The last 9 days have been a troubling time in America:
Debates over Healthcare, leading to the passage of a bill that aims to destroy the greatest Healthcare System in the world, followed by the dispicable Act of Terrorism inflicted on our military, at Fort Hood, by one of their own, a Radical, American-born Muslim, Lone Wolf Terrorist, who had been publically telegraphing his terrorist, Radical Islamic, sympathies, for years from within the Service itself, and a President who, in his words, and actions, related to this last, has shown a distrubing cluelessness (People with more time, and patience, not to mention influence, and traffic, have documented, and commented on, this online, on radio, and TV.), even as he somehow managed to say soothing words to the nation no doubt written with the help of his speech writers so as not to offend certain of his constiuencies at home and abroad.
This post is about Veterans day in a Time of War, and some of the great writing to be found online today, and about some books I have in my collection that I recommend that you find and read.
1. From THE premiere MilBlog in the world today, Mudville Gazette:
Guns on the Q.T. - Thank God for That" By Greyhawk
"A Mudville Veterans Day tradition, I first posted this one from Baghdad in 2004. My grandfather (whose grandfather fought for Ohio in the Civil War) was a medic on the battlefields in WWI, the letter reproduced below was to the girl back home who would become his wife."
Some of what Granpa wrote might be a tad too patriotic for some today, and something he did might be considered Politically Incorrect, but good for him!
2. Another top MilBlog is Blackfive, and I have 2 posts from it to share:
A. Again this year (sort of a Veterans Day tradition), I wanted to offer up my favorite Veterans Day article from the late, great Mike Royko (1932 - 1997) who penned it in 1993. I don't care if you were a paratrooper, cook, medic, grunt, pilot, or ran the laundry and bath point, you have my thanks for serving our country.
I think Mike's got the right idea about how to celebrate Veterans Day, GI-Style.
B. A picture IS worth a thousand words, and this powerful, and moving, photo is PRICELESS!
3. Doctor Zero, at Hot Air, has written a powerful tribute to the Veterans of the past and, along the way, makes a powerful point in the aftermath of Ft. Hood:
On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of 2009, the wounded of Fort Hood will remember their fallen friends, and wonder how a man wrapped in enough red flags to turn him into a bloody mummy was allowed to infiltrate their base. Those wounded and dead rely upon us to ask the questions their superiors in the chain of command cannot comfortably answer. Calling the injured and dead of Fort Hood “victims” perpetuates the blindness that compelled those men and women to face the enemy unarmed. They are casualties of war… and as far as I’m concerned, Sergeant Kimberly Munley, who took their cowardly attacker down, is a veteran today.
The terrorist enemy doesn’t have a formal chain of command that can sign an armistice, they don’t muster on clearly defined battlefields, and they’re quite happy to benefit from the efforts of deranged fanboys. If we don’t stand behind our professional soldiers, and give them the tools to do their jobs now, we will all become soldiers before this enemy is defeated.
Read The Eleventh Hour in its entirety.
A Tip of the Hat to Michelle Malkin for bringing all these to the attention of her readers!
4. Over at The Radio Patriot Naval Aviator Jerry Wilson has a powerful message for Americans concerned about the future of our country, and he describes himself in ways that can apply to many of us, including myself.
"I love America , I cannot believe how the ignorance of the American public has created a situation whereby they are going to lose their Republic and slip into an age of repression and tyranny."
After making the point that we "are in the middle of a communist revolution and few in the U.S. can actually see it for what it truly is" he writes:
There are a growing number of citizens in the US that are ready to fight to shut down the government’s grab of personal freedom, it’s blatant abuse of the constitution, and it’s attempt to replace the American way of life with socialism. You have to listen carefully to hear them, but they are there. I won’t start that fight, but when it goes down I will join it.
As for you, why, you’ll be shocked because you didn’t see it coming. And eventually you’ll be saddened when you see that we have truly lost the way of life with which you grew up. You’ll be saddened that your children and grandchildren live in a socialist, government-controlled gulag where their every movement from cradle to grave is tracked by the government. But most of all, you’ll be saddened by the death of friends and relatives who are brave enough to fight and die for something they believe in."
Amen!
Read: A Veteran's Warning To All Americans
I have blogged about my Father, who lost an eye fighting Tito, in his native Macedonia, and fled to America to live, and raise a family, in the freeist country in the world.
He died in 1988, but if he were alive today he would be appalled at the direction our country is heading.
He did not leave Socialism behind just to see his kids, and grandkids, end up living under that same failed, destructive, system of government.
I don't blog politcs, and issues, on this blog, except for an occasional piece like this, or this (Not Exactly Sitting Idly By.), or a poem, or 3 (His Name is Barack Obama, You See), when the Muse strikes me, but many sites in one section of my Food For Thought Blogroll do, and I DO participate in the fight as best I can by "Blogging" on Stumble Upon, Tweeting, and occasionally recommending videos on YouTube, among other things, including attending a Tea Party Event when I can.
What follows is a Recommended Reading List (With Pictures, including one of my Co-Blogger, Nikita, helping me with the display!), culled from my own personl Book Collection.
I am slowly working my way through these 18 books, and use an " * " to show what I've read so far:
1. FRANKLIN: Autobiography, Poor Richard, and Later Writings - Library of America Ed.
2. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN: An American Life by Walter Isaacson. *
3. THE COMPLEATED AUTOBIOGRAPHY By Benjamin Franklin - Compiled and Edited by Franklin descendant Mark Skousen.
4. THE AMERICAN DEMOCRAT and OTHER POLITICAL WRITINGS by James Fenimore Cooper.
"Governments are not formed to achieve, but to PROTECT."
"The peculiar office of the demagogue is to advance his own interests, by affecting a deep devotion to the interests of the people."
5. WITNESSING AMERICA: The Library of Congress Book of Firsthand Accounts of Life in America - 1600-1900 -- Compiled and Edited by Noel Roe.
6. OUR NATION'S ARCHIVE: The History of the United States in Documents Edited by Erik Bruun and Jay Crosby.
7. Eye-Witness to History Edited by John Carey (430 BC to 1986).
8. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (50th Ann. Ed.).
9. ANIMAL FARM and 1984 by George Orwell with Intro by Journalist Christopher Hitchens (His views have the virtue of pissing off folks on both the Right AND Left, hee, hee!)
10. GLENN BECK'S COMMON SENSE: The Case Against An Out of Control Government, inspired by Thomas Paine. *
11. THE 5000 YEAR LEAP: A Miracle That Changed the World - The 28 Great Ideas That Changed the World (Principles of Freedom 101) by W. Cleon Skousen (An Uncle of Mark Skousen). *
LIBRARY OF AMERICA SERIES:
1. JEFFERSON: Writings.
2. LINCOLN: Speeches and Writings - 1859-1865.
3. SHERMAN: Memoirs.
4. and 5. DEBATES ON THE CONSTITUTION: PART 1 and PART 2. (Including the Federalist Papers * and Anti-Federalist Papers.)
6. PAINE: Collected Writings.
7. and 8. REPORTING WW2: PART 1 and PART 2.
9. WASHINGTON: Writings.
10. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
11. and 12. REPORTING CIVIL RIGHTS: PART 1 and PART 2.
13. TOCQUEVILLE: Democracy in America. *
14. THEODORE ROOSEVELT: The Rough Riders, An Autobiography.
15. THEODORE ROOSEVELT: Letters and Speeches.
16. AMERICAN SPEECHES: Revolution to Civil War.
17. AMERICAN SPEECHES: Lincoln to Clinton.
18. THE LINCOLN ANTHOLOGY.
All of the above are well worth searching out, and finding the time to read.
Nicely done.
Hope you can finish all those books!
I would add Truman's autobiography, "Mr. Citizen," to your list. :)
Posted by: Jaspar | November 12, 2009 at 08:38 PM