Sad will be the day when the American people forget their traditions and their history, and no longer remember that the country they love, the institutions they cherish, and the freedom they hope to preserve, were born from the throes of armed resistance to tyranny, and nursed in the rugged arms of fearless men.
—Roger Sherman
Sadly that day is here, foisted on us by the woke and other unhinged people who hate this country and work tirelessly to destroy it. Would to God they do not succeed.
As you pause this day to give thanks for our veterans, past and present, take some time to familiarize yourself with the history of this day.
World War I – known at the time as “The Great War” – officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Palace of Versailles outside the town of Versailles, France. However, fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For that reason, November 11, 1918, is generally regarded as the end of “the war to end all wars.”
Taken at 10:58 a.m., on Nov. 11, 1918, just before the Armistice went into effect; men of the 353rd Infantry, near a church, at Stenay, Meuse, wait for the end of hostilities. (SC034981)
Soldiers of the 353rd Infantry near a church at Stenay, Meuse in France, wait for the end of hostilities. This photo was taken at 10:58 a.m., on November 11, 1918, two minutes before the armistice ending World War I went into effect
In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day with the following words: “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…”
The original concept for the celebration was for a day observed with parades and public meetings and a brief suspension of business beginning at 11:00 a.m.
Agree. For those with ears to hear, listen and understand. The evil of woke must not prevail. Happy Columbus Day!!
Columbus Day ought to provoke reflection as much as celebration—and not just because the White House is emphatically committed to the latter. It was the right move, of course, for the administration to confidently reject acts of erasure like “Indigenous Peoples Day,” and the whole apparatus of academia, media, and elite-left cultural bludgeoning behind it. We should understand what exactly was meant to be erased.
Although Columbus Day in its historical roots is a de facto holiday for Italian Americans, that group was never really the target of those attacking Christopher Columbus or the holiday in his name. Rather, the opposition to Columbus and his day came due to enmity toward the values and roots of those Italian Americans—and every other American worth the name.
Columbus’s Journal of the First Voyage opens with “In nomine Domini nostri Jesu Christi (In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ),” revealing that his journey was an act of faith. He navigated the dangerous waters of the Atlantic to bring about the evangelization of the world foretold in sacred Scripture.
Columbus brought that faith, Catholic and Christian, to the Americas, and so the enemies of the faith became enemies of his. A man of Italy, he sailed for Their Catholic Majesties of Spain, and so the enemies of the Spanish inheritance became enemies of his. Columbus brought a European civilization that came to dominate and define the life of the New World. Columbus brought the ideas of that civilization to the Western Hemisphere, and laid the groundwork for those that transcended them—natural rights, republican law, and every moral advance from Bartolomeo de las Casas to Frederick Douglass.
It is the same tale over and over again: scratch an opponent of Columbus and Columbus Day and you inevitably discover a deep hostility toward the very culture and principles that underpin liberty and decency everywhere. After all, once it is conceded that a seafaring adventurer braving the vast ocean in the name of Christian majesties discovered a land where a “new birth of freedom” eventually flourished—still the fulcrum of mankind’s earthly hopes more than half a millennium later—what is left? That concession means that faith is an intrinsic good—and that adventure in its name is a surpassing virtue.
Men and women who admire Christopher Columbus might dare to be free—and that’s what his enemies truly fear.
Of course there is reason to criticize the historical figure of Columbus, as there is reason to criticize any man who ever lived save one. Christopher Columbus was sometimes iniquitous and at times cruel. This is indisputable—and also irrelevant to the reasons for his celebration. The magnitude of his achievement and its world-historical consequences—dwarfing those of all but a handful of other men in human history—render his faults almost meaningless. The God whom Columbus imperfectly served makes use of imperfect instruments to accomplish His perfect will. We who live in the world Columbus found have only one proper and virtuous response to him: gratitude.
Hanson offers a spot on analysis of what is happening in Portland, OR. Yet the problem runs much deeper than even his excellent analysis posits; it is not just a “Democrat or Left problem,” perverse and bizarre as the party has become; rather, it is a problem of the human condition that we all share. At it’s core, it is the spirit of lawlessness and chaos unleashed that have gripped this country and that stem from rebellious and sinful hearts that we inherited in and through the Fall (Genesis 1-3), and barring God’s merciful and gracious intervention on our behalf, our country his headed for (self-) destruction. This is one of the ways God’s terrible judgment plays out on nations that forsake his laws (see, e.g., Romans 1.18-32; 2 Thessalonians 2.9-12) and it is a fearsome and terrible thing to behold, especially for those involved. Pray to Christ that this does not ultimately happen to us to destroy the high ideals that made this nation great in the first place. Secularism isn’t the answer. Neither is rejection of our Judeo-Christian heritage—these two factors helped get us where we are! No, only repentance and spiritual renewal after the manner of Christ can save us, and then only through the sheer mercy and grace of God the Father. Other nations have been down this path before and it rarely if ever is pretty. Let all who love this country humble themselves and commit to regular prayer and fasting, that the Lord might be merciful to us and spare us. Lord have mercy on us. Christ have mercy on us. Lord have mercy on us. For those with ears to hear, listen and understand.
In blue cities across America — Portland, Oregon, especially — often violent protesters now seek to surround ICE facilities to stop federal officers from fulfilling their assigned and legal duties of arresting illegal aliens.
Some 10 million or more illegal aliens were allowed to enter the U.S. during the Joe Biden years — illegally and thus without criminal or health checks.
Neither Antifa nor liberal urban America objected to such a flagrant disregard for the law. But both are now as intent on obstructing the legal enforcement of the law as they were earlier in favor of its illegal non-enforcement.
Much less did they care about the consequences of sending millions of foreign nationals into cities and counties where they swamped social services, spiked crime, and flooded emergency rooms and schools.
ICE has repeatedly presented data that show in its first rounds of deportations, it is concentrating on removing either criminal illegal aliens or those who have already been processed with deportation orders, somewhere between 70 and 90% of all current apprehensions.
No matter.
Left-wing protesters are swarming ICE headquarters in Portland to violently oppose all deportations, even those of known criminals and those who have already exhausted efforts to remain here illegally.
…The reigning moralistic assumption is that ceding territory to terrorists, not enforcing local and state laws, and nullifying federal statutes are all small prices to pay for the larger projection of chaos and violence that can be blamed on Trump.
Such thinking entails utter indifference to any Portlanders who live near the siege and are nightly subjected to constant disruptions, harassment, and occasional violence. Do these law-abiding residents have fewer civil rights than the lawbreaking armies of the night?
In contrast, the use of federal troops to stop the siege of ICE facilities will remind the violent protesters of the left that their neo-Confederate tactics will not work, but instead subject them to arrest and federal indictments.
Bringing in federal forces to uphold the law will also protect the rights of ICE personnel and neighborhood residents to live in peace and security and have their constitutional protections secured. Not all American citizens are Portlanders, but all Portland citizens are Americans.
In other words, both Antifa and the appeasing Oregon officials are our new neo-Confederate secessionists. They feel that their states are now autonomous entities that are still entitled to federal money but not obligated to follow federal laws.
A troubling, if interesting piece. I too am concerned about the number of misguided people in our great nation who embrace unreality and lawlessness in all its myriad forms, lawlessness being the very definition of sin. Anyone who claims to love God and country must stand firm against both unreality and lawlessness, irrespective of their source, because this is much more than just a political matter or clash; it is war being waged on the forces of Good by the forces of Evil. For those with ears to hear, listen and understand.
“Now that everyone has seen the blatant white Christian nationalism on display at the Kirk memorial/political rally, here are some resources to help you learn more and resist more effectively.” This sentence was posted on X by Jemar Tisby, a protégé of the huckster Ibram X. Kendi. Tisby followed up that observation by helpfully pointing people to his own book, Color of Compromise: The Truth About the American Church’s Complicity with Racism, as a manual to combat the grave evils they had just witnessed in State Farm Stadium.
That Tisby would think to write and then publish this sentiment about Charlie Kirk’s memorial service shows the depths to which the Left has sunk. They are categorically rejecting the bonds of civic friendship that are necessary to keep our country whole. Instead of centering “whiteness,” they center race-based narcissism, envy, and pride, the modern Left’s unholy trinity.
I realize that using the term “they” angers people like Karl Rove, but there’s currently a political movement in America—the Left—that’s increasingly giddy as violence is being directed against their foes. Yes, only one leftist pulled the trigger—but the Left as a whole prepared the ground for that demonic action by constantly dehumanizing their political opponents by calling them “fascists,” “Nazis,” and worse, shouting down and even assaulting speakers on college campuses, and backing a massive network of far-left extremist organizations that are dedicated to upending civil society by any means necessary.
If the point of the Left’s project is humiliation, the way they carry it out is through a systematic assault on the basic ways of life that have been practiced in this country for hundreds of years.
Tent revivals, open-air preaching to the masses, altar calls, and seemingly miraculous, on-the-spot conversions are thoroughly American. The words of the King James Bible have been peppered in political speeches throughout our nation’s history, as has the imagery of America as the new Israel and Americans as the “almost chosen people,” in Lincoln’s weighty phrase. Preachers and politicians taught that the Good News of freedom from slavery and other forms of despotism flowed from the Good News of Christianity. Election sermons were given for centuries, especially around the time of the American Revolution (read Ellis Sandoz’s two-volume collection if you haven’t already done so). Even the blatantly unorthodox Benjamin Franklin raved about George Whitefield’s preaching in his Autobiography.
That these folkways have waned in recent times indicates that we’ve lost our way and should return to our traditions. But the Left wants us to draw precisely the opposite lesson: that our nation has been a racist hellhole for nearly the entirety of its existence, which is why our heritage should be rejected in toto.
An excellent if longish piece. Let everyone with ears to hear, listen and understand, especially those who love this country and do not want to see it perish in vain.
When 20-year-old loner Thomas Matthew Crooks ascended a sloped roof in Butler County, Pennsylvania, and opened fire, he unleashed a torrent of cliches. Commentators and public figures avoided the term “assassination attempt,” even if the AR-15 was trained on the head of a then-former president—instead, they condemned “political violence.”
“There is absolutely no place for political violence in our democracy,” former president Barack Obama said. One year later, he added the word “despicable” to his condemnation of the assassin who killed Charlie Kirk. That was an upgrade from two weeks prior, when he described the shooting at Annunciation Catholic School by a transgender individual as merely “unnecessary.”
Anyone fluent in post-9/11 rhetoric knows that political violence is the domain of terrorists and lone wolf ideologues, whose manifestos will soon be unearthed by federal investigators, deciphered by the high priests of our therapeutic age, and debated by partisans on cable TV. The attempt to reduce it to the mere atomized individual, however, is a modern novelty. From the American Revolution to the Civil War, from the 1863 draft riots to the 1968 MLK riots, from the spring of Rodney King to the summer of George Floyd, there is a long history of Americans resorting to violence to achieve political ends by way of the mob.
Since the January 6 riot that followed the 2020 election, the Left has persistently attempted to paint the Right as particularly prone to mob action. But as the online response to the murder of Charlie Kirk demonstrates—with thousands of leftists openly celebrating the gory, public assassination of a young father—the vitriol that drives mob violence is endemic to American political discourse and a perpetual threat to order.
Our Founders understood this all too well.
In August of 1786, a violent insurrection ripped through the peaceful Massachusetts countryside. After the end of the Revolutionary War, many American soldiers were caught in a vise, with debt collectors on one side and a government unable to make back pay on the other. A disgruntled former officer in the Continental Army named Daniel Shays led a violent rebellion aimed at breaking the vise at gunpoint.
“Commotions of this sort, like snow-balls, gather strength as they roll, if there is no opposition in the way to divide and crumble them,” George Washington wrote in a letter, striking a serene tone in the face of an insurrection. James Madison was less forgiving: “In all very numerous assemblies, of whatever character composed, passion never fails to wrest the sceptre from reason. Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob,” he wrote in Federalist 55. Inspired by Shays’s Rebellion and seeking to rein in the excesses of democracy, lawmakers called for the Constitutional Convention in the summer of 1787.
If the United States Constitution was borne out of political chaos, why does the current moment strike so many as distinctly perilous? Classical political philosophy offers us a clearer answer to this question than modern psychoanalysis. The most pointed debate among philosophers throughout the centuries has centered on how to prevent mob violence and ensure that most unnatural of things: political order.
In Plato’s Republic, the work that stands at the headwaters of the Western tradition of political philosophy, Socrates argues that the only truly just society is one in which philosophers are kings and kings are philosophers. As a rule, democracy devolves into tyranny, for mob rule inevitably breeds impulsive citizens who become focused on petty pleasures. The resulting disorder eventually becomes so unbearable that a demagogue arises, promising to restore order and peace.
The classically educated Founders picked up on these ideas—mediated through Aristotle, Cicero, John Locke, and Montesquieu, among others—as they developed the structure of the new American government. The Constitution’s mixed government was explicitly designed to establish a political order that would take into consideration the sentiments and interests of the people without yielding to mob rule at the expense of order. The Founders took for granted that powerful elites would necessarily be interested in upholding the regime from which they derived their authority.
Read and reflect on it all. The Left hate our country and seek its destruction. Do not be complicit with their evil.
Jefferson had intended to write a memorable letter, and he succeeded. It was widely reprinted just days after he sent it and continues to be read in American classrooms two centuries later.
As one of the surviving signers of the Declaration of Independence and a former president, John Adams received the same invitation to celebrate the 50th anniversary of independence. Like Jefferson, Adams declined for reasons of ill health. Then, also like Jefferson, in an amazing coincidence of destiny, Adams too died on the day the celebration was to take place, July 4, 1826.
Adams’s son, the sitting president John Quincy Adams, wrote in his diary what many others were thinking and saying: that this was a manifestation of “Divine favor.” Daniel Webster, who was invited to deliver a eulogy in Boston’s Faneuil Hall the following month, called the passing of Jefferson and Adams on that day a “dispensation of the Divine Providence.” “ADAMS and JEFFERSON are no more,” he intoned, but “Their work doth not perish with them.” “No age will come,” said Webster, “in which the American Revolution will appear less than it is, one of the greatest events in human history.”
In John Quincy Adams’s and Daniel Webster’s eyes, the highest attainment of all future American generations would be to understand and live up to the greatness of the Revolution. The essence of that greatness was not the heroic deeds, of which there were many, in the war for independence. It was the Idea of Independence itself, the idea of political freedom that inspired the heroes of the Revolution and all their heroic deeds. The soul of this idea was expressed by Jefferson in the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom: “Almighty God hath created the mind free.” All that is distinctively American has arisen from this idea.
In Quincy, Massachusetts, on Friday, June 30, 1826, the dying John Adams received some visitors. The young reverend George Whitney and representatives of Quincy’s July 4th celebration committee had come to ask the great statesman for a toast to be presented on the Fourth of July as coming from him. Adams said, “I will give you, ‘Independence Forever!’” They asked if he would like to add anything. Adams said, “not a word.”
Read it all. For those with ears to hear, listen and understand.
Today, as we celebrate our nation’s birth, perhaps no greater symbol more visibly displays the desire, and call, upon our citizens to patriotism than our American flag.
In May 1776, it was not only their shared allegiance to their soon to be nation, but their shared faith that birthed our American flag. Two Episcopalians George Washington and Betsy Ross, who worshiped together at Christ Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, worked with a small and secret committee to design an enduring symbol for our new nation’s future.
The end result was spelled out in the fabric of Old Glory – white stars on a blue background, with alternating stripes of red and white. The stars would grow in number as the states did… from the original 13 to the 50 there now. Blue, the symbol for vigilance, perseverance, justice and freedom. White for purity and innocence. And Red, hardiness, courage, valor and, of course, the price of blood so often paid for the freedom we now enjoy.
God’s blessing of America, like many things God does, is a partnership arrangement.
For those who love our country and all for which it stands, when called to pledge our allegiance – we stand, we remove our hats, we silence our conversation. We place our hands over our hearts and we promise yet again our loyalty – as we should – to the essential intangible qualities of a free land entrusted to our care by God Almighty.
Regardless of the polarizing strains of identity politics that some promote, the vast majority of Americans still hold to the reality that we are “One Nation Under God,” and that, as our Declaration of Independence states, we are “…endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights… among them, Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Today, many of us will sing in celebration, Irving Berlin’s words, “God Bless America.” But for our time, it might as well be as much of a prayer as it is a patriotic hymn.
A minute or two with the headlines of any newspaper, or the first two minutes of any news channel, are enough to tell us that we need something beyond ourselves to help us. Whatever we are doing on our own, is doing little, if anything to stem the tide of cultural divisiveness, racial disharmony, pervasive political corruption and unceasing violence. We need something beyond ourselves – to help us, to save us – to bless us.
While I offer these words as a Christian pastor, my work alongside religious leaders from all traditions, would agree – that God’s blessing of America, like many things God does, is a partnership arrangement.
Yes, God’s blessings are always initiated with God Himself, but all the great stories of faith offer a deep truth – that much of what God does – is done not just “for” those made in God’s image, but “with” them – alongside them. Abraham, the Father of Hebrews, Christians and Muslims – was promised by God an inheritance, but in order to claim it, he would have to set himself on God’s path – trusting and believing, by faith, that holding God’s hand, he would ultimately receive that promise.
What, today, might help us in that partnership with God? For your consideration — using the flag as a kind of background, let me offer a few suggestions as a 4th of July meditation of sort.
First, let the red in our flag recall for you the word, “Remember.” Remember the price paid for your freedom – from the Alamo to Gettysburg, from Anzio to Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq. Remember, too, those who responded to terrorist attacks within our own borders. It is impossible to really take in the sacrifice of life, limb and loved ones for the cause of freedom, but it is not impossible to be eternally grateful.
Only weeks ago, my wife and I visited Omaha Beach in Normandy. As we walked off the beach, a young couple was laughing as they snapped photos with two of their toddlers – a scene not possible on the same beach that only 79 years before was soaked in the blood of allied soldiers who paved the way, not just for a free Europe, but a free world – and a scene that absolutely would never have been if the launch of D-Day had not turned the tide of that horrible war.
Later, as we gazed upon the over 9,000 graves of Americans buried just above that same beach, no words fit what only the heart could feel – humility and gratitude.
Around our globe, we see the birth pains of nations hoping and praying for what you and I have had for well over 200 years. Remember. Remember the price that has been paid. And remember a price that high is also a treasure impossible to value – except through the gift of grateful remembrance. So – remember.
From Fox News Opinion. A nice reflection and so very true. Read it all.
Independence Day should be more than fireworks and festivities—it should be a day of profound reflection and recognition. A day to honor the tremendous sacrifices and unyielding values of the Founding Fathers and American Patriots who defied death and tyranny, breaking free from the oppressive reign of a despotic king and the British Empire. These intrepid souls, fueled by an unwavering commitment to freedom, epitomized moral courage and selflessness. They challenged staggering odds, inspiring generations. However, a disconcerting chasm now gapes between the spirit of 1776 and today’s dominant values.
Historical accounts tell us that during the American Revolution, less than 45 percent of colonists actively supported independence, according to historian Thomas Slaughter. This reminder underlines that the quest for freedom and justice seldom garners unanimous applause. Often, it’s the morally brave few who defy the status quo, facing mockery, rebuke, and even death.
Sound familiar?
Today, citizens face not a lethal external enemy but an insidious domestic one—”cancel culture.” This modern menace, capable of publicly ostracizing individuals, seems a harsher fate than that faced by our forefathers.
Modern societal norms starkly contrast with the spirit of American independence. We see personal accountability crumble, a government increasingly dismissive of our Constitution and Bill of Rights, a weaponized justice system, and too much of a media landscape that has lost its objectivity.
The Lexington Minuteman Statue superimposed in American flag against blue sky. Lexington Battle Green, Massachusetts. (Photo by H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/Getty Images)
This amalgamation is a formidable threat to the freedom, justice, and individual liberty our founding fathers fiercely fought for. We must not only acknowledge these challenges but also actively strive to re-instill the founding principles of our nation—personal responsibility, limited government, and the safeguarding of individual rights. The question is: are we willing to change course, regardless of discomfort or inconvenience, or will we let the sacrifices of our ancestors be in vain?
From Fox News. Agree with this opinion, especially with the last question above. Read it all.
Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910) gave the United States — and the world — some of the most inspirational words ever written.
She penned “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” in November 1861, during a wartime tour of Washington, D.C., as Americans realized with gloom that the seven-month-old Civil War would be longer, darker and deadlier than anticipated.
Howe’s masterpiece has been called America’s fight song. Its lyrics inspired the United States to spiritual resolve and sacrifice.
Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light, What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro’ the perilous fight, O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so galantly streaming? And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof thro’ the night that our flag was still there. O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen thro’ the mists of the deep, Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes, What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep, As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam, In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream: ‘Tis the star’spangled banner: O, long may it wave O’ver the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore That the havoc of war and the battle’s confustion A home and a country should leave us no more? Their blood has wash’d out there foul footsteps’ pollution. No refuge could save the hireling and slave From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave: And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand, Between their lov’d homes and the war’s desolation; Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserv’d us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause is just, And this be our motto: “In God is our trust” And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
