Re: Dick Cheney, a tribute

Have you ever wondered what happened to those men who signed the Declaration
of Independence?



Five signers were captured as traitors by the British, and were tortured
before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost
their sons in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured. Nine of
the 56 fought and died from wounds or the hardship of the Revolutionary War.



What kind of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven
were merchants; nine were farmers and large plantation owners - men of means
and well educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing
full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured. They
signed, and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred
honor.



Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships
swept from the seas by the British navy. He sold his home and property to
pay his debts, and died in rags.



Thomas McKean was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his
family almost constantly. He served in Congress without pay, and his family
was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him and poverty was his
reward.



Vandals, soldiers, or both looted the properties of Ellery, Clymer, Hall,
Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Rutledge, and Middleton. Francis Lewis had his
home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died
within a few months.



At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson Jr., noted that the British General
Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. The owner
quietly urged General George Washington to open fire, which was done. The
home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.



John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13
children fled for their lives. His fields and gristmill were laid waste. For
more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home after the war
to find his wife dead and children vanished. A few weeks later he died from
exhaustion and a broken heart. Morris and Livingston suffered similar fates.



Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution. These were
not wild-eyed rabble rousing ruffians; they were soft-spoken men of means
and education. They had security but they valued liberty more. Standing
tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged: "For the support of this
declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the Divine Providence,
we mutually pledge to each other, out lives, our fortunes, and our sacred
honor."



They gave us an independent America! Can we keep it?




"Mike Swisher" <Mike_member@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:dtb0hj0btb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <4I3Kf.3066$UN.1494@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Don T
says...

That is the ironic thing about pointing fingers Mike. Those that do
generally find that when they point a finger at someone else there are
three
pointed right back at them. Their air of moral superiority is a sad joke.
It
is a symptom of believing the pre-packaged propaganda of politicians
instead
of gathering disparate information and thinking through to an
understanding
of reality.

When there are dictators that hate everything about the "West" who are
intent on getting nuclear weapons so they can wipe all things "Western"
from
the face of the earth and establish the "New Caliphate Without Borders",
why
is it that most of these finger pointing peasants prefer to hide behind
petty bullshit like claiming the US is both solely responsible for the
fucked up state of the world and also has the responsibility to fix it?

--

Don Thompson

There is nothing more frightening than active ignorance.
~Goethe

Don,

One thing is for sure - most of those pointing fingers don't have either
the
responsibility or the capacity to fix anything.

Most of the European nations that have chosen to adopt an attitude of
moral
superiority can afford that luxury because Uncle Sam has picked up the tab
for
their defense for the past fifty-odd years. Who seriously believes that
France
or Germany have the capacity to defend themselves without US help? True,
the
French can sink an occasional Greenpeace ship while it is in harbor. That
is
probably more than the Germans could do.

Canada seems now to take the attitude that US submarine traffic through
the
Arctic Ocean is the principal threat to its sovereignty. In the mean time
their
borders are like a sieve, and Canada has become a safe-haven for Muslim
terrorists whose target is the U.S. Canada's attitude towards Al-Qaeda is
rather
like St. Paul, Minnesota's was towards gangsters from Chicago and Detroit
back
in the 'thirties, when the "O'Connor system" let them take refuge here,
secure
in the knowledge that local cops would let them alone as long as they
violated
no local laws.

Canada once (when it was our ally) had respectable armed forces, which its
recent governments have let go to wrack and ruin. We will continue to send
subs
under the Arctic icecap, and the Canadians will go on making domestic
political
theatre of it, but will not - cannot - do anything to prevent it, since
they
know perfectly well that we could bring any undertaking on their part to
do so
to a halt about as easily as swatting a fly.

Secure in the knowledge that Uncle Sam will look after them, and forgive
their
anti-American tantrums as an indulgent parent does a toddler, these
countries
have taken the money they have not had to expend on their own defense and
put it
into social-welfare programs. Then they lecture us because we do not have
similar ones.

However, these programs have now grown too big for them to afford. France
and
Germany, again, are prime examples, with 10-12% unemployment rates. The
horrendous costs of supporting all these people in idleness necessitates
taxation that saps their economies and prevent them from recovering.

The unemployed are largely second- or third-generation descendants of
Moroccans, Algerians, and Turks that they let into their countries to do
the
menial work their own cossetted citizenry were too prissy to soil their
hands in
doing. These are the people rioting in their streets, setting cars on
fire, or
screaming for the blood of newspapermen who have published cartoons they
don't
like.

What if we cut these countries off and let them fend for themselves - if
they
don't want to be our friends, then let them see what it is like to be on
their
own? What if we pulled all our military bases out of Germany and relocated
in
supportive countries? What if our State Department ceased its support for
the
farcical/sinister Eurocrats in Brussels? What if our Federal Reserve
System
ceased its benign policy towards the Euro, punishing the French and
Germans
whilst rewarding friendly countries like Britain and Denmark which have
wisely
avoided consigning their monetary policies to the Bundesbank?

God knows that American policy has not been perfect, but reasonable people
in
other parts of the world should be able to see that this country is the
only one
that has anything like the ability to deal with the enemies of Western
civilisation. Some stand up for its values as best they can (Denmark is an
example), but have limited capacity to do so, because they are small.
Others
shamefully abdicate their duty (France, Germany, Canada). The U.S. will go
on
shouldering the burden without complaint unless/until the American
taxpayer gets
tired of it.

Woe betide the rest of the world if ever this country, so long accused of
imperialism, took as its watchword the motto of the old Roman emperor -
"Oderint
dum metuant" (let them hate me as long as they fear me).





----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----
.

Relevant Pages