Well, the last phone call from home was made to my fellow Pennsylvanian’s today.

The facts have been laid as bare as they could be on both presidential candidates and those running for lower offices.

Sometime tomorrow night (hopefully) we will know who will lead this great nation for at least the next four years. The challenges we may face will be great, but as long as we hold a firm grasp on our values I believe we will be okay no matter the outcome.

One thing I choose to remember is that this nation was not made grand by any one man in the White House nor those who sit in Congressional Offices. It was built brick by brick by those who have toiled, sweat and died for it’s mere existence.

That is the simple beauty of America and American’s.

July 4th is just around the corner.

A day known for picnics, vacations, fireworks, patriotic music and this:

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Just imagine Thomas Jefferson sitting on a hill in Massachusetts and listening to the Boston Pops on Independence Day.

Think for a moment what Adams, Washington or Franklin might feel at the sight of the Presentation of Colors or the many residences and businesses adorned in red, white and blue.

Would it not be fun to sit beside the framers and signers of this revered document and view the elaborate colors and designs bursting in the sky each Fourth of July and simply say “thank you.”

All information above was gleaned from the National Archives where there is also offered an excellent opportunity for children (or adults) to add their name along side the original signers and print out a copy of the Declaration of Independence.

Should you hear anyone question John McCain’s courage, leadership qualities, or his patriotism, please just point them to the following video.

While it may take a bit longer than most to watch, some of the footage used within (original from Vietnam) plus the recent personal interviews give great insight into a man who aspires to be the next President of the United States.

[Updated and bumped] Via the Jawa Report comes the following interview with Lt. Col. Gadson the gentleman mentioned in the article I cited below with reference to comments by Giants Coach, Tom Coughlin.

I can’t think of a better “good luck charm.”

[End Update]

It remains to be seen if the New York Giants can spoil the perfect season of the New England Patriots.

When I don’t have a home town favorite in the big game, I tend to root for the underdog so I suppose that indicates where my heart will be on Sunday.

Think about it, if the Giants should pull an upset, football history would be made. Brothers who are both quarterbacks could then claim Super Bowl wins.

One of the things which often is a turn off prior to the big game (games) in professional sports is the trash talk which emanates from the players.

Coaches, however, when interviewed tend to say say very little or simply stress the strengths of their unit as opposed to their challenger.

Tom Coughlin in an interview with a NY Post reporter supplied this quote which sets him aside from many others:

“The experience of 9/11, right here in New York City, the personal aspect of 9/11 for me … I was in college through the whole Vietnam thing,” Coughlin said. “But seeing what’s taken place here in Iraq, and having an opportunity to meet Gen. [Ray] Odierno, to meet Greg Gadson, to really reach out and touch guys that are the real heroes - who represent us in this war on terrorism so that we can sleep under the blanket of freedom … the depth of that for me, and I keep coming back to the red, white and blue, because that’s what we are, that’s what our nation is, red, white and blue, that’s what the New Giants are. I take a lot of pride in that.”

Well said Coach Coughlin.

[Quote provided is located on page two of article]

Berkeley, California may never be the same.

Mark this day down folks. It was Wednesday, October 17, 2007 that hundreds of pro-troop supporters turned out for a giant pro-troop rally in Berkeley, CA (one of the most anti-military & anti-war cities in this nation). Not only did the size of the rally shock the San Francisco Bay Area news media, it surprised the anti-war activists at Code Pink who were outnumbered on their own turf!.

Don’t miss the photos and videos of this counter-protest here. Patriotism and support of the troops in full display in this anit-military town. How heartwarming.

Thank you Move America Forward and all other organizations involved in this endeavor. Your support not only of the troops but of American values is appreciated by many.

Mary Katharine Ham of Townhall secured this excellent footage at the rally of the Vets for Freedom and Blue and Gold Star families.

I found some of the answers the individuals attending this event received from some of our elected officials and a few other “celebrities” quite interesting. At least those asking the questions and Senator Lieberman “get it.”

What a great video!

Funny how you can read two articles back to back and one allows for a warm and prideful feeling while the other stirs a bit of anger and frustration.

Such was the case this morning as I first enjoyed this story from the Examiner.

We’re fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and debating them in Washington. Yesterday my oldest son left to join the Army.

In our circle of friends, it’s been the topic of lots of discussion and no small amount of criticism. This group is part of the information elite: people who live in coastal enclaves and get paid to move information around. They’re well-educated and well-traveled, have high incomes and typically view themselves as cosmopolitan in outlook.

Our kids are supposed to go to East Coast colleges and then to graduate or professional school, not join the military as enlisted men. In this circle, I count only one other family whose son went into the military. That’s two children out of maybe 50 or 60 families.

Reagrdless of the authors politics, anything which speaks to a parents fears for their child, moves the reader beyond disagreement. You tend to ignore the ” political statements” the writer incorporates and remember this:

Being a parent seems to be a series of those moments, of watching your children pulling away and stepping out into a wider and wider world of responsibility and risk. And after yesterday, my son will be in the widest and riskiest world there is.

I fed him and paid his tuition. He’s taken those materials, and now the man he’s used them to become has set out to navigate that wide, risky world. I watched his back again as he walked down our driveway last night.

HT: Lorie Byrd

Unfortunately, I moved immediately from Mr. Danzinger’s piece to one published in “The Recorder.”

The opinions of Ryan Yeomans move beyond critical thinking and thought provoking material to nothing more than a question in my mind of his understanding of world events and the serious threats we face today.

As of late, if you were to bring up the president in a discussion you would find that many Americans disapprove of the decisions he has made. At the same time, Osama bin Laden presents many good arguments against the president and many of his reasons for disapproving of Bush are similar to those of anti-Bush Americans. Would it be wrong to assume that there is some kind of connection between feelings of the American people and those of Osama bin Laden? As I would love to make this connection, I ultimately cannot because of the actions of our president. If I were to say I agree with bin Laden, that would mean that I agree with a terrorist; under the Patriot Act, I could be labeled a potential terrorist and my phone could be tapped, and every move I make could be watched and analyzed.

In finding myself in this predicament, I questioned myself as to who the lesser evil actually is. I ask, “Who has done more damage to the lives of the American people?” Personally, I worry more about the next bad decision Bush is going to make than I worry about a potential Osama bin Laden organized terrorist attack.

I originally said this moved me to anger but in re-reading, I almost feel sorry for the author. There is a sense of BDS here which has moved him beyond reality if he is more frightened of his own government than he is of the capabilities of those who would kill him in an instant.

Fortunately there are those like Mr. Danzinger’s son and many, many others willing to take on the real enemy to preserve Mr. Yeoman’s right to express his views.

HT: Drudge

I had mentioned toward the end of last week that I would try to post at least one patriotic piece a day up to and on 9-11. Today’s offering is one which immediately upon viewing, became a favorite.

The parents of this young girl must have been so proud.

Hope you like it.

Next week will bring the report of General Petraeus to Congress, the anniversary of 9-11 and probably more political posturing than we all should be subjected to. I hope to post one patriotic video a day between now and 9-11 so we all remember those who are sacrificing so the likes of Osama Bin Laden never has the chance to see his dreams fulfilled.

While watching the video, you might wish to take a look at the letter General Petraeus delivered to his troops. This man knows the real deal and he makes certain every member serving under his command does also.

HT: To Blackfive for providing the link to the letter to the troops.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.

To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Army Reserve Chaplain Higgins shares an experience he witnessed while stationed in Balad, Iraq. As I read, I felt the pride I often do when one writes about our brave young men and women in the US Military.

I recently attended a showing of “Spiderman 3″ here at LSA Anaconda. We have a large auditorioum we use for movies as well as memorial services and other large gatherings. As is the custom back in the States, we stood and snapped to attention when the National Anthem began before the main feature. All was going as planned until about three-quarters of the way through the National Anthem the music stopped.

Please read the complete story. It is relatively short but speaks volumes.

We may be growing weary of politics. Some days we may even thrown up our hands in disgust and feel there is no hope for this grand old country of ours given the state of affairs in Washington.

I’ve seen friends and family members wrestle with divisions because of their beliefs, sometimes to heartbreaking conclusions.

There is such unrest and dissatisfaction at every turn whether it be with legislation, scandals, cries of voter fraud, politics in the courts or just a distaste for the occupant of the White House.

Civility is disappearing sometimes even among those of us who do our best to keep our opinions limited and prefer to base our thoughts on facts. We view each perceived disagreement as one which will eventually force those with thought differing from ours to either relent or be banished from our lives. I use we not assuming every person who reads this will fit into any of these categories, but based of what is written or spoken in the media and on the internet.

Never before, not even in the 1960’s with all its protests and anger have I experienced so many who have taken up one side in a tug of war and have vowed to never open their mind to a contrary opinion. I was a teen in the 60’s and my Dad upon returning from two tours in Vietnam was treated as an outcast by many. I fear if we continue down this path today we will see the same for our brave souls fighting for freedom as they return..Look up and down your street and think back to 9-11. Flags were everywhere, there were ribbons and candles and patriotism abounded.

What happened? We are a nation of short memory and long campaigns. Perhaps we should inform all the Presidential candidates running for 2008 that we are not yet interested in their platform, after all it will change 100 times in the next year. Maybe we should politely project to Hollywood that the average American is not ready to have them set policy, foreign or otherwise. I do not pretend to have the answers as to why we have divided ourselves so, but we need to return to a time when a conversation if it turns to politics can be handled in a civil and respectful manner.

Let’s remember that this is our country not that of Congress or even the President and perhaps we could begin by attempting to do what Ronald Reagan did when he first assumed the Presidency..restore Patriotism to a tired country. Without pride in our nation it will be left to the vultures who proclaim to work for the will of the people but as of late work only for the will of the next election.

Fly that flag proudly for you are an American. Thank a soldier, sailor, marine or airman who has served us so unselfishly and remember we are not just political parties, we are people who should have one common goal..the very existence of the country and the freedoms we have come to love.

I close with this offering from a favorite site of mine Old Blue Web Designs which has graciously given us permission to link to their work. Johnny Cash reminds us of something of which we can all be proud.

There is nothing I could add to this:

Taking the oath to become an American Citizen

A couple of hours ago I returned from Los Angeles with my wife. We were there so that she could take the oath of citizenship of the United States of America.

After they repeated the oath the new Americans waved little American flags and cheered loudly. I turned to the man sitting beside me whose wife was also taking the oath, and like me, his eyes were filled with tears.

We recited the pledge of allegiance with the new Americans, sang the National Anthem, and cried to the song “God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood.

Except, Congratulations!