The Legacy of Heroes

Thus opens the greatest proclamation of the right for the individual to determine his or her own path in life. To pursue “Life, liberty” and “happiness” as inalienable rights of existence.

Thus opens the Declaration of Independence - a document which gave notice to the entire world, that the people of America were free and independent, that they claimed this right as a natural function of existence, and that they would FIGHT, united, and to the death if necessary, to protect that right and begin the greatest experiment in government and self-rule ever attempted in the history of civilization.

They made it clear, in a long and detailed listing of abuses, why this course of action was required. Why they had declared war against despotism. Why they had resolved to die rather than live under the iron boot of tyranny.

The enemy has “burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people...”

“He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us…”

“He is at this time transporting armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages”.

The familiarity of these sentiments and facts is frightening. Yet this familiarity is also a warning to all Americans.

That warning is that the forces of evil and oppression are ever present. That “When in the course of human events” diplomacy, good will, and a desire for peace fail, as they always do in the face of evil, it becomes not just the right of free peoples to resist, but their obligation.

“Give me liberty, or give me death…”

Diplomacy, good will, and a desire for peace have failed us before. Lincoln was certain that he could avoid war, that he could save the United States without bloodshed. Neville Chamberlain was positive if he gave Hitler what he wanted (“appeasement” was the official policy name) that he would maintain peace. FDR thought that America’s contributions as “the arsenal of democracy” would help Britain’s war without the need for American blood.

They were all terribly, horribly wrong.

They were also all instantaneous and unmovable in their resolve when the necessary path became clear.

Lincoln never wavered, nor did the people of the North - even after 20,000 casualties at Shilo, 23,000 at Antietam, and 51,000 at Gettysburg.

Where would we be if they had?

Neville Chamberlain immediately assumed all responsibility for his diplomatic failures and declared war after Hitler invaded Poland. His successor, Winston Churchill never wavered, nor did the British people - even after the fall of Dunkirk, even after the loss of 70.000 men to the Japanese’s Army in Singapore. Never once during the Battle of Britain.

Where would we be if they had?

FDR never wavered, nor did the American people – even after 21,000 died on the Bataan death march, even after the Japanese destroyed most of what was left of the U.S. Fleet at the battle of Coral Sea, leaving California open to invasion. Never once during "Operation Overlord".

Where would the world be if they had?

Lincoln did not engage in self-defeatist debate over “why the South Hated the North”. He mobilized the Army and launched the war that ended slavery forever. The United States did not seek to “Bring Tojo to justice” after Pearl Harbor. We rained destruction on the fascist culture of Japan ending forever their nightmare vision of racism, rape, and world domination.

So too must we now act.

We cannot sit back in fear of what might happen if we act – we must steel ourselves to what WILL happen if we do not. We must focus on a lasting peace that can only be attained through the uncompromising destruction and then reconstruction of the enemy. We must resolve ourselves to bring democracy and freedom to the bankrupt and despotic culture of our enemy, as we did to the destructive cultures of Nazism and Nipponese Fascism, at the point of a gun if necessary.

Freedom is not free. The freedoms that you and I now enjoy were all purchased for us with the hard currency of blood. The blood of farm boys at Valley Forge. The blood of runaway slaves at Fort Wagner. The blood of Jewish merchant’s sons at Normandy.

They filled the well of liberty, prosperity, and yes, peace, that we have been drawing from for 200 years. That well is now threatened by drought – the drought of despotism, sexism, racism, and absolutism that is Islamic terrorism and theocracy.

It is time to re-fill the well.

Thomas Jefferson wrote, “The Tree of Liberty must be watered, from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants”.

They will die for Allah. They must know that we will die for freedom.

For freedom, liberty, justice, prosperity, this is the legacy of America. This is the legacy we OWE our children and the children of the world.

This, is the legacy of heroes.