Americans “Win” at Healthcare Summit

I don’t know about you, but everywhere I turn, there is immense concern about the future of America.  Everyone is at some level of anxiety, confusion, frustration and anger.  And it all stems from the fact that Washington could care less about “We, the people”.  

Yesterday’s “Summit” on Healthcare demonstrates why our nervousness is slowly turning to outrage  – our President doesn’t have a clue!  What he calls “talking points”, I call foundational convictions held by most Americans.   What he calls continued campaigning, I call continued efforts to reason with the far-left about what makes America great – namely the freedom to pursue our individual destinies, including our right to work out our health care needs privately with the doctor of our choice and completely absent from government interference of any kind.

To do that, we need less government, not more!   Mr. President, what part of “less government” don’t you understand??

Do you really think Americans will go for a mandate to purchase health care?  Is this freedom?  Do you really think Americans will swallow cuts to Medicare?  Is this charitable for our seniors?  Do you really think Americans are nothing more than deep pockets for an already over the top budget?  Is this wise fiscal management?  Do you really think the waste and fraud that already exists in government will improve with such a huge expansion of government? Is this trust in government?  Do you really think Americans will stand for “reconciliation” when we’ve said over and over that we don’t want this legislation?  Is this your idea of transparency?

On the one hand, I am deeply concerned about America.  It seems as if our nation’s government has been taken over by people who either: a) have a malicious plan to turn America into a socialist country, b) have no malicious plan to do so, but are so ignorant about American history, principles and values we will end up a socialist country, or c) simply do not care about America’s future and are willing to gamble it away.

Not a warm feeling.

On the other hand, I am so proud to be an American.  For one thing, (allow me to digress from Healthcare) our military is winning in Afghanistan!! Yay, American military for having such goodness of heart that we meticulously “separate the innocent” from the treacherous before routing them! 

Secondly, Americans do get it!  Did you hear Frank Bluntz’s focus group last night on Fox?  Those people had it goin’ on!  We recognize media hype when we see it.  We know a wolf in sheep’s clothing.  We refuse to be bullied by the Reid’s and Pelosi’s … and the President.  Americans continue to stand up!  We instinctively understand what is at stake and we will not stop fighting for the right to be free.

The President’s plan may have been to make conservative values look bad, but his plan backfired!  Americans want our health care improved, not impaled by a government takeover.  Obama looked bad yesterday.  He looked exactly like what he is … a grandstander. 

The American people are finally beginning to see right through him … and he doesn’t have a clue!

Heroes

Sixty-five years ago today, the Battle of Iwo Jima raged.  6,821 American servicemen gave their lives and over 19,000 were wounded in defense of freedom on Mount Suribachi in 1945.  No other single action by U.S. Marines has suffered such great losses in their 200+ year history.  The iconic photograph of six Marines raising the American flag atop a hilltop, one of the most recognizable wartime photographs ever taken, was taken during that battle. 

One of the many heroes during those horrific days was young Corporal Tony Stein.  Determined to destroy as many of the hunkered down enemy as possible, Corporal Stein singlehandedly killed 20 of them while bombs and shells exploded around him on all sides.   Finally he ran out of ammunition.  Despite that, he courageously ran back to the beach 8 times to retrieve more ammunition and each time he did, he assisted a wounded Marine safely back.   

There are young service men and women defending our freedom today in Iraq and Afghanistan, risking their lives so that we can continue to live in the “land of the free”.  No words can ever completely express our gratitude for their sacrifice and yet, words are all we have to show our thanks.   God bless each and every man and woman who has fought or is fighting for the United States of America!

Abraham Lincoln Never Recited the Pledge of Allegiance

Abraham Lincoln, undoubtedly one of our greatest American presidents, never recited the Pledge of Allegiance.  I realize most of you never even considered that he might have … recited the Pledge of Allegiance, that is.  But, he was the first to use the phrase,  “nation under God”.  It was in the Gettysburg Address – “… that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Lincoln’s use of this phrase was one of the arguments used by Congress to justify adding “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954.  That, and the very real threat of a world wide takeover of Communism.

Remember, the U.S. had just come out of a horrible war.  The atom bomb (along with the birth of the development of nuclear weaponry) was not a distant concept.  To that generation of Americans, it was REALITY.  And Communism was no “textbook”  idea either.  The reality of Communist tanks rolling into one small defenseless nation after another was daily on the minds of Americans.  Hence, Communism plus the A-bomb was as real to our flesh-and-blood ancestors as rising unemployment rates is to us today.

So … what to do?  Well, our grandparents had an answer … not the whole answer, not the final answer … but an answer just the same.  Our grandparents (and for you younger readers, great grandparents) went back to the very core of why this nation was birthed in the first place … the freedom for individuals to recognize, acknowledge, worship and glorify God.   That’s right.  Not the right to bear arms … as important as that is.  Not the right to own property … as critical as that is.  Not the right to assemble or to vote or to speak freely or to have a fair trial by peers or the many other freedoms that we enjoy.  As important as each of those freedoms is … as critical as they are to our nation’s security and success … our ancestors did NOT get on a boat and cross an ocean to gain those freedoms.

No. Our ancestors risked their lives for God.  Nothing was more important to them than the ability to live their lives in such a way that they could worship God the best way they knew how … that was the driving force that caused so many to risk their lives and the lives of their loved ones.   And that is the bedrock foundation upon which the United States of America was formed.

So, in 1954 a small group of Congressmen proposed that “under God” be added to the Pledge of Allegiance.  Congressman Louis Rabaut, a Democrat from Michigan, said in a speech to Congress on August 20, 1954, “Indeed, the one fundamental issue which is the unbridgeable gap between America and Communist Russia is belief in Almighty God.”

President Eisenhower said this when signing the bill into law, “In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America’s heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country’s most powerful resource, in peace or in war.”

In 1863, Abraham Lincoln planted the seed that America is, indeed, a “nation under God”.  Ninety-one years later, America formally proclaimed this truth.  And they proclaimed it loudly and without shame or doubt … to the world.

Since that time, Americans everywhere recite it daily.  But, sadly, the history behind its origins has been lost … to apathy, to political correctness, to inattention and disinterest in our national heritage.

I hope that I can help revive this small part of American history – the history of the Pledge of Allegiance.  The history of the Pledge is the history of America.  Stay tuned for more.  And, in the meantime, if your interested, visit my web site, www.theuspledge.com and purchase my book.  I have uncovered American history you simply do not know.

Someone once said, “When you change what you know, you change what you put up with.”

Now you know.  Will you continue to put up with a revisionist form of American history?  I hope not.

Happy birthday, Abraham Lincoln (and George Washington)!  And thanks for reminding us that we are, indeed, “one nation under God”.