Memorial Day 2010

Freedom isn’t free. It has always been carved out of impenetrable difficulty.


It wasn’t until America that common folk could hope for freedom; and that wasn’t assured without the investment of hundreds of years of selfless individual and communal sacrifice, endless labor; and unquenchable hope and optimism against the inevitable and unforgiving ravages of man, beast, and nature.

It wasn’t until America that a man could grasp or lose freedom based on his own effort, labor and intelligence (or lack thereof) independently of who his ancestors were or weren’t. Liberty: What a remarkable and irreplaceable gift crafted by our Founding Fathers!

Those who founded America risked everything for the right to worship God according to their own beliefs. How many of us today would do the same? How many of us would make the trip across a treacherous sea; to a wild and untamed land that offered endless challenges and no guarantees: knowing the high probability that someone we loved would not survive the passage or the establishment of a new life?

How many were driven to our shores by desperation: because neither life nor hope where they came from was sustainable? They came prepared to sacrifice and struggle knowing it was the one place on earth that afforded them the opportunity to create a better life for their children and grandchildren.

Once established our remarkable liberty faces constant threats from without and within and is too often maintained only by force of arms against those who would substitute the sovereignty of the few for the sovereignty of all: who would supplant the rule of law with the rule of a select “elite” (sic).

For more than 230 years the American citizen-soldier has answered the country’s call to quell all threats: to maintain and sustain the hope that is America: a hope forged from the belief that all men are created equal: endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is a belief that government is instituted among men and derives it’s just powers from the Sovereign Citizen.

The price of liberty is constant vigilance. On Memorial Day we honor those Americans who have answered the call of America in her times of need; and who have paid the ultimate price in answering that call. Freedom is a light for which many men have died in darkness.

For those of us who survive, it is essential that we honor the sacrifice of those who make our Liberty possible; and to teach our children that nothing is more valuable than individual Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that are the sacred gifts from our Creator: subject to restriction by no man.

With the example of those who have established and maintained the Liberty that is our heritage to guide us, we must remain vigilant against all enemies of Liberty: foreign and domestic.