THOUGHTS FOR MEMORIAL DAY

THE THREE QUOTES BY THOMAS PAINE DESCRIBE SOMETHING WHICH WE HAVE BECAUSE BRAVE MEN AND WOMAN HAVE PAID A PERSONAL PRICE TO DEFEND IT AND THE THREAT TO IT IF WE DO NOT MAINTAIN A REAL VIEW OF THE GIFT WHICH IS NOT INDESTRUCTIBLE.

I have included the FOUR PARAGRAPH Gettysburg Address later in this post because it was given to honor those who paid the price and in the fourth paragraph TO CHARGE those who enjoy that which was preserved. These words are very appropriate for US to review and ponder today.

When I contemplate the natural dignity of man; when I feel (for Nature has not been kind enough to me to blunt my feelings) for the honor and happiness of its character, I become irritated at the attempt to govern mankind by force and fraud, as if they were all knaves and fools, and can scarcely avoid disgust at those who are thus imposed upon.—Thomas Paine

“If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.” — Tom Paine

“What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly.” -- Thomas Paine.






THANKS TO THE SACRIFICES OF THESE PEOPLE - OUR COUNTRY HAS BEEN SAFE FROM THE OUTSIDE Posted by littleguyusa on Friday, September 11, 2009 9:00:00 PM


This is a "THANK YOU!!" to our service people for putting their lives on hold and on the line without regard to a discussion of the wars in which they are involved. These people are the reason that we are still Americans without another country's rule and I just wanted to acknowledge them for giving me the opportunity to enjoy my life in America.

The One Finger Salute
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Today at 7:05am
Read below pic before making judgment on 'The Finger' gesture and you'll understand....


Leading the fight is U S Marine Gunnery Sgt Michael Burghardt, known as 'Iron Mike' or just 'Gunny'. He is on his third tour in Iraq . He had become a legend in the bomb disposal world after winning the Bronze Star for disabling 64 IEDs and destroying 1,548 pieces of ordnance during his second tour. Then, on September 19, he got blown up. He had arrived at a chaotic scene after a bomb had killed four US Marines. He chose not to wear the bulky bomb protection suit. 'You can't react to any sniper fire and you get tunnel-vision,' he explains. So, protected by just a helmet and standard-issue flak jacket, he began what bomb disposal officers term 'the longest walk', stepping gingerly into a 5 foot deep and 8 foot wide crater. The earth shifted slightly and he saw a Senao base station with a wire leading from it. He cut the wire and used his 7 inch knife to probe the ground. 'I found a piece of red detonating cord between my legs,' he says. 'That's when I knew I was screwed.' Realizing he had been sucked into a trap, Sgt Burghardt, 35, yelled at everyone to stay back. At that moment, an insurgent, probably watching through binoculars, pressed a button on his mobile phone to detonate the secondary device below the sergeant's feet 'A chill went up the back of my neck and then the bomb exploded,' he recalls. 'As I was in the air I remember thinking, 'I don't believe they got me...' I was just ticked off they were able to do it. Then I was lying on the road, not able to feel anything from the waist down.' His fellow Marines cut off his trousers to see how badly he was hurt. None could believe his legs were still there 'My dad's a Vietnam vet who's paralyzed from the waist down,' says Sgt Burghardt. 'I was lying there thinking I didn't want to be in a wheelchair next to my dad and for him to see me like that. They started to cut away my pants and I felt a rea l sharp pain and blood trickling down. Then I wiggled my toes and I thought, 'Good, I'm in business.' As a stretcher was brought over, adrenaline and anger kicked in. 'I decided to walk to the helicopter. I wasn't going to let my team-mates see me being carried away on a stretcher.' He stood and gave the insurgents who had blown him up a one-fingered salute. 'I flipped them one.. It was like, 'OK, I lost that round but I'll be back next week.' Copies of a photograph depicting his defiance, taken by Jeff Bundy for the Omaha World-Herald, adorn the walls of homes across America and that of Col John Gronski, the brigade commander in Ramadi, who has hailed the image as an exemplar of the warrior spirit. Sgt Burghardt's injuries - burns and wounds to his legs and buttocks - kept him off duty for nearly a month and could have earned him a ticket home. But, like his father - who was awarded a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts for being wounded in action in Vietnam - he stayed in Ramadi to engage in the battle against insurgents who are forever coming up with more ingenious ways of killing Americans.

Thank you for enduring the heat, the hard work and the sacrifices. I appreciate more than I will ever be able to show. Ross


THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS COPIED FROM:

http://americancivilwar.com/north/lincoln.html

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met here on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But in a larger sense we can not dedicate - we can not consecrate - we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled, here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but can never forget what they did here.

It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they have, thus far, so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

MARCUS LUTTRELL WROTE LONE SURVIVOR
Listen to this interview and note Marcus Luttrel's description of his vote to let the goat herders go rather than to execute them and insure the team's safety. THE LIARS WHO HIDE THE TRUTH ABOUT OUR SERVICE PEOPLE AND PROMOTE ANYTHING WHICH THEY CAN FIND TO PROPAGANDIZE THE GULLIBLE work to the destruction of what we have because our military protects it. Perspective is incredibly important.
“What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly.” -- Thamas Paine
“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” -- Samuel Adams

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irC4K7Q4JCo

Memorial Day Was Born Out Of The Civil War In 1868 and the historian interviewed suggests that we take a moment to read the Gettysburg Address on Memorial Day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-l9GvcAm-M&playnext_from=TL&videos=sss7eKhaVns&feature=sub

TWO VIDEOS SHOWING THE EMOTIONS OF THOSE WHO DEFEND AMERICA AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM
In the Arms of an Angel - American Soldiers Tribute by Mushafugga at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yklp5Ua_xj4
with Music: Sarah McLachlan - Angel Download This Song: iTunes AmazonMP3
AND
A tribute to all of our troops, and for my good friend SharpLugia!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lScwwGyJJc
with Music: Mark Schultz - Letters from War

LET US STAY CONSCIOUS AND DEDICATED TO OUR DUTY TO PRESERVE THAT WHICH WE HAVE RECEIVED!

I WANT A NATIONALLY TELEVISED DEBATE - TOO MUCH DISPARITY - LET US HEAR THE TRUTH

There is no excuse for the Arizona situation to go in the direction that it is going. Government should protect US and ease our life, not make it crazy and stir up hate and discontent. If the administration cared about the actual issues they would clearly state the issues and deal with them. There is something else going on because this administration has a lot of bright people and this is a management 101 level problem.

I want to see a nationally televised debate between President Barack Obama and Governor Jan Brewer on the issues that are of concern to the administration. I would be happy with a person with authority to speak for either of them with the understanding that they are speaking absolutely for that person's position.
The way this issue has been handled by the Whitehouse is astounding to me. I would expect a leader of a country to have contacted the Governor and discussed the issues of concern. From my perspective, I, instead, see a FOCUS ON FAILURE:

1. public statements disparaging the Arizona legislature passed and Governor Brewer signed and warning of what MIGHT HAPPEN = sounds like predictions of what did not happen at Tea Party Rallys

2. a threat by the Attorney General to look into challenging Arizona protecting itself with the statute

3. failing to acknowledge Arizona's response to fears of racial profiling with HR2162 which deals with racial profiling and allows the use of a drivers license if there is a legal contact. This makes Arizona law superior to the federal law and California state statute.

4. inviting a leader of a foreign country to speak against Arizona and agreeing with him which indicates an alliance of this administration with an invading nation against a state in what was the UNITED States of America.

5. failing to recognize that the inciting rhetoric and actions adversely affects the wellfare of the Arizona population, 30% of which is of Hispanic heritage. That is discrimination against American Hispanics by their ?fellow? Americans.

The only reasons which I can imagine for keeping Governor Brewer from discussing her situation with President Obama or someone he delegates confirm my fears of this administration's intentions for America.

Governor Brewer and her legislators heard the people voicing their fears of racial profiling (30% of Arizona population is of Hispanic descent) and dealt with it by passing House Bill 2162 prohibiting racial profiling and adding the drivers license as acceptable proof of citizenship. They want to protect their borders and citizens without abusing their citizens. Rather than focus on failure, they dealt with the issue by adding a clarification that is clear and easy to understand. I will post that section here and you may read the entire bill at

http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/2r/bills/hb2162c.htm

B. For any lawful contact stop, detention or arrest made by a law enforcement official or a law enforcement agency of this state or a law enforcement official or a law enforcement agency of a county, city, town or other political subdivision of this state in the enforcement of any other law or ordinance of a county, city or town or this state where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who and is unlawfully present in the United States, a reasonable attempt shall be made, when practicable, to determine the immigration status of the person, except if the determination may hinder or obstruct an investigation. Any person who is arrested shall have the person's immigration status determined before the person is released. The person's immigration status shall be verified with the federal government pursuant to 8 United States code section 1373(c). A law enforcement official or agency of this state or a county, city, town or other political subdivision of this state may not solely consider race, color or national origin in implementing the requirements of this subsection except to the extent permitted by the United States or Arizona Constitution. A person is presumed to not be an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States if the person provides to the law enforcement officer or agency any of the following:

1. A valid Arizona driver license.

2. A valid Arizona nonoperating identification license.

3. A valid tribal enrollment card or other form of tribal identification.

4. If the entity requires proof of legal presence in the United States before issuance, any valid United States federal, state or local government issued identification.

C. If an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States is convicted of a violation of state or local law, on discharge from imprisonment or on the assessment of any monetary obligation that is imposed, the United States immigration and customs enforcement or the United States customs and border protection shall be immediately notified.

D. Notwithstanding any other law, a law enforcement agency may securely transport an alien who the agency has received verification is unlawfully present in the united states and who is in the agency's custody to a federal facility in this state or to any other point of transfer into federal custody that is outside the jurisdiction of the law enforcement agency. A law enforcement agency shall obtain judicial authorization before securely transporting an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States to a point of transfer that is outside of this state.

The entire bill is available at: http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/2r/bills/sb1070s.pdf

There has been a lot of inciting rhetoric over the potential problems of this bill and there has been a video of the effect of racial profiling that this bill causes.
The misinformation counts on people looking at, but not reading the article because:
1. It is the federal government, ICE, demanding a birth certificate
2. The wife states that this has nothing to do with racial profiling and Arizona law
3. The bill does not go into effect until July 28, 2010
4. HB2162 prohibits racial profiling and allows a drivers license to be used as proof of citizenship

This article may be found at http://www.azfamily.com/news/91769419.html

and the last part points out the misrepresentation in using this for a demonstration of Arizona law possibilities with HB 2162. Jackie explains, “I have his social security card as well and mine. He's legit. It's the first time it's ever happened.”

Both were born in the United States and say they are now both infuriated that keeping important documents safely at home is no longer an option.

Jackie says, “It doesn't feel like it's a good way of life, to live with fear, even though we are okay, we are legal…still have to carry documents around.”

A representative at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) returned 3TV’s calls after researching the incident and she said this was standard operating procedure.

The agents needed to verify Abdon was in the country legally and it is not uncommon to ask for someone's birth certificate.

She also said this has nothing to do with the proposed bill or racial profiling.

Their problem is with ICE, not with Arizona which offers a solution to a problem that has existed in Federal Law with no remedy for awhile. Arizona implemented their solution in response to people's concerns. That, to my way of thinking, is an example of how our employees in government should handle our issues.

Let us judge not on what might be, but rather on what is and what happens. There are activists who will try very hard to create problems and this is a hardship on Arizona law enforcement. I would like to see an additional part of the statute that makes staging an incident a felony with serious penalties. We need to take America forward and that is best done by keeping America safe and strong. We cannot do the good that we do if we do not sustain our ability to do it.

LET US SEE A DEBATE SO THAT WE MAY KNOW WHAT IS REAL!

“Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.” -- Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan

“The opinion of 10000 men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject.” Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor from 121-180 AD