THIRD IN THIS SERIES – STATUE OF LIBERTY, TEA PARTY AND MORE
In my first of this series I wrote about The Statue of Liberty, including some statistics about her. In my second article I touched upon the crucible of the Tea Party Movement. In this article, I ask the question, what can we do? What have we done in the past? What is our agenda for tomorrow, relative to the dire straits we are all in today as a result of the deteriorating conditions in this country?
As I reflect back over my own life, wonder what I could or should have done differently. All that’s past is prologue. It’s understanding our past history and acknowledging what we did and did not do, what we knew and did not know, that helps us in decisions about our future.
I grew up in the Great Depression era. In the early forties I worked at Bell Aircraft in the Engineering Department. I went to engineering school and learned how to intrepret aeronautical blueprints to go out on the assembly line and explain deviations to those building the B-29 planes. I thought I was doing my patriotic duty for the war effort in this country.
Then I married a B-29 pilot who flew the planes in world war two, spent a year in Korea in air-sea rescue flying helicoptors, plus a year in Viet Nam. During the Korean war, I spent the time caring for his elderly ill parents and raising children. During the tour in Viet Nam I stayed home and home-schooled children. During these times I felt I was doing my patriotic duty, supporting him and taking care of everything on the home front.
Out of love of country and Freedom, I lived the life of a dutiful wife supporting a husband fighting for this country. However, it was in the later fifties, I began to question the role our government played fighting wars in other countries. I began studying the role of governments in general and ours in particular. I began my pursuit of just what Freedom really meant. And for seven years I was on an intense pursuit to understand political governments and the Philosophy of Freedom. I began questioning the morality or immorality of this government’s engagement in wars between other countries.
I changed my thinking relative to the morality of patriotic duty supporting wars. After 24 years, when my husband wanted to sign on to another tour of duty, I said I’m outta here, and want no more of this military duty lifestyle. So he retired from the military in his early forties.
The US government has never paid me a dime for anything, but he received a small stipend in his pay-check for me as his dependent. And yet I have government orders informing me about what the military expected of me as his military wife.
Not only that, the US government has never paid me a cent of social security.
Leaving the military life we moved back to my home state of Georgia, onto a little 18 acre farm, where I attempted to live a life of self-responsibility and self-sustaining. And I worked for the following years, up until three years ago.
I understand the meaning of Freedom and the role and nature of political governments. Now writing a Blog about my life, politics, the nature of government and a variety of subjects, I have written almost 400 articles.
Had I really understood the meaning of Freedom and the role of political governments way back when, my idea of patriotic duty would have been different.
Therefore today, I view this government’s participation in foreign wars as nation building and killing fields for young American men. Obviously not fighting for the Freedom in this country, inasmuch as we have so little of it left.
We are now in a war in this country, fighting a battle in a war of ideas. It is not an inside military battle, but still a war. Over the years I have come to an understanding of “The Battle Plan.” Reading everything from Napolean to Cochise, plus Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War.” From all I understand, it is the consensus of opinion by the great battle strategists, that in a battle, one must understand the enemy and understand one’s self.
In any kind of battle, one must know and understand the basic tenets in order to win, just like the militarist does on the battle field.
One must have a commander-in-chief. One must have headquarters, troops, ammunition, rations, allies, logistics, reconnaissance, among other things, for victory. In any kind of battle it’s win or lose. And in order to win, one must understand the requirements for victory and apply the strategies.
If one has cancer, an enemy has invaded the body and the battle can be won by understanding and application of the strategies required to win. An implementation of a battle plan to win the battle with cancer.
In this connection, one must face the fact we are in a battle of ideas in this country. Two opposing factions, individual Freedom, versus control of a totalitarian political government looming over the horizon.
Now is the time to take a long hard look at where we’ve been, where we came from, where we are now and where we are headed. It’s all up to the 300 million citizens in this country, each individually has the responsibility of deciding what it is they want, and decide what they are willing to do to have it.
In my opinion the first order of business is informing and educating ourselves as to what’s at stake. Because it is Individual Freedom itself that’s on the table. A word taboo to say in many circles. We can begin by discussing the meaning of Freedom. Ask your school-aged child what he or she has learned in school about Freedom, and listen carefully to the response. As poker goes, that’s jacks for openers.
Dear hearts and gentle people, we have taken Freedom for granted as it slips through our fingers. Freedom is not free, it requires “eternal vigilance.”
Ayn Rand, the author of Atlas Shrugged, wrote: “Today when a concerted effort is made to obliterate this point, it cannot be repeated too often that the Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals – that it does not prescribe the conduct of our government – that it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizens’ protection against the government.” She also authored, “We the Living” and “The Fountainhead.”
Continued in Article Four
Let Freedom Ring
Just me
AC
email: annecleveland@bellsouth.net
