"THE LONE SURVIVOR"

"The Lone Survivor"

            You might think from reading that title, this was going to be about the movie of that name...but it's not.  The lone survivor in this case, is America.  From reading various things about democracy, freedom, innovation and just about anything else of any sort of nobility, the United States pretty much stands alone.  Oh sure, there are democratic countries in the world...but they aren't, or weren't innovative.  Yes, there are innovative countries in the world, but they didn't give their people the same amount of freedom that we used to have in this land of ours.  What's that you say?  You noticed it says that we used to have freedom in this country, and you wondered why it says we used to?  Think about it for a moment or two.  If you’re about 50 or younger, a twinge might be going through your head, and you can remember a couple of things that have been “changed” over the past few years.  If you’re about 40 or younger, not much has changed, you think it’s always been that way.  If you’re about 20 or younger, one of you may be a lone survivor in some not-too-distant future where you have to scrounge for food, clothing, and shelter.   It may have been the result of an apocalyptic upheaval resulting from a nuclear war…or perhaps nothing more than the collapse of an experimental government…ours.

            If, however, you are 60 and older, you have experienced the early years of the decline of the United States as a world power.  Are you 70, 80, or older?  You are among those folks, like me, who lived through a world at war, and saw your country emerge unscathed…a lone survivor in a world that we took part in destroying, and now we were going to rebuild.  Somebody, much smarter than I could ever hope to be once said that America was the only country that, after defeating an enemy, did not take the country as a war prize, but built it up to be, and let’s be fair about this…we built Germany and Japan back much better than they were before World War Two.  That’s what Americans do…or used to do.  In memory, the war years are with me, the post-war years were splendid and America was still the land of the free because of the brave.  As a nation, we had repeated defeating not one, but two, of the mightiest military machines ever seen.  We won our independence from England that way and we made the world free again in the 1940’s.

            Now, as Lincoln said, “we are engaged in a great civil war”, and make no mistake my friends, it is a war and, so far, it is civil.  But, shall we be the lone survivor in a new and different world where corruption from top to bottom is the norm?  Shall we be the lone survivor in an ocean of hate, distrust, violence?

Shall our great nation, which was once called The Noble Experiment, vanish and be replaced by tyranny, despotism, and yes, even slavery?  You, reading this, are but one voice, but that one voice can influence others, to save America.  You can be part of the rescue so  “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”  Think about it…and do something.