If you turn on your TV set you are going to hear bad news. If you read your newspaper, you are going to read of bad news. If you listen to the radio, there is nothing but bad news.
The Stock Market is in the toilet. ISIS is taking over the world and it’s just a matter of time until they are here and killing innocent Americans in the streets. The Iranians are soon going to have nuclear weapons and they are going to use them on us. Young people have lost all respect for authority, especially police authority, and they are running wild. Soon, very soon, our country will be eliminated from the earth by, your choice, global warming, bird flu, AIDS, the Russians, the Chinese, high-fructose corn syrup or anything else you can imagine. Just fill in the blank.
Most of this frightening stuff is designed to sell TV time, newspapers and radio commercials.
But I have good news. We, all of us, are part of a great experiment that got its start more than 200 years ago. A relatively small group of fed-up individuals decided they would throw off the oppression of a foreign government and rebel. They decided they would take up arms and defend their new homeland. They wrote a constitution that was their law and they created a new country. That country was and is America.
They knew what they were doing was dangerous. They knew if they were caught by the oppressive government, they would be executed. But they also knew what they were working for was worth the sacrifice.
These were strong people. These were courageous people. These were daring people. Sure there were some doubts. I am positive many never really thought they could pull it off. Some even probably stayed out of the fight and left it for others.
Let me tell you also there was bloodshed. Many were killed in the effort to establish this new country. Most, fortunately, survived. They went on to establish America and make this country the most powerful force for good in the world.
I said I had good news. Well I have even better news. The blood that flowed through the veins of those early patriots still flows today in the generations which have followed. The daring and the courage that caused this great nation’s beginning is just waiting to be called on again. There is no people, no government and no army which would have a chance of defeating this country. And the world knows it.
The blood of the early ones has been diluted to be sure. Some think it has disappeared. Don’t you believe it. It has been strengthened by the challenges of two world wars. It has been made stronger by immigrants who fled their own oppression to live free. Diverse races and ethnicities have come together to make a stronger America.
We know some have come here with the goal in mind of destroying us. We know some have come here in an effort to create the same cesspool from which they escaped. But what we also know, and they have yet to learn, is they will fail. They will fail as others have in the past.
The fire of revolution that burned in the bellies of our forefathers burns yet today in the hearts of their offspring. “Don’t Tread On Me” continues to be our motto, and that should be a word to any who think they have a chance against us. Don’t even try it. You have no idea what awaits you.
