Be An American First -- And Willing To Stand Up For Your Country
These are the times which distinguish the real friend of his country from the town meeting bawler and the sunshine patriot. --Andrew Jackson, 1812.
"In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people." --Theodore Roosevelt on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907.
We have a great many sunshine patriots and town meeting bawlers these days. Republicans, Democrats, and Indies alike. They want to impeach a President when they disagree with him on even a single issue, they want to absolve the police of enforcing our immigration laws--on the books for decades--and enforced until recently, they want to retreat from the war on terrorism because "it's taking too long," costing too much, or the parameters for winning have changed during the course of it.
They want all the benefits of freedom without paying its price. We have raised them to be spoiled, selfish, senseless brats who hide behind their so-called "rights" of free speech and the ability to dissent. Luckily for them, there are others who have grown up with a notion of duty to country and their countrymen, the knowledge of the difference between right and wrong, and courage enough to fight the bad guys in order to promote freedom at home and abroad.
The "spoiled" among us don't have time much time to think about those who ARE putting blood, soul, and regular family life at risk so that they--the ungrateful--may behave like the aforementioned spoiled, sunshine patriots.
While the soldiers' sons and daughters are being born, their parents dying, their spouses loving and leaving them, they are away fighting for our (and Iraqi) freedom. Every minute of every day. At the same time, the spoiled live among us, whining and complaining, pontificating, undermining, naysaying, and being generally obnoxious. Bestowing children without even the smallest glimmer of real character upon society also has a produced a hefty cost to us and our future.
If you want to hear two young men with the kind of character I'd like to see every time I look at a person under 35, go listen to Iraq Unplugged--a terrific album written, performed and produced by two US Soldiers serving in Baghdad, Iraq. If you visit the soldiers' site, you will be able to get a free listen to many of the album's songs. This is not a commercially produced album but one produced in Iraq--unplugged as the title says. Beautifully pure music, by any standard.
Every cut will touch you because these songs are the real deal. The guys are real people experiencing every emotion served up by real life and death every day in the middle of a war--and telling you about it through their music. Heros, yes. Good guys, yes, indeed. Men we admire and to whom we owe everything we have, absolutely!
Thank you, Nick and JR! I, for one, will always remember your music, your names, the things you've sacrificed, and that you fought honorably for your country. And we will be forever grateful that you saw fit to write it all down and share so much of yourselves through your music. This is my nominee for Album of the Year.
Godspeed to you both! May all your dreams come true!
***
Photo credit: http://www.iraq-songs.com/
"In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people." --Theodore Roosevelt on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907.
We have a great many sunshine patriots and town meeting bawlers these days. Republicans, Democrats, and Indies alike. They want to impeach a President when they disagree with him on even a single issue, they want to absolve the police of enforcing our immigration laws--on the books for decades--and enforced until recently, they want to retreat from the war on terrorism because "it's taking too long," costing too much, or the parameters for winning have changed during the course of it.
They want all the benefits of freedom without paying its price. We have raised them to be spoiled, selfish, senseless brats who hide behind their so-called "rights" of free speech and the ability to dissent. Luckily for them, there are others who have grown up with a notion of duty to country and their countrymen, the knowledge of the difference between right and wrong, and courage enough to fight the bad guys in order to promote freedom at home and abroad.
The "spoiled" among us don't have time much time to think about those who ARE putting blood, soul, and regular family life at risk so that they--the ungrateful--may behave like the aforementioned spoiled, sunshine patriots.
While the soldiers' sons and daughters are being born, their parents dying, their spouses loving and leaving them, they are away fighting for our (and Iraqi) freedom. Every minute of every day. At the same time, the spoiled live among us, whining and complaining, pontificating, undermining, naysaying, and being generally obnoxious. Bestowing children without even the smallest glimmer of real character upon society also has a produced a hefty cost to us and our future.
If you want to hear two young men with the kind of character I'd like to see every time I look at a person under 35, go listen to Iraq Unplugged--a terrific album written, performed and produced by two US Soldiers serving in Baghdad, Iraq. If you visit the soldiers' site, you will be able to get a free listen to many of the album's songs. This is not a commercially produced album but one produced in Iraq--unplugged as the title says. Beautifully pure music, by any standard.Every cut will touch you because these songs are the real deal. The guys are real people experiencing every emotion served up by real life and death every day in the middle of a war--and telling you about it through their music. Heros, yes. Good guys, yes, indeed. Men we admire and to whom we owe everything we have, absolutely!
Thank you, Nick and JR! I, for one, will always remember your music, your names, the things you've sacrificed, and that you fought honorably for your country. And we will be forever grateful that you saw fit to write it all down and share so much of yourselves through your music. This is my nominee for Album of the Year.
Godspeed to you both! May all your dreams come true!
***
Photo credit: http://www.iraq-songs.com/
posted by Hairpinandarrow_blog at
9:45 PM
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