mdcrandall
Seaman Recruit
Joined: 23 Aug 2004
Posts: 35
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 Posted: Tue Aug 24, 2004 6:31 pm Post subject: A Lesson in Honor |
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| Quote: | | And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. |
The issue of the current election is not so much an issue of “soft money” being used in an election as a foundational issue of the right to free speech. The most amazing and scary theme coming out of the 2004 election race is that both the Democratic and the Republican parties want to do something about all of these upstart organizations which are speaking out.
In the last few years I have heard of and read about arguments presented in courts across this great nation which under the “free speech” clause have supported everything from the idea that public libraries should not be able to run porn filtering software to the idea that entertainers should be allowed to flash their private parts at television audiences full of children. Yet, now that we have come to a time when free speech is being exercised as it was meant to be, as a free exercise of dissent over either governmental behavior or behavior of individuals engaged in governance, we do not hear any outcry in support of that speech. But rather, we find that governmental officials on both sides of the fence are urging a suppression of this type of communication.
Have we truly become so far distanced from the time of the founding fathers when they were willing to put their name on the line in order to express their dissent over their governance and in particular over their King’s actions that we cannot recognize the intention of their most basic principles?
The issue that the Swift Boat Veterans www.swiftvets.com in particular are bringing out is not a question of “soft money” vs. “hard money” but is rather a question of whether a group of American men who have fought and bled for our country and our rights within our country have the right do defend their “sacred honor.” This group in particular represents over 250 Swift Boat veterans who bravely served our country, including many who bled and yet carry serious wounds from that service. Indeed, I would go on to suggest that this group also represents individuals such as my father, the helicopter pilot from “We Were Soldiers” and many other men and women who bravely and honorably served their country, including those many whose names are etched on a wall in Washington D.C. The Swift Boat Veterans, my father, and all of those others were painted with a single brush by a Reserve Lt. named John Kerry as he presented false and misleading testimony before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, April 22, 1971. This action as well as many of John Kerry’s subsequent actions directly assaulted and challenged the “sacred honor” of these individuals who so nobly served their country. My father and many other highly decorated veterans like him who had served both honorably and nobly were branded as “baby killers” or “murderers” for their service to our country.
Yet today, when John Kerry willingly and wrongfully attempted to borrow back the honor he once pretended to threw over a wall in Washington, the right of those brave and noble veterans to defend themselves is being challenged and they are once again being falsely accused and branded by people who never accepted responsibility for their own actions, people who don’t understand them, and people who simply wishes these veterans would go away or at least that somehow their voices could be silenced.
Fortunately for our nation, we still have men (and women) who have learned not to run from a fight but rather to band together with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, to mutually pledge to each other their Lives, their Fortunes and their sacred Honor.
All I can say to the Swift Boat Vets, and all of our other noble men and women who responded to your country's call, who kept your sacred honor intact, and who willingly and completely offered your all is "Thank You."
mdcrandall
Proud to be
#3 Son of Snake
www.xav8er.com
Join us September 12, 2004
in Washington D.C.
www.kerrylied.com
_________________
mdcrandall
proud to be
#3 Son of Snake
(www.xav8er.com) |
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