A few words of thought from me.

Miscellaneous
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I get the feeling that being patriotic these days, is something for us “older farts”. Or only for the few months following a tragedy, like the sad day of 9-11.

It seems in the modern mass media/population of America today.
The cool thing, is to besmirch her, tear her down, and point only at the dark days of our short history. These days many just want a day off of work, a BBQ and a few beers, and fireworks for the 4th of July. They don’t want/care to know the history, of this great country’s founding’s.

But, this grand country was founded by a few God fearing men and women. Who gave their all, spirit, blood, sweat, tears and lives.
To give us a piece of paper called, The Constitution of the United States of America.
These brave people wanted nothing more, than basic FREEDOMS.
That they did/could NOT, have in their home countries.
Related to family values, freedom OF Religion, freedom of speech/travel, keeping what you rightly labored for. And formed a limited government, that was not controlled by a king. But by officials who are elected, by the people for the people.

They did this with, what us country folks call: God, guns and guts!

This country in the past, has been called a big melting pot. Due to good folks immigrating from all over the world, and becoming Americans.
They bettered themselves, their families and communities. They LEARNED to speak English, as a national language. They worked for what they had. (no free lunch) They had many hardships of disease, dying of famine, thirst, starvation. They banded together, and explored this vast land, from sea to shinning sea.
And built churches, communities, city’s, farms, ranches, towns, roads, rail roads, and canals along the way. Thus, connecting all these together.
And making one country, that we proudly call AMERICA!

Remember this: You do NOT see a mass exodus, of folks running AWAY from this great country, but flocking TO it.
Why is that?
Why does EVERY new country that starts up.
Place their FAITH, in OUR type of Constitutional government?
Because it works!

I will get off my high horse, before I really get into some deep doo doo!

But, I guarantee you this.
I will always defend, stand tall, & proud, because I am an American!
For with the grace & providence of God.
Our forefathers had the strength and courage, to give us the freedoms we all have today. I will continue to fight for our God given rights, flag and country. As I still think she is worth dying for, until my last breath.
As a Patriot, I pledge allegiance to the American flag.
When that pisses off Liberals, that’s just too bad!

Take care, be safe.
GOD BLESS AMERICA
God Bless our soldiers, and our citizens.
:pray:

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No fireworks on Mount Rushmore again this year. :roll_eyes:

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I will say that I’ve already been to a few Independence Day events, and the crowds are very large and very patriotic. It’s a diverse crowd, too, not just a small collection of white old farts.

That said, patriotism is no longer taught. Citizens fund public schools, but are then told it’s not their job to teach citizenship. It’s even worse at colleges.

For all this, though, most people seem to come to their senses. They realize how lucky we are to live here. They figure out that for all our nation’s problems, life would be much more difficult if we didn’t have it. And while they may not dwell on that from day to day, but they’ll still stand for the national anthem (regardless of what the athletes are doing) and will still celebrate patriotic holidays.

As far as Mount Rushmore, don’t take that from anyone. Their big line is that Mount Rushmore is stolen Native lands. Remind them that their house is also on stolen Native land; that usually shuts them up.

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I am going to lead with a quote from something I posted in another topic, yet, it has some applicability:

The thing I have discovered is that it is rare to come across, “people whose values are diametrically opposed to mine.” It sounds off, but a disagreement about how to ensure a vibrant and resilient economy is generally not a discussion of diametrically opposed values. It is a discussion best path. Even a discussion of how a nation should best serve its people contains the core assumption that the nation should serve its people, possibly by just staying out of peoples lives, possibly through various forms of intervention, but the core assumption remains.

Sure, there are, “people whose values are diametrically opposed to mine.” However, the older I get, the fewer of them I meet.

That said, the people were brought together by an economic crisis, of the great depression, and an existential threat beyond the economic crisis. More importantly, people generally agreed on the nature of the threat of the Axis powers and on how to deal with them. This was more unifying than the existential threat of the great depression as not everyone agreed on how to deal with that crisis and, unlike WWII, the reaction to it is still debated.

I believe Kennedy saw the need for that unifying national purpose when he introduced the space race. However, it lacked the power of WWII in that most of the country were observers, not participants. in WWII it would have been possible to do a “man on the street” asking the question, “What have you done to help win the war today?” and in most cases would have gotten an answer. Possibly not a great answer, but an answer all the same.

Consider the case of the victory gardens. The proscribed method was actually not a method intended to maximize yield. Rather, it was intended to maximize labour and involvement. The amount of stooping called for made it a rather painful way to garden, as example plucking individual weeds rather than hoeing them. This was not an accident. It was designed. It was designed to provide an answer to, “What did you do to win the war today?”

Move forward to the space race, and further to the recent wars, from VietNam onward. To ask the man on the street, “What did you do to win the space race/war today?” would elicit, at best, a blank stare. These were not agreed-upon existential threats.

Here we now are, many of us think we face existential threats, yet there is no agreement on what they are and even less on how to best respond. Some think the current existential threat is climate change, to others, that is just an excuse to force them to change how they live. To others, it is some nebulous form of creeping socialism, to others that are just a justification for a laisse-faire to the needs of the poor and middle class while maintaining an incarnation state, all in the face of policies of bail-outs, and just plain handouts to the wealthy.

No, I do not want an existential threat so big that even the dimmest sees it and calls out for the same action, everyone in a near single voice. Yet, that is what united “The Greatest Generation.”

Again, there is good news. To go back to where I started, we can focus on building on those things we hold in common rather than trying to tear ourselves apart:

The thing I have discovered is that it is rare to come across, “people whose values are diametrically opposed to mine.” It sounds off, but a disagreement about how to ensure a vibrant and resilient economy is generally not a discussion of diametrically opposed values. It is a discussion best path. Even a discussion of how a nation should best serve its people contains the core assumption that the nation should serve its people, possibly by just staying out of peoples lives, possibly through various forms of intervention, but the core assumption remains.

Sure, there are, “people whose values are diametrically opposed to mine.” However, the older I get, the fewer of them I meet.

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Two words come to mind … “cohesive” and “galvanized”. A fair number (being polite here) of the recent influx lack the true comprehensive and fundamental appreciation and ability to leverage the concept that surrounds these terms. Good post and summary. Thanks.

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Independence Day – the 4th of July – commemorates the ratification of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress in 1776, which predates the Constitution which was ratified in 1789, 13 years later. The Declaration of Independence articulates the political principles upon which the nation was founded and is neatly written in the opening lines …

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

When Jefferson penned these words, the predominate political organization of the 18th century was an aristocracy where the hereditary rulers were believed to have been empowered to rule by a grant of authority from God. Rights were granted (or not granted) to the governed at the will of government/the King.

The Founders created a nation based on the consent of the governed, not a theocracy, and not an aristocracy, both of which draw their authority from a divine being (e.g., the King rules because God anointed him). The genius of America is that it is created by the governed who possess inalienable rights endowed upon them by their Creator. Those rights don’t come from government, the don’t come from the King nor do they come from piece of paper (e.g., the Constitution), they come from the governeds’ Creator.

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We’ll put!

Can’t count on that anymore, there’s only a few of us left!

As far as banning celebrations, only if it represents a significant fire danger! Granite, doesn’t represent a fire danger!
Light’em if you got’em!

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Happy Independence Day

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There’s only one way to speak to a tyrant!

Lenin knows, Stalin knows, Mao knows and Hitler, all got a good talkin’ to!

It ain’t us tongue lashing Biden, Putin and Xi are doing a great job! Zelenskyy, smart guy, is just gobbling up the crumbs that our fearless leader is leaving behind. Same way ISIS did in Afghanistan!
Just like every foreign policy he’s ever laid hands on!
Brandon doesn’t know how to run a prosperous country, nor do the puppet masters! He and they only know how to tear down what others, far greater than he and they created!
Did I get my pronouns right?

That’s going to be a fantastic epitaph! Even those aforementioned tyrants actually built their tyranny on the backs of their countrymen. Our idiot, couldn’t accomplish that, even if all the liberals across the world banded together.

For we are more AMERICAN than he will ever be,
and AMERICA ALWAYS WINS! God bless the 2A!

LAND OF THE FREE AND HOME OF THE BRAVE, he better not forget that!

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247 years should not be for nothing! Fights are meant to be won and celebrated on the vanquished!

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I agree with what you said and I’m ready to fight for our freedom when they try to take our freedom away.

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This is something that I just found out about

This was issued in March from the WH
The language itself:
“Use the Department of Defense’s acquisition of firearms to further firearm and public safety practices. The Department of Defense buys a large number of firearms and other weapons to protect and serve our country. The President is directing the Secretary of Defense to develop and implement principles to further firearm and public safety practices through Department of Defense acquisition of firearms, consistent with applicable law.”

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Talking to my son last night put it good. We are in a period of change. What makes it unnerving is its a dbl change at one time. First a change in the ethnic makeup of the country and second an economic change of who is doing what type of work.

The classic european base don’t want to do the manual labor causing the mass immigration of ppl that will do the skilled labor such as plumbers, carpentry, electrical and so forth. The economy is going to collapse causing a labor shortage and food shortage for a decade or two. Then things will start to settle down and many of the illegals will leave because the european base will have relearned the aforementioned skills. Many illegals will stay but many will leave too.

I think he is close to what will happen.

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I don’t really give a rat’s anus about ethnic makeup. This nation has never been one ethnicity, and the ethnic mix has always been in a state of change. Plus, like many of us, I’m not the product of one ethnicity, so I don’t really care.

I don’t really care about who is doing the work, either. I’m more concerned about what happens to the people who won’t work. (Won’t, not can’t.) If some able-bodied, sound-minded adult is capable of working but is living in mom’s basement playing games, that shouldn’t be my responsibility to buy upgraded iPhones for them. But as long as the plumber can fix my drain, I don’t care what his ethnicity is.

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Well said. However it is not merely the current younger generation, it is the traitors we elected to run the country. I firmly believe the word patriot will soon be associated with treason. Remove GOD, remove the flag (our symbol of freedom), teach in ALL school systems that our country is bad, neuter our military with skirted transgenders leading it and there is little left. I, too, pledge allegiance to the American flag and I’ll fight to defend it be the enemy foreign or domestic.
One 86 year old fart.:pray:t3:

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I wish his village wanted him back!

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I think LeoTwo-Three, I just heard a shot across our bow !

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You mean, yet another shot across our bow.

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… conjures an image of sheep drinking Kool aid. Everyone wants to belong; individualism and free thought are challenged daily

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YES! Forgive me brother, If I kept count of all the transgressions against US
I would be a very Angry man! Anger eats you up and I won’t give that MF’er the
satisfaction! (Oopsie, ends w/ an exclamation point too!, I sounded angry there didn’t I?)
:thinking: makes ya go Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
Pudding Pants makes people do that.

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