SwiftVets.com

[jimlarsen]

CRY of FREEDOM

July fourth, seventeen seventy-six the fathers of our freedom brought forth a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. They dedicated their Lives, their Fortunes and their sacred Honor to the cost of securing this freedom, which we now enjoy. They dared fight against tyrants who vowed to stop the birth of this great cause. And they well endured for their cause, for this labor of their souls brought them misery, pain and death. But they prevailed upon their enemies, and in a humble birth the new nation cried to the World “LET FREEDOM RING!”

A hallowed wall sits in our Capital inscribed with the names of many who fought for freedom in a foreign land. This monument is dedicated to the casualties of that war, and it was consecrated by the dedication, and the pain, and the blood of those brave men. The gestation of that struggle in Viet Nam was difficult and costly; and it was a heavy burden for a nation otherwise at peace. With such grave costs and even more ahead we lost sight of our grand goal; and having long endured the pains of birth, we said “ENOUGH,” and then we left. The nation we so valiantly fought to defend was weak; and abandoned, it soon was dead.

We are again engaged in a foreign war, testing whether our nation, a beacon of liberty and hope, can tolerate the enslavement of other people whose cry for freedom has reached our ears. Their own land is the battlefield, and we have gone there with the hope of seeing a new birth of freedom; to help establish a new government that will secure their Rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. But all new life is fragile and can easily die if not sufficiently cared for.

There’s a task remaining before us, the task of nurturing a new freedom in an old country. Let us be determined to adequately protect and nourish this freedom until a new government has developed sufficiently to stand on it’s own. We honor those who sanctified their lives in the cause of liberty. Let us then resolve to nurture liberty and continue protecting it, that those who died in liberty’s name shall not have died in vain.

Let it not be said of us again: “They came, They fought, They fled.”

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With apologies to A. Lincoln.
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