If you would like to add a comment to any of the threads here on AADB, registration with blogspot.com is not required. Simply click on the ‘comments’ link at the bottom of an essay, and either enter a nickname under ‘choose an identity’ or post your comment anonymously. Serious comments are always welcome.



REQUIEM

Below are the two final essays to be posted on Allegiance and Duty Betrayed. The first one is written by a friend -- screen name 'Euro-American Scum' -- who, over the past four years, has been the most faithful essayist here. He has written about everything from his pilgrimage to Normandy in 2004 to take part in the 60th–year commemoration of the invasion, to his memories of his tour in Vietnam. His dedication to America’s founding principles ... and those who have sacrificed to preserve them over the past 200+ years ... is unequaled. Thank you, E-A-S. It has been a privilege to include your writing here, and it is a privilege to call you my friend.

The second essay is my own farewell. And with it I thank all of the many regular visitors, and those who may have only dropped in occasionally, for coming here. I hope you learned something. I hope a seed or two was planted. But, even if not, I thank you for stopping by ... 25 March, 2010

1/06/2008

We Are a Leader in the Free World

Free World 3.jpg

Listening to Mr. Huckabee bashing our country, on the basis of an impression he has that we have been pushing people around, sounded so much like the left-wing attackers who hate America first, and some (unfortunately for the GOP) "RINO's" who hate conservatives first, that I felt a strong desire to set the matter straight.

I am not a guy who goes around screaming, We're number ONE! … not in their face, or anybody else’s.

I make that clear on my First_Salute profile page at FreeRepublic.com:

    If you are from any country and you want to be an American, it is very likely that some parts of you are already an American, and that is why you came here, legally.

    Welcome. Learn about the worthy foundations of our liberty, and why we are free. As you do, you will realize that all around the world there are varying degrees of Americans -- freedom fighters, who struggle in their homelands to make their governments responsive to the rule of law; and you will discover that it takes great courage to risk your personal security in order to hold onto your, and our, sovereignty of the people.

    We are not the leaders nor the rulers of the world; nor do we have the power to decide who is, and who is not, relevant.

    Yet you might say that we are leaders in the free world.

    We are here to set a good example; we are generous; we are loving; we believe in a system of government over which the people rule lawfully, and upon which people can bank on a future for themselves and their families and communities.

    We are noble because we are humble, yet there is much power in our self-determination to do the right thing.

    We live in a harsh world, from which we have carved, and in which we maintain, a just life, so that we may live better than animals; and I mean much, much better, versus existing as slaves in a "politically correct" police state.

    We do not live well because there is "law and order."

    We live well because we believe in the rule of law and due process, versus rulers' laws and arbitrary process.

    That sums up our worthy American Heritage. Every day we use our sovereignty, through our democratic-republican sense of governance -- our Constitution-based democratic-republican structures of government -- to work at maintaining these foundations. This has proven to be the best formula upon which the sovereignty of the people, our prosperity and peace, have all been able to endure and live. It is the formula upon which we have been able to engage in "the pursuit of happiness."

    It's what's missing elsewhere around the world, where people are not happy; yet they must fight to obtain that formula, and to know its value well enough to continue their public's education in its lessons and promises.
There is nothing in there that makes us lord over somebody else; if anything, it is an invitation to be free by practicing the “required maintenance” of freedom, by establishing that the peoples' sovereignty (in our case, under a loving God), is the authority under which gov't and gov't agents reside, at the pleasure of our people, expressed thru our duly-elected representatives.

It is the message that we ought to teach people, so that they can be free and get their systems of common law under their control and out from under the control of their miserable, dictatorial-party "leaders" who continue to make the "court" decisions for such people -- while all public mirages of justice in such dark corners of the world are sanctioned and championed by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other [il]literati.

You cannot be free until justice is aware that it risks losing its head if it fails to abide by the laws established by the people thru the democratic-republican process.

Incredibly, because of enough Americans' upbringing and awareness of this fact, that fact has rubbed off overseas, as we have mucked about in various adventures, and so, over time, some people "over there" get it; they get what liberty means.

It is not easy for that to sink in with people who are unfamiliar with how much they are responsible for their freedom. Yet some do "get it."

They look back at us, thinking that we are practicing these fine principles ... but all too often A DEAL MAKER in the form of, for example, the current crop in the Personality Contest for President of the United States, visits upon such foreign peoples:

A DEAL.

... that fattens the nest of the "private equity" dictators(s) "over there" who make all kinds of Jesse Jacksonian appearances about being "... with you, the people!" While unleashing their enforcers ... against the people who have envisioned an American dream of freedom.

Our well-heeled "experts" on "capitalism" have made THE DEALS regardless, in the interest of their own fat[uitious]-ness ... while at dinner parties and chic gatherings of limousine liberals, giving all indications of having great feelings for the people "over there" who have been left to wonder how they can be free.

The answer lies not in DEALS, but in the aforementioned “required maintenance” of freedom. That is the answer in a nutshell.

That is what we needed/need to reach out with and plant "over there," so that people can establish liberty and justice for all --

"OVER THERE"

Or, if they come here, they may join the maintenance crew for our liberty.

Nothing in this is about asserting the superiority of an arrogant, smug, bombastic "ugly American" (created by the "liberal media") over anybody.

The "pretty," hair-primped, 30-second sound-bit, White House Beauty Contestants might get that, but the only reference you hear is one word:

"democracy"

... in the midst, maybe, of some sound bite.

Unexplained, it becomes, how "over there," it is defined by the wretched results of

A DEAL

... gone bad for the common man, all too often, and about which we do not hear much from the "liberal media" --- the dictatorship of the American media that shapes and carves out the tiny portions of the news that are designed to get Americans to react in favor of spending more time listening in angst to the same "liberal media" and hitting the PANIC BUTTON connected to the Democrat Party Headquarters (DNC) phones.

When some good information, not meaning good news, but actual information about what is happening, works wonders if only the people get it.

Here, and "over there."

In our gov't, and in some places of American business, there are incredibly good people who are doing all the water carrying on the matter of making good, the reaching out to people "over there," who need it.

I have no doubt that our military successes are so much the part of good people doing well, despite whatever politically-correct nonsense emanates from The White House, from The Pentagon Lawyers, from the [Fifth E]State Department, and so many well-fed pork troughs. Even our State Dept. is under the control of foreign powers, with the sole exception, in memory of that wonderful moment of time, when Secretary of State, George Schultz, managed to somewhat run things from the helm, God Bless him!

Helping people, I am happy to do. I reach out all the time, to help and to nudge people.

I have, to you friends, when you really did not need my help, but you have gotten some little improvement in your lives, because I have done what a typical, good person in America does, as an American, helping his neighbor.

I have done so, because your happiness helps to make me happy.

My interests with foreign peoples, are the same – to explain, as simply as possible, the tools necessary to make freedom work, and how to use them. Then leave those tools on the table, awaiting a hand to put them to use.

I am merely the extension of our worthy foundations, of the freedom maintenance crew. And I am grateful for all the training for that, which I received from my great parents and some friends, and my incredible fortune to have learned something on the difficult road to reading and writing about it. I want to say to the people of the world: “Before you, these are the tools that will set you free, and keep you free, if you practice using them, and you know how to forge them, and you know how to train others to continue to do the same.”

Our Constitution is a peace treaty, and we have been given a great trust to maintain it, from all who fought and struggled for our liberty. With our Constitution was included a maintenance contract -- our duty.

That is why I have also said at my profile page at FR:

    We only have the rights we defend, as long as we are able. We are only as free as we make the effort to know why.
Reach out, pick up a tool by which you maintain liberty, every day.

This approach to liberty and its maintenance, upon which we have the freedom to engage in trade, is what I call, capitalism, 90 percent foundation and 10 percent enterprise operating upon that foundation.

Our foundation is what distinguishes our capital way of life from the faux-"captitalism" among the "emerging markets" that are actually politically-state-owned labor pools, and thus not capitalism, but rather, production that has been managed to get caught up in a market upswing ... just wait till that crashes "over there," and you will see how Red China views labor pools as Arabs view oil. State control is their cure.

Our foundation, something upon which our continued upkeep and protection of, provides for us a reserve in tough times, is what you and I point to --- that it is in need of repairs and upkeep, but that is ignored by the personality contestants now in our politics, in our gov't, and in "corporate America" ... who take our foundations for granted.

You and I are focused on 100 percent of the matter, and we write often about 90 percent of the problem, because our foundations are being ignored by the 10 Percenters who are entirely focused on the money, while practicing lip service to the freedom inherent in declaring its value and respect.

Including George W. Bush, President of the United States of America, who cannot stand to say, "our country," and would rather quote from a Washington Beltway thinktank "white paper," with these words, in reference to our country, that he vaguely refers to as "the homeland."

To quote Ronald Reagan, "Well ..." it is not some "the homeland" in some paragraph of some traveling studies show that toured around inside the Beltway.

This is our country.

Ronald Reagan was both great and won our hearts, because he knew that, and he spent time traveling around our country, reminding us about what was great and good about our country and our worthy American heritage.

Ronald Reagan understood, in-reach, that is something the Personality Contestants in this years White House run, do not get.

by First_Salute
(contributing team member of Allegiance and Duty Betrayed)

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

First_Salute, your column is a little bit rambling, but only because you tried to tackle a lot of aspects of our problem in a limited amount of time. With that said, you hit the nail smack on the head with these comments especially:

We live in a harsh world, from which we have carved, and in which we maintain, a just life, so that we may live better than animals; and I mean much, much better, versus existing as slaves in a "politically correct" police state.

You cannot be free until justice is aware that it risks losing its head if it fails to abide by the laws established by the people thru the democratic-republican process.

The "pretty," hair-primped, 30-second sound-bit, White House Beauty Contestants….

....the dictatorship of the American media that shapes and carves out the tiny portions of the news that are designed to get Americans to react in favor of spending more time listening in angst to the same "liberal media" and hitting the PANIC BUTTON connected to the Democrat Party Headquarters (DNC) phones.


Your phrase “required maintenance of freedom” is exactly what most Americans have forgotten for the last two generations. Freedom is not free. It requires constant work, and looking over our shoulders so that we are not robbed by those who want more “freedom” for themselves and less for us. Unfortunately, these days most of those muggers are in Washington.

We're not doing the "maintainance" anymore and figuring that the machine can run without oil or repair.

Thank you for a very thoughtful piece.

Anonymous said...

Very good points, especially how freedom requires WORK. It's too bad most Americans are allergic to the "work of freedom" nowadays, so the freedom to enjoy, and keep, the fruits of their daily on-the-job labors is slipping away.

Anonymous said...

If, by "we", "us" and "Americans", you mean those that believe in the Constitution as the founders meant it: AMEN! Otherwise, you are way off base.

To paraphrase an old saying: "Give a man a free society and he will be free for a short period. Teach a man the value of freedom and he will be free forever."

Anonymous said...

Your maintenance concept is at the heart of Ben Franklin's "A republic, if you can keep it" comment.

Anonymous said...

Good work. Needs to be said. And heard. And heeded.

Anonymous said...

"Personality Contestants" indeed. There isn't a major important issue being discussed among the front runners. And I'm sick of Hillary being described as "experienced". In what??????? She was a failure as a lawyer, a failure as a healthcare reformer, and has introduced no successful legislation as a Senator.

Anonymous said...

Even our State Dept. is under the control of foreign powers.....

That is one of the biggest problems we face, and few people will say it, let alone address it.

Anonymous said...

The message is clear, if we lose our love of liberty and our manners become corrupt, character is lost and so is the Republic --- Ron Paul

Anonymous said...

Ron Paul (who has since lost his mind) said (in saner days):

Jefferson, concerned about the future, wrote: "Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path of destruction." "They" that he refers to are " we." And the future is now. Freedom, Jefferson knew, would produce "plenty," and with "material abundance" it's easy to forget the responsibility the citizens of a free society must assume if freedom and prosperity are to continue. The key element for the Republic's survival for Jefferson was the "character" of the people, something no set of laws can instill. The question today is not that of abundance, but of character, respect for others, their liberty and their property. It is the character of the people that determines the proper role for government in a free society.

Anonymous said...

Many liberals would call your description of America overblown because they see us as a raping, pillaging, imperialist power. But that's only because seeing us that way furthers their agenda to destroy our capitalist economy and our republican government.

Your analysis is excellent but you need to tackle fewer subjects at one sitting.

Anonymous said...

Your description of the "deal makers" is right on the mark, and I appreciate your recognition of our State Department's fuction, which has been against America's and Israel's best interests for decades.

Good work.

Anonymous said...

Most Americans are too immersed in the bread and circus "news" created my the MSM to pay any attention to the liberals' tax, spend and regualte policies that are robbing us of our freedoms. The required maintenance that you talk about is the last thing on most Americans' minds. But you have the right idea, it's just too bad more of us aren't paying attention.

joanie said...

Excellent thoughts, as always, F_S.

All one needs to do is (1) listen to the media coverage of the Iowa caucus results, and the upcoming New Hampshire primary, and (2) observe one of the democrat or republican ‘debates’ (which are anything but genuine debates) to witness a microcosm of what ails us.

All we hear in both venues is the ‘need for change’, and the ‘new vision for America’.

Such ludicrous generalities might be nice if placed in a stanza of a poem by a head-in-the-clouds modern American poet, but they serve no useful purpose in today’s frightening political climate.

Listen for the candidates’ concrete strategies for fighting the Islamic threat, closing our borders, decreasing the power of government, stimulating the economy through a newfound respect for free enterprise, deregulating the healthcare system, proposing solutions to the tyranny of the lawyer-class, reducing the influence of special interest groups, and you will hear nothing but crickets.

Your description of the candidates as ‘Personality Contestants’ couldn’t be more appropriate. All of them, in both major parties (with the exception of Hunter, and possibly Thompson) are spending ninety percent of their time worrying about ‘perceptions’, and the other ten percent of their time pandering to special interest groups. There’s not a genuine leader among them.

If every American were to comprehend just how essential it is for him to take seriously your ‘maintenance contract’ we could reclaim our republic from the scoundrels in a heartbeat. But it ain’t gonna happen, simply because (thanks to the continuing deteriorating of public education, and parental apathy) each generation is more ignorant, diverted and apathetic than the one before.

I guarantee you that, if you chose an average ‘man on the street’ in any American city and asked him (1) what Britney Spears’ latest catastrophe involved, and (2) who the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is, the odds of him knowing (1) are probably >50% and the odds of him knowing (2) are probably <10%.

Not the kind of citizenry from which one can muster an army of Minutemen.

Our Founders warned us of the necessity for vigilance. Most Americans no longer even know the meaning of the word, let alone possess a desire to practice it.

Keep writing! Seeds are planted, often without our even knowing it. :)

~ joanie

Anonymous said...

Listen for the candidates’ concrete strategies for fighting the Islamic threat, closing our borders, decreasing the power of government, stimulating the economy through a newfound respect for free enterprise, deregulating the healthcare system, proposing solutions to the tyranny of the lawyer-class, reducing the influence of special interest groups, and you will hear nothing but crickets.

You got that right!

(It's good to see you back, cw.)

Anonymous said...

You're absolutely right, First Salute. The "ugly American" is 90% created by the media for political purposes, and if that isn't traitorous I don't know what is. Making American citizens feel ashamed of their country, and foreigners hate us, is 90% the product of media propaganda.

Anonymous said...

Good work, First Salute. Great response, Joanie. I wish more people would get off the merry-go-round and start thinking about the loss of their freedoms and sovereignty, but as you say Joanie, "It ain't gonna happen."

Anonymous said...

Thank you.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad to see the site up and running again. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday but let's get down to work again. After all, this is an election year! ;)

Anonymous said...

daveburkett said... "...a little rambling..."

You just have to get used to F_S's style (grin). He has a way of bringing together seemingly unrelated things like foreign policy, wall-street deal makers, the depressing presidential lineup, and the foundations of liberty.

Yeah, sometimes it sounds rambling at first, but then you start thinking about what he wrote, and ...hmmmm, that makes sense!

I like it. If I had to summarize in one sentence, it would be, "America should take care to maintain our liberty at home and we'll remain a beacon to the rest of the world."

Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote something similar recently:

"I was not born in the West. I was raised with the code of Islam, and from birth I was indoctrinated into a tribal mind-set. Yet I have changed, I have adopted the values of the Enlightenment, and as a result I have to live with the rejection of my native clan as well as the Islamic tribe. Why have I done so? Because in a tribal society, life is cruel and terrible. And I am not alone. Muslims have been migrating to the West in droves for decades now. They are in search of a better life. Yet their tribal and cultural constraints have traveled with them. And the multiculturalism and moral relativism that reign in the West have accommodated this."

...Multiculturalism and moral relativism promote an idealization of tribal life and have shown themselves to be impervious to empirical criticism. My reasons for reproaching today’s Western leaders are different from Harris’s. I see them squandering a great and vital opportunity to compete with the agents of radical Islam for the minds of Muslims, especially those within their borders. But to do so, they must allow reason to prevail over sentiment."

Anonymous said...

I like your "outreach" and "inreach" references, and much of the rest of your commentary. Good ideas.

Anonymous said...

John Cooper 'n Joanie, and all who have read my article,

John, your catch, I find very interesting:
http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=28516&only&rss

Because, as I have gathered up info about Islam-ism, the stark reality, that the modern appearances of people who live *under Islam,* hides the fact that they are actually still living under a tribal system as ancient as the predeccessors of our North American Indians, does escape the viewers of the current societal trappings.

Our common law, is really the continuance, but with additions and modifications learned over time, of old tribal laws.

*That* is one of the bases, of why I say and write as I do, about foundations, emphasizing how much our American Revolution really began with the Magna Charta.

We got lucky, when the English common law, was transported over the Atlantic, set up shop here, and slowly expanded.

Lucky, because the distance between the common law here, and the common law back in England, helped to separate the biggie wiggies who controlled the outcome, over there, from the processes, here.

*That,* combined with the growth of the self-determined man and family, here, increased much more, the common man's use of the common law, here, with, over time ... fewer and fewer biggie wiggies *here* having as much input per court.

As time went by, more people who learned the law, here, were raised here, and their experience with survival and separating us from the cold, which I referred to in my contribution to Joanie's AADB, led to adaptation of the English common law, making it American common law.

Of course, it took on the wisdom of portions of the old Spanish customs and common law of sorts, plus that of the Frenchy, and certainly some of the North American Indians.

As you learn of this, and watch these *foundations* combine and grow, you appreciate how the refinement, became a very strong foundation upon which the business of making deals could rely upon the common law, here, to settle matters.

*That* is the critical foundation upon which capitalism depends. Without that, you get state-run absolutism, arbitrary and capricious, central controls over the playing field.

Which, it turned out, the English attempted to maintain, as their grip over the common law ... out from under which, our team, our Founding Fathers, finally realized, in order to survive, to enjoy the fruits of their labors and risks, they must go, and they did.

This development of our foundation, of a common law, that brought enough stability upon which a capital idea could be worked, is the tool of liberty about which I almost always attempt to write well.

Getting people to see, the tools, is not easy.

Thank you for all your support over these years.

Thanks to all who managed to get thru my efforts of the article.

Anonymous said...

Your ideas are very good and you say a lot of what others are afraid to say. I hope to read more of your writing here.

Anonymous said...

The basic premise of crude, primitive tribal collectivism is the notion that wealth belongs to the tribe or to society as a whole, and that every individual has the "right" to participate in it.

The tribal premise underlies today's political economy. That premise is shared by the enemies and the champions of capitalism alike; it provides the former with a certain inner consistency, and disarms the latter by a subtle, yet devastating aura of moral hypocrisy - as witness, their attempts to justify capitalism on the ground of "the common good" or "service to the consumer" or the "best allocation of resources." (Whose resources?)

--That's all Ayn Rand, of course, but she certainly had the current crop of "popular" presidential candidates pegged forty years ago.