Posted by
American Sweetheart on Friday, July 03, 2009 1:57:00 PM
Yesterday I went to Macy's to take advantage of the wonderful 4th of July sales and do my part to help the economy! (I'm such a patriot, am I not?)
Anyway. I purchased a beautiful teal designer shirt for a heck of a bargin! It's a gorgeous color and looks nice on me. It has a swirly design...circles with some swirls through them.
Or so I thought.
When I got to work this morning and sat down I realized that the "swirls" going through the circles are in fact not that. It is a top covered in peace signs. My best highschool friend works in my department. I went to her desk and she complimented my shirt and I told her why I now despise this shirt. She said she thought that's what the design was (being peace signs) and agrees that she's not feeling it. (Both of our brothers serve in the US Air Force and we our proud of what they do for our country.)
I detest the peace sign. Not because I am anti-peace, but because I am anti wanting peace but not having the courage to attain peace by neccessary means.
The peace sign orginated in Britian in 1958 as a symbol for nuclear disarment. It was picked up by the Committee for Nuclear Disarment as their logo and then became the international symbol for peace throughout the 1960s. Followers of the anti-war movement adopted the symbol into their culture most especially in opposition to the Vietnam War.
In our culture today, people that crave peace simply do not understand the means through which must go to reach peace. They want it, they need it, but they don't have the guts to FIGHT for it.
The Vietnam War can be debated ad nauseum on whether or not we should have been there and the morality of events that occurred during those years. But the fact of the matter is, members of the anti-war movement treated members of our military like common criminals when they arrived home. They were disgraced and called murders for simply doing THEIR JOB.
Today, we have radical groups such as Code Pink and the Western Baptist Church that do the same to our men and women in uniform. They protest military funerals, calling our fallen soldiers homosexual slurs, murders and yelling out that God hates them.
What would they have done in 1778 if they were alive then? Would they not have fought for freedom from an oppressive government?
No. They would not have. These are the same people that voted for tyranny on November 4th, 2008. These are the same people that voted to bring our troops home NOW instead of letting them come home in victory (which would deny the people of Iraq their God given right to free will). These are the same people that are not congradulating our troops and celebrating the freedom that we have granted the people of Iraq as our soldiers depart Iraqi cities.
FREEDOM is not free, and neither is peace. You cannot reach peace without sacrifice, and unfortunately blood is the sacrifice to be paid. But people willingly give their lives for the freedom of others and for future generations because life is meaningless without free will, without liberty and without times of peace. It is that blood that is shed that we should celebrate every day that we go without a terrorist attack on our soil. Last October, not one American lost their life in Iraq. The people that fell before them helped to make that happen. They were a part of the reason that the Iraqis can now move toward peace.
Today as we are on the eve of OUR granted freedom and peace, we should celebrate all of the lives fallen in our names. Do not let our Founders and every soldier that came after them die in vain. To remain a free country, we must remain a country at arms.
"For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security."~ Thomas Jefferson
I will be returning this shirt tonight.
Look tomorrow for reporting from the Pittsburgh Tea Party!