It takes ordinary people doing extraordinary things in order to be a recipient of the nation’s highest honor for bravery, the Medal of Honor. Millions of men and women have served in our wars and performed heroically, but out of those millions, only 3,471 have received the nation’s highest honor.
Of that number, less than 100 are alive today. Ordinary people who, when it really counted, ignored the dangers and placed their own lives in jeopardy, heroically saving others.
We look upon these Military men with awe, many of us wondering if we would act as they did in the same situation. Most of them look upon themselves as the lucky ones, the ones that survived the battles, many thinking others are more deserving of the honor.
But heroes are not restricted to the Military in battle nor are all heroes only men. We pass heroes every day in our cities, most often not seeing a hero, but a Fire Fighter, a Police Officer or just a friendly neighbor who responded to calls for help, ran into a neighbor’s home on fire to get people out before First responders arrive.
“When I was asked earlier about the issue of coal…under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket…” Barack Obama, January 2008
Getty Images
A simple statement made to the San Francisco Chronicle when first campaigning for president, Barack Obama openly announced his “War on Coal” and with the help of environmentalists, leftists, a willing media and the usual slate of ‘joiners,’ a statement that has been seen all too true as electricity rates have gone up over the last 4 years.
But far from just raising the cost of lighting and heating our homes, Obama’s War on Coal deprives America of good paying jobs while we remain in an elongated period of high unemployment and decreasing revenues collected by our treasury.
Radio broadcaster Paul Harvey, known for his short “The Rest of the Story” segments often spoke in common sense terms, deriding anti-American sentiments or giving unknown background on stories in the news.
He left us in 2009 at the age of 90. He may be gone, but his conservative folksy voice remains in recordings. Among them is this broadcast, first spoken in 1965 and a few times since.
Amazing that nearly everything he stated so long ago has come to pass.
The Columbian has for several years now displayed a jealous attitude towards citizen blogs, often alleging that we are the reason their subscription rate continues to falter, we are not “professionals” and even so far as that we do little more than mislead the public. In reality, it is obvious they feel they are the only ‘bona fide’ source of information for Southwest Washington.
Seeing that their attacks against citizen blogs were not silencing us, someone at the paper decided they would do us one better and open their own blogs on their own website, apparently not realizing it was just an extension of their heavily biased newspaper by “professional journalists” who maintained their regularly seen bias on their blogsites, creating little more that a less restrictive site to bash and demean Republicans, especially 17th Legislative District Senator Don Benton, County Commissioner Tom Mielke and now County Commissioner elect David Madore.
A simple look at the interactions under many of their posts and lack of citizen comments shows that we who operate citizen blogs regularly see far more engagement and discussion of viewpoints than they do. That fact does little to dissuade the Columbian’s writers from puffing out their chests and boasting of how they are still better than their citizens they allege they serve.
I hope each and everyone of you enjoy a peaceful and safe Thanksgiving with family and loved ones.
For a Thanksgiving message, I can think of none better than that expressed by one of America’s greatest Comedians and a true Patriot back in 1952, Red Skelton.
On January 17, 1961 outgoing President Dwight D. Eisenhower was televised giving one of his most famous and well known speeches. The 15 minute Farewell to the Nation is largely regarded today as the “Military Industrial Complex” speech due to one lone sentence warning us of an out of control industrial complex fueling our Military while the rest of the speech has been mostly discarded.
But within that speech President Eisenhower warned us of a far greater danger that we as a nation have ignored, having fallen prey to the claims of what he then labeled a “Scientific Technological Elite” and how public policy could easily become captive to that.
UPDATE: Lindsey Stone resigned from her job, November 21, 2012. Both her and Jamie Schuh are no longer are employed by LIFE.
By now just about everybody know of the reprehensible photo taken of 30 year-old Lindsey Stone mocking the ‘Silence and Respect’ sign next to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery. If somehow you missed it, you can read about it here
The photo has gone viral in the last 24 hours and elicited hundreds of thousands of comments throughout the internet, most condemning the act in strong terms and several others either agreeing with her, saying she has freedom of speech (she also has freedom to be held accountable) and some not understanding why so many are outraged.
For those who do not understand our outrage, please view the Canadian video below produced and performed by Terry Kelly addressing a man who showed disrespect during their two minute time of Remembrance of their fallen heroes.
Latest Update: Lindsey Stone resigned from her job, November 21, 2012. Both her and Jamie Schuh are no longer are employed by LIFE. The employer issued the following on their facebook page,
Vandalization of our Veterans Memorials has been a problem for some time. If it wasn’t vandals then it was the ACLU, atheists, anti-war ilk and more and each has been met head on, in one way or another informing them that our Memorials are sacred and sit on hallowed ground. But, as the photo below shows, some take their disrespect too far.
A post I originally wrote elsewhere on October 4, 2007. Since then, Democrats took full control of the country for 2 years and still retain the White House and Senate. We continue down the slide Seen 5 years ago.
In 1908 a Jewish immigrant from England named Israel Zangwill penned a play titled “The Melting Pot.” The play itself has long been forgotten, but the message it instilled is heard to this day. It portrayed that all immigrants could be transformed into Americans, blending cultures and together achieving a Republic and building of a nation like no other before in man’s history.
A portion of our citizens were denied access to the Melting Pot dream for over half of the twentieth century, but as happens in a growing nation, the correction came and they were also able to take part in the dream of being an American fully.
Seeing that some of our citizens were denied access to the Melting Pot, other citizens deemed the Melting Pot dead or a myth and started pushing for what we now see as “multiculturalism.” Lost in this push is the unique Americanism that built the nation and elevated it to the greatness she held for a short time.
We always hear how we should reach out to our liberal ‘friends’ and seek common ground, how we need to stop the vitriol and mean-spirited attacks, even though they are slashing our throats, bankrupting us and wanting to control our lives when they cannot even manage their own.
So in that spirit of coming together and finding commonality with liberals, I present the following post election poem that I was sent.
The election is over, the talk is done
My party lost, your party won
Winston Churchill famously said, “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.”
Who knew that Columbian editor, Lou Brancaccio would present a perfect example proving the truth behind those words?
As we know, Lou does a regular Saturday column, “Press Talk.” In his Saturday November 17, 2012 column, Of good people and listening more, he is talking about a recent Fort Vancouver Regional Library Foundation’s Authors & Illustrators Dinner and Silent Auction he attended featuring “New York Times best-selling author Nicholas Sparks” as guest speaker.
Lou goes on to lament of what he got out of the talk, mentioning “volunteering” for doing something “rewarding” and in the bigger picture he asks, “Where do we go from here?”
It never ceases to amaze me how easily the American public is distracted, especially when it comes to government scandal and cover-ups. Just throw out some juicy sexual innuendo or accusation against some high level person and extremely important failings of an administration just start fading away.
We saw it well back during the Clinton Administration as investigators drew closer and closer to several scandals potentially involving the president, all attention was diverted to his sexual liaison with a much younger staffer, Monica Lewinsky. Clinton lied about it, Republicans jumped on it and passed Articles of Impeachment, the Senate refused to convene a trial and Clinton finished his term, becoming the darling of the Democrats and an honored former President in a very wealthy retirement.
Residents in over 20 states have now started petitions of secession from the United States of America, sending Washington D.C. the message they are very displeased with this “New Direction” we have been set on.
From ignoring our voices over the CRC and suing us to invalidate our votes on the 2/3 requirement to increase taxes, to our constitutional rights of religious liberty, Obamacare being forced upon us against our will, support of the International Treaty that would place our right to arm ourselves be subjected to foreign interests, our government no longer represents our right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
EXCLUSIVE 5440FIGHT.COM: Dateline Highlands New Jersey – November 11, 2012. On a day meant to honor our a service members, a proud ex-servicemember is denied help by the country he fought so hard to protect. Jamie Gowan who is living out of his neighbors Jeep was denied assistance by a FEMA representative because his home is covered by flood and homeowners insurance.
Veteran Jamie Gowan is being denied emergency assistance by FEMA. He was reached by phone after this photo of his house went viral on Social Media.
Gowan was reached exclusively by 5440FIGHT.COM for a telephone interview. While his own insurance company adjuster has not come by the house, he’s not receiving any assistance and there is no telling how long that will take.
Do you ever find yourself sitting down, conflicted on sacrifices made in the past and wondering why any such sacrifices were made after seeing those sacrifices in essence thrown right back in your face? That is where I sit now, on the eve of Veterans Day 2012 and seeing how our recent elections turned out.
I think of all of the hardships we endured over the years defending this nation from Communist aggressors, standing up against them in foreign lands and more than once, engaging them on the battlefields of Korea and Vietnam. I recall the aid poured into other countries to assist them in their struggle against such oppressive foreign interference and how we stood our ground during the Cold War in Europe, President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural words ringing in my ears, “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”
JFK must be turning in his grave as we now see the country being handed over to leaders who have shown that the very oppressive government we fought and stood up against for so long is what a majority of our citizens now desire, believing that offers of “free stuff” is better than actually working for yourself.
From a July 2012 incident in Georgia, but I can’t help but wonder if they all voted for Obama’s reelection and how come none seem to have one of those 5.4 Million jobs Obama says he created?
Surely they weren’t all created in August and September, were they?
It takes ordinary people doing extraordinary things in order to be a recipient of the nation’s highest honor for bravery, the Medal of Honor. Millions of men and women have served in our wars and performed heroically, but out of those millions, only 3,471 have received the nation’s highest honor.
Brancaccio Reveals Truth, Agreeing With Him Is ‘Nonconstructive’
by lewwatersWho knew that Columbian editor, Lou Brancaccio would present a perfect example proving the truth behind those words?
As we know, Lou does a regular Saturday column, “Press Talk.” In his Saturday November 17, 2012 column, Of good people and listening more, he is talking about a recent Fort Vancouver Regional Library Foundation’s Authors & Illustrators Dinner and Silent Auction he attended featuring “New York Times best-selling author Nicholas Sparks” as guest speaker.
Lou goes on to lament of what he got out of the talk, mentioning “volunteering” for doing something “rewarding” and in the bigger picture he asks, “Where do we go from here?”
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