian “dual citizen,” or any other person from Iran or any other Islamic cesspool, or anyone else who is of descent from those Islamic terrorist cesspools who is in America but returns there, should have to sign an “assumption of risk” agreement before being allowed to travel there.

Once in Iran or other totalitarian Islamic nation, they should be on their own. Not a dollar should be paid to ransom them — even if the federal law foorbidding doing business with Iran in U.S. Dollars is deceitfully evaded by converting U.S. Dollars to Euros or Francs before handing millions to the terror-sponsoring Ayatollahs of Iran.

$400 million to ransom Iranian citizens, “dual Americans” claiming the legal (not cultural) status of Americans citizens, when the Obama regime claims it just doesn’t have enough money fulfill its duty to provide effective health care to American veterans, or process the hundreds of thousands of unprocessed claims of veterans for earned benefits, many dying while waiting for care or decisions on claims?

If “dual citizen” Iranians, or others with roots in Islamic countries, will not renounce their citizenship in those countries, Americans should not spend a dime’s worth — in U.S. Dollars, Euros, oor Francs — to ransom them back when they have deliberately put themmselves in harm’s way.

Legal fictions of “dual citizenship” notwithstanding, a person cannot serve two masters at the same time, as the Bible states.

It has been the articulated policy of America, including by the Progressive Liberal Democrat regime of President Barack Hussein Obama and his Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, that America does not pay ransoms for the release of Americans taken captive by terrorists or terrorist nations.

Obama has made a lie of that policy with his $400-million payoff to Iran to ransom “dual” citizen Iranian Americans. That purported American policy of no dealing with terrorist body snatchers is now revealed as empty of meaning as Obama’s famous false threat of real response should Obama’s “red line” be crossed Syria.

Thus, this despicable, illegal, payoff to Iran by Obama-Hillary-Kerry, in untraceable “small” Eurodollars and Francs, flown to the Ayatollahs in an “unmarked plane,” without notice to Congress — is further evidence of the utter totalitarian arrogance and deceitfulness of progressive liberal power-driven “progressive-liberal” Democrats in power, of which Obama and Hillary and Kerry are excrescent exemplars.

It is one more thing about them to “remember in November:” Progressive Liberal Democrat Lies Matter.

© 2016 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

Excuse me for not joining in the hypocritical frenzy of liberal media and supporters of Hillary Clinton over the so called “Khan Family” controversy in which Donald Trump is portrayed as an evil anti-Muslim ogre unwilling to prostrate himself to be lectured at by Hillary Clinton supporter and Muslim immigrant immigration lawyer Khizr Khan, whose son, Army Capt. Human Kahn heroically gave his life in service.

It happens I believe in the Biblical injunction that the sins of the father should not be visited on the sons. I believe also, however, that the heroism of the son should not be visited upon the father.

In this case, the son is U.S. Army Captain Humayun Kahn, who gave his life in service. He is a hero who indeed should be honored by all Americans for his sacrifice.

The father is Khizer Khan. He is a Pakastani Muslim immigrant and immigration lawyer who is neither hero nor a person otherwise to be honored.

Indeed, Khizr Khan has made his wealth in America as a Muslim immigration lawyer associated with a large law firm by importing other mostly wealthy Muslims in the notoriously corrupt “EB5” immigration visa program. That EP5 cash-cow for immigration lawyers is, of course, threatened by the possible election of Donald Trump.

After his appearance as a speaker at the Democrat Convention where he was used to attack Trump on behalf of Hillary Clinton of Benghazi infamy, Khizr Khan, emulating the corrupt Hillary Clinton who deleted her e-mails from public view, has deleted his law firm’s website from the internet lest Americans find out how he has been making his money in the corrupt EB5 immigration program.

Oddly enough, despite the media frenzy over Trump’s failure to genuflect before Khizr Kahn as he exploited his son’s death for his own fame and glory and preservation of his EP5 Immigration wealth, all of this about Khizr Kahn was first exposed by Breitbart and by Robert Spencer’s “Jihad Watch” (www.JihadWatch.com), not by the mainstream media.

Further, although Khizr Khan dramatically waved a pocket-copy of the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution in his star turn as Democrat Party tool, he in fact is the author of tracts supporting the desirability of elevating Sharia Law over our Constitution, as also exposed by Robert Spencer in his Jihad Watch columns.

Therefore, allow me to to salute and honor the heroic service of the son, Army Captain Humayun Kahn, who paid the ultimate sacrifice in military service for America.

But excuse me from visiting the heroism of the son on the father, Khizr Khan, who has exploited his son’s death as he has exploited America to enrich himself as Muslim immigration lawyer in one of the most corrupt aspects of immigration law, the EB5 program, all the while authoring articles advocating Sharia Law over Constitutional Law.

Further and finally, allow me to associate myself with the position and comments of Kris “Tonto” Paronto,. He is the American patriot and hero who survived the Muslim attack on the American consulate on 9-11-2012 in Benghazi despite the absolute failure of duty of then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton allowed the U.S. Ambassador and three other Americans to be killed by Muslim terrorists as she did nothing to save them. Among other things, Hillary did nothing to save the Americans — for over 13 hours — in part because of her fear Muslims would be “offended” if U.S. troops were sent in uniform to rescue the Ambassador and other Americans. The blood of Benghazi is, indeed, indelibly on Hillary Clinton’s hands, disqualifying her from holding any office, let alone Commander-in-Chief, even Muslim immigration lawyer Keizer Khan supports her.

In contrast to Hillary Clinton is Benghazi hero “Tonto” Paronto, who co-authored “13 HOURS: The Inside Account Of What Really Happened IN BENGHAZI”. “He is now heading the “Leading From The Front” effort of the American Legacy Center. He writes there regarding the Kahn Family Controversy worked up by the Hillary, the Democratts, and the media (www.AmericanLegacyCenter.org):

“This is getting ridiculous. The debate we’re having about Donald Trump and the parents of slain U.S. Army Captain (and hero) Humayun Kahn is a complete waste of time.

“After essentially ignoring Pat Smith, whose son Sean was killed in Benghazi, the mainstream media is now fanning the flames of this latest controversy, and every candidate and elected official in America from dogcatcher up is being asked to take a side.

“But here’s the real story that every single American should be focused on — in its online magazine this week, ISIS showed a picture of Captain Khan’s tombstone in Arlington National Cemetery with the caption: “Beware of dying as an apostate.” The article then urged American and other Western Muslims to either migrate to ISIS-controlled lands or carry out lone wolf attacks “where it hurts them most.”

“I know this enemy, and while we’re focused on politics, they’re butchering 84-year-old priests at the altar.”

© 2016 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

The Wall Street Journal has exposed that Hillary Clinton’s “Hispanic” potential vice presidential running mate, Thomas Perez, has lied repeatedly that his grandfather was an heroic resister to the totalitarian Hispanic dictator Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. WSJ exposes that in fact: “Grandfather of potential Clinton VP pick served dictator” Trujillo. (WSJ, July 20, 2016).

It is obvious, thus, that Hillary’s Hispanic, Thomas Perez, has much in common with her — i.e., the capacity to lie without shame to gain power — but what does he have in common with other so-called “Hispanics” other than a Spanish surname?

Politically-correct, Progressive-Liberal Democrat Party totalitarians like Hillary Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama like to speak of their great love for “Hispanics,” or “Latinos,” as if “Hispanics” constitute a monolithic ethnic group, apparently because they have Spanish surnames in common. However, that is about all that “Hispanics” have in common.

Indeed, there are enormous cultural, political, and historical differences among the many nations of peoples who are lumped together by the leaders of the Progressive-Liberal Politically-Correct Modern Democrat Party into one, undifferentiated ethnic blob designated “Hispanic.”

In reality, there is great diversity among peoples designated “Hispanics. ” This great diversity includes great divisions, not to mention antagonisms and down-right dislike if not hatred by and between different “Hispanics.” Notwithstanding, despite this diversity, “Hispanics” are treated as a monolithic ethnic group owned and controlled by the ever-so “Liberal” Democrat Party, aided and abetted by the liberal media.

For one instance of this, Hillary Clinton is now floating the Hispanic name of Labor Secretary Tom Perez, as a possible Vice Presidential candidate with her. The liberal media informs Americans how much this will help Hillary to win the “Hispanic” vote.

Why? I is not because Perez has been such a wonderful Labor Secretary or former head of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice–he wasn’t. He has been as ruthlessly totalitarian in those bureaucratic roles as was, for example, Trujillo, the former dictator of the Dominican Republic.

The analogy of Perez with excrescent dictator “Hispanic” Trujillo, is apt. It turns out that although possessed with a Spanish surname which has made many believe that Perez is of Mexican heritage, his roots are in the Dominican Republic. There, his was a very privileged family due to the fact that his grandfather was a loyal collaborator serving in the Trujillo dictatorship, Indeed, he was at one point Trujillo’s Ambassador to the United States, as is revealed in the WSJ article.

So, it has to be asked: Why would Hillary designate Perez her Hispanic, and why does the media think Hispanics will therefore vote for her, not withstanding all of the scandals surrounding her, not the least of which is the Benghazi atrocity, the blood of which is on Hillary Clinton’s hands.

What does this Thomas Perez, whose Hispanic roots are in the Dominican Republic, have in common with, say, Americans of Mexican decent, other than a Spanish surname? Americans of Mexican descent are overwhelmingly the most numerous people lumped by Democrats into the category of “Hispanic.” What of the other non-Mexican “Hispanics,” those of Central America, South America? Will they all rush to the polls because they have so much in common, culturally or historically, with “Hispanics” of the Dominican Republic?

Can Thomas Perez, proud descendent of one of the privileged families of the Dominican Republic because of their connection with the dictatorship of Trujillo, be held out as a “Hispanic” to be embraced by Americans of Mexican decent? Or Argentinians, Chileans, Brazilians, Paraguayans? What is the racial, ethnic, or cultural tie of any of those ethnicities with Thomas Perez with cultural roots in the Dominican Republic, and political and historical roots in the “Hispanic” dictatorship of Trujillo?

This is not to deny that Perez has much in common with Hillary Clinton — he is a totalitarian self-declared “Progressive-Liberal” given to the big lie to get a head politically, in his case the now exposed lie that his grandfather was an heroic opponent of the dictator Trujillo, which he wasn’t; rather than a collaborator with Trujillo’s dictatorship, which he was.

Excuse me for opining that the lumping of all persons with Spanish surnames into a monolithic mass is insulting, racialist, and blatantly colonialist as the Democrat Party attempts to herd “Hispanics” to the polls like colonized serfs, easily manipulated by dangling a Spanish surname before them as purportedly deserving of their vote as a “Hispanic” by way of Spanish surname — no matter how excrescent is the person bearing it, as in the case of Thomas Perez.

In short, the only thing Hillary Clinton and the Politically-Correct, Progressive-Liberal, Modern Day Racially Divisive Democrat Party love about “Hispanics” is their votes, and how they can be exploited, as Mexican serfs once were by the Haciendista land owners pre-Emiliano Zapata, Pancho Villa, and the Mexican Revolution. Zapata famously said “It is better to die on your feet than live on your knees.” Hillary, Obama, the contemporary Democrat Party wants to force all “Hispanics” back on their knees, an undifferenced, unthinking monolithic mass genuflecting before the Democrat Party as once they did before the Spanish colonizers, and their collaborators.

Rafael Trujillo, the heinous dictator of the Dominican Republic would smile upon Hillary and the Democrat Party today, using Thomas Perez as a mascot “Hispanic” today for Hillary as once Perez’ grandfather did for Trujillo.

© 2016 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

There were many thought provoking speeches on important issues at GOP convention. Also, great patriotic energy, enthusiasm, unashamed love of country. If the GOP was once the “Party of the Rich” or “the Country Club set,” it certainly isn’t any more.

These delegates were, obviously, just patriotic Americans, sharing and living the concerns of most ordinary working Americans — committed to the foundational American values of God and country, and “We, the People” as the sovereigns, not elitist social engineers is Washington, academia, and the courts.

On the evidence of the Convention, the GOP is not an elite-dominated party led by the wealthy, professional politicians, would-be academics and lawyers seeking to be leaders of “the revolution” by executive and judicial orders in the socialist style, rather than by laws made by elected representatives in Congress and carried out, not made, by the President–or by lawyers sitting as judges in the Judicial Branch in which only one class, lawyers, may serve.

That party of elitists is not the GOP. That party would be the modern “transformed” Politically-Correct, Progressive Liberal Party of Hillary Clinton, on whose hands the blood of Benghazi remains– which must and does “make a difference,” so great a difference it should forever disqualify her as commander-in-chief, as does her history of lies concerning her e-mail, influence peddling, and Clinton Foundation scandals.

One of the best yet most most disappointing speeches was that of Ted Cruz. One of the best as he emphasized that “Freedom,” and the very existence of America as the freest nation in the history of the world, is what is at stake in this election. One of the most disappointing as despite the rhetorical eloquence of his speech, he did not fulfill his pledge, and the pledge of all the other candidates for the nomination, to endorse the nominee chosen by vote of the primary voters and the delegates. It is unfortunate that Cruz would diminish himself in such a manner.

If Cruz was attempting to advance himself as future candidate and diminish Trump as the elected nominee, Cruz instead diminished himself. It was Trump who was made to appear a bigger and better man by Cruz’ betrayal of his pledge.

Trump, in contrast to Cruz, was gracious in victory. He invited Cruz to speak at the convention without any conditions. He did not attempt to block or interfere with Cruz’ speech although Trump, who read the advance copy of the speech, knew Cruz would violate his pledge. Trump was made to appear the better man by Cruz’ self-centered pettiness, violating his pledge, putting himself and his own political ambitions ahead of the country’s need to defeat Hillary Clinton and the Democrat Party’s leftward march leading the nation from free enterprise and individual freedom, to Socialism and individual serfdom.

Deeds speak louder that words about who and what a man is. Cruz’ words were wonderful in defense of “Freedom.” His deeds were despicable. A shame.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY –NEVER!

© 2016 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

The Donald Trump campaign has announced that Ted Cruz has “buried the hatchet,” and will call for unity behind Trump to defeat Hillary Clinton when Cruz speaks at the GOP Convention. (Here is the link to the announcement by the Trump campaign) I have enormous respect for Ted Cruz, as an American patriot, as a man, a sincere Christian, and an absolutely brilliant attorney who has taken on and won before the Supreme Court seven (7) precedent setting cases preserving the Constitutional rights of all Americans. (Read his book, “A Time For Truth” for these cases, and so much more about him.)

Cruz was my first choice for President for all of the above reasons. If he is now supporting the election of the GOP nominee, Donald Trump. It is further reason to believe what a good man he is, to put the good of country ahead of his own presidential ambitions, and forgive the bruising and undeserved personal attacks aimed at him in the primary election, first by Marco Rubio, then by Trump.

Now that the choice is between Trump and Hillary Clinton, the Beast of Benghazi, all Americans, including all Cruz supporters should – indeed must — support the GOP nominee, Trump, like Ted Cruz is doing, in order to defeat Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton is as crooked as her husband, but with the blood of Benghazi on her hands, an indelible stain which cannot be washed off by more lies. As Secretary of State, she was an utter incompetent failure in foreign policy, from the initial embarrassingly inept if not farcical “Re-Set” of relations with Russia, to Libya and ultimately Benghazi. (If you need more proof regarding the Benghazi Scandal, see or read “13 Hours,” in which four Americans died at the hands of Muslim jihadist terrorists while Hillary, and Obama, did nothing to get help to them for 13-hours.)

Domestically, Hillary’s endangerment of national security in her E-Mail Scandal, and the lies attendant thereto, proved in her “indictment without an Indictment” by the FBI, is evidence that she is even more arrogant in the exercise of power, and even farther “Left” as a self-declared politically-correct, “progressive-liberal” (i.e., neo-socialist) than Barack Hussein Obama.

That is saying something as Obama is the most “Liberal” President in history. He has brought America closer to a European-style socialist state than ever before, epitomized by his creation of “socialized medicine” through the job-destroying “Obamacare” government takeover of health care. He is also the most destructive of our tri-partite government based on “separation of powers,” as well as the most destructive of Constitutional freedom through his “imperial presidency,” ruling by Executive Order on culture-changing policies. Those Executive Orders effectively change and make law ion immigration enforcement or lack thereof. He has effectively usurper the authority of Congress to make law rather than enforcing the laws Congress creates as head of the Executive Branch.

In truth, we Americans are not just facing difficult problems that need solving in this election. We are facing an existential threat from enemies foreign and domestic:

Domestic enemies mean to transform America from a free Constitutional republic based on free enterprise, and individual freedom, to socialism and serfdom. The domestic enemies include the contemporary progressive-liberal, politically-correct Democrat Party transformed by Obama, Hillary, Affirmative Action exploiter and fake Native American Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren, Black Lies Matter, and the various malicious America-hating socialist-communist parties who are using BLM and the New Black Panther Party today as they once used the old Black Panther Party as black “shock troops” in the ’60’s.

Evidence of the the Black Lies Matter demonstrators are being used, knowingly and willingly, or stupidly as dupes by communist manipulators, is the fact that the printed placards used at Black Lies Matter protests are not even their own, but are provided — as is printed on the bottom of the placards — is the noxious “RCP,” i.e., Revolutionary Communist Party, which, like Dracula, rises periodically from the political grave when it finds black anti-Americans malicious enough, or stupid enough, to join with that excrescent communist rump organization as what Lenin called “useful idiots.”

Foreign enemies, i.e., Muslim jihadist terrorists inspired by the Quar’an, the Hadith, ISIS or other Islamic extremists, mean to transform America into an Islamic theocracy based on Sharia Law. They are working to transform America in this way by terrorism abroad — as well as increasingly here — combined with using Muslims living in America to exploit domestically the very Constitutional freedoms of the Bill of Rights they mean to destroy and replace with Sharia Law, as freely admitted by such Muslim supporters of Obama, Hillary, and the Democrat Party as the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Indeed, CAIR, an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Scandal involving Muslim “charitable” donations being used fund terrorist Islamists, confidently predicts that America will be an Islamic republic under Sharia Law within “100 years.” They say, however, that they will accomplish this “peacefully.” How? Through the high-birthrate of Muslim women, Muslim immigration, importation of Muslims as so-called “refugees” without effective vetting, and increasing demands to Islamize or Muslimize American law and culture to incrementally demand more and more accommodations to Muslim preferences, including acceptance of Sharia Law and courts, through exploitation of the Bill of Rights and Civil Rights laws intended originally to protect black African Americans.

Either way, triumph of socialism by domestic enemies, or triumph of Sharia Law by foreign enemies, is a triumph of tyranny, destroying American freedom and the free, Constitutional republic the Founding Fathers bequeathed to us.

Americans, therefore, must unite to defeat Hillary Clinton, the Benghazi Bungler, who has moved in her campaign even further toward a socialist America, promising to continue and expand the immigration, Muslim “refugee” importation, failed economic and abhorrent freedom-destroying policies of Barack Hussein Obama in fulillment five days before his election in 2008 to “fundamentally transform America.”

As Cruz has stated about “burying the hatchet,” unifying to defeat Hillary Benghazi, and what he will say must be done when he speaks at the Republican Convention at the invitation of Trump:

“I’m going to urge Americans to get back to the Constitution to change the path we’re on: eight failed years of the Obama-Clinton economy; eight failed years of a presidency disregarding the Constitution and Bill of Rights,” he told reporters. “Eight failed years of a commander in chief not protecting Americans and keeping us safe from radical Islamic terrorism. It’s time for that to end.”

Amen.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER!

© 2015 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

“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 resis-tance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die.”

Gen. George Washington, Commander-in-Chief, spoke these words July 2, 1776 to the soldiers of his Revolutionary Army as the War of Independence began. Few thought then that Gen. Washington’s ragtag volunteer army of patriot soldiers could triumph over England, then the greatest military power in the world. One of every twelve of those American patriot soldiers would die in that war, which went on from 1776 to 1883, America’s longest war until Vietnam.

But by choosing resistance instead of abject submission to the increasing tyranny of England’s King George III, those Revolutionary War veterans under Gen. George Washington secured freedom, and established the first free constitutional government based on the “consent of the governed” in the history of civilization.

We of this generation are the “unborn millions” of whom Gen. Washington spoke. We live in freedom today because of the sacrifices veterans who fought and died for free-dom in the War of Independence, and all the wars which have followed.

American Independence Day, the 4th of July, is a time to annually rejoice in our free-dom, 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 Ameri-can 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.

All together, from the War of Independence of 1776 until today, some 1.4-million! veter-ans have given their lives in defense of American freedom.

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.

The question presented on this July 14th is: Do Americans still have the courage and love of freedom to fight for freedom against the tyranny of Islamic fascism and terrorism in the War Against Terrorism today that Commander-in-Chief Gen. George Washington and the patriot soldiers of the Revolutionary War had in fighting for freedom and against tyranny in 1776? This is no idle question: The very existence of a free constitutional America is at stake as Americans decide upon resistance to Islamofacist tyranny, or abject surrender to it.

GEN. GEORGE WASHINGTON: CHOOSING FREEDOM, FIGHTING TYRANNY

We Americans have before us as the model for resisting, and defeating tyranny the fin-est exemplar of service to God and country: General George Washington. He is 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 Revolutionary War Gen. Henry “Lighthorse Harry” Lee.

Gen. George Washington was hailed internationally by such as French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte as the “greatest man of his era,” a new “Cincinnatus,” because Washington, like the Roman General Cincinnatus walked away from power to return to his home as a citizen. Washington did this 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 and the soldier patriots of the Revolutionary War made us free. He and they set the example of what must be done to keep us free. We must be willing to emulate it, make the fight, and make the sacrifices they made, if Americans are to remain free “citizens” of a free democratic republic and not the “subjects” of an Islamofascist totalitarian “caliphate” beheading “infidels,” slaughtering “infidel” children, raping and stoning women to death, under 7th Century Islamic Sharia Law in place of our Constitution.

Today, Americans face an even more “cruel and unrelenting enemy” than did George Washington and the Founding Fathers: Tyrannical Islamofascist jihadist terrorism. But we no longer have a Gen. Washington to fight that tyranny in defense of freedom.

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 subservi-ent subjects paying a special tax; or (3), to die, to be killed in the name of Islam.

George Washington, the Founding Fathers, and the citizen soldiers of the American Revolutionary Army, and each war thereafter did not apologize for America’s stand for freedom, did not seek to appease the power that threatened to deny and destroy free-dom, did not bow before tyrants, 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 courageous choice.

The question presented to us is whether we, the “unborn millions” of Americans for whose freedom George Washington and his soldiers fought, and each generation 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 “ab-ject submission” in order to preserve and protect the freedom that they bequeathed to us.

Gen. Arnold Schwarzkopf, who commanded in Desert Storm, famously and succinctly said: “Some things are worth living for. Some of those things are worth dying for. One of those things is freedom.” Do we American believe that? Are we Americans today “re-solve[d] to conquer, or die,” as Gen. Washington said, against the Muslim terroristic tyr-anny of today in order to preserve freedom for “millions of unborn” Americans?

This means sacrifices for freedom. 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. It must be remembered that only a minority of Americans were willing to sacrifice and fight for our freedom: One-third of the Ameri-cans supported the war; one-third were neutral; one third actively supported England against their fellow Americans, choosing submission rather than freedom, many fleeing after the war to Canada, still a colony under governance by England.

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.

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-liberal neo-sociialists who flee from 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, the first American president to “bow” to an Islamic Wahabist tyrant, or the first in an international gathering of world leaders to be photographed with his hand raised above his head in a fist but with his index finger raised demonstrating the signal of solidarity of Islamic jihadists as Obama passed by leaders of Muslim countries in a photo-shoot, all those Muslim leaders smiling broadly as they saw Obama’s index finger silently signaling solidarity with Islamic jihadism.

Or compare President Thomas Jefferson who sent the Marines to subdue Muslim ter-rorists in Libya with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who would be Commander in Chief. She is a modern Lady MacBeth, risen to power by clinging to a corrupt husband, possessed of such ruthless self-serving ambition for power that after the U.S. Ambas-sador and three other American patriots were slaughtered in Benghazi, Libya, on her watch and due to her malfeasance in office, she would spew to Americans and the world a blatant fabricated lie that they didn’t die because of Islamic terrorism but be-cause of an amateur “movie trailer” demeaning Muhammad, and would later pound the table in Congressional testimony to shriek: “What difference does it make!’ who killed those Americans and why.

It makes a difference! If she doesn’t know that, then Hillary Clinton is manifestly mor-ally and temperamentally unfit for any public office, let alone the Presidency. It is a long way from Gen. George Washington to Barack Hussein Obama, He Who Bows, and from Thomas Jeffersons to Hillary Clinton, She Who Lies — and all downhill.

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 grovel in appeasement to he English tyrant King George III. As third U.S. President and Commander-in-Chief, Jefferson did not apologize to, bow to, or grovel in appeasement to 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 and they “be offended.”

Does that Jeffersonian determination to choose “brave resistance” over “abject submis-sion” reside in the minds and hearts of those who lead America today, many of whom, including Barak Hussein Obama and Hillary Clinton, call themselves “progressives,” euphemism for net-socialism. Is the transformation of the presidency from that of George Washington to that of Barack Hussein Obama by any commonsense under-standing “progress”? Does the American Spirit of 1776 reside in the minds and hearts of Americans today, or have Americans become so “transformed” by the politically-correct, progressive liberalism of Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the modern Democrat Party that this July 4th they are prepared to choose “abject submission” if the alternate is “brave resistance”?

Jefferson wrote in our American Declaration of Independence that we Americans be-lieve that “all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” The question presented is: Do Americans today still believe that?

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, while belly-crawling to appease Islamic terrorism?

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 de-sire 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 — if that belief no longer exists that there must be resistance to tyranny rather than submission to it, then American freedom is in peril.

It is important, therefore, that on each Independence Day, and every other day, we re-member the values, and sacrifice, of those who created, and preserved, our free consti-tutional republic.

In that regard, that we contemporary Americans have a wealth of information at our fin-gertips 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.

The lesson of history is clear — from the tyranny of England’s King George, to the tyr-anny of national socialist fascism of Hitler in WWII, to the tyranny of communism Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Ho Chi Minh, and Pol Pot in Korea, in Vietnam, and in the Cold War, to the tyranny of Islamofascism today — 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,” “Marxism,” “socialism,” or “communism,” 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 social-ist totalitarianism of Stalin-Mao-and Pol Pot under communism, which is the ultimate expression of socialism. This is true no matter the good intentions of liberal “progres-sives” and their Orwellian euphemisms for the tyranny of governmental control over every aspect of life.

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 preserved our freedom.

It is veterans who have paid the price for freedom, of whom “some gave all, and all gave some.” As noted above, some 1,400,000 American veterans, from the Revolutionary Army under Gen. George Washington in 1776 to today, have given their lives for American freedom in all the wars, including those Americans serving in the War Against Islamic Terrorism today, who are suffering terrible wounds, and dying, for freedom.

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.

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY FOREVER; SURRENDER TO TYRANNY—NEVER!

© 2016 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

Victoria Taft, broadcast and print journalist, radio talk show host, and blogger, recently reported on her Facebook page about a school teacher who taught her students that “WWII” on a veterans cap meant meant he was a veteran of “World War Eleven.”

That teacher is definitely the product of progressive liberal government schools. So will those kids be.

In that regard, I recently reported on the notice of the passing of WWII hero and “Doolittle Raid” veteran Sgt. David Thatcher at age 94 on June 22, 2016. (Facebook/Rees Lloyd Law; twitter @ReesLloydLaw.)

AmericanVeteransCenter.org has provided more, and very interesting, information on Sgt. Thatcher and the history of the “Doolittle Raid.”

You might consider not only reading it, but also providing it to your children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren. They are definitely not learning about it in their progressive liberal, politically correct government schools.

Come to think of it, you might provide it to your local schools — the teachers of those kids are not only not teaching it, apparently some of them are so ignorant of our history, the Doolittle Raid, and veterans, that they are teaching that “WWII” means “World War Eleven,” as Victoria Taft reported.

God bless those vets of WWII like Sgt. David Thatcher, and the veterans of all wars. It was those veterans, ordinary Americans who made extraordinary sacrifices, who preserved our freedom.

Some 1.4-million of those veterans have given their lives that America might remain free. But, “while some gave all, all gave some.” They should not be forgotten; ignored; or wiped out of history by progressive liberal political correctness, or because someone might be “offended” based on natural origin, or religion.

Every one of those veterans took an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States against “all enemies, foreign and domestic.” America survived those wars, because veterans defeated all foreign enemies.

Now, the question is whether we will survive the political-correctness, and creeping European-style socialism that is a modern domestic enemy destroying America from within.

For God And Country Forever; Surrender To Tyranny–Never!

Staff Sgt. David Thatcher – American Veterans Center

Staff Sergeant David Thatcher was the Engineer-Gunner aboard Crew 7 of the famed Doolittle Tokyo Raid. After his plane, the Ruptured Duck, dropped bombs over their target in Tokyo, the crew made their way towards China. After crash landing on the water near a small island, Thatcher and his crew even…

AMERICANVETERANSCENTER.ORG

© 2016 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

The hypocrisy of the attacks on Donald Trump for criticizing the perceived bias of an Hispanic (Mexican-American) federal judge appointed by Obama who was a member of the race-based “La Raza (“The Race”) Lawyers Assn. of San Diego,” needs to be repudiated by the American citizens that judge serves, lawyers, politically correct politicians and media pundits preening their political correctness — and by the federal judge himself.

In a fact-filled, truth-filled column, Ann Coulter details the hypocrisy of the hysterical denunciations of Trump for questioning whether this judge’s allegiance to “La Raza” is influencing his decisions in the Trump University case, and criticizing that judge for not recusing himself given his membership in the La Raza Lawyers Association. (Ann Coulter’s column is available here).

I concur. The attacks on Trump are, in my view as a Civil Rights lawyer for more than thirty years, utterly hypocritical. I base this on the undeniable fact that for decades “White” judges (and jurors and prosecutors and police) have been repeatedly attacked and their decisions criticized with express citations to the fact that they are “White.”

Why shouldn’t this Hispanic judge be treated like a White judge? The fact is, all judges, including Hispanic and other non-White judges, are unelected, unaccountable, politically-connected political appointees, who are subject to criticism just as is any other governmental office holder.

Judges are not a high-priesthood to which we citizens are required to genuflect, and never criticize or question. They are politicians by-any-other-name. It is just easier for these lawyers to get appointed to government office, i.e., judgeships, by appropriate political donations to the right party and the right political connections, then it is to get elected.

If any citizen would criticize any politician in any elected office, or any bureaucrat in any appointed office, then that citizen should feel free to criticize any judge, no matter their race, and including questioning whether their decisions are influenced by their race. Otherwise, we citizens are but serfs or subjects quivering with fear under the tyranny of judicial mystic. After all, they are nothing but political appointees; lawyers in dresses. Never should a citizen quake before a man who goes to work in a dress.

Although Donald Trump was not my first choice, I give Trump, as a public figure, newly minted political office seeker, and presumptive nominee for the Presidency, credit for having the courage to eschew political correctness and to publicly criticize this federal judge for perceived bias and failure to recuse himself from the Trump University litigation while being a member of a Hispanic racialist organization, the La Raza Lawyers Association.

Why should Trump or any American fear to publicly question the impartiality of a judge who is a member of an organization which has in its very name a racial identification, “La Raza,” and is not shy in proclaiming “Viva La Raza!” (Long Live The Race!)”? If he was White and a member of the KKK Lawyers Association, would the politicians, media mavens, and the politically-correct thought police rush to condemn Trump for questioning whether the Judge’s race influenced his decisions?

I was one of the attorneys for Cesar Chavez in California for some twenty years. He was proud of his Mexican heritage, but never once did I ever hear him identify himself as “Raza,” or join in crying “Viva La Raza!” On the contrary, Cesar Chavez, a great, third-generation American of Mexican descent, a WWII veteran who joined the Navy at 17 and served for the duration in defense of his country, the United States, and was the moral heart of the American labor movement, expressly told me he wouldn’t use the term “La Raza” because he considered it “racist.”

Why, then, this rush of politicians and media to defend this Hispanic judge from criticism and questioning as to whether his decisions are influenced by his race? There is no similar rush to defend White judges, prosecutors, police, or jurors, when they are questioned, criticized, and attacked as “White” by the likes of Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Black Lies Matter, anti-Trump “Viva La Raza!” rioters waving Mexican Flags and burning the U.S. Flag, or other race-baiting non-White racialist individuals or organizations. Isn’t that “racist”?

Manifestly, this federal judge was appointed by President Obama to his life-tenured federal judgeship not despite being Hispanic but because he is Hispanic. This is true, too, concerning Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor, who was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by Obama not on merit, but because she is Puerto Rican, and an activist leader of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund.

Indeed, Sotomayor, herself, described herself as an “affirmative action baby” upon her nomination, admitting that throughout her college and post-college career her peers exceeded her in performance.

Sotomayor also famously stated that because she is a Hispanic female, in her words, a “wise Latina,” she likely make better decisions than “white” judges. Nobody called her a “racist,” or Obama for appointing her based on her race.

End this hypocrisy. Judges are no more to be immune from criticism by citizens, including whether their decisions are influenced by their race, ethnicity, or gender, than are members of Congress or the President of the U.S. “Hispanic” or other non-White judges are not entitled to special treatment because of their race. Neither is the President, who has ruled by race from the White House for seven long years–all of them downhill, while the media and politicians cringe before criticizing him for his obvious race-based governance.

It has long been a maxim of the law that: “The appearance of evil is as damaging to the institution of justice as is actual evil.”

It is that standard, avoiding even the “appearance” of bias, that is to be followed by judges in recusing themselves in order to protect the institution of justice.

Under that standard, this federal judge, knowing he was a member of a race-based, race-advocacy organization of lawyers, should have recused himself in the Trump litigation. He should not be able to hide behind his Hispanic race to shield himself from criticism for that failure.

If this judge wants to involve himself in a race-based, race-promoting, organization, so be it. But, having done so, he cannot attack as “racists” citizens like Trump, or like me for this commentary, who question publicly whether his failure to recuse himself is improper. Nor does he have the right to hide behind his Hispanicity to be shielded from criticism which all other politicians, let alone mere mortals like us citizens, are subject. Indeed, does any reader of this commentary doubt that one or more readers are certain to attack it on the basis that I am “White,” no matter that I was in the trenches of the Civil Rights Movement when they were not?

In short, this Hispanic federal judge’s membership in an organization racially identifying itself as “La Raza” creates at least an “appearance” of bias. That he is “Hispanic” does not immunize him from criticism by Trump or any citizen, any more than a white judge who maintains a membership in the “KKK Lawyers Association” could claim “racism” if his or her impartiality was questioned because of that membership.

Enough of this hypocrisy. We are citizens, not “serfs” groveling under judges who perceive themselves as modern Feudal Lords to whom all must kowtow, and none must criticize. These Lords of the Judiciary, perched in benches above mere mortals, requiring citizens to address them as “Your Honor” upon pain of contempt citation, are in reality naught but politically-ambitious, politically-connected lawyers in dresses.

Its time to take away their black “robes” (i.e., dresses); take them off their high courtroom perches and put them not above but on the same level as the citizens over whom they sit in judgment; and end their demand to be addressed as “Your Honor” even when they have none, and subject them to the same scrutiny, questioning and criticism as any other holder of public office purporting to be a “public servant.”

When one of them associates himself or herself with an organization promoting one race, instead of the human race, citizens, like Trump, should not cower from publicly criticizing and questioning them for at minimum creating the “appearance” of race-based bias, as has the “La Raza” Judge in the Trump case. He cannot cannot be shielded from criticism or questioning by Trump or other citizens because he is an “Hispanic” rather than “White” judge. That is itself the very racial discrimination which the judiciary should be ending, not perpetuating.

For God And Country Forever; Surrender to Tyranny–Including Judicial Tyranny — Never!

© 2016 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

Bernie Sanders, a draft-dodging self-proclaimed “Socialist” who evaded service in the Vietnam War by seeking “conscientious objector” status as an alleged “pacifist opposed to all war,” now seeks to be elected Democrat President and Commander-in-Chief, empowered to send other Americans to war although he refused to serve himself. His perfidy in the Vietnam War, if not perjury, disqualifies him from being elected to serve as President and Commander-in-Chief now.

Oddly enough, although television anchors “moderating” the 2016 presidential campaign debates refer to Sanders as “authentic,” they have failed to question him about, or investigate, his evasion of military service in Vietnam by claiming to be a “pacifist” opposed to all wars as required for conscientious objector status. He wasn’t believed then– he was denied c.o. status — and the excuses he offers now for his non-service should not be believed.

Indeed, the excuses offered by Sanders and his campaign for his claim of being a committed “pacifist” opposed to all war in order to evade the draft just cannot withstand scrutiny.

First, he claims that while he is still a sincere Socialist, as he was then as a college radical, he is no longer a “pacifist” as he was then. How does one stop being a committed “pacifist,” if it is a “sincerely held belief,” as he claimed in order to evade military service and have someone else serve in his place in Vietnam? Did he stop being a “pacifist opposed to all war” when the Vietnam War or Draft ended and he was safe from service?

His campaign admits that Sanders sought conscientious objector status when his Draft number came up. They also admit that his claim of being a “pacifist” was rejected as a back then and he was denied c.o. status. But, they explain, he appealed the ruling against him, and the process dragged out so long that he became “too old” to be drafted.

How does that work? Sanders doesn’t say when he received his draft notice to which he responded by claiming c.o. status as a “pacifist.” But he had to receive draft notice, as otherwise there is no reason to file for c.o. status.

Sanders was born in 1941, and the draft age cutoff was “35,” in the Vietnam era. He would not have been age 35 until 1976 — three years after all troops came home. So, the excuse that he was “too old” to be drafted by the time he was drafted appears as false as his “pacifist” claim.

Significantly, Sanders doesn’t claim he had a college deferment. He graduated from college in 1964, when he was 23. In 1966, he married his first wife, “Honeymooning” in the Soviet Union. Both Jews, they lived in a kibbutz in Israel for a time. As far as is known, Sanders did not volunteer to serve in the kibbutz in Israel on condition that, as a pacifist, he would not fight to defend the kibbutz if it was was attacked, as many were, or if Israel was again invaded.

So, how is it that Sanders was young enough and healthy enough to volunteer to serve on a kibbutz in Israel and potentially have to defend it if attacked, but not young enough to volunteer for, or be drafted into, military service to defend his own country during the Vietnam War?

Many, many, Vietnam-era Americans were opposed to the Vietnam War. Many people drafted were opposed to that war–but they served when the country called, not being so arrogant as to believe that someone else should serve in their place because they disagreed with the particular war to which they were called to serve.

Many others opposed to the war agreed to perform alternative service. Many fled the country, most heading to Socialist sanctuaries like Sweden. (One of former Democrat President Jimmy Carter’s first acts was to issue an Executive Order granting all such draft dodgers them immunity from prosecution, regardless of the impact on those who did serve.) Others opposed to the Vietnam War went to jail rather than serve. Many simply lied to evade service.

The most well-known of those Vietnam War draft-dodgers proven beyond a reasonable doubt to have lied to avoid service when their draft number came up is, of course: Bill Jefferson (“BJ”) Clinton, later Democrat President, sexual satyr and seducer of 21-year-old intern Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office, and husband of Hillary Clinton, Sanders’ Democrat opponent for the 2016 Democrat Nomination for President.

Regarding Hillary Clinton, as Bernie Sanders’ acts claiming to be a “pacifist opposed to all war” in Vietnam to avoid the Draft should disqualify him, Hillary Clinton, too, should be disqualified as Commander-in-Chief by her actions, non-actions, and utter lies in the Bengazi, Libya, scandal. Indeed, the blood of the American Ambassador and three other Americans murdered in Benghazi by Islamic terrorists is on Hillary Clinton’s hands, and the hands of Barack Obama. (See, e.g., “13 Hours In Benghazi: The Inside Account Of What Really Happened” by Mitchell Zuckoff and the members of the Annex Security Team who survived the Islamic terrorist attack of 9-11-2012, fighting terrorists for 13 hours waiting for help that never came due to Hillary and Obama. See also the movie based on the book, “13 Hours.”)

Was Sanders one of those, like Bill Clinton, who lied his way out of service? Was Sanders really a “pacifist,” who was “sincerely” opposed to all wars? Or was Sanders merely one of the many who opposed the Vietnam War, but not all wars, and evaded service and caused others to serve in their place?

Sanders may have had a “sincere belief” that the Vietnam War was wrong, as did so many others. But opposition to a particular war does not give Sanders, or anyone else, a license to claim to be a “pacifist” opposed to all war — a claim of Sanders which was not believed then by Selective Service as other than phony — while another American was drafted to serve in his place.

If Sanders did what he did because of his opposition to the war, then he should have had the integrity to pay the price that his lifelong hero, Eugene Debs, Socialist and Pacifist, did. Debs went to jail, as did other socialists, communists, and pacifists in Debs’ era in WWI.

Sanders did not declare his opposition to the Vietnam War, as Debs declared his opposition to WWI, and go to jail for refusal to serve in that war. Instead, he apparently lied, on a phony claim that he was a pacifist, opposed to all war. He had to claim to be a pacifist opposed to all war in order to try evade the Draft because, as far as is known, no court has ever found that “sincere” opposition to a particular war, rather than all war, provides a basis for conscientious objector status.

Why did Sanders do what he did? What are all the facts, including about the manifest fiction that he was “too old” to be drafted? Those are questions which he has not answered and which the media has neglected to probe, while advising and assuring Americans that Sanders is “authentic” in his claims. Really?

When Sanders’ draft number came up and he lied his way out of service on a claim being a “pacifist opposed all war,” was that “authentic”? When Sanders did what he did, the draft number of next American on the draft list came up. That American was drafted to serve in the Vietnam War because “authentic” Bernie Sanders filed a phony claim of being a sincere “pacifist opposed to all war”? Did the draftee who served because Sander’s didn’t survive the war? Was he wounded? What was the impact on the life the person who was drafted because Sanders was not? How does this evidence “authenticity” in Bernie Sanders?

Seven per cent of Americans of Sanders’ generation served in Vietnam, whether or not they believed in the Vietnam War. Fifty-eight thousand of those Americans who served when called died. Several hundred thousand were wounded. As veterans say, “All gave some; some gave all.” Not Bernie Sanders, who lied his way out of service, and caused someone else to serve in his place. What is “authentic” about that?

Sanders today dodges questions about his draft-dodging in the Vietnam War on his claim of being a sincerely believing “pacifist” opposed to all war. Instead, he assures Americans that he is no longer a “pacifist” (“His thinking has evolved,” his campaign claims, without explanation.” Sanders, notwithstanding prior “pacifist” claims, now claims he is ready, willing, able to wage war if necessary as Commander-in-Chief, if elected in what he says is his “history making campaign” to become “the first Jewish President,” not to mention “first Socialist” and “first (allegedly former) pacifist” President. Is Sanders’ dodging of questions about his draft-dodging in Vietnam, his obviously false excuse that he became “too old” to be drafted as his c.o. appeal dragged on, evidence that Sanders is “authentic”? If so, an “authentic” what?

It must be asked: If Sanders’ claim of being a “sincere” pacifist in the Vietnam War was true, then how was he able to so easily betray and abandon his alleged “sincere belief” as a “pacifist opposed to all war”? If Sanders could betray his alleged “sincere” belief in pacifism, how is it that he can be trusted not to betray his “sincere” representations now that he is not a pacifist and will wage war, including all-out war, if necessary, as Commander-in-Chief?

I respectfully propose that anyone who claims to a true “pacifist” in one war, is forever disqualified to be President and Commander-in-Chief.

This is especially true now, when we are at war with fanatical Islamic terrorism bent on conquering America, and the world, for Islamic rule under the Muslim Caliphate and Sharia Law. Islam is a religion, but it is also a political ideology, and that ideology is a form of totalitarian fascism. Islamofascism, because it is also a religion, is no less a totalitarian threat to American freedom today than was Adolph Hitler’s National Socialist fascism in WWII. The Commander-in-Chief must be prepared to wage war against Islamic terrorists who are waging war on “the Great Satan,” us, the United States, not appease it by pretending it is other than what it is and refusing to name it for what it is, i.e., Islamic terrorism. No pacifist can wage that war if necessary.

Therefore, anyone who evades military service by claiming to be a “pacifist” in one war should be disqualified to serve later as Commander-in-Chief. Period.

In sum, If any candidate’s claim to be a “pacifist is true, then he or she must be disqualified because sincerely held pacifism means opposition to all war, and would prevent that candidate from taking the military action necessary to protect the American people as Commander-in-Chief, the chief duty of the President being the defense of America and Americans.

If a candidate’s claim to be a “pacifist” in a former war turns out not to have been true but a dodge to evade military service, then that candidate should be disqualified to be Commander-in-Chief for lack of integrity and trustworthiness, a person capable of changing core principles like changing clothes, a liar about supposed core values.

Therefore, Bernie Sanders should be disqualified on either ground. Further, Sanders’ candidacy to be President and Commander-in-Chief is an insult to all who did serve in the Vietnam War era when called to defend American freedom.

© 2016 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

“I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men! ” —Cesar Chavez

March 31st, anniversary of the birth of Cesar Chavez in 1927 in Arizona, USA, is now observed as an official holiday in California and several states, and commemorations of various kinds are held in communities all across America. Why should he be so honored?

An irony is that in his lifetime, Cesar Chavez, leader of the United Farm Workers of America, shunned all personal publicity and celebrity. For Chavez, it was always about “La Causa,” the cause of justice for farm workers, who have always been excluded from the protections of the National Labor Relations Act and other statutory protections, although theirs is regarded as the most dangerous occupation in America.

Among other things, Cesar, at the height of national attention to the farm workers movement and his personal though unsought fame, refused offers in the millions for the rights to make a movie of his life. He refused similar offers to buy the right to write his authorized biography. The clos-est thing to an authorized biography is “The Autobiography Of La Causa,” by Jacques Levy. He didn’t “buy” the right to write it; he earned it by working in the movement with Cesar for over a decade.

Although it was never about him and always about La Causa, Cesar Chavez deservedly became internationally renown as the moral heart of the American Labor Movement. He became an icon in the American Civil Rights Movement, too, before it lost all honor due to the black race-exploiting likes of Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakan, and Jeremiah Wright, and others of their exclusionary black racist ilk, along with white, black, and 50 Shades Of Gray Progressive Liberals like Barack Obama in between infected with anti-American “we will transform America” totalitarianism.”

Despite Chavez’ own reality in his life of eschewing all personal aggrandizement, Liberals and Latinos have attempted to exploit his name and fame and “transform” Chavez into their own Progressive Liberal image, just as they desire to “transform” America into their own image. Lib-erals and Latinos have diligently exploited Chavez’ life, name, and work, to claim an ownership of him by race , ethnicity, national origin, or ideology, and transform him from what he was into what they want him to be, and he wasn’t.

They want him to be understood by Americans as like them. He wasn’t. He was uniquely himself: He was an unabashed, unapologetic Christian, a devout Catholic attempting to live a life of faith in God and service to others, all out of love for Jesus Christ, his savior in a world of hurt, and injustice.

At his death, although Cesar was not a priest and held no office in the Catholic Church, then-Pope John Paul II, now a saint, issued a statement from the Vatican on Cesar’s passing. Of all the many awards and honors he received, perhaps Cesar would have been most touched by the fact that in the U.S. Bishops Catholic Catechism For Adults, in the section on “Life In Christ,” the life which is used as exemplary is that of Cesar Chavez.

Almost as distasteful and repugnant to Progressive Liberals as is Chavez’ essence as a Christian, is the fact that Chavez was an American veteran, a third-generation American, born in Ari-zona, who volunteered to serve in defense of his country, the United States, in the U.S. Navy in World War II. (I spell out “World War II” these days as I have learned that the modern genera-tion of Americans have been taught so little about the history of America by liberals running government schools, that many don’t know what “WWII” means anymore than they know what “WWI” means.)

An example of Liberals and Latinos transformation and exploitation of Chavez to celebrate and honor themselves by purporting to honor him arises in Portland, OR, the Principality Of Progres-sive Liberal Political Correctness, a “Sanctuary City” which spends several hundred thousand dollars a year extorted from taxpayer’s to operated an an illegal aliens hiring hall, to undermine working conditions of American workers for work elitist Progressive Liberals have no need to compete.

Portland Progressive Liberals and race-baiting Oregon “Latinos” exploited Cesar Chavez’ work and name to celebrate themselves by insisting that the name of historic 39th Street, a major thor-oughfare running through the city, be changed to “Cesar Chavez Blvd.”

They said it was to honor him. It was, in fact, to honor themselves as just so much more noble and good they are than the rest of us, because they are busy “honoring” him — but not, however, by bestirring themselves to drop their government or non-profit corporation jobs or college stu-dent status and go to California and work for justice in the fields with Chavez’ United Farm Workers of America. That, in fact, is the only way in which he desired to be “honored.”

Far from honoring Chavez, renaming 39th Street for Chavez is, in fact, an insult to Cesar Chavez. He never sought such personal publicity, especially in a city in which he had such minimal actual contact. Cesar did next to nothing in Portland. He had no real connection or rela-tion to the city. He was used by Liberals to celebrate their politically-correct better-than-thou self-righteousness, and by resentful Latinos to poke other white people in the eye. (Latinos, after all, are but Caucasians who speak Spanish, the language of slavery in the Americas, Spain be-ing the first leading slave-trading power in the world.)

I have no doubt, based on actually working with him including as one of his lawyers for more than twenty-years, until his death on April 23, 1993, that if Cesar had a choice, Cesar would have asked the name of 39th street not be changed to honor him, especially if he learned of the overwhelming opposition to re-naming 39th Street of the people who actually live there. They turned out by the thousands to be oppose it. But they were merely tolerated (given “1 min-ute” to express opposition), then ignored by the city’s liberal rulers on the All-Liberal Portland City Commission. When the Oregonian newspaper finally thought it might be a good idea to find out what the Chavez family thought about re-naming 39th Street for him, Chavez’ son, Paul, for the family, said: “I think my Dad would have said that there are a lot more important things to be doing than naming a street after him.”

Indeed, especially cringe-worthy is the fact that self-righteous Liberals and resentful Latinos of Portland who have done nothing or next to nothing in the civil rights movement insisted on changing the name of 39th Street for Cesar Chavez — who had never been in Portland except for driving through it or giving an occasional speech — while ignoring such Oregonians who had ac-tually resided on 39th Street as world-famous scientist, double Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling.

Renaming a street in Portland on which Linus Pauling lived to allegedly honor Cesar Chavez who had no real contact with Portland, is as preposterous as would be East Los Angeles renam-ing a street on which Cesar Chavez lived to honor Linus Pauling. But one must not in Portland question the acts of totalitarian Liberals–their motives, after all, are “pure,” even if their acts appear to be naught but anally birthed political dross.

However, notwithstanding such Liberal and Latino distortion of Cesar Chavez’ own reality, Ce-sar was, in fact, a humble and faithful Christian living as best he could the theological and moral teachings of Jesus Christ, the latter of which Thomas Jefferson wrote were “the most sub-lime ever offered to humankind.”

Cesar Chavez was an American proud of his Mexican heritage but also proud to be an American. He was a man and leader who lived and preached racial inclusiveness not exclusiveness, and who, in the two decades I was with him, never identified anyone as a “Latino” or a “His-panic” (from which derived the slur, “Spic”), and refused to use the term “La Raza,” expressly telling me that was because he believed it was racist. In the millions of words he spoke in fight-ing for justice in ‘La Causa,” I don’t believe one will ever encounter the three words together: “Viva La Raza!” (Long Live The Race!)

Although often held out as a “Mexican-American Civil Rights Leader,” or just “Mexican,” Cesar himself did not identify himself as a civil rights leader. On the contrary, he consistently identi-fied himself as a “union leader,” leading a union composed of all farm workers whatever their race, and not a “Mexican union,””Chicano union,” or “Latino union.”

It should be remembered that the famous march that Cesar Chavez led from Indio, CA to the Mexican border in 1969 was not in protest against growers exploiting farm workers: It was to protest the federal government’s failure to secure the border from illegal entry of Mexican who were used as strike breakers. Ten years later, in 1979, Cesar Chavez testified before Congress that the border had to be sealed as it was all but impossible to better farm workers’ wages, hours, and working conditions when there is an endless supply of exploitable labor from Mexico through a porous border. He also cooperated with the the Border Patrol and INS (now ICE) to secure the border and keep out strike breakers and others undermining the effort to improve farm workers lives through the union.

Those who demand that the border be secured today are denounced as “bigots” and “racists” by Liberals when they are in fact making the same demands the Cesar Chavez made. Was he, too, a “racist”?

The essential reality of Cesar Chavez, untransformable no matter how much Progressive Liberal propaganda is pumped out that Chavez was really one of them, is that Cesar Chavez was a Christian living a life in Jesus Christ.

That is the man, the Christian man, who is and should be honored on each March 31 marking the anniversary of his birth because of his service to others through consciously attempting to live his life in Christ.

That is the man whose deeds as well as words brought dignity to so many who were without it. That is the Christian who “transformed” lives by the example of his own life in Christ. That Christian cannot be “transformed” now in death by Progressive Liberals feeding vulture-like on his life.

We Americans treasure freedom, which our Declaration of Independence declares is not given us by government but which God, our “Creator,” endowed each of us with at conception. But the truth is that there is no dignity without freedom; and there is no real freedom without dignity. Cesar Chavez did many things for many millions of Americans in his lifetime, of all races. But perhaps most importantly, by living a life in Jesus Christ and his teachings, Chavez brought dig-nity to those who had not known it.

Cesar did that not by rendering onto Caesar, but by rendering his life onto God — hour by hour, day by day, every day, to the best of his ability, in service to others. His faith and love in Jesus Christ informed his life, and made him what he was.

The quote of Cesar Chavez cited at the beginning of this tribute — “ I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men!” — is carved into the stone memorial to him at his gravesite at “La Paz,” the headquarter’s of the United Farm Workers of America in the Tehachapi Mountains, in Keene, CA, now a National Historic Memo-rial.

What Liberal would say those words of Cesar Chavez today? Which of those Progressive Liber-als transforming Cesar into a clone of themselves would dare to say those words, referencing “God” and “manliness” and not be figuratively stoned by contemporary Progressive Liberal De-mocrats?

Cesar Chavez was in his own reality, not as transformed by those who would exploit his life for their own purposes, a great man, a Christian man, the lessons of whose life have inspired and in-fluenced so many others’ lives, including my own.

Thus, in 2016, at a time when the 89th anniversary of his birth on March 31, 1927, is remem-bered and honored in various ways, I respectfully once again salute, honor, thank and remember him for the lessons he taught by the example of his inspiring life in Christ in service for others. Please take a moment, if you will, to read more of the tribute I wrote on the 80th anniversary of his birth. “Lessons From The Life Of A Great American–Cesar Chavez.” [Link]

On Cesar Chavez Day, and every day, I will always walk in his shadow.

© 2016 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

I was asked to comment on “who won the GOP debate” on CNN on March 10, 2015. In short, I think the GOP candidates won, CNN lost — they could not provoke a dogfight.

But they definitely tried hard, especially by attempting to make themselves look “good,” as in “politically-correct-good,” and to make Donald Trump look bad by baiting him by asking whether, when he stated in an earlier interview that he believes that there is a problem of “hate” in Islam, he “meant all 1.6-billion muslims.” It was and is a loaded, cheap, “gotcha” question as asked. It is also utterly hypocritical in light of the media’s general reaction after 9-11: “Why do they [Muslims] hate us?”

To his credit, Trump did not cave-in politically-correctly and rabbit-like retreat from that which is manifestly evidence of “hate” among Muslims inspired by the doctrines of Islam, itself. Instead, he said we need to face it and investigate, not pretend it doesn’t exist, from Paris to San Bernardino, CA, and Islamic terrorism all across the world.

But here’s my question about CNN’s question, which is a question embraced by other media, utterly hypocritically: After 9-11, CNN, and almost all major media were filled with stories on: “Why do they [Muslims] hate us?” So, why is it wrong to even raise the question of “hate” now?

That question, “Why do they [Muslims] hate us?” dominated the news after 9-11. No one questioned that it was “hate” we faced; the question was only (and pathetically): “Why do they hate us?”

In 2015, Donald Trump states what was obvious in 9-11: It is about “hate” of Islamics toward us. But the same media that acknowledged “hate” was a motivating factor of Islamic terrorists on 9-11 now paint Trump has some kind of awful anti-Muslim monster while they are ever-so-good in their political correctness, no matter that in 9-11 those same media acknowledged Muslim “hate” for America–and Americans.

Indeed, the evidence of hate in the act of the 9-11 Muslim terrorists could not be denied. That hateful act was celebrated by dancing in the streets by Muslims all over the world, and terrorist Osama bin Ladin was raised up as a Muslim messiah.

Media in America made pouty-faced “but we are innocent” postures expressed in multiple “Why do they (Muslims) hate us” articles and broadcasts. They didn’t question that it was “hatred,” only lamented that how and why could Muslims “hate us”? Articles even appeared that it was all our fault that Muslims hate us. Even those pathetic articles didn’t deny Muslim hatred for us, but instead only argued that Muslim hatred was our fault.

After 9-11, I read the Koran cover-to-cover, without any prejudice but instead a desire to learn. I found very, very little in the Koran evidencing that Islam “is a religion of love and peace,” but an awful lot of evidence, in the Koran itself, not only advising but commanding hatred for, and death to non-believing “infidels,” in particular Jews and Christians, and even of one’s own father, mother, brother, sister, should they have an “infidel” friend. It is undeniable that the Koran commands that “infidels” have but three choices: (1) Convert to Islam. (2) Pay a special tax and life in a second (third, or fourth, etc.) class position in Muslim society. (3) Or die, be killed. Osama bin Ladin declared war on America based on those principles of the Koran, not ones he invented. If you doubt it, read the Koran yourself, and decide yourself.

I am not a Trumpeter, but there should be no doubt, on this issue Trump is right–the evidence of Islamic hate is in the hate-filled acts of terrorism by Muslims throughout the world, which Muslim leaders have the power to stop and refuse to stop, fearing to take effective action which would make themselves targets of Muslim hate and terrorism.

That objective evidence of hate cannot be denied by politically correct pieties of hypocrites in media and government. That hate, condoned and inspired by the Koran itself, represents an existential threat to America, and cannot be defeated by pretending it does not exist. It exists–and must be defeated.

2016 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

Repeal Uniform Monday Holiday Act

February 22, 2016, is the 284th anniversary of the birth of George Washington in 1732. He should be honored on his actual birthday: February 22, not another day for the three-day holiday convenience of alleged “public servants” in government employment. Nor should Washington be lumped in with other, less deserving presidents in a concocted “Presidents Day.”

I believe George Washington, the “Father Of His [Our] Country,” to be the greatest of all Americans. He set an enduring example of fidelity to God and Country. He should be known, remembered, and honored, by Americans of this and and future generations, as he was by his contemporaries in the generation of the Founding Fathers at the genesis of America.

Therefore, I urge support for the proposition that the holiday now known as “Presidents Day,” and observed on the third Monday of February, as a result of the “Uniform Monday Holiday Act” of 1971, be repealed, and the holiday known as “Washington’s Birthday” honoring George Washington be reinstated and observed on February 22, the actual date of his birth.

In support, I submit for your consideration the following comments, annual February 22 of renown author and patriot William J. Federer on his www.AmericanMinute.com which provides information and evidence of who George Washington was, and what he believed, in Washington’s own words, as well as international praise of him in his era.

George Washington was the most admired American by the Americans of the Founding Generation who created the free, democratic republic of America: “First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen,” as Washington was described by Revolutionary War hero Henry (“Light Horse Harry”) Lee.

Washington set an enduring example by his conduct as Commanding General of the American Revolutionary Army in the War of Independence, 1776-1883, and in following years when he was elected president of the Constitutional Convention and thereafter the First President of United States.

He set perhaps an even greater example by walking away from power and returning home to Virginia as a private citizen after his second term, refusing offers that he be president for life.

His act of humbly declining power as President and returning home stunned the world, in which the United States was then the only republic in a world of monarchs and potentates. He was hailed as a (then) modern “Cincinnatus,” the Roman general who walked away from imperial power when Rome ruled the world. When others grasped for power—then and now—George Washington, singularly, relinquished power, setting an unprecedented example of duty, honor, country, first.

After his death on Dec. 14, 1799, George Washington was hailed in the western world as “the greatest man of his age.” Even Napoleon, who had no small estimation of his own greatness, deferred to Washington, saying (on Feb. 9, 1800) : “This great man fought against tyranny; he established the liberty of his country. His memory will always be dear to the French people, as it will be to all freemen of the two worlds.”

Americans once believed those words. George Washington was the first American to be honored with a federal holiday. “Washington’s Birthday” was established by Act of Congress in 1879. The “Washington’s Birthday” holiday was observed on the anniversary of Washington’s birthday, February 22, until Congress, putting the care, comfort and convenience government employees first, adopted the “Uniform Monday Holiday Act,” which became effective on Jan. 1, 1971.

That Act effectively subordinated remembrance of the example of George Washington’s life, and maintaining or inculcating those virtues in the national character, especially of the young, and immigrants who would be Americans, for the higher purpose of insuring that federal and other government employees will have nice three-day weekend holidays, while the rest of the country goes to work.

“Washington’s Birthday” holiday was in effect abolished from national consciousness in the 1980’s, when the the holiday was renamed “President’s Day,” submerging America’s greatest president, George Washington, into an undifferentiated mass of competent men and con men, the good, the bad, the ugly, the avaricious, meretricious, and salacious, who have managed, often by hook and crook, and lying through their teeth, to get themselves elected President.

For example of why Washington should not be lumped with others, excuse me for possible political incorrectness or insult to socialists, communists, Black Lies Matter adherents, or other haters of America seeking to take it over, in stating that in my opinion, it is a very long road from George Washington to Barack Hussein Obama, and all down hill.

Concisely stated: It is the singular, unprecedented virtues, character, and example of George Washington which ought to be remembered and honored singularly, on his actual birthday, February 22.

Therefore, let us Americans of this generation demand that Congress restore the “Washington’s Birthday Holiday to be observed on February 22, annually, the actual birth date of George Washington, no matter the lamentations of government bureaucrats and employees who may suffer the oppression of one less three-day weekend holiday.

2016 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

February 15, 2016 is the 43rd anniversary of a shining moment in American history: It was on that day in 1973 that American prisoners of war came home from Vietnam with their honor intact, after suffering unspeakable torture, some for eight years, at the hands of North Vietnam led by dedicated Communist Ho Chi Minh.

It was day of great importance in 1973 in a divided America faced with war, and it is day to remember all these years later in a divided America; it is important for what it teaches about honor, duty, country, and who and what we are as Americans.

The Vietnam War had divided Americans as never before. It was and remains the first time in American history that veterans came home from war not to be honored for their service and sacrifice, but to be vilified, defamed as “war criminals,” told by their military commanders not to wear their uniforms in traveling home, many even spat upon as they arrived home at airports, train or bus stations.

Altogether, some 9,137,000 Americans would serve in the Vietnam War-era (1960-1975), constituting 9.7 percent of their generation. Some 2.6-million of them were deployed to Vietnam, of whom between 1-1.6-million either fought in combat, provided close support, or were at least fairly regularly exposed to enemy attack.” (www.VeteransHour.com, from which all statistics are taken.)

Fifty-Eight Thousand Two Hundred And Two (58,202) of those American veterans would give their lives in service to their country. Another 303,704 were wounded; 18% suffered “multiple amputations,” compared with 5.7% in WWII; amputation or crippling wounds to the lower extremities were 300% higher than in WWII, and 70% higher than Korea.

Of the 58,202 who were killed, 61% were 21 or younger. 30.4% were draftees. 79% had a high school education or better (compared with 63% in Korea and 45% in WWII). 76% were of middle/working class grounds. 88.4% of those who actually served in Vietnam were Caucasian, including some 170,000 Hispanics, 3,070 of whom (5.2%) died. Blacks constituted 10.6% (275,000). 86.8% of the men who were killed in combat were were Caucasian; 12.5% were Black (at a time when Blacks were 13.5% of the population).

A later survey of Vietnam veterans showed: 82% of those who saw heavy combat “strongly believe” the war was lost because of lack of political will, with which “nearly 75% of the public” — modernly — agrees it was a failure of political will, not of arms. 97% of Vietnam Era Veterans were honorably discharged. 91% of combat veterans are proud to have served their country. 66% of Vietnam Veterans “say they would serve again if called upon.”

With the passage of time, reports VeteransHour.com, “87% of the public now holds Vietnam Veterans in high esteem.”

If that is true, it most definitely was not true during the Vietnam War. Many Americans who never served, turned their opposition to the war into vilification of the Americans who were sent to fight it. Many of the more affluent fled to Canada or Sweden or elsewhere to avoid the draft. Some blatantly lied when their draft number came up causing another American to go in their place, most infamously perhaps in the documented case of the utter lies told by William Jefferson Clinton to be excused when his draft number came up. Clinton is the first draft dodger ever to be elected President of the United States—or to any office in House or Senate. Clinton remains today a darling icon of the modern progressive liberal Democrat Party, more popular, it is said, than the party’s titular head, Barack Hussein Obama, the only other president since WWII not to have served in the armed forces he would presume to lead as Commander-in-Chief.

Many others did not flee but stayed to aid and abet the North Vietnamese Communists at home, waiving the “Viet Cong” flag, making a hero of Communist torture-master Ho Chi Minh — chanting “Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh, ‘Uncle Ho’ Is Going To Win!”—and vilifying the Americans who did serve when the country called.

These “anti-war” protestors, were mainly affluent, self-righteous, elitist, college “radicals,” conscious aiders-and-abetters of the socialist/communist cause in Vietnam and at home. They were led by pampered celebrities symbolized by Jane Fonda, whose name should live forever in infamy; never-held-a-job self-proclaimed “revolutionary” college students like SDS leader Tom Hayden, “Mr. Jane, Fonda,” later a Democrat Party politician in California; political opportunist John Kerry who, as a leader of the Vietnam Veterans of the War (VVFW) charged “war crimes” by Americans without being able to produce any proof, and earned having his photo in a place of honor in the Communist’s War Museum in Hanoi along with Fonda; and out-and-out domestic terrorists like “Weatherman” bombers Billy Ayers and Bernardine Dorn, who would later become the close associates of Barack Hussein Obama, who announced his first run for political office in Illinois in the living room of Ayers and Dorn.

Of the Americans who served, those who were the most despised, and vilified by Jane Fonda, Hayden, Kerry, et al., were the American prisoners of war, almost all American pilots, who resisted Communist demands that they betray America despite appalling, inhumane, torture, ordered and orchestrated by Ho Chi Minh right up to the day of his death.

There were 770 Americans taken prisoner of war. 113 of them died in Communist captivity. The Communists refused to recognize them as Prisoners of War, and, instead, declared them to be “ war criminals” and blatantly violated the Geneva Convention. In what became known by the POW’s as the “Hanoi Hilton,” and like prisons, the POWs were kept in filthy, windowless, vermin-infested airless cells only 9 feet long and 3 feet wide. Three feet.

Those seen as “ringleaders” of the resistance, like ranking officers of the resisters in what became known as the “Alcatraz Eleven,” James Stockdale, who would later receive the Medal of Honor, and second in command Jeremiah Denton, would be locked in solitary confinement for over four long years, in which horrific torture was inflicted on them, and the other resisters.

The fact of that torture was not confirmed until 1966. Then, the Communists attempted to force Jeremiah Denton to participate in a propaganda broadcast to be filmed by a Japanese crew for international distribution. Instead, Denton not only did not say what the Communists wanted him to say, but he blinked his eyes as if he had an eye problem. He was in fact blinking in Morse Code: “T-O-R-T-U-R-E.” Naval intelligence immediately understood what Denton was communicating. When the Communists later realized what Denton had done, they tortured him nearly to death, as he recounts in his now classic book on what POW’s endured: “When Hell Was In Session.” (WND Books)

However, Jane Fonda, Hayden, John Kerry, then lying to Congress about alleged war crimes as a member of the VVAW — without, as noted above, being able to produce any evidence to support his allegations — and their progressive liberal followers in the “anti-war movement” and the media, did not denounce the Communists’ torture, they denounced the POW’s as “liars,” claiming their Communist allies under Uncle Ho Chi Minh were innocent of torture. Fonda, Hayden, Kerry, of course, lied.

Overwhelming post-war proof of torture beyond any reasonable doubt has given the lie to Fonda, Hayden, Kerry, et al, including books by many of the POWs. These include, the late Admiral Jeremiah Denton’s classic “When Hell Was In Session;” “Surviving Hell,” by Col. Leo Thorsness (USAF, ret.; Medal of Honor); “The Passing Of The Night,” by the late Gen. Robinson Risner (USAF); “American Patriot,” the biography of the late and legendary Col. Bud Day (USMC, WWII, Korea, Vietnam); “Chained Eagle,” by Everett Alvarez, Jr., the first pilot shot down, a POW for eight years; and, among others, “Faith of my Fathers,” by Sen. John McCain who refused an offer of early release by the Communists because his father was the Commanding Admiral, and suffered horrendous torture for his refusal. McCain, a true hero and recognized as such by his fellow POWs, was left permanently crippled in his arms by torture.

More recently, Author Alvin Townley has written a book magnificently telling the true story of the torture POW’s endured in Vietnam, and what their families endured at home: “DEFIANT: The POWs Who Endured Vietnam’s Most Infamous Prison; The Women Who Fought For Them, And The One Who Never Returned.” It is highly praised by the surviving POWs themselves for being at once accurate, and extremely readable. Indeed, although loaded with documented facts, it reads like an adventure novel. It is a must read. (see, for more on “Defiant”.)

The nation was and remained terribly divided over Vietnam. It was not until February, 1973, after POWs like Edward Alvarez, James Stockade, and Jeremiah Denton had endured almost eight years as tortured POWs, four years of which was in solitary confinement for Stockdale and Denton, and almost as long solitary confinement for others, including (now Texas Congressman) Sam Johnson, who was in solitary for over three years, that the breakthrough in peace talks came and Operation Homecoming began.

The first flight of emancipated POWs out of Vietnam to Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines was on Feb. 12, 1973, fittingly if coincidentally on the birthday of Abraham Lincoln.

At Clark, the spokesman for the POWs, then-Captain Jeremiah Denton, in military uniform, stepped to the microphone, and spoke in short stroke a few simply stated words which began the stirring of the heart of a divided nation:

“We are honored to have had the opportunity to serve our country under difficult circumstances. We are profoundly grateful to our Commander-in-Chief and to our nation for this day. God Bless America.”

Then came that shining moment three days later on February 15, 1973, when Denton, Jim Mulligan, and the others of the first group of POW’s landed at the Portsmouth Naval base in Virginia, back on American soil. Their wives and children rushed to embrace them, as, to the POWs surprise, a huge crowd Americans roared with cheers for them, waving flags, laughing, some weeping with joyful emotion, Americans at last embracing the Americans they sent to war, welcoming them home as all Vietnam veterans should have been welcomed.

Operation Homecoming began an operation of healing some of the division, some of the rancor, some of the hatred in the American atmosphere up to that time in the war. Parades, ceremonies, welcoming events were held in the hometowns of POWs and many other cities, America began to heal, and, for many, to repent of how Americans sent to war were treated on coming home.

“Vietnam had claimed more that 58,000 American lives—young men who would never walk off a plane to public fanfare. Many of their families would not experience the same outpouring of compassion that their POW/MIA counterparts received. More than 300,000 soldiers returned wounded, some disabled for life. Others returned physically intact, but emotionally shattered. Many never received a welcome of any sort,” author Alvin Townley wrote in “DEFIANT.”

“More than 770 known Americans were captured during the Vietnam War, and they valiantly upheld those high standards we expect of our servicemen and they in turn expect of themselves; 113 POWs did not survive. Every man has a valuable story and his own unique perspective….To me, they are all heroes, although no more so than the men who fought the war in other places, under different sets of difficult circumstances. I will always remain in awe of what they endured and accomplished. I hope it inspires America like it continues to inspire me,” Townley wrote, concluding: “Finally, to all our POWs and Vietnam veterans: GBU.”

Many of the POW’s are no longer with us, including Admiral James Stockdale, Admiral Jeremiah Denton, many others. But their example is.

The surviving POWs gathered together for a 40th Reunion at the President Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, CA in 2013. It was taped, and is very moving. It is available at “Vietnam POW 40th Reunion News Coverage-You Tube;”.

“Jeremiah” is a very important new documentary on Adm. Jeremiah Denton, and his family. It reveals “up close and personal” what the POWs and their wives and children went through in the long years of separation, never knowing for sure if their POW father was still alive, in what condition, or if he would ever come home. It is as moving as it is informative, showing what it takes by way of service and sacrifice to keep America free.

Who the Vietnam POWs who came home on February 15, 1973, are and what they did, the honor they brought to themselves and to our country, should be remembered on every February 15, if not every day. That is because who and what they are is who and what we can be when we are at our very best as Americans.

May the God they served bless and keep them; may the country they served always honor, and never forget them.

2016 Rees Lloyd – All Rights Reserved

• Pearl Harbor Survivor Remembers: A Day of Infamy, 12-7-15
• Giving Thanks to Vets For Our Freedom, 11-29-15
• Black Students Occupy Coons Hall at Liberal occidental College, 11-27-15
• Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial Cross – Saved “As It Is, Where It Is”, 7-25-15
• Memorial Day: Can Freedom Survive, If We Won’t Die For It?, 5-27-15
• March 31st – Why A Holiday For Cesar Chavez?, 4-3-15
• Feb. 22, George Washington’s Birthday – No Longer Honored, 2-23-15
• Why no Focus on Black Female Supervising Cop in Garner Case: Equality?, 12-25-14
• Pearl Harbor: A Survivor Remembers A Day Which Should Live in Infamy, 12-7-14
• Veterans Day – Keeping Faith With America’s Veterans, 11-11-14
• Elect Vets To Congress-It Makes A Difference, 10-31-14
• Supreme Court Denies Expedited Review of Mt. Solidad Cross Case, 7-5-14
• Flag Day 2014: Where Have All the Flags Gone?, 6-15-14
• May 18: Tribute to Karol Wojtyla, Pope John Paul II, Greatest Man of Our ERA, 5-20-14
• Tribute to an American Hero: Admiral Jeremiah A. Denton, R.I.P., 4-1-14
• Will Animal “Civil Rights” Trump Human Rights?, 12-20-13
• Pearl Harbor: A Survivor Remembers A Day of Infamy, 12-6-13
• Black Racist “Knock-Out” Attacks Must End, 12-2-13
• Constitution Day—Sept. 17, 1787: Can it Survive in 2013?, 9-17-13
• Col. Bud Day: America Loses a Legendary Hero, 7-31-13
• D-Day: June 6, 1944, 6-7-13
• New Court Action, Legislation, In Mt. Soledad Cross Case, 5-18-13
• New Film: VA “Betrays” Homeless Vets, 5-14-13
• April 29, 1975: Vietnam War Infamy, 4-30-13
• End the Disgrace of Unprocessed Disability Claims of Veterans, 4-19-13
• Easter Sunrise Services at Mojave Veterans Memorial Cross, 3-30-13
• The American Legion: For God and Country, 3-15-13
• February 3: Four Chaplains Day, 2-3-13
• Liberators Arm, Totalitarians Disarm, the People, 1-15-13
• Vets Die Waiting for Obama VA Action, 12-29-12
• Pearl Harbor Day 2012: A Time to Remember and to Heal, 12-4-12
• Benghazi-Gate: A Disgrace To The Nation, 11-3-12
• Creating and Conserving Liberty: Constitution Day, 9-18-12
• San Bernardino County Supervisors Honor Those Who saved Mojave Cross, 8-25-12
• Remembering the Korean War and Those Who Fought, 6-25-12
• Obama’s Queering of the Military, 6-22-12
• Flag Day 2012: Pass the Flag Amendment, 6-16-12
• Memorial Day 2012: Time to remember the price of freedom, 5-26-12
• California Legion Scandal: Convicted Child Molester Ordered Removed, 4-3-12
• Convicted Child Molester Case in California Legion Youth Program Deepens, 3-25-12
• Corruption, Convicted Child Molesters, In California Legion, 3-13-12
• Portland Schools Anti-Military “Counter-Recruiter” Policy, 3-3-12
• Restore “Washington’s Birthday” Holiday, 2-25-12
• Occupiers Occupy While Soldiers Die: Enough is Enough 11-21-11
• Supreme Court to Review Stolen Valor Case “Right to Lie” 11-4-11
• In the Hand of God: U.S. Constitution Day – Sept. 17, 1787, 9-20-11
• Korea: Remembering the Forgotten War, Forgotten Warriors 7-30-11
• Government Bans “God” at VA Cemetery in Houston 7-2-11
• New navy Homosexual Love Boat to be Named for Cesar Chavez? 5-21-11
• Celebrate American National Day of Prayer, Not Mexican 5-10-11
• Remembering Cesar Chavez: Christian, American, Veteran 4-2-11
• Valor Stolen by Judge Alex Kozinsky: Proven Porno Pervert 3-29-11
• Will Ordinary Americans Fight For the Bill of Rights? 12-30-10
• Repeal the Homosexualization of the American Military 12-28-10
• Is it Time For an Official National Tea Party Day? 12-18-10
• Portland Oregon Progressives to Launch Almost-Free Breakfast For Themselves 12-14-10
• Why no Salute by Obama at Medal of Honor Ceremony? 11-26-10
• Anniversary of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address: A Milestone of Liberty 11-22-10
• Ronald Reagan, Tea Party Patriots, and an Historic Election 11-6-10
• Repeal It, Repeal Them, Repeal Him 11-2-10
• Threats to Troops Opposed to Open Homosexuality 10-15-10
• Allegiance to Only One Flag and Nation 9-20-10
• Stolen Valor – Stolen Constitution 8-29-10
• American Freedom: Resistance or Abject Submission to Tyranny? 7-7-10
• New Developments Against ACLU to Save Veterans Memorials 5-31-10
• ACLU Defeated in Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial Cross Case, 5-5-10
• Homosexuals, Liberals and Lawyers Attack Boy Scouts of America, 4-19-10