“One flag, one land, one heart, one hand, one Nation, evermore”                    -Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1862

I believe millions of Americans are bewildered and dismayed with the current state of America.  Economic crisis, the threat of terrorism, constitutional chaos, political corruption, Obamacare, media and academic bias, political correctness, leadership and national security failures, climate change, and foreign relations disasters are issues we face on a daily basis.

America is truly at a crossroads and the road we ELECT to travel will either restore the spirit of America or continue to change our country forever.  We the ordinary citizens must make fundamental decisions.  We Americans need to listen to and take seriously what we are being told.  We need to educate ourselves about American history; real, unbiased history.  We need to know the Constitution, the cornerstone of our country.  We need to hold our politicians and government leaders accountable.  We need to elect the people (whether we like them or not) who stand with America not against her; People who will uphold the Constitution and the laws of the United States; People who will work tirelessly to make America strong not let us continue to degrade into every other second and third world country.

We need to reestablish our uniquely special identity.  To the chagrin of the politically correct, I say America is “exceptional.”  It is unlike any country in history.  Its success, prosperity, growth, standard of living, and its spiritual soul would not have been possible anywhere else or with any other peoples.  We are Americans.  We are proud and owe no apologies for who we are.  We are the most generous people on earth and have done more good worldwide than any country, ever.  Alexis de Tocqueville, a French journalist who traveled through America in the early nineteenth century stated, “America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.” For the world’s sake, America must retain her “goodness.”  I reject generalized disparagement about America, even from some of our own countrymen.  There are and have been legitimate criticisms of American behavior that should be addressed, but we cannot let those issues supplant the factual uprightness of America.   And, of course there are fringe groups and guilt-ridden pro-globalists committed to recreating America to fit their global community vision, but most Americans, of diverse beliefs and heritages have a common fundamental belief in the America that was given life with the blood of our forefathers.

Failure is not an option!  Americans have overcome challenges including a revolution, and in the name of liberty established this country; a civil war that nearly ripped this country apart; world wars, natural disasters, recessions, and the Great Depression. We can do it again.  We Americans of all races, religions, political affiliations, and economic positions need to band together for the common cause of healing this great nation.  It won’t be easy; there are many distractions and detractors, but it can and must be done.

To protect this country our ancestors made significant sacrifices and overcame hardships unimaginable to us.  No matter the crisis, when they became engaged, they never gave up, and their character and determination are in each of us.  They left us a concise history of events that clearly highlight the fact that liberty and freedom must always be protected.  The words of our ancestors, immigrants from around the world guide us.  The words of our Forefathers are as relevant today as when they were spoken.  Words of warning from people like Thomas Jefferson’s warning to us, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”  Theodore Roosevelt warned us by saying, “The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living and the get-rich-quick theory of life.”  Ralph Waldo Emerson’s words from 1860 could have been written today, “Some men appear to feel they belong to a Pariah caste.  They fear to offend, they bend and apologize, and walk through life with a timid step.”

Complacency, appeasement, blind tolerance, and political correctness are historically proven to be temporary and fatal measures only masking problems and prolonging the inevitable.  The very problems and threats we do not want to think about grow larger, more complex, and unfortunately, we do not take action until the situation becomes critical. It seems we have become complacent either because we believe we individually cannot have an effect on national events, or think more “qualified” people are taking care of the “important” issues.  We have become appeasers paralyzed by political correctness under the guise of tolerance.  And, many of us out of frustration have “tuned out” of national involvement purposely quieting our own voices of support and dissent in national issues and events.  It is imperative we find our voices and we speak up for our constitutionally guaranteed rights, our fellow citizens, and our country which truly is, as Abraham Lincoln said in 1862, “the last best hope of earth.”

“Hope” and “change” were encouraging concepts, but beware the change you hoped for.  Hope will not unite this country. Hope will not protect us.  Hope will not strengthen our economy and create jobs.  Hope will not bring peace.  Knowledge, cooperation, and action are the tools we must utilize to heal our nation and re-kindle the flame of goodness that has radiated around the globe.  Americans must commit to reform on all levels; from our leaders in Washington to the average citizen found in every city and in every county across America.  It is time we make our forefathers proud.  It is time to get actively involved in our government and our communities.  It is time to stand up and defend our rights and the rights of our fellow countrymen.  It is time to face reality!  We have squandered our freedoms and taken for granted the gifts of this nation.  We owe our children a strong vibrant nation, not the shadow of liberty we walk in now.  There are things we can do, there are organizations and people we can trust; people committed to America’s best interest.  If we all join forces, we can heal our country and she will remain the beacon of liberty and freedom.

We need the courage to identify significant problems, and not be distracted by trivial politics.  We need the resolve to affect positive change.  We cannot continue to be passive about political violations of our Constitution.  I am a realist – a knowledge seeking patriot concerned that our children and grandchildren will never know the greatness of this country we were blessed to inherit.

I clearly see what is going on around me.  I see discontent, uneasiness, and lack of confidence in our leaders. I see America being re-designed into a country that looks nothing like the country our Forefathers gave us.  Like many others I “woke up” on September 11, 2001 and realized how little I actually knew about what had been going on in my own country, and in the world around me.

On September 10^th 2001:

v  I did not know the Muslim Middle East was committed to global destruction.

v   I did not know that Islamofascist terrorists had established cells around the globe.  I certainly didn’t know they were right here in the United States

v  I did not know that Muslim centers and schools were sprouting up all over the country and that hatred of America was a core study.

v  I did not know that Europe had been sinking into a socialist abyss.

v  I did not know people from countries with national health care systems swarmed to the United States for medical care.

v  I did not know our borders were so porous that millions of illegal aliens were in the country, and that the future murder of one of our border agents would be “no big deal.”

v  I did not know how inept our educational system was or how liberal professors have rewritten our history and higher education curriculum.

v  I did not know China had easily stolen our nuclear technology and was building up her military strength at an unprecedented rate.

v  I did not know the United Nations had totally derailed.

v  I did not know that human rights were “selective.” Christians were and continue to be massacred in Africa and the Middle East and slavery still exists in places like Sudan and Mauritania.

v  I did not know that our Constitution and liberties would be under attack domestically from the very government sworn to protect them.

v  I did not ever think that one day my government would be indifferent to and then cover-up the attack of a U.S. Embassy and the deaths of four Americans.

v  I also did not ever think that the undeniable terrorist massacre of military personnel inside a U.S. fort would be labeled by the government as “workplace violence.”

v  I did not know that one of the most powerful U.S. agencies responsible for “revenue,” would target specific political and religious groups on a national scale with the blessing of the Executive branch of government.  And then that same incompetent agency would be put in charge of enforcing a national health care system.

v  I did not know our intelligence community that had been degraded for a decade prior to 9/11 would one day be instructed to spy on American citizens.

v  I did not know that all levels of our government, the military, police, and even our educational system were being infiltrated by enemies of America.

v  I never would have imagined that a U.S. president would be as arrogant as to blame everyone else for his mistakes and dismiss serious and deadly government blunders as “phony scandals.”

v   I certainly did not know that America was eroding morally from the inside out. 

Talk about a reality check!  How did I miss all this? I had become complacent, assuming people smarter than I were at the helm guiding our country and keeping it safe.  When I heard Americans lamenting that we must have done something to elicit the 9/11 attacks; that we brought this on ourselves; that America’s chickens have come home to roost, I woke up. Watching celebrations across the Middle East over the deaths of thousands of people and hearing that this attack was “America’s own fault,” I became angry and set out on quest of sorts to find answers to these things I did not know. Nothing justifies murdering 3,000 people – nothing!  The more I learned, the more I realized the enormity of our situation.  We are in serious times with grave consequences.

The problems we face are not Democrat or Republican; they are not Black or White; and they are not gender-specific; they are American.  We need to listen to John Adams, “We have been afraid to think…Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.”  Those words spoken by Adams in 1765 are extremely relevant today.  We need to unite under the banner of our own Constitution and work together to restore the dignity and the strength of America.  Since our government in Washington D.C. cannot or will not protect our nation, it is the duty of all Americans to defend our sacred gifts of independence and freedom.

Mary A. Kardes

America: Our Sacred Honor

2015