Posted on 06/06/2006 6:32:56 AM PDT by Baconian
June 6 is the commemoration of D-Day, 1944. I have had many privileges in my lifetime, but none that I have felt less worthy of than when I was invited to attend a dinner honoring a very elite class of Americans – the remaining survivors of those who had gone ashore at Normandy that fateful day. I sat riveted as our speaker shared what it was like going ashore at Normandy Beach in the early hours of that day.
While there is debate over the actual number of casualties that day – there is little debate of the total number of casualties suffered during the war years of 1940-1947. American participants in same totaled 16,535,000, with 406,000 paying the ultimate price.
The questions that beg an answer are: Did those men and women give their lives so that the Dixie Chicks could curse America? Did those men and women sacrifice their lives for the likes of Michael Moore, Alec Baldwin, Danny Glover, et al., to condemn America? Did they die that carrion like Harry Belafonte and Louis Farrakhan could condemn America, while holding audience with brutal dictators such as Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez?
During World War II, our fighting men and women were honored and revered by the citizenry for their selfless service. Today, public schools teachers and college professors teach students not only to revile America, but to hate our military.
A political cartoon that appeared in the Aug. 28,1942, edition of the New York Herald Tribune was captioned "We can't equal their sacrifices, but we can still try." It was intended to promote the buying of war bonds. It depicted the allied leaders shouldering the weight of the world during its "greatest tragedy." Three frames showed troops fighting on land, in the air and on the sea, with another frame depicting Americans wearing wooden barrels for clothing as they marched off to purchase war bonds – with a caption reading: "If all the rest of us gave everything to buy war bonds, we couldn't even the score."
Today, we see cartoons depicting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as Aunt Jemima. President Roosevelt was not only all but wheelchair-bound, he operated under veils of secrecy to the extent that even his travel plans were censored for reasons of national security. People literally didn't know he had left until he had returned. President Bush is excoriated for daring to take reasonable measures to ensure our safety.
Bush is mercilessly mocked. Not that the president doesn't deserve our consternation for no few agenda nightmares – but he doesn't deserve same for preventing terrorism in the streets of our cities.
I'm not suggesting that FDR didn't suffer slings and arrows from anarchists of that day, but he had the courage to stay the course. And it is here that I should state, I am no fan of Roosevelt. There was what Washington Star political cartoonist Clifford Berryman captioned, "Rout of the Typewriter Strategists." It seems that even then the media viewed itself as being more knowledgeable than the president and the military pursuant to war strategy.
They weren't, however, rewarded with Pulitzer Prizes for endangering the war effort by sharing highly sensitive information. And it is without question that former presidents, with long records of abysmal failure, were not given Nobel Prizes for treachery to their own country.
America is unique – and without hesitation, every military person I know will tell you that they fight, not only to keep America safe, but also free. Americans are free to dissent, and they are free to strike – our media are free to engage in whatever scurrilous attacks they are Machiavellian enough to undertake, as evidenced by Eason Jordan of CNN, Dan Rather and the New York Times.
Our brave men and women sacrificed their lives to ensure our way of life, and we honor them for it. But they didn't die for their families and our citizenry to suffer a double tax at the time of their/our passing. They didn't die to defend the redefining of marriage. They didn't sacrifice their lives for loathsome legal entities (including the highest court in the land) to defend those who would do us harm. And they certainly didn't sacrifice life and limb to have tens of millions of illegals violate our sovereign laws to come here, and then be rewarded with amnesty for doing so.
That is something President Bush needs to think about as he commemorates the sacrifice paid by over 400,000 men and women 62 years ago. If he doesn't, we should remind him and every person who holds elected office, and dismisses same at the ballot box in November.
Mychal Massie is a nationally recognized political activist, pundit and columnist. He is host of the widely popular talk show "Straight Talk." He has appeared on the Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, Comcast Cable and talk radio programming nationwide. He is a former self-employed business owner of over 30 years and a member of the conservative public policy institute National Center for Public Policy Research-Project 21.
Good read.
The answer is "Yes. They did."
There is no rule in America that all citizens must support a common goal. There is instead a treasured freedom to speak your mind, however vacuous, insipid, or ill-informed. It is not the power of law that is called to reject such bleatings, but the power of common sense, the personal values of the listener who passes by the shameful, embarrassing soapbox.
And they certainly didn't sacrifice life and limb to have tens of millions of illegals violate our sovereign laws to come here, and then be rewarded with amnesty for doing so.
This should be repeated more often.
Having said that, I am completely disgusted with anyone who somehow compares those ultimate sacrifices with their own partisan agenda. To suggest that these brave American soldiers died to prevent freedom of speech that some of us find revolting, or that they died to ensure only fair tax policies, or keeping gay marriage out of our society, or any of the other partisan political values is an abhorrent hijacking of one of the most important and glorious victories this Country has ever achieved. Shame on this author and shame on World Net Daily.
As Vietnam showed and the current actions of [the left in America] regarding Iraq continue to demonstrate, it is extremely difficult to fight a 'long war' when you have an active 5th column in the media, academy and business and political elites that is stabbing the country in the back. If you think it's necessary to fight such a war, this column must be crushed: those actively engaged in treason (Code Pink, the Evergreen nutroots, etc.) need to be arrested and charged; those engaged in unseemly defeatism and anti-American protest in the street or in the acdemy need to be confronted using the bully pulpit, legislative hearings, etc., and shamed into shutting up or be booted out of their positions for turning the media and the academy into mindless left-wing propaganda organs.
We won the cold war through an accident of character: if Jimmy Carter had been a little better domestically, the Soviet Union would have established complete hegemony and would probably still exist.
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So, no, they didn't fight to allow traitors to go unpunished and the contemptible to be praised.
Did they fight so that citizens would be allowed to say only what THEY thought was acceptable?
I don't think so.
It's not THEIR responsiblity to filter out the garbage. It's not the LAW'S job to remove these vermin from our midst. It's OUR job to shun them, to shut them out even if we don't shut them up.
THAT is freedom. And THAT is what they fought for.
The Constitution also does not prevent the government from directing ridicule and contempt at the contemptible left; nor does it preclude legislators from inquiring whether public funds are being used simply for left-wing propaganda exercises at public institutions, and holding those who do so up to public ridicule.
You seem to have a rather exaggerated sense of how much of an internal 5th column a country can have while still being capable of defending itself.
My first reaction is that it is a load of hysteria and false inferences designed to show Bush as a non patriot because he is not shooting all the illegals.
I'm getting very tired of the moral equivalence tests that permeate this debate, and I'm not gonna fall prey to more of it.
I agree completely.
The Constitution also does not prevent the government from directing ridicule and contempt at the contemptible left;
Nor at the "contemptible" right ...
nor does it preclude legislators from inquiring whether public funds are being used simply for left-wing propaganda exercises at public institutions, and holding those who do so up to public ridicule.
Absolutely not. That too is part of free speech.
You seem to have a rather exaggerated sense of how much of an internal 5th column a country can have while still being capable of defending itself.
I'm not sure we really disagree on that much, but if so, I'd say YOU have a dangerously narrow sense of what constitutes "freedom." I guess it's okay as long as YOU approve it first, eh? I'm not sure that constitutes freedom as much as tyranny born of utter hubris.
There is no reason to fear the Fifth Column, unless The People are so stupid they succumb to its blandishments. And then, you have much more to fear from THEIR stupidity than from the agitators, fellow travelers, and domestic traitors.
Two possibilities exist: either you CAN shut them (the Fifth Columnists) up, or you can't. If The People pay them no heed, you have no need to. If The People are determined to heed them, you have no right to. But if you have to silence them through oppression, the cost is already too great, and their cause is won. Far better to let them speak and expose themselves for the hate-filled, self-loathing, purblind, embarrassing asses they are. That is more powerful than any gag.
Hyperbole tends to creep into the rhetorical toolkit when discussing the chattering classes ...
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