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The Lamp of Freedom is Shining Bright
The North LakeTahoe Bonanza ^ | July 20, 2008 | J. Michael Gallagher

Posted on 07/20/2008 8:39:07 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

For years misguided intellectuals and social scientists have advised us to abandon the values, principles and work ethic that have made our country great and instead to embrace pacifism, fuzzy science, genocide of the unborn, acceptance of immoral behavior and generational guilt. It is sad that during one of our nation’s greatest celebrations, that we have to be reprimanded for our historical actions and urged as a nation to adopt an apologist marketing strategy to “Reintroduce America”, and sadly supported by the July 2, 2008 Bonanza columnist who has determined that people in other countries “fear” or “disrespect” Americans.

My business and personal experience with people from the Third World and emerging countries (India, Pakistan, Philippines, Latin American and China) is that the United States is the destination of choice for higher education, business, immigration and freedom. They know that there is no other country in the world that does more internationally to fund public and private efforts to improve health care, agriculture, business or to fight religious and political terrorism than the United States of America. Most immigrants don’t want to leave their countries, but they are compelled to leave in order to seek a better life. They don’t need to be “reintroduced” to America; they know and appreciate America perhaps better than we do. My family came through New York from Ireland in the 1850s to escape the worst type of economic, religious and political repression by the English. As Catholics, my family arrived in dire poverty, but with a yearning for freedom and a commitment to never again be under the threat of a foreign bayonet. They fought and died with thousands on behalf of “freedom for all Americans” in the Union Army during the Civil War. They came with a deep religious belief for the sanctity of family and life, often giving names to the unborn that died during pregnancy or at birth. They worked the lowest jobs, suffered all forms of discrimination and yet enlisted in the hundreds of thousands to defend America and England (our historic enemy) in World War I and II. They came home from war and picked up hammers, shovels and plows to earn their right to be Americans and to ensure the destiny of their children in a free country. The country where my family fled to in the 1850s still exists today and the “lamp beside the golden door” found on Ellis Island, N.Y., is still lit for the world to see.

If by adopting insulting foreign policy concepts such as “reintroducing” America is part of the “change” that some propose for our country, then I want nothing to do with it. I thank God for the wisdom of our Founding Fathers and the millions who have fought and died to protect our nation. I know that my tattered, sick and desperate family, who got off the boat in New York over 150 years ago, would be very proud of this country today even with her blemishes and they would not want her to “change.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: abortion; election; immigration; patriotism
What he said.
1 posted on 07/20/2008 8:39:08 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

yeah


2 posted on 07/20/2008 8:41:18 PM PDT by yldstrk (My heros have always been cowboys--Reagan and Bush)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Change, schmange. I don’t want any of O’Hussein’s change either.


3 posted on 07/20/2008 8:43:21 PM PDT by Brad’s Gramma (Typical Whitey Gramma just like Obamies!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
The only blemish on the United States that I want to change, is I want all the leftist America haters to think better of it and give it up - or get the heck out - or drop dead. I really don't much care which.
4 posted on 07/20/2008 8:46:36 PM PDT by JasonC
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Well said.

America IS that beacon on the hill.

5 posted on 07/20/2008 8:47:07 PM PDT by Eagles6 ( Typical White Guy: Christian, Constitutionalist, Heterosexual, Redneck)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Indeed. My parents arrived from Europe in 1951 in search of freedom. They’ve never stopped appreciating it, nor have I.


6 posted on 07/20/2008 8:52:42 PM PDT by Think free or die
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To: Brad's Gramma

Hussein O’Bama can KEEP THE CHANGE!


7 posted on 07/20/2008 9:07:13 PM PDT by John Valentine
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace, a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it and see it still.

-- Ronald Reagan, Farewell Address to the Nation

8 posted on 07/20/2008 9:07:14 PM PDT by TheWasteLand
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
The Federal government has legislation in the pipe to track every single electronic transaction. Even conservatives are celebrating GPS tracking of parolees. My county is asking for cell phone numbers that can track the owners' positions. The National Animal Identification System is setting up to be able to track the whereabouts of 300 million animals.

The Lamp of Freedom is Shining Bright?

Gimme a break.

9 posted on 07/20/2008 9:45:40 PM PDT by Carry_Okie (G-d gave us Law a fool could follow, but a genius couldn't comprehend)
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To: John Valentine

Hussein O’Bama can KEEP THE CHANGE!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

So much great tag line material and I can only use one at a time.


10 posted on 07/21/2008 10:34:35 AM PDT by RipSawyer (What's black and white and red all over? Barack Hussein Obama)
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