The Monsignor of the Church did reply to my previous email about failing to include the innocent victims of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in the call for prayers. As is often the case, the answer is short and non-committal. I can't help but continue the dialogue because I still wait for a man of God to tell me war is a sin in the eyes of their God. I still wait for more than encouragement to keep the faith and pray. Their are times when prayers must be followed by the action of a moral stand in life. I fear the Church and those who place such faith in it have allowed it to become the Golden Calf, an idol unto itself. The monsignor is a kind man. I sense his frustration in the limitations placed on him by the Archbishop. I know he's tired and at the end of his time as a priest. I pray he will leave his parish when he's ready with honor and the legacy of challenging the passivity of the Church. Anyway, here's the communication between us today.
Terry: Thank you for your insightful comments about praying for the victims of war. I probably don't mention them often enough, but I am very opposed to war itself. When I pray for members of our military I am praying for their safety and quick return home. You know war first hand and I don't so thanks for your observations. I do hope you will continue to pray and be strong in your faith. Don't give up. God doesn't give up on any of us.
Monsignor H
Monsignor,
Thank you for the timely reply to my email about the victims of war. I want to assure you I haven’t given up on God or the Holy Trinity. I do have great disappointment in the Church which I was led to believe would be faithful to the teachings of Christ. I don’t sense those teachings would endorse or approve of the wars of this nation.
I’ve never felt the prayers for the military to be an endorsement of the war but in conjunction with “America the Beautiful” and the lack of acknowledgement for the victims that far outnumber the troops I have to say the subtle messages are an approval of the actions of the troops. I realize there are people in the parish who are very conservative and feel our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan is the “right thing to do”.
I hope you’ll not take offense at my view that the Church should be the moral leader in challenging the militaristic nature of our country. I’ve not seen that happening. Instead I sense clergy nuance what they say to avoid offending the beliefs of the members of their parish. I’m not a fan of “fire and brimstone” approaches but I do believe if the Church is to be pro-life it should stand up with courage against secular powers that continue to send young men and women to slaughter and be slaughtered.
The Church takes moral imperative toward abortion but minces words or avoids the discussion of wars that have so dramatically altered this nation. The consequences of war go beyond the battlefield. The monies spent on war deprive hungry children, homeless families, struggling elders, young people being educated, food banks and a multitude of people in need. It erodes the soul of our nation and the view of the world toward us. The troops returning are meeting up with delays in getting treatment for PTSD, brain injuries, ongoing physical and emotional treatment to restore them to health. This lack of care will result in far too many becoming lost to our country as the beautiful people they can become. Instead suicides, homicides, incarcerations, addictions and homelessness dramatically increase for them. This is only a short list of the effects of war on troops. These effects go beyond the troops and will affect their children, their spouses and their communities. War is an insidious disease that tears us apart and poisons us. It isn’t honorable or patriotic if the purpose is so blatantly meant to enrich a selected few at the expense of so many. Fear mongering and nationalistic fervor after 9-11 has given our country a shameful blood lust for revenge. We’ve labeled groups of people as terrorists and allowed the label to smear innocent families. Our bombs make no distinction between those who we feel the enemy and babies and children sleeping in their beds. What terror is felt by parents who search for their children under the rubble of a bombed home hit by a 500 lb bomb dropped anonymously by pilots who never see the results of their “work”? Their bombs don’t sort out who is innocent and there is no such thing as a smart bomb.
Americans aren’t reminded of the terror of children caused by our bombs, rockets and artillery. They aren’t even allowed to see the coffins of troops killed in our wars. It makes it easier to ignore a voluntary military if the war is seldom mentioned and information strictly controlled.
My ranting ultimately comes down to the question of where is the leadership of the Church to decry what’s going on? If the Church fails to take a public position on one of the most important questions our world faces is it not complicit in allowing the sin of war to continue? Asking for prayer to bring us peace is a powerful part of what we seem to be asked to do but aren’t we also required to name evil and call for an end to it? The medicine of reality is bitter for those who have made country and nationalism their god. Isn’t it idolatry to put the American way of life above the needs of the world’s most impoverished and weak brothers and sisters?
I haven’t given up, Monsignor. I’ll have given up when I no longer feel outrage about the condition of this world being left to my sons and grandchildren by my generation. We have failed to provide them a moral compass. We have failed to teach them Christ’s very simple commandment….. Love your neighbor as yourself. Our failure is self evident by our continued wars.
Thanks again Monsignor. Peace be with you.
Wm Terry Leichner
Wednesday, July 9
Tuesday, July 8
Catholic Failure to Oppose Immoral Wars
I have an ongoing battle and turmoil about being a Catholic. On many occasions I've clashed with the dogma and the clergy about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. They have described abortion as "intrinsic evil" but have failed to acknowledge the same should be said about illegal and immoral wars. The email below was sent this past Sunday (July 6, 08) after the Deacon called for us to pray for those "who protect our freedoms in the military" but once again failed to ask that we pray for the innocent victims of the wars our nation unilaterally initiated. I have dogged the parish priests and deacons over the past two years to make this acknowledgement by confronting them after masses and sending emails. I've confronted Archbishop Chaput about his failure to include the wars as being as intrinsically evil as abortion. He eventually snapped off an angry reply to me when I confronted his call for Catholics to vote for candidates in the 2004 election that met the moral values of Catholicism. This was an overt endorsement of Bush by default since the Archbishop had harshly criticized John Kerry for his position on a woman's right to abortion.
I'm tired of sending emails to non-responsive clergy and getting their pat answers. From now on the content of the emails will be made public as I can make them, including my blog. The religious of this nation have done little to oppose the immorality of war. They have, in fact, been the megaphones for the imperialistic actions of this nation. The evangelical Christians have led the fight for a "holy war" against Islamofascism....a code word of racists for Arabs and any non-Zionist in the Middle East.
Msgr. and Deacon,
I’m writing once again to ask the question why prayers are offered for those who “fight to protect our freedoms” (the men and women in the military) but the clergy consistently fail to do so for the innocent victims of our American initiated wars in Afghanistan and Iraq?
As a former Marine infantryman in combat during the Vietnam war (1967-69) I feel qualified to speak on the subject of wars and the effects they have on the troops asked to fight them and the victims who get in the way…..the “collateral damage”.
Two years ago I was fortunate to meet Gino Strada, MD, a founder of the Italian based NGO, EMERGENCY. EMERGENCY is a group of surgeons and other healthcare professionals that have dedicated themselves to establishing surgical units in some of the world’s most war-torn regions. Their doctors and other professionals have gone to Laos, Darfur, Afghanistan and Iraq to name a few countries. Dr. Strada works six to nine months in the surgical units teaching local medical staff to treat the wounds of war. Often times the patients are children. That’s especially true in nations that have been bombed with cluster bombs by American planes. In Dr. Stada’s book, Green Parrots, he writes about children picking up unexploded cluster bombs lying in the fields only to have them explode in their hands. That’s one of the purposes of cluster bombs….to leave the undetonated bombs strewn across areas of “hostile” regions to wreak further havoc on the “enemy”.
Sadly, cluster bombs quite closely resemble food packets dropped by relief organizations to areas where war and starvation go hand in hand. Children and adults, not being able to read the English on the bombs and packets, pick up the bombs by mistake. The most common injury has been traumatic amputations. If the victim survives the initial blast. Traumatic brain injury is also a factor since the bombs are so up close and personal when exploded. In Laos there are more unexploded bombs than any other place on the planet. The bombs are leftovers from the war in Vietnam when American bombers did saturation bombing over a large part of Laos in efforts to stop supplies of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese being smuggled into Vietnam. Now the bombs are over thirty years old and quite volatile.
Dr. Strada explained to me children often scavenge scrap metal to buy food and necessary items for their families. Unexploded bombs lay waiting for the hunters to attempt scavenging.
Dr. Strada points out since WWII that 90% of the casualties of all wars have been civilians. Of that number 40% of the victims are children. I’ll leave it to your imaginations how many children have been killed since WWII in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Serbia, Bosnia and all the many other wars.
In addition to cluster bombs, the U.S. has used weapons firing projectiles such as artillery and heavy machine gun rounds that have depleted uranium rods incorporated in the rounds. Depleted uranium (DU) has been used by American troops since the Serbian/Bosnian conflict. Tons of DU was used in bombs, artillery shells, and other weapons’ ammunition during the first Gulf War. Only a few hundred troops were killed or wounded during that war but veterans of the war have been disabled at alarming rates by Gulf War Syndrome. Thousands upon thousands have died and hundreds of thousands are disabled.
The Department of Defense funded a study by a physicist, Doug Rokke , to determine the effects of DU. Rokke took a team to Iraq and checked radiation levels of Iraqi tanks and areas hit by American bombs. The team found Geiger counter readings maxing out in most places they went. Most of that team has died since the study and Rokke is dying of cancer. Studies have also shown every place the US has used DU weapons there have been dramatic increases in birth defects, childhood leukemia, childhood cancer, soft tissue cancer and other diseases and symptoms consistent with radiation poisoning. DOD didn’t like the results of the study and fired Rokke during the current President’s term of office.
American troops are exposed to daily doses of DU in the current wars because despite outcries from several scientists (including Dr. Helen Caldicott) depleted uranium continues to be used by the tons. Skeptics say DU is a safe by-product of the processing of the more active uranium used in nuclear weapons. It’s the heaviest known element on earth which makes it ideal for penetration of armored vehicles. The proponents of DU say it is like “a hot knife going through butter” when fired at the armored vehicles.
Skeptics say DU is safe and doesn’t harm human respiratory systems or other body systems. In the inert state of DU it is safe but when the ammunition detonates the DU is vaporized and aerolized into micro particles tinier than the inhalants an asthma sufferer might use. The vaporized DU enters lungs, water systems, sand and other areas and parts and becomes a health problem. The DU crisis is coming as it came with Gulf War I five to ten years after exposure.
American troops are also using napalm and white phosphorous explosives such as bombs and mortars. These are against the Geneva Convention guidelines but by renaming the explosives the military continues to avoid sanction. I’m very close to an Iraq veteran that blew the whistle on the military concerning use of these devices. I’ve seen the effects of napalm and white phosphorous on humans. We used to call the victims of napalm “crispy critters” because they were so charred. White phosphorous can’t be readily extinguished and burns through flesh and bone of the victims. Keep in mind the numbers Dr. Strada tells us are casualties of war since WWII. In the guerilla types of war civilians are indistinguishable from the enemy in the minds of most troops.
Since 2003, Lancet, a distinguished medical journal, has done a scientific study of Iraqi casualties from the war. Their estimate is 1.5 million dead. Numbers for Afghanistan aren’t readily available. 90% of that number is likely non-combatants with 40% of that number being children.
I’m including this information to give you an idea of the catastrophic nature of wars. And I am greatly troubled the Catholic Church in Denver and across the nation has failed to speak out against the immorality of wars. I’m not surprised but I am troubled.
I have a friend who went to Catholic schools from K-12 here in Denver. He was a medic in Vietnam during a time of heavy combat. He often recalls Father “Woody” speaking out against the communists in Vietnam and encouraging the boys in the Catholic high school my friend attended to enlist to fight the “godless communists”. My friend was greatly influenced by the encouragement and by the mandatory attendance of the funerals of troops killed in action here in the Denver area. The young high school students were mandated by instructors, which included clergy, to attend the funerals.
When I returned from Vietnam I was 19. I had spent all of 1968 in Vietnam at age 18 and 19. I was involved in heavy combat during the Tet Offensive of 1968 while a Marine infantryman. The horror of that time followed me home. I once asked a priest what God would say about a man who killed several humans while in Vietnam. The priest gave me a pat answer that I was part of a justified war and protecting my country and would be absolved. His answer enraged me because I knew I had broken the commandment of “thou shall not kill”. I wanted to hear a man of God tell me war is a sin. I’ve yet to hear that from a Catholic priest about an American war.
I converted to Catholicism a while back because I felt a great epiphany at my grandson’s baptism. I went to daily mass almost every day for two or three years. I stopped in 2003. Even though Pope John Paul II spoke out against the war, American clergy went along with the mob and said little. Often times it even seemed the Church was a cheerleader of the troops. It still feels that way when we keep getting requests for prayers spoken during mass asking us to pray for “those who protect our freedoms” but seldom if ever hear a call to pray for the innocent victims of Iraq and Afghanistan.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed but since 9-11 our freedoms have been eroded. We now allow torture, wire taps of citizens without reasonable cause, imprisonment of persons of interest without need of charging them, limitation of free speech to “free speech zones” sometimes caged, monitoring of any and all correspondence, lengthy imprisonment of clergy and elderly citizens who commit acts of non-violent civil disobedience at places such as the School of Americas (notorious for training troops of repressive regimes in Central and South America) and a laundry list of other rights and freedoms taken from American citizens too afraid to oppose such oppressive acts. We have a gulag in Cuba and secret prisons in Europe and other sites for alleged terrorists but it has become clear most are simply men and boys of possible combatant age. I ask if this is the freedom being protected by troops we should pray for. Where is the moral courage of the Church to speak the truth about wars that are illegal and immoral? If the Church won’t speak out against the sin of war, killing, torture, spying and other repressive acts against citizens it seems the Church is merely a complicit partner with the civil authority.
I go to mass now to be with my wife but I have lost my faith in the Catholic Church and most Christian churches in this nation who seem to be unwilling to take a moral stand other than about abortion and gay marriages. On those two issues the Church is loud and clear. Why not the insanity of war? Why not a call to pray for innocent victims of the insanity? Why the continued false patriotism that makes believe our troops fight for freedom. I pray for the troops and know many of the young men and women who have gone multiple times to Iraq and Afghanistan. I see their thousand yard stares and see them self-medicating to get relief from intrusive and horrible memories. I’ve seen them cry and rage about their experiences. I know of some who have killed themselves in despair. Some have killed others in rage and from being trained to react with violence when feeling threatened. I seldom hear them talk about protecting our freedoms. I do hear many say they detest yellow ribbons on cars saying “support the troops” while they wait over six months for needed medical care once discharged.
I truly don’t expect a change but I need to make a moral choice to tell the parish leaders of my dismay. I would also point out Notre Dame is within the zip code with the highest rate of foreclosure in the entire state of Colorado. The costs of continuing wars does have a connection to the many who struggle to stay in a home, get medical care, get adequate schooling, have a job with a living wage and lack of social programs to assist the marginalized. 80219 has paid a high cost in that regard.
Wishing you peace,
Wm Terry Leichner, RN
Denver VVAW member
USMC combat veteran
Vietnam (Dec 1967-Feb 1969)
3rd Bn/5th Marines, 1st Marine Div.
I'm tired of sending emails to non-responsive clergy and getting their pat answers. From now on the content of the emails will be made public as I can make them, including my blog. The religious of this nation have done little to oppose the immorality of war. They have, in fact, been the megaphones for the imperialistic actions of this nation. The evangelical Christians have led the fight for a "holy war" against Islamofascism....a code word of racists for Arabs and any non-Zionist in the Middle East.
Msgr. and Deacon,
I’m writing once again to ask the question why prayers are offered for those who “fight to protect our freedoms” (the men and women in the military) but the clergy consistently fail to do so for the innocent victims of our American initiated wars in Afghanistan and Iraq?
As a former Marine infantryman in combat during the Vietnam war (1967-69) I feel qualified to speak on the subject of wars and the effects they have on the troops asked to fight them and the victims who get in the way…..the “collateral damage”.
Two years ago I was fortunate to meet Gino Strada, MD, a founder of the Italian based NGO, EMERGENCY. EMERGENCY is a group of surgeons and other healthcare professionals that have dedicated themselves to establishing surgical units in some of the world’s most war-torn regions. Their doctors and other professionals have gone to Laos, Darfur, Afghanistan and Iraq to name a few countries. Dr. Strada works six to nine months in the surgical units teaching local medical staff to treat the wounds of war. Often times the patients are children. That’s especially true in nations that have been bombed with cluster bombs by American planes. In Dr. Stada’s book, Green Parrots, he writes about children picking up unexploded cluster bombs lying in the fields only to have them explode in their hands. That’s one of the purposes of cluster bombs….to leave the undetonated bombs strewn across areas of “hostile” regions to wreak further havoc on the “enemy”.
Sadly, cluster bombs quite closely resemble food packets dropped by relief organizations to areas where war and starvation go hand in hand. Children and adults, not being able to read the English on the bombs and packets, pick up the bombs by mistake. The most common injury has been traumatic amputations. If the victim survives the initial blast. Traumatic brain injury is also a factor since the bombs are so up close and personal when exploded. In Laos there are more unexploded bombs than any other place on the planet. The bombs are leftovers from the war in Vietnam when American bombers did saturation bombing over a large part of Laos in efforts to stop supplies of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese being smuggled into Vietnam. Now the bombs are over thirty years old and quite volatile.
Dr. Strada explained to me children often scavenge scrap metal to buy food and necessary items for their families. Unexploded bombs lay waiting for the hunters to attempt scavenging.
Dr. Strada points out since WWII that 90% of the casualties of all wars have been civilians. Of that number 40% of the victims are children. I’ll leave it to your imaginations how many children have been killed since WWII in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Serbia, Bosnia and all the many other wars.
In addition to cluster bombs, the U.S. has used weapons firing projectiles such as artillery and heavy machine gun rounds that have depleted uranium rods incorporated in the rounds. Depleted uranium (DU) has been used by American troops since the Serbian/Bosnian conflict. Tons of DU was used in bombs, artillery shells, and other weapons’ ammunition during the first Gulf War. Only a few hundred troops were killed or wounded during that war but veterans of the war have been disabled at alarming rates by Gulf War Syndrome. Thousands upon thousands have died and hundreds of thousands are disabled.
The Department of Defense funded a study by a physicist, Doug Rokke , to determine the effects of DU. Rokke took a team to Iraq and checked radiation levels of Iraqi tanks and areas hit by American bombs. The team found Geiger counter readings maxing out in most places they went. Most of that team has died since the study and Rokke is dying of cancer. Studies have also shown every place the US has used DU weapons there have been dramatic increases in birth defects, childhood leukemia, childhood cancer, soft tissue cancer and other diseases and symptoms consistent with radiation poisoning. DOD didn’t like the results of the study and fired Rokke during the current President’s term of office.
American troops are exposed to daily doses of DU in the current wars because despite outcries from several scientists (including Dr. Helen Caldicott) depleted uranium continues to be used by the tons. Skeptics say DU is a safe by-product of the processing of the more active uranium used in nuclear weapons. It’s the heaviest known element on earth which makes it ideal for penetration of armored vehicles. The proponents of DU say it is like “a hot knife going through butter” when fired at the armored vehicles.
Skeptics say DU is safe and doesn’t harm human respiratory systems or other body systems. In the inert state of DU it is safe but when the ammunition detonates the DU is vaporized and aerolized into micro particles tinier than the inhalants an asthma sufferer might use. The vaporized DU enters lungs, water systems, sand and other areas and parts and becomes a health problem. The DU crisis is coming as it came with Gulf War I five to ten years after exposure.
American troops are also using napalm and white phosphorous explosives such as bombs and mortars. These are against the Geneva Convention guidelines but by renaming the explosives the military continues to avoid sanction. I’m very close to an Iraq veteran that blew the whistle on the military concerning use of these devices. I’ve seen the effects of napalm and white phosphorous on humans. We used to call the victims of napalm “crispy critters” because they were so charred. White phosphorous can’t be readily extinguished and burns through flesh and bone of the victims. Keep in mind the numbers Dr. Strada tells us are casualties of war since WWII. In the guerilla types of war civilians are indistinguishable from the enemy in the minds of most troops.
Since 2003, Lancet, a distinguished medical journal, has done a scientific study of Iraqi casualties from the war. Their estimate is 1.5 million dead. Numbers for Afghanistan aren’t readily available. 90% of that number is likely non-combatants with 40% of that number being children.
I’m including this information to give you an idea of the catastrophic nature of wars. And I am greatly troubled the Catholic Church in Denver and across the nation has failed to speak out against the immorality of wars. I’m not surprised but I am troubled.
I have a friend who went to Catholic schools from K-12 here in Denver. He was a medic in Vietnam during a time of heavy combat. He often recalls Father “Woody” speaking out against the communists in Vietnam and encouraging the boys in the Catholic high school my friend attended to enlist to fight the “godless communists”. My friend was greatly influenced by the encouragement and by the mandatory attendance of the funerals of troops killed in action here in the Denver area. The young high school students were mandated by instructors, which included clergy, to attend the funerals.
When I returned from Vietnam I was 19. I had spent all of 1968 in Vietnam at age 18 and 19. I was involved in heavy combat during the Tet Offensive of 1968 while a Marine infantryman. The horror of that time followed me home. I once asked a priest what God would say about a man who killed several humans while in Vietnam. The priest gave me a pat answer that I was part of a justified war and protecting my country and would be absolved. His answer enraged me because I knew I had broken the commandment of “thou shall not kill”. I wanted to hear a man of God tell me war is a sin. I’ve yet to hear that from a Catholic priest about an American war.
I converted to Catholicism a while back because I felt a great epiphany at my grandson’s baptism. I went to daily mass almost every day for two or three years. I stopped in 2003. Even though Pope John Paul II spoke out against the war, American clergy went along with the mob and said little. Often times it even seemed the Church was a cheerleader of the troops. It still feels that way when we keep getting requests for prayers spoken during mass asking us to pray for “those who protect our freedoms” but seldom if ever hear a call to pray for the innocent victims of Iraq and Afghanistan.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed but since 9-11 our freedoms have been eroded. We now allow torture, wire taps of citizens without reasonable cause, imprisonment of persons of interest without need of charging them, limitation of free speech to “free speech zones” sometimes caged, monitoring of any and all correspondence, lengthy imprisonment of clergy and elderly citizens who commit acts of non-violent civil disobedience at places such as the School of Americas (notorious for training troops of repressive regimes in Central and South America) and a laundry list of other rights and freedoms taken from American citizens too afraid to oppose such oppressive acts. We have a gulag in Cuba and secret prisons in Europe and other sites for alleged terrorists but it has become clear most are simply men and boys of possible combatant age. I ask if this is the freedom being protected by troops we should pray for. Where is the moral courage of the Church to speak the truth about wars that are illegal and immoral? If the Church won’t speak out against the sin of war, killing, torture, spying and other repressive acts against citizens it seems the Church is merely a complicit partner with the civil authority.
I go to mass now to be with my wife but I have lost my faith in the Catholic Church and most Christian churches in this nation who seem to be unwilling to take a moral stand other than about abortion and gay marriages. On those two issues the Church is loud and clear. Why not the insanity of war? Why not a call to pray for innocent victims of the insanity? Why the continued false patriotism that makes believe our troops fight for freedom. I pray for the troops and know many of the young men and women who have gone multiple times to Iraq and Afghanistan. I see their thousand yard stares and see them self-medicating to get relief from intrusive and horrible memories. I’ve seen them cry and rage about their experiences. I know of some who have killed themselves in despair. Some have killed others in rage and from being trained to react with violence when feeling threatened. I seldom hear them talk about protecting our freedoms. I do hear many say they detest yellow ribbons on cars saying “support the troops” while they wait over six months for needed medical care once discharged.
I truly don’t expect a change but I need to make a moral choice to tell the parish leaders of my dismay. I would also point out Notre Dame is within the zip code with the highest rate of foreclosure in the entire state of Colorado. The costs of continuing wars does have a connection to the many who struggle to stay in a home, get medical care, get adequate schooling, have a job with a living wage and lack of social programs to assist the marginalized. 80219 has paid a high cost in that regard.
Wishing you peace,
Wm Terry Leichner, RN
Denver VVAW member
USMC combat veteran
Vietnam (Dec 1967-Feb 1969)
3rd Bn/5th Marines, 1st Marine Div.
Thursday, July 3
Difficult Moral Choices- Thanks to Rene' Marie
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
So, there you have it….the reason we celebrate the 4th of July. Amazingly it has nothing to do with fireworks unless political fireworks resulting from the daring dissent of those signing this declaration count.
Some of our leaders should take a look to see what it was they said in this declaration. It seems the entire document has become null and void if we look at all the rights and freedoms we’ve lost since 9-11. And are we safer today?
Today as we come to the anniversary date of this declaration the front page of one of Denver’s daily newspapers has photos of the mayor and a jazz singer, Rene’ Marie. Marie was invited to sing the national anthem at the State of Denver event by John Hickenlooper, the mayor. The black jazz singer decided it was time to change the script. After years of enduring the hypocrisy of America and the insult of that declaration above, Rene’ Marie, free black woman…proud black woman, sang the lyrics of a song called the Black National Anthem to the tune of The Star Spangled Banner. Perhaps the 52 year old singer thought of her parents having to sit in at a lunch counter at a segregated restaurant in Virginia during the 1960’s civil rights movement as she changed course and sang the lyrics of Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing:
Lift ev'ry voice and sing,
Till earth and heaven ring.
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise,
High as the list'ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.
Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chast'ning rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet,
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might,
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee,
Shadowed beneath thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.
On the evening after Marie sang this song to the city council and mayor of Denver, Colorado she told a news reporter she wanted to express how she felt as a black woman growing up in this country.
The fall out of her actions has taken on typical American hyperbole. A former cop who is now a city councilman said the national anthem is the only thing that should have been sang. “Period. …This isn’t a NAACP convention.”
There’s a full front page and two full pages on page 4-5 about this egregious action of the jazz singer who dared. On page 42 there’s a story about the possibility of the FBI having powers to investigate Americans without any evidence of wrongdoing. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq continue but finding any news about them is nearly impossible in the same newspaper excoriating Ms. Marie for having the gall to make a statement about the true condition of our city and our nation.
Nationwide and locally attack jocks of talk radio speak racist code as they condemn Marie for being unpatriotic and worse. Hate mail pours in through emails all across the nation in this country that claims to hold the truths of all men (and women?) being created equal and endowed with the inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Rene Marie begs to differ…no she doesn’t beg to differ….she took the opportunity to remind the fat cats of political office they were failing her and people like her. You know, people with different skin pigmentation. People impoverished and without power. People homeless and jobless.
The racists and cowards in office want to portray Rene as “dishonest” and “deceitful”. They say she’s “disrespectful”, part of a “cult of multiculturalism and anti-Americanism..” and “selfish”. The black councilman who heads the council disavowed her actions quicker than Obama ran Reverend Wright over with his campaign bus. No doubt there will be a reaction from Obama forthcoming. The white liberal mayor took hours to come up with a coherent statement condemning Ms. Marie. Then he held a press conference the next day to further clarify his thinking which his staff helped him develop, without much doubt.
What was it Phil Ochs said about liberals in his song “I’m A Liberal”? Something to the effect liberals talk a great story but bail quicker than the Iraqi army did at the start of both invasions by the American military whenever the liberal is personally challenged to stand up for an unpopular cause. Michael Hedges says in his book “Losing Moses on the Freeway: The Ten Commandments in America” that making the moral choice is seldom rewarded. The Democratically controlled Congress is clear evidence of that statement. They have failed time and again to make a moral choice and accepted the rewards offered not to do so.
I certainly don’t speak for Rene’ Marie. She’s very capable of doing that for herself. I do speak in support of her bravery to challenge a system that has made empty promises to men and women who are black. She is a voice of clarity and conscience willing to call the bastards out for their constant lies to marginalized people. She doesn’t say this. I do.
I’m an old white male who grew up in the days before segregation ended in this nation. If it ever truly did…we just found other ways to accomplish the vile practice. I fought in a war for this nation and came to realize the words of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Corky Gonzales had great merit in “white America”. Vietnam was a reprehensible sham that killed 3 million Vietnamese and 58,000 plus Americans. It scarred many of us for life both physically and mentally.
I returned home in 1969 after spending the entire year of 1968 in combat with the Marines. I was wounded and asked to kill other humans. I followed orders and did as I was asked. I quit doing so once I returned home. I realized I had been duped in my attempts to be a patriotic American. I realized patriotism isn’t always an easy path to follow. True patriotism means challenging authority of the government when it violates the rights of its citizens. It means speaking out and being unpopular when the moral choice isn’t made by elected officials. I think Rene’ Marie did a difficult act of patriotism on July 2, 2008 when she chose not to honor the rockets red glare and bombs bursting in air. I would be proud as a combat veteran to stand by her side in support of what she did.
I am without a doubt considered a radical in my thinking. I don’t like the national anthem because it conjures up the images of war and violence. I find shame in the American flag because it symbolizes blood and violence of too many unnecessary wars perpetrated for honorable causes that were merely inducements to get young people to fall for the lies of the old men in power.
I love my country. I love the people of this nation. In good conscience, however, I cannot and will not tolerate the lies and corruption of a government that has usurped the very tenets of the Declaration and the Constitution. People tell me freedom isn’t free to justify the wars of the rich and elite that sacrifice the children of poor and middle class Americans. I say they are right that freedom isn’t free. It means being ever vigilant to prevent our government of the people from stealing liberty from the people. It means making difficult choices such as Rene’ Marie made on the second day of July in the year 2008.
I admittedly hate the July 4th holiday because it doesn’t honor what American ideals should be about. It honors explosions and bombs bursting in air. It became a day of over indulgence and consumption. It became a commercial rather than an ideal. Like many combat veterans I hate the fireworks because they only remind me of the real explosions of war. This year, however, I find joy in the actions of a woman willing to make an unpopular but patriotic choice. Thank you Rene’ Marie.
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
So, there you have it….the reason we celebrate the 4th of July. Amazingly it has nothing to do with fireworks unless political fireworks resulting from the daring dissent of those signing this declaration count.
Some of our leaders should take a look to see what it was they said in this declaration. It seems the entire document has become null and void if we look at all the rights and freedoms we’ve lost since 9-11. And are we safer today?
Today as we come to the anniversary date of this declaration the front page of one of Denver’s daily newspapers has photos of the mayor and a jazz singer, Rene’ Marie. Marie was invited to sing the national anthem at the State of Denver event by John Hickenlooper, the mayor. The black jazz singer decided it was time to change the script. After years of enduring the hypocrisy of America and the insult of that declaration above, Rene’ Marie, free black woman…proud black woman, sang the lyrics of a song called the Black National Anthem to the tune of The Star Spangled Banner. Perhaps the 52 year old singer thought of her parents having to sit in at a lunch counter at a segregated restaurant in Virginia during the 1960’s civil rights movement as she changed course and sang the lyrics of Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing:
Lift ev'ry voice and sing,
Till earth and heaven ring.
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise,
High as the list'ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.
Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chast'ning rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet,
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might,
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee,
Shadowed beneath thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.
On the evening after Marie sang this song to the city council and mayor of Denver, Colorado she told a news reporter she wanted to express how she felt as a black woman growing up in this country.
The fall out of her actions has taken on typical American hyperbole. A former cop who is now a city councilman said the national anthem is the only thing that should have been sang. “Period. …This isn’t a NAACP convention.”
There’s a full front page and two full pages on page 4-5 about this egregious action of the jazz singer who dared. On page 42 there’s a story about the possibility of the FBI having powers to investigate Americans without any evidence of wrongdoing. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq continue but finding any news about them is nearly impossible in the same newspaper excoriating Ms. Marie for having the gall to make a statement about the true condition of our city and our nation.
Nationwide and locally attack jocks of talk radio speak racist code as they condemn Marie for being unpatriotic and worse. Hate mail pours in through emails all across the nation in this country that claims to hold the truths of all men (and women?) being created equal and endowed with the inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Rene Marie begs to differ…no she doesn’t beg to differ….she took the opportunity to remind the fat cats of political office they were failing her and people like her. You know, people with different skin pigmentation. People impoverished and without power. People homeless and jobless.
The racists and cowards in office want to portray Rene as “dishonest” and “deceitful”. They say she’s “disrespectful”, part of a “cult of multiculturalism and anti-Americanism..” and “selfish”. The black councilman who heads the council disavowed her actions quicker than Obama ran Reverend Wright over with his campaign bus. No doubt there will be a reaction from Obama forthcoming. The white liberal mayor took hours to come up with a coherent statement condemning Ms. Marie. Then he held a press conference the next day to further clarify his thinking which his staff helped him develop, without much doubt.
What was it Phil Ochs said about liberals in his song “I’m A Liberal”? Something to the effect liberals talk a great story but bail quicker than the Iraqi army did at the start of both invasions by the American military whenever the liberal is personally challenged to stand up for an unpopular cause. Michael Hedges says in his book “Losing Moses on the Freeway: The Ten Commandments in America” that making the moral choice is seldom rewarded. The Democratically controlled Congress is clear evidence of that statement. They have failed time and again to make a moral choice and accepted the rewards offered not to do so.
I certainly don’t speak for Rene’ Marie. She’s very capable of doing that for herself. I do speak in support of her bravery to challenge a system that has made empty promises to men and women who are black. She is a voice of clarity and conscience willing to call the bastards out for their constant lies to marginalized people. She doesn’t say this. I do.
I’m an old white male who grew up in the days before segregation ended in this nation. If it ever truly did…we just found other ways to accomplish the vile practice. I fought in a war for this nation and came to realize the words of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Corky Gonzales had great merit in “white America”. Vietnam was a reprehensible sham that killed 3 million Vietnamese and 58,000 plus Americans. It scarred many of us for life both physically and mentally.
I returned home in 1969 after spending the entire year of 1968 in combat with the Marines. I was wounded and asked to kill other humans. I followed orders and did as I was asked. I quit doing so once I returned home. I realized I had been duped in my attempts to be a patriotic American. I realized patriotism isn’t always an easy path to follow. True patriotism means challenging authority of the government when it violates the rights of its citizens. It means speaking out and being unpopular when the moral choice isn’t made by elected officials. I think Rene’ Marie did a difficult act of patriotism on July 2, 2008 when she chose not to honor the rockets red glare and bombs bursting in air. I would be proud as a combat veteran to stand by her side in support of what she did.
I am without a doubt considered a radical in my thinking. I don’t like the national anthem because it conjures up the images of war and violence. I find shame in the American flag because it symbolizes blood and violence of too many unnecessary wars perpetrated for honorable causes that were merely inducements to get young people to fall for the lies of the old men in power.
I love my country. I love the people of this nation. In good conscience, however, I cannot and will not tolerate the lies and corruption of a government that has usurped the very tenets of the Declaration and the Constitution. People tell me freedom isn’t free to justify the wars of the rich and elite that sacrifice the children of poor and middle class Americans. I say they are right that freedom isn’t free. It means being ever vigilant to prevent our government of the people from stealing liberty from the people. It means making difficult choices such as Rene’ Marie made on the second day of July in the year 2008.
I admittedly hate the July 4th holiday because it doesn’t honor what American ideals should be about. It honors explosions and bombs bursting in air. It became a day of over indulgence and consumption. It became a commercial rather than an ideal. Like many combat veterans I hate the fireworks because they only remind me of the real explosions of war. This year, however, I find joy in the actions of a woman willing to make an unpopular but patriotic choice. Thank you Rene’ Marie.
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