A Predictably Pandering State of the Union from Barack Obama

January 24, 2012 | Comments (0)

The democrats in Congress certainly got a workout tonight.  It would seem their seats were wired to zap them with electric shocks whenever Barack Obama, in tonight’s State of the Campaign Address, offered an applause line he deemed worthy of a standing ovation.  For those dems in attendance, from former first lady Hillary to Warren Buffet’s secretary to Nancy “giant gavel” Pelosi to carefully selected military folk to, sadly, recuperating congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, this meant leaping up every two phrases or so.  Perhaps that was the intent: Distract Americans who might be watching so they won’t pay attention to what the president is saying – and more, importantly, what he’s not.  More likely, he was just trying to show Newt that “see, I can get standing ovations, too.”

But let’s look into the true meaning of those standing Os, shall we?  Painfully apparent almost from the get-go was the fact that we were witnessing democrats in panic.   As their leader presented even more taxpayer-funded bribes to an already crippling list, and blatantly avoided the many failures and unpopular policies of his administration, the dems felt the need to convince onlookers that their guy has the right stuff – and yes, that he can get standing ovations, too!  And there among them, almost repeatedly trampled, was John McCain, flanked, by choice, on all sides by democrats, reminding us once more that in 2008 we voters were essentially offered a choice between two democrats: one moderate, the other the most radical leftwing democrat ever to win the party’s nomination, let alone the election.

Pathetic was that party’s behavior tonight, as well as that of Obama, who once again displayed for all the world his complete disconnect with the American people and the way this country operates.  He tried to cover for this, apparently with the help of the Government Motors advertising team, reading from his prompter pithy ad-copy platitudes “an economy built to last,” “an America built to last” – mimicking, it would seem, what we’ll hear during commercial breaks when the Giants face the Patriots in Indianapolis on February 5th.

I won’t bother summarizing what Obama covered in his campaign speech tonight.  We’ve heard it all before: the meaningless catchphrases, the pandering promises, the glaring omissions, several play-by-play narratives of how he took out Osama bin Laden – though I did find disconcerting his intent to transform the United States Defense Department into a green-energy mill.  The upshot of it all is that he intends to continue to disregard the constraints of the U.S. Constitution and do whatever he wants to do, because, you see, he knows what’s best for us in all aspects of our American life.  Still not sure where he gained such expertise in all aspects of American life, but how dare I ask.  Instead I’ll just hope for change come November – and hope that this is the last Obama State of the Union we will ever have to see.

Betsy Siino | Comments (0)

The Time Machine to Occupy Wherever

November 1, 2011 | Comments (1)

I am reminded of my Freshman year at UCLA, when I arrived on my 1980s campus one morning to find myself immersed in a crowd of hippies in leather fringe, bell bottoms and long stringy hair.  What the heck happened, I wondered, between the time I went to bed the night before and this bright morning? The filming of some movie, that’s what happened. So no, I had not been transported in my sleep back 20 years to the sixties, and thank God for that.

But now here we are in 2011, awakening to find ourselves immersed in crowds of retro protesters, not, this time, the products of Hollywood’s central casting, but real live sixties throwbacks calling for the downfall of the United States of America. Marching on Wall Street, Los Angeles, Boston, Tampa, Oakland, San Francisco, Phoenix, Portland, and everywhere in between, they call themselves “Occupy wherever,” and from what I have gleaned, I don’t think they have any idea what they are demanding, other than freedom from personal responsibility, freedom from employment, and freedom from basic hygiene.

Coverage of these protests reveals nothing but a flood of imprecision and generalities, punctuated by the catch phrases fed to the protesters by those who are organizing these latter-day love-ins: Down with the corporations. Tax the rich. Legalize Marijuana. Bush is a Nazi. All praise the hammer and sickle. We are the 99 percent. Death to the one percent. You get the drill…

One young woman I heard interviewed was asked just what she and her cohorts want. Like so many others handed the microphone, she couldn’t answer. The interviewer –  obviously not a member of the left’s mainstream media lapdog brigade — explained to the misguided “freedom” fighter that plenty ‘o politicians have sold their souls to the unions and other special interests in sweetheart deals designed to bankrupt the very cities where the occupiers are protesting. Plenty of fat-cat democrat donors, too. She knew none of that. Don’t you think that makes the opportunistic politicians responsible, too, for whatever it is you are protesting? I can’t speak for that, she said. But we’re discussing things, she said, and getting new ideas. What kind of ideas? she was asked.  Uh, well, I can’t really…I don’t….um….when we have talked about it, there will be really good ideas.  Like what? She didn’t care to speak anymore.

The mouthpieces for the protests – the mainstream lapdogs, leftwing politicians, various unions, hired thugs, and yes, even the president of the United States, tell us it’s all about jobs. I have yet to hear any of the protesters speak of jobs. The mouthpieces demand that we celebrate the audacity and purity of the protesters. Ignoring the filth and stench permeating the protest sites, the mouthpieces, by taking the side of the occupiers, are hoping we the people won’t notice that they are aligning themselves with calls for, among so many other issues, forced and universal veganism, the legalization of drugs, the communistic distribution of wealth, the abandonment of the usage of oil (both foreign and domestic), and the forgiveness of all debt (with those members of society who are responsible and productive footing the bill).

The left, including the media hacks and the president of the United States, would have us believe that these protestors, these occupiers, are America’s majority. Don’t believe it. We the people know who they are. And we are asking, rhetorically of course, why they are not marching on the White House. As for me, I keep thinking of the words of a favorite bumper sticker: “Our Founding Fathers would be ashamed of us for what we are putting up with.” And for what we have “put up with” for the last three years.

 

Betsy Siino | Comments (1)

So Tired of Feeling Like a Hostage in My Own Country

October 4, 2011 | Comments (2)

It’s getting old, this feeling. This feeling of imprisonment, disbelief and fatigue. For far too many months now, we have lived in a nation held hostage by a gaggle of individuals who have only a sketchy notion of what our country is and hold what little they do know in contempt.

A president travels the country delivering the same tired axioms read with identical cadence from a mechanical device, berating the nation, the people, I love.  Secretly, silently, he grins as rioting leftists demand our nation abandon liberty and capitalism. Meanwhile, the president’s wife travels that same country, pricey entourage in tow, dictating what and how we parents will feed our children  – and mandating what restaurants will and will not serve their customers.

A governor of a southern state suggests we nix elections in 2012 to quell the successful rightwing efforts of an angry electorate, her words simply mirroring ideas the president and his officials have floated themselves. As unemployment skyrockets at breakneck speed, a presidential advisor informs us it is the government’s job to take care of us and provide all we need to live according to what our superiors deem an acceptable level of existence.

The president orchestrates a steady stream of public displays (with military backdrop whenever possible) in his quest for useful campaign photo-ops. That same president orders his minions to intimidate those who oppose him and do whatever they must to make his transformational dreams our nightmare. Meanwhile, we the people hold our collective breath in hopes that the man’s law designed intentionally to gut our health-care system, our bank accounts, and our personal health will be repealed.

As the current administration stands accused of allegedly placing guns in to the hands of drug lords in a neighboring country, people from that and other countries stream across our borders without sanction (presidential relatives among them), knowing that despite such open defiance of our laws, they will be showered with social services and our tax dollars upon their arrival. Meanwhile the narcissism, panic and abandonment issues of the petulant leader of the free world become more evident – and more dangerous – every day.

In short, we find ourselves trapped in a lawless nation, the perpetrators of our confinement carrying out their tasks openly, brazenly and with unabashed arrogance. And I for one am tired of being their hostage. Until this day, I never believed we as a nation would live to see, let alone tolerate, what now occurs within our great nation almost daily. But, despite my own moments of fatigue, I know in my heart that I am not alone. This nation teems with others, my fellow hostages, who share my love for this country and the resolve to wrest her free from our captors.

Carve away that hard crusty shell of betrayal and tyranny that has encapsulated the Tree of Liberty over these three difficult years, and you will find a moist green pulp still living and breathing at the tree’s heart. Those of us who love this country will continue to nurture that tree, and, like the political prisoners who found their own salvation, their own inspiration, in the words of Ronald Reagan that were smuggled into the frozen Gulag of Siberia years ago, we will wait for that moment when we, too, will at last be liberated from this modern-day tyranny, free to be America once more.

Betsy Siino | Comments (2)

A Wicked Masterpiece for Wicked Times

May 15, 2011 | Comments (3)

I had the great privilege the other day of seeing the hit Broadway musical, Wicked. For years I had heard that this alternate take on The Wizard of Oz was must-see theater, but I had no idea what I was in for.

I purposely went in knowing only that this is the so-called “untold story” of a beloved American classic. And I understood that it involved serious themes, which, as I have said here before, lie at the heart of my own passion for theater.  I thus expected a story that would touch on prejudice and bigotry, and indeed I found that, but what I did not expect was such brilliant and unblinking attention paid to domestic violence, the abuse of children and animals, power and control, torture, tyranny, courage and redemption. Without revealing details, let me say as a dissident voice recently targeted for silencing, that what resonated most personally for me was the silencing of dissident voices by corrupt authority figures and fawning, feel-good minions. Sound familiar?

What I saw in the theater on that day was a retelling of a beloved American classic  that mirrors what at least one member of its audience (me) sees occurring beyond those theater doors in our own non-Ozian world. I both hope and expect that I am not alone in this, that this accounts for this show’s wild popularity, despite what the show’s creators might have intended originally. The moment art of any kind is released into the atmosphere, it becomes whatever an individual reader/viewer/audience member wishes it to be, a fact I first experienced personally years ago when a short story I had written for an undergraduate fiction seminar was suddenly being discussed as a retelling of the fall from grace in the Garden of Eden. News to me.

I speak here then as an audience member who was never a rabid fan of the original Wizard, but who now includes the “untold” version of that tale, one filled with rich and desperate themes – including one of the most powerful scenes I have ever witnessed on the stage (hint: torn flesh, the stain of blood) – on my list of all-time favorites. I urge others to see it, as well, just as I urge us all to resist the silence and the goosesteps.

Betsy Siino | Comments (3)

Lessons Learned: Beware of Arbitrary, Undefined “Change”

February 15, 2011 | Comments (0)

To all who were lured into the touchy-feely belief two years ago or so that change for change’s sake is a goal to which we all should aspire, I would imagine, and hope, most of you are having second thoughts by now.

Those not so easily swayed know now, just as they (we) knew then, that in its most simplistic terms, change can be good, and change can be bad. To sign on haphazardly to arbitrary, undefined “change,” is to enter dangerous territory for yourself, your family, and, as we have witnessed firsthand, your country.

A quick look at history is all we need to see where that dangerous territory can lead. Hitler wanted “change.” Remember? And he made it happen.  Mao, Castro and Lenin wanted “change.”  And they made it happen.  Indeed just about every tyrant and dictator in human history has wanted change – sometimes defined for the masses, sometimes not – and with long-term, often damning consequences. On the flip side, our nation’s founders wanted change, too — clearly defined, clearly documented change — and they made it happen. Tyrants and dictators of the world (including those within our own nation’s capitol) no doubt view the success of the American experiment “dangerous,” and indeed it is for those who hunger for unbridled power and control of we the people.

And today the mainstream lapdog media, the United States president, and various pundits with undefined qualifications but clearly defined agendas, are singing the praises of change in Egypt after several weeks of undefined Egyptians demonstrating and causing mass destruction in the streets of Cairo. I won’t pretend to understand precisely what is going on in Egypt, but we all know that the Egyptian president Mubarak has stepped down, it appears the military has stepped in (the word “coup” being somewhat avoided), and the Egyptian parliament is being dissolved.  Our president, in turn, using these events to court college students in his bid for reelection in 2012, is congratulating those who have made these dreams a reality, insisting that such undefined, revolutionary “change” is what the slobbering college students are all about.

Because I am no expert, I will look to Israel, rather than the current U.S. president, for clues as to the true significance of the events in Egypt. Said U.S. president has not been what we might call supportive of Israel, so I will assume that his support for the undefined change in Egypt does not necessarily bode well for the Jewish State. Israel, in turn, has hardly been rejoicing over the events in a nation that has been the closest they have to an ally in their shared and very volatile region of the world. I also personally don’t find comforting the words “Sharia Law” and “Muslim Brotherhood” as potential consequences of the Egyptian rebellion.

Meanwhile, our president stands smiling before those cheering, maybe hungover, college students, taking credit for that rebellion, which has thus far resulted in a military coup, the loss of a parliament, and the opening of floodgates to other nations in the region who seek to destroy Israel.  But fear not, America, one of this administration’s top security officials is out there smoothing the feathers of skeptical Americans by insisting that the Muslim Brotherhood, mild and moderate “secular” organization that it is, is nothing to fear.

Sorry, this skeptical American intends to remain so.  In an era of undefined, arbitrary change, only a fool signs on without thought of consequence. Whether we’re talking light bulbs, portion control at restaurants, tin-can death-trappy “smart” cars, or national security and stability, the consequence of change for the sake of change, arbitrary and undefined, can be, and usually is, tyranny.

Betsy Siino | Comments (0)

The Tipping Point Toward Fascism and a Young Boy in Salt Lake City

November 23, 2010 | Comments (1)

We’re not in America anymore. While many of us have suspected this over the last few weeks in our slide toward fascism at America’s airports, it became official on November 19 when a young boy was stripped searched in public at Salt Lake City Airport as four TSA agents looked on.  The seach was naturally caught by cell phone by another passenger waiting for his own groping session, and it has gone viral on YouTube:

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSQTz1bccL4)

Disgusting, of course, was the sight itself of the small boy’s bare back as he was checked for weapons and explosives, but even more disgusting, more disturbing, more pornographic even, was the site of the TSA  agents standing watch – particularly the burly female in the bunch, who we will call Ilsa/Eva for obvious, rather chilling, reasons. She stands watching with a look of satisfaction on her face, her beefy arms crossed across her chest.

I felt nauseous after I viewed this footage. Who are these people? What country is this? And I am left thinking that of those TSA agents, I must believe that at least one (please more than one) watched this happening, knew how very wrong, how despicably disgraceful and fundamentally un-American this spectacle was. And I pray that today that one, whoever he or she is (could have been Ilsa/Eva), is berating himself or herself for not stepping in and saying simply: “Stop!”

But no such admonition came.  How empowering it would have been not only for that young boy being exploited so horribly by the Obama administration, but for our nation as a whole.  But, sadly, that simple word – “Stop!” — never came.The moment, that lost moment of redemption and salvation, became instead, once and for all, the tipping point to fascism.

No one is more pleased to see that lost opportunity replaced by this tipping point than Barack Obama, his wife, his handlers and his followers. Remember, too, that the timing of the groping and strip searches and all-out fascism that has erupted over the weeks following the democrat electoral bloodbath of November 2nd  is no coincidence.  We the people are to be punished for that bloodbath, and we are witnessing that punishment today and every day at America’s airports.  We can only hope that when a moment of redemption and salvation presents itself again, the good people in positions of authority who believe in this country will at last stand up and say “Stop!”

Betsy Siino | Comments (1)

Airport Groping Continues – As Does the Rage

November 20, 2010 | Comments (0)
Just when you think it’s safe to talk about something other than Obama/Napolitano/TSA groping and naked radioactive photography at America’s airports, the situation continues to escalate as America refuses to let it go.  I would expect no less from the people of our great nation, the majority of whom recognize tyranny when they see it.

As we know, air travelers have been given the choice to submit either to naked photography sessions powered by invasive radiation, or to full-body pat-downs (“groping sessions”) performed by TSA officials.  The outcry, the fallout, the backlash have been deafening – and all in time for Thanksgiving, one of the busiest travel times of the year.

In recent weeks we have seen our nation transformed (Obama’s word) into a tyrant’s dream.  Now, there is no one more rabidly concerned about airport security – and national security – than I am, but what we are witnessing right now is pure insanity.  As Americans coast to coast are submitting to newly institutionalized humiliations and assaults, we all know full well that these procedures prevent nothing, and in no way target those who actually do wish to see our nation brought to her knees.

There is an answer, and we all know what that is.  Hint: Israel’s El Al Airlines.  But in a current post-9/11 culture that has inexplicably elevated political correctness to a sacrament, we find instead this (and all within the last couple of weeks):

  • A flight attendant – a 32-year veteran and breast-cancer survivor – claims she was groped manually, aggressively, and far too intimately; then was forced to show the gropers her prosthetic breast.
  • A woman in St. Louis was forced to submit to a groping session because of the metal in her artificial knees. I would rather not describe here what she alleges she endured at the hands of the two TSA interrogators, but I will say again that it harkens back to those dreadful women’s prison movies of decades past. If her story is true, I wholeheartedly agree with her that it was in every way a “sexual assault.”
  • Still no clear statement on how Muslim women in burqas will be interrogated/groped, yet we have all now surely seen the Catholic nuns and non-Muslim 3-year-olds being fondled in the name of national security.
  • Elected officials, including Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX) are shouting that these procedures violate our 4th-Amendment Constitutional protection from “illegal search and seizure.”
  • New York City Council members are supporting legislation to ban full-body scanners in the Big Apple.
  • Various airports are contemplating replacing the TSA with private security services.
  • Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) has described the airport groping procedures as nothing but “love pats,” which we should all be willing to enjoy.
  • This hot topic has become prime grist for the comedy writer’s mill and YouTube, the latter of which currently hosts a video of a man who calls the TSA to inquire about job opportunities that he understands would permit him to act out all his sexual proclivities.  Chilling are the TSA representative’s very matter-of-fact responses to his questions.
  • Despite the widespread revolt, TSA Chief John Pistole has announced: “I’m not going to change those policies.” Keep in mind that he may say only what Obama and Napolitano mandate (“just following orders”).
  • Even the brilliant, consummately dignified Dr. Charles Krauthammer, one of the sharpest minds ever to eviscerate the hypocrisy of our culture and our politics, is singing the praises of the American airport traveler’s new rallying cry: “Don’t touch my junk!”

The airlines have for the most part remained mum on this topic.  The exception is Southwest Airlines, whose Senior VP of Operations, Greg Wells, stated when discussing the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday: “With people getting partially molested at checkpoints, all that is going to be a real shock for them.”  Perhaps the other airlines will speak up when they realize that people are choosing not between naked radiation or groping, but choosing not to fly at all as to prevent the government from “molesting” them and their children.

Rather than listen to Janet Napolitano, Barack Obama and Claire “love pat” McCaskill, I will listen instead to former El Al Security Chief Marvin Badler, who calls the pat-down “a waste of time.”  We would be wise to follow instead El Al’s procedure, which involves at its core…yep, we’re going to say it…profiling.  While TSA officials, mandated by Obama and Napolitano to fondle 3-year-old Tiffany and wheelchair-bound grandma, El Al officials are interviewing would-be travelers, conducting computer background checks on them, and evaluating where would-be travelers were born, where they live, why they are traveling, and why they have traveled in the past. And bring on the dogs. The canine nose trumps the human hand and radiation any day.

Permit me also to clarify that to date, I have had nothing but positive experiences with the TSA, finding them polite, respectful and professional. But as history has shown, a bit of authority, particularly when coupled with a license for physical force and groping, can be transformative for those of weak spirit (Nazi Germany, anyone?). With a dangerously authoritarian administration currently holding the reins, resistance is the key to our survival.

In the meantime, as long as the current policies remain, and as long as those making the decisions choose impotence and insanity over El-Al-style muscle, I have a suggestion.  Men, women, children, all of you: Just wear a burqa to the airport, and Obama, Napolitano and the TSA will leave you alone.

Betsy Siino | Comments (0)

Airport Insanity Update

November 16, 2010 | Comments (0)

After reading my post of November 13, a friend of mine commented that perhaps I am being a bit extreme in suggesting that TSA airport security might be the dream job for a pedophile.  Surely children would be exempt from new procedures that involve naked photography and the full-body fondling of airline passengers.

What a coincidence, then, that less than 24 hours later, I would stumble upon the story of a 3-year-old who had a meltdown when she was subjected to a full-body patdown by a TSA agent in San Diego.  The toddler’s dad happens to be a local San Diego news broadcaster, who made sure his daughter’s experience would not be forgotten or denied.

So, dear friend of mine, no, children are not exempt.  But you have to assume they are confused.  Parents, schools and pediatricians expend much time and effort teaching children how to guard against strangers and improper touches.  Consider then those children who are properly schooled in the fine art of self-protection, only to find themselves fondled by strangers in TSA uniforms at the airport.

Of course common sense has no place in the America of Barack Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano – at least in those areas of government where they still have some authority.  As if to thumb their noses (yet again) at an America that refuses to cooperate with a wholesale leftwing transformation of the United States, they tweak their policies daily, almost as though they are trying to see just how severely they can punish and humiliate the American people.

For example, today we learned that if you intend to wear sweatpants, pajamas or similarly loose-fitting leggings on your flight, you will literally find TSA hands down your pants.  And in the wake of the Muslim community’s demands that their women be exempted from full-body patdowns, Napolitano has stated that “adjustments” will be made, and “with respect to that particular issue, I think there will be more to come.”  I don’t think Janet herself even knows what she means (or what she’s doing), but I certainly hope it doesn’t mean what I think it means.  If it does, the response will not be pretty.

The irony at the root of this madness is that most would-be terrorists on planes since 9/11 have been foiled, not by TSA prevention policies, but by passengers on those planes who did not hesitate to jump in.  Even on the day of 9/11 itself, the heroic passengers of Flight 93, knowing the fate of the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, and knowing what awaited them, refused to go down without a fight.

Since that terrible day, the majority of us have become more vigilant, more observant, and more willing to take necessary action.  Despite what one might glean from the behavior of far too many of our elected and administrative officials, the vast majority of us have become far less politically correct, as well.  In other words, we know that traumatizing 3-year-olds and naked pictures of Grandma are not the answer.

Betsy Siino | Comments (0)

Do You Hear the People Sing?

November 1, 2010 | Comments (2)

Do you hear the people sing?
Singing the songs of angry men.
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!
(Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg)

I am a great lover of musical theater. And as my family well knows, I like my theater dark and tragic, rich with the immortal themes of injustice, redemption, pain, healing and unrequited love, temptation and salvation, courage and sacrifice, tyranny and triumph.

Not surprisingly, then, topping my list of all time favorites is the magnificent Les Miserables, the epic story of hero Jean Valjean and the people of an early 19th-century France vowing to bring justice and representation to their corrupted nation.  Here we find, as well, the equally magnificent song from above: “Do You Hear the People Sing?”  This song has not-so-mysteriously popped into my head repeatedly over the last week or so, particularly tonight on the eve of Election Day, 2010.  I can think of no better commemoration.

Tomorrow is a day many of us thought would never come.  I need not reiterate the significance of this day for the salvation of our country, but if we the people do not decisively take our country back tomorrow, I don’t know if we ever will.  But I also have complete faith that the people of my country, “singing the song of angry men,” will not let me down. Tomorrow, fired by that anger, may our votes speak for the fact that “we will not be slaves again.”  As they also say in Les Mis, “one day more.”  See you on the other side….

Betsy Siino | Comments (2)

Disneyland’s Lincoln Warns Us of Dangers Within

August 22, 2010 | Comments (1)

I don’t think I have mentioned in these posts that I am a fanatic for Disneyland (the original in California). Having grown up practically next door to the park, and working there summers during college, I have never gotten the place out of my system.

I was thus thrilled during my recent visit to the park to see that Abraham Lincoln has returned after a several-year absence in the legendary “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.” The President returns in the audioanimatronic form and setting in which he was originally seen in the 1960s, original introductory narrative, graphics, and speech intact, said speech featuring prominently our 16th President’s profound belief in liberty; the American people; and the notion that if America is ever to be destroyed, it will be from within.

You could not be more timely, Mr. President.

This experience took me back to my one and only visit to Walt Disney World in Florida six years ago. A highlight was the Hall of Presidents, a seemingly living gathering of all American Presidents, past and present. I was fortunate to see an audioanimatronic George W. give the keynote address, as the sitting President is granted that honor. Needless to say, I won’t be returning to the great hall as long as an audioanimatronic you-know-who is featured speaker.

But seeing Disneyland’s tribute to Abraham Lincoln got me thinking: Perhaps the Powers-that-Be at Walt Disney World should consider changing things up a bit at the Florida outpost. Perhaps they should grant the speaking position to the certainly deserving President Lincoln.

Think about it, Disney-World-Powers-that-Be, would you please? Imagine Mr. Lincoln, flanked by his presidential colleagues, delivering the same words he shares with us in California:

The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty. And the American people, just now, are much in want of one.

What constitutes the bulwark of our liberty and our independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts. These are not our reliance against tyranny. Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms.

Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some trans-Atlantic military giant, to step the ocean, and crush us at a blow?

Never!

All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer: that if it ever is to reach us, it must spring from amongst us….If destruction be our lot, we, ourselves, must be its authors and finishers. As a nation of free men, we must live through all times, or die by suicide.

“Or die by suicide.” Think about that. And look around.

He turns then to face the current President who stands arrogantly nearby nodding to the adoring masses in his spindly designer suit. The 16th President points a long index finger at the 44th.

“I’m talking to you, Obama,” he growls.

Then, turning back to his audience, he concludes: “Let us have faith that right makes might,” he says, “and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”

Ah, well, I can wish upon a star, can’t I?

Betsy Siino | Comments (1)