Excerpt:
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated...'Tis surprising to see how rapidly a panic will sometimes run through a country. All nations and ages have been subject to them... Yet panics, in some cases, have their uses; they produce as much good as hurt. Their duration is always short; the mind soon grows through them, and acquires a firmer habit than before. But their peculiar advantage is, that they are the touchstones of sincerity and hypocrisy, and bring things and men to light, which might otherwise have lain forever undiscovered. In fact, they have the same effect on secret traitors, which an imaginary apparition would have upon a private murderer. They sift out the hidden thoughts of man, and hold them up in public to the world. Many a disguised Tory has lately shown his head...
...The period is now arrived, in which either they or we must change our sentiments, or one or both must fall... But, before the line of irrecoverable separation be drawn between us, let us reason the matter together: Your conduct is an invitation to the enemy, yet not one in a thousand of you has heart enough to join him.
HoweANTIFA is as much deceived by you as the American cause is injured by you. He expects you will all take up arms, and flock to his standard, with muskets on your shoulders. Your opinions are of no use to him, unless you support him personally, for 'tis soldiers, and not Tories, that he wants.[A man with a child in his hands] finished with this unfatherly expression, "Well! Give me peace in my day." Not a man lives on the continent but fully believes that a separation must some time or other finally take place, and a generous parent should have said, "If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace;" and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty. Not a place upon earth might be so happy as America. Her situation is remote from all the wrangling world, and she has nothing to do but to trade with them.
-PJ
Beautiful. Thanks PJ. Been some time since I’ve read it. Paine was right on in the statement “one in a thousand will shoulder a musket and join up”- for the duration.
Actually more will “wash through” an operation at a given time though. We used to call it “The Law of 1%” when I was organizing and participating in Abortion Clinic blockades with Operation Rescue in the 1980s and 90s. Over a 5 year period we had over sixty-thousand arrests, with six thousand alone at George Tiller’s Clinic in Wichita. Of course many rescuers repeated.Our goal was to save even one baby’s life.
Pro-life churches across the Country were involved, Evangelical and Catholic,contributing a universe of willing participants that had signed non-violence pledges of nearly 250,000 men, women, and children. Of these, a different 10% would participate frequently with the 1%-always. The balance of pledges would support with funding, Picketing, and blockading when they could.
Unlike BLM and Antifa, these were mostly mature family people who risked losing their jobs,and homes when they risked arrest, but did so if even one pre-born baby’s life could be saved. There were many side-walk counselors sharing the existence of Shelter Homes where they could stay, be cared for and give birth to their baby. These were the Winter Soldiers of that generation.
I close with what I hope may bring a better understanding of what I deeply believe about the value and purpose of our lives when in a split second we must decide to risk giving it up for something greater than ourselves. I know that many of you already understand what this means and to you and all reading this I intend no disrespect or condescension.
Several thousand of us with Operation Rescue were blockading the Margret Sanger Planned Parenthood Abortion Clinic in downtown Manhattan New York. This multistory building was and is the HQ nerve center for National Planned Parenthood. It’s tentacles reach deep into every state, and is the largest network of abortion mill in America, responsible for the murder of hundreds of thousands of unborn children every year.
It was January and a cold rain was falling. The police were not brutal and we were non violent. They were dragging us from the doors into fenced “corrals”, bringing up buses to put us in and then off to jail. To slow that down some of our people would crawl under the buses and have to be pulled out and arrested before the buses could move-up to take another load. The next bus had been cleared, or so we thought, and had started to roll when I noticed a very small,very terrified, young blonde woman still under the bus curled into a fetal position, hands over her eyes, her head about to be crushed by an oncoming wheel.
I had not been arrested yet and was standing close to what was happening. I yelled, “STOP THE BUS-STOP THE BUS” I meant stop the freaking bus before it kills her. Immediately ELEVEN WOMEN ROLLED UNDER THE MOVING BUS. They thought they had been told to stop it with their bodies.
Yes, there is a merciful God though.
It was all like slow-stop dream-time motion; the women rolling under the moving bus, now a policeman reaching arms length under the bus grabbing Linda by her hair pulling her away from the wheel, twisting her small body from under the bus but unable to check his motion fell heavily on her knocking Linda unconscious. Screaming like a maniac to stop the driver heard me and hit his brake hard.
I was afraid to look under the bus at the carnage I might have caused. As I looked underneath one of these incredible courageous women look up at me with wide eyes, took a deep breath and asked, “Can we come out now?”. Guys of my generation aren’t supposed to admit that sometimes tears are shed, so I wont.
There were thirteen Winter Soldiers that day;
Linda who would not abandon her position even at the cost of her life, because a helpless baby’s was worth her own. The eleven women who rolled under a moving bus because they considered they would give up there own lives for a greater reason they would die for. Finally the policeman who was ready to risk his life to save and protect a person’s life he didn’t even know and had to arrest.
One thing they had in common and makes Winter Soldiers so rare and valuable is that they understood what they valued more than their own lives before they risked it all. But what makes them so different is that they considered the cost and acted upon what they believed was greater than themselves.
Many people like these do not live to become examples of the inspiration, and courage that we need so deeply in America today. It wasn’t that these men and women had no fear. It is courage that overcomes the fear that we all have, but they used their courage to overcome and act. Most of all what really makes a Winter Soldier possible is the greatest motive of all. I is not hatred. Hatred will not move one to sacrifice, only to harm,destroy, and kill.
The Greatest quality that makes and sustains the Winter Soldier is Love, and that Love gives us the strength to do what we have to do to make things better. Love for our children, love for our wives,love for our homes and the total community that sustains us. And yes, love for our Country that has given us our Constitution that offers us inalienable rights that come from God; the right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. But this is only an offer and our freedom must be re-won by each generation including our own
Thomas Paine gave us a look at what it took to be a Winter Soldier in 1776, and it seems the more things have changed the more they have remained the same in 2020. Strange how things can change but people stay the same.
Love, be Brave, be Strong. and fight to protect what you love.