INDEPENDENCE
DAY IS VIGILANCE DAY by
Cliff McKenzie, Editor
vigilancevoice.com
GROUND
ZERO PLUS 1391 DAY--New York, NY, Sunday, July
3, 2005--America
has always risked its status in the world for the price of Vigilance.
In modern times, few
nations have sent so many of its young, vibrant youth to die
for others in foreign lands, far from what might seem any rational
justification for their deaths.
When I went to Vietnam
three decades ago, I stormed the shores in the first wave with
all the zest and zeal of any U.S. Marine. I was sure when we
were finished with our task of eliminating the "communists"
that freedom would fly its flag over the millions of Vietnamese
thirsty to drink from the same democratic well that our forefathers
and foremothers had hundreds of years earlier.
America
planted the seeds of democracy in Vietnam
I'm still waiting.
The price in Vietnam
was nearly 60,000 American lives and the death of an estimated
2 million Vietnamese.
And what was the victory,
if any?
Despite all the warts,
sores and pus that oozes from the pages of Vietnam War history,
the ultimate truth is that America planted the seeds of democracy
in a land that will, eventually, live in the freedom Americans
enjoy.
Europe is proof that
this is possible. So is Taiwan. So is South Korea and Japan.
And, for all those who
clamor for the American flag to be torn down over the compound
in Baghdad, one day Iraq and all the Middle East will enjoy
its own unique reflection of what our Declaration of Independence
and Constitution provides.
I live in New York City,
in the East Village.
The Big Apple is called
the Crossroads of the World.
The
Big Apple is called the Crossroads Of The World
On its streets walk people
from the far corners of this globe, each carrying with him or
her a set of ethics, mores, customs and habits indigenous to
the spawning pool from whence they originated.
Once under the Flag of
American Vigilance, whatever rights they might not have enjoyed
in their original cultures are negated by an open and free society
that allows anyone to stand on a corner and shout out his or
her beliefs.
The poorest of poor from
the most economically devastated third world country can come
to America, reach into its limitless treasure chest of opportunity,
and grab hold of any jewel they want. This includes becoming
a Russian Mafia Chief to launching a billion-dollar software
company that spits cash endlessly at all who own its stock.
For many years, my business
was franchising. A franchise is a common system of doing business
that allows individuals to band together under one logo and
use their collective marketing power to conquer large hunks
of market share.
Many of the people I
sold franchises to were from third-world countries who hardly
had two nickels to rub together before they came to the United
States. Spotting the vast veins of economic opportunity, the
wise ones took out pick axes and dug deep into the marrow of
American fortune. They bought franchises, worked hard at them,
and in a few years--if they ran them properly--rode in the first
class section of the jet back to their homelands to show how
successful they had become.
Freedom, they found,
was priceless. To get it, they didn't have to pay a dime. All
they had to do was enter the boundaries of the United States.
Once on our soil, they could enjoy all the wealth of our nation
with no questions asked.
New York City teems with
foreign owners of businesses. In many cases, it's hard to find
someone at a store or deli who doesn't speak broken English.
It's as though the world outside America sees the cash register
while the citizens within it are blind to its presence.
Economic freedom is,
without question, the symbol of American Vigilance.
Economic
Freedom is the symbol of American Vigilance
If a parent cannot feed
his or her children, and there is little hope that if that parent's
children survive into adulthood, that they will be able to feed
their children, then the Beast of Terror rules. Economic oppression
starves freedom.
That's why the critics
of American policy in the Middle East have little understanding
about why American blood flows into the soil of strange lands.
In ways that such critics
cannot fathom because they are incensed with the desire to micturate
on the Principles of Democracy--the duty to spread the gift
we so freely enjoy--the world thrives on American blood.
Our blood is the fertilizer
of freedom.
Our
blood is the fertilizer of freedom
Our blood is the plasma
of Vigilance.
What other country stands
before the Beast of Terror and presumptuously, sometimes arrogantly,
and often with devastating nuclear results to its reputation
in current history, dares to take on the role of World Sentinel
of Democratic Vigilance?
Name one!
In every body of humanity
there is but one leader.
That leader is not an
individual, but a philosophy, a dogma, a legacy that lasts long
after the bones of those who took the helm of leadership have
rotted in the earth's womb and become mulch for new growth.
It is the philosophy
of Freedom that Americans celebrate on the 4th of July--the
philosophy that what we enjoy--the right to dissent--shall not
be deprived of anyone, anywhere, at any time.
Into this equation, of
course, is placed priorities. Why the Middle East and not Africa?
Why let North Korea amass nuclear capabilities while we entangle
ourselves in the quagmire of Middle East bloodshed? Why the
Falkland Islands? Why Panama? Why El Salvador?
Around the world, Americans
have come and gone. Often, it seems, they only dragged their
fingers through a bucket of blood, leaving nothing tangible
in return. Vietnam, after all is said and done, is still ruled
by communism. What the hell?
But is it?
Every Americanized Vietnamese
who travels back to their country with a pocketsful of American
cash symbolizes what Vietnam can become once it sheds its shackles
of draconian personal and economic oppression.
Freedom will rule Vietnam
one day, and little credit will be given to America for having
set into motion the engines of that Freedom.
Europe is a prime example.
Despite the fact Americans
died by the tens of thousands to free Europe from Nazi Germany's
strangle hold, its leaders attack American Imperialism and castigate
its presence in the Middle East. Like children who were given
great gifts from a far-distant relative, Europe bites the hand
that freed it.
This is neither right
nor wrong--it just is. Few children leap with joy and thank
their parents for giving them the opportunity to evolve into
free beings. "I did it myself. I would have done it myself.
I owe you nothing. You just stepped in where I was stepping."
America
probably won't receive its due credit for paving the path
to Freedom
Americans don't sell
Freedom.
We give it away. While
the critics of the Middle East would like to propose some great
oil conspiracy that is destined to line the pockets of the President
and his staff with gold, the truth is that whatever the costs
in the Middle East, the odds are that when all the dust settles,
the history books won't give America credit for paving the path
to Freedom.
It's not in the nature
of human beings to give credit. Taking it is our modus operandi.
Again, this isn't good
or bad. It just is.
And, in light of this,
we continue to send our troops and stand up to the Beast of
Terror even when other nations call us despots and own people
rally in vehement anger against our leaders, charging them as
being Hitlerian and carrying posters and placards symbolizing
our leaders as the Evil Ones.
This is the part I love
about America.
Those who
hate or love it can all live under the same flag
Those who hate it or
love it can all live under the same flag. Those who hate it
can burn the flag and spit and urinate and defacte on it and
try and convince their neighbors what a vile and evil state
we are because we don't spread the wealth evenly and give everyone
the same amount of money as the communists and socialists allege
they do.
Instead, we teach our
children that they can be anything--rich or poor, happy or sad--depending
on individual choice and the effort they take to achieve.
We translate Freedom
in one simple word: Opportunity without guarantee.
Our world includes the
right to go bankrupt--to fail. We don't put failures in jail.
We allow them to right themselves and try again, and again,
and again until they "get it right."
All our doors are open.
Sometimes we have to
shove angry shoulders against closed doors--but they open. Segregation
and Equal Opportunity are two of the most recent. Women's rights
is another.
America is about testing
and challenging and questioning and dissenting and all the things
that make the Far Left and Far Right synonomously one. One is
our Push and the other our Pull, they are our Yin and Yang.
And, while we fight amongst
ourselves, our troops travel the world dying for the rights
of others as unsung heroes.
Our flag
is bigger than those who desecrate it
The blood we spill on
this spinning globe is tromped upon by our internal and external
critics.
But the Legacy of Freedom
is bigger than its critics.
When the flag burners
and flag defecators and flag urinaters all desecrate Old Glory,
she doesn't blink an eye.
Our flag is bigger than
those who desecrate it.
It is a symbol that stands
above the physical and hovers in the spiritual ether of an invincible
righteousness called freedom.
Our flag is the composite
of the blood of the Sentinels of Vigilance, who die spreading
the Seeds of Freedom even when the trees of Freedom may not
grow for generations to come.
So, on this Fourth of
July, I sit back and inhale deep gulps of Freedom.
I am proud my grandchildren
live in a nation willing to send its people to their death for
the slim, slight chance that perhaps some child in some far-off
land might one day create a legacy as we have, and be willing
to send his or her children to die for others as we have over
these many past years.
It would be nice if the
world was all a Sentinel of Vigilance.
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