The Fourth Thursday In November

Most Americans, from the post-Civil War era to the present day, have celebrated Thanksgiving Day on the fourth Thursday of November.  I, for one, thought "Thanksgiving" had been on the fourth Thursday ever since the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock.  The "Pilgrims" had a terrible year in 1620, but had a successful harvest in 1621, thanks largely to the assistance given them by Native Americans.  Actually, however, Thanksgiving Day, as we know it, originated in the midst of that terrible conflict known as the War Between The States, the American Civil War.

In  October, 1863 President Lincoln, perhaps due to Sarah Josepha Hale's three decade campaign, issued a proclamation that proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November.  Further, Mr. Lincoln called for this day to be observed annually.  Actually, prior to the Lincoln proclamation, several states had declared their own "thanksgiving day," but the dates varied with each state.  The President's proclamation served to standardize the celebration and give it national status. 

Americans take their Fourth Thursday Thanksgiving very seriously, it seems.  During the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt took the extraordinary measure of ordering Thanksgiving Day moved back to the THIRD Thursday of November.  President Roosevelt hoped to introduce more money into the US economy by creating a longer Christmas shopping season.  Thanksgiving was observed on the third Thursday of November in 1940, but by 1941 public outrage with "Franksgiving Day" finally forced Mr. Roosevelt to rescind his order.

Many Americans still take some time during Thanksgiving Day to give thanks to the Lord for their blessings.  Thanksgiving is celebrated in many nations around the world as well, but the original American Thanksgiving was unique among the celebrations.  It was a celebration of blessings and of peace between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe of Native Americans, who had helped the Pilgrims survive the previous winter and then plant a successful crop. 

I am thankful for all the blessings I have received, and I am thankful that we have a day set aside specifically to remember everything with which we have been blessed. 

A Late "Thank You" To Our Veterans and a Remembrance Of Those Patriots Who Gave Their Lives

Veteran's Day has come and gone...but our Fighters continue their service to this nation.  As this past weekend stretched into the "Monday Holiday" the sacrifices of our brave men and women were always in my thoughts.  Sometimes obvious, sometimes thoughts just out of focus, but I remembered their sacrifices.  Not personally, of course, because I have never been present at any combat engagement, but still I thought about what it must have been like, the horrors of war, the camaraderie built and shared by those brave men and women, and terrible losses they shared when their friends were killed or maimed, or even when they themselves were wounded.

Unfortunately war has been a necessary evil in this human world of ours.  For instance, our great, though lately floundering, nation was borne out of the blood shed by our ancestors who sought freedom from Great Britain.  For all the negative things that could have been said about the United States that arose out of the ashes of the War For Independence, it was the new America, and the sacrifices of American veterans, that made victory possible in both World War I and World War II.  Americans have fought and died for their nation since 1776.  Today we find our nation involved in a different kind of war, one in which the foe is nameless and faceless, yet the sacrifices made by the men and women of our armed forces are just as great, and just as sacred.  Whether or not we agree with the politics of this new warfare, we cannot help but be proud of our soldiers, to support them, to cry for them and with them, and to thank them for their service to this nation.

One of the first times in my life that I can recall being cognizant of the great sacrifice made by our veterans was the time I read the following poem.  I believe this poem was assigned reading in one of my high school English classes.  I can recall to this very day how at first I did not want to read this short poem, how boring I thought the assignment was.  But I have to say that in the more than thirty years since I first read this poem, its words are just as haunting, just as poignant now as in those three decades past.

Here is the poem:

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army


In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

RIP all you brave men.

This very short poem says so much in just a few lines.  Colonel McCrae wrote this poem after having served over a year in Flanders fields.  Unfortunately, the spark of inspiration that caused him to pen these now most famous words was the death of his fellow soldier and former student, Alexis Helmer.  The Germans at this time unleashed a terrible weapon on the Allied soldiers at Flanders, a chemical called mustard gas.  Thousands of soldiers, including Helmer, were killed or severely injured by this and other chemical weapons employed by the Germans.  Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, as you can see from his biographical information above, did himself not survive World War I.  Colonel McCrae succumbed to asthma and pneumonia while still in the fields of battle, his illness no doubt brought on by his fatigue and weariness at seeing all the death and destruction wrought by "the War to End All Wars."

At the time that McCrae wrote this poem, there were few Americans, if any, serving in Europe, because the United States had not officially entered the war.  But British and French forces were made up, not only of those nations' fighting men, but of men from throughout the British and French Empires.  The haunting yet beautiful part, aside from the poem itself, is that poppies bloom every year among the thousands of crosses that mark the final resting place of these brave soldiers.  It is almost as if the very ground where these men died is seeking to comfort them and look over their rest.

Veterans Day of course is meant to honor our soldiers who fought and survived the several wars our nation has seen since the American Revolution, yet it is almost impossible to remember and to honor our living veterans without thinking of those who fought and died.  But I nonetheless am proud to honor our veterans in my blog, to thank them, and to remember that because of these people, and all who served in our armed forces over the years, Americans are a free people.  I am proud to says that I owe my life and my freedom to these, our veterans, for without these people and their service to our nation, I would not have the freedom that I share with all Americans today.  Without the sacrifice and service of our veterans, I would not be free to write these simple and inadequate words of thanks on a forum that potentially can be seen nation-wide. 

God Bless America, and God Bless our Veterans.   Thank you, Veterans, for your unselfish service to our great nation. 







 

The last few weeks have been quite interesting as we have observed an ever-growing course of (gasp!) Democrats joining in the masses of those crying out in anger and outrage as more and more negative and disastrous aspects of Obamacare are realized.  Many people who first fawned over Mr. Obama and who could not re-elect him fast enough, who were gung ho in their support for this President NO MATTER HOW ILLEGAL AND OUTRAGEOUS were his policies, have now found themselves facing huge premium increases and insurance deductibles, while losing many benefits afforded by their "pre-Obamacare"  insurance, and have now raised their voices in protest and dismay.  Indeed, in all the clamor one can no longer differentiate become Democrat, Republican, Tea Party, Communist, or any other label, as one loud clamor spreads across the nation.  Many of the most dogmatic Obamistas are now faced with the truth: Obamacare is a disaster, and for many people, "affordable" insurance has been plucked right out of their hands by the very man they put in that most high office to bring his brand of "Hope and Change" to this nation.

Obamacare was not the brain-child of Obama, but was in fact instigated years earlier by his Congressional predecessors, including Newt Gingrich.  Obama's minions later inserted their own ideas, presumably with the overall idea of creating "affordable" health care, and trying to use "the Government" to solve the "problem" of "the uninsured."  As we all (should) have learned by now, a solution primarily offered by "the Government" usually worsens the "problem."  Even good-intentioned programs have normally proved to produce the opposite effect of that envisioned by "the Government."  Examples, you ask?  Sure...

First, Social Security.  A GREAT idea, but UNSUSTAINABLE.  People have to provide for themselves, and not ALL people are smart enough to do so.  It is much more effective to have a personal retirement program than to depend on Social Security.  An obvious concept, but no amount of legislation can get stupid people to provide for themselves.  So, "the Government" then stepped in (unconstitutionally, in my opinion) and FORCED people to contribute to Social Security, thus denying this amount of money that a person could have used in his own pension program.  This confiscated money (remember, a GOVERNMENT HAS NO MONEY, but CAN TAKE ITS CITIZENS' MONEY) was then redistributed by the government to "those less fortunate."  I do not have time to debate whether people who do not work should be "provided for" in this short blog.  My point is that Social Security was doomed from the start, because as time went on, there proved to be more money going out to retired persons than was coming in from those paying taxes.  AND, of course, Congress had exempted itself from paying Social Security.  Hmmm....maybe they knew from the start that the system would eventually by unsustainable.

Second, the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act.  Some may say this "Act" was thrust upon us with "good intention."  Again, I do not have time to debate that issue in this blog.  Regardless, this most sinister law, which was supposed to "unite and strengthen" America by providing "law enforcement" the necessary tools with which to fight or prevent terrorism in the United States, has proven, like Social Security, to do the exact opposite.  This tyrannical law has neither UNITED this nation nor STRENGTHENED it against terrorism.  Since its passage in 2001, USA PATRIOT has divided the nation, causing otherwise honest and law-abiding citizens to be wary, not of terrorists, but of the terror of falling victim to over-zealous "law enforcement" agencies that are now authorized to act contrary to the United States Constitution by uttering those three words "related to terrorism."   At the same name, most American feel no safer than they did prior to 9/11, but feel a great deal more inconvenience and frustration when trying to use the airlines and other means of public mass transportation.  And, most outrageous, "the Government's" own records show that USA PATRIOT has been used by law enforcement, in most cases, on non-terrorist, "routine" criminals and on persons who are members of such terrorist groups as religious organizations, government dissension, and anyone who publicly stands in support of the United States Constitution. 

Now we see that many members of Congress, both Democrat and Republican, are calling for the "revamping and reformation of the entire American espionage system."  I have to warn you, my friends, that when the likes of Senator Harry Reid or Dianne Feinstein call for "the review of the entire National Security Agency (NSA) spy program, you should not expect less espionage, both foreign and domestic.  Instead you should feel the noose tightening, as civil liberties, already well-eroded by USA PATRIOT, take another BIG HIT by any anti-spying bill authored or supported by Senator Feinstein.  If the NSA is using clandestine and illegal means to carry out its operations, why would a visit from Feinstein or anyone else force the NSA to change its methods?  In truth, if the likes of Reid or Feinstein are demanding that "national spy laws" be reformed, I think we should understand that to mean that the current laws are not STRONG ENOUGH!  Any "reform" that does not weaken the current pervasive and illegal domestic spy network nor call for the various illegal and unconstitutional laws to be rescinded will in fact only further strengthen those laws.  Yes, I am sure that any reformation of USA PATRIOT or the National Defense Authorization Act will in the end result in more government oppression.   

 






 

End of Watch: Chief Steven Fleming, Gainesville PD, and TSA Screening Officer Gerardo Hernandez, LAX

About a week ago Chief Steven Fleming fell off a ladder while working in the evidence room at the Gainesville Police Department. The Chief fought for his life for several days, but eventually lost the battle on November 1st.  While his death did not occur in a way commonly associated with peace officer deaths, he died in the performance of his duties, nonetheless.  I join hundreds of other Texans in offering my condolences to his family and to the officers serving under him.  Chief Fleming leaves behind a wife and daughter.  May the Good Shepherd comfort them as only he can.

In something I have never done before, I honor the memory of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Screening Officer Gerardo Hernandez.  My own feelings about this agency's mission aside, I join millions of other Americans who are shocked and saddened that an unarmed officer (and indeed most people know that TSA Screening Officers are not armed) was so coldly targeted by the murderer, then shot again several times as he lay wounded at his post.  The gunman is seen on video about to leave the fallen officer's vicinity, but upon seeing that the officer was still moving, turns around and calmly fires more rounds into the officer's body.  Officer Hernandez is the only TSA screening officer to be killed in the line of duty in the entire history of the agency's existence.  The shooter clearly came to LAX with sole intention of killing TSA screening officers, and it was only by chance that one TSA officer died, as several others were hit before the shooter himself was shot by police officers.  I send my deepest sympathy to Mrs. Hernandez and her children, and to Officer Hernandez's fellow workers.