Our Battle – To Preserve Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

Today as we celebrate Memorial Day, I remember all the men and women who have fought for this country, first those who fought to bring life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to this land in the form of a new country, then those who preserved it from fracturing, then those who fought against evil dictators whose determination to expand their borders affected the lives of our men, women, and children, and finally those who have and are currently fighting those whose desire is the destruction of Israel and the United States.  All these wars, which we entered into reluctantly, had as a central theme, the challenge to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It was for these unalienable rights that we broke our ties with England, by declaring our independence.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…” (Declaration of Independence)

It is for the protection of these unalienable rights that our Constitution was written.

“We the People of the United State, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”   (Preamble of the Constitution of the United States of America)

It was over the life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that our civil war was fought.

“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that the nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us–that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion–that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, 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.”  (President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863)

Once again, our liberty was challenged, and we rose to the cause in WWI.

“We are accepting this challenge of hostile purpose because we know that in such a Government, following such methods, we can never have a friend; and that in the presence of its organized power, always lying in wait to accomplish we know not what purpose, there can be no assured security for the democratic Governments of the world.

We are now about to accept gauge of battle with this natural foe to liberty and shall, if necessary, spend the whole force of the nation to check and nullify its pretensions and its power.  We are glad, now that we see the facts with no veil of false pretence about them, to fight thus for the ultimate peace of the world and for the liberation of its peoples, the German peoples included: for the rights of nations great and small and the privilege of men everywhere to choose their way of life and of obedience.

The world must be made safe for democracy.  Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty.  We have no selfish ends to serve.  We desire no conquest, no dominion.  We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make.  We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind.  We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as secure as the faith and the freedom of nations can make them.”  (President Wilson, April 2, 1917 as the US prepared to enter WWI)

Then after we were attacked at Pearl Harbor, clearly an attack on our lives and liberty, we engaged once again in defending our homeland and ridding the world of evils that would like nothing better than to end our freedom no matter what the cost in lives.

“As Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense, that always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us.  No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people, in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory. I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us. Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger.  With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph. So help us God.”  (President Roosevelt, December 8, 1941 responding to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor)

Today we are engaged in yet another battle against a foe like no other before, a foe within.  This foe has goals which will also strip us of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as they bring the US into a state of chaos, and then for the sake of “saving our nation” they will use unconstitutional controls and powers.  When we stop long enough to see what has happened, it will be too late, we will have been stripped of our Constitutionally given liberty, pursuit of happiness, and for some our lives.

So, as we remember the men and women who have fought to keep us free, let us be aware we are all in a battle to protect the freedoms this country has enjoyed for over 200 years.  Our battle will not be with weapons or with organized military, but it will be a battle nonetheless.  Our very Constitution is at risk as our elected officials continue to wage war against it with laws that are unconstitutional and will eventually strip us of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Wake up America.  If you don’t fight now, at the polls this November, it may be too late.

Let not all their sacrifice be in vain – the lives of those who fought to keep our country the greatest in the world, free for all, with equal opportunity to all no matter their ancestry, their color, their sex, their station in life, or their religion. Fight back with your vote to keep the United States of America a country that still stand for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all!  YOUR VOTE is needed.  God bless you and the United States of America.