When in the Course of human events

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[tideroller]

Happy Fourth to you, too, Dan!

[Ari]

Dan,

I think you are going overboard. Human rights is an all important issue, but opinions around the word differ to as what are the indispensable human rights. Let me give you an example.

1) Is the right to have a roof and not be homeless a human right?
2) Is the right to have medical care a human right?
3) Is the right to have nourishment and not be starving a human right?

How would you answer to the above. Probably NO, otherwise the US is a major violator of human rights. You might be surprised to now that many people on this earth (if not the majority) would answer YES. I like your site and wish you were more open minded. The US declarations were not the founding stones of civilization on this earth. Go and read Plato for example or the Eastern Thinkers and you'll find out that more of these issues had been studied almost three thousand years ago and in a far more sophisticated manner than you portray them here.

[JustMe]

General of the Army Douglas MacArthur
To the Corps of Cadets
United States Military Academy
12 May 1962
(Abridged)

No human being could fail to be deeply moved by such a tribute as this [Thayer Award]. Coming from a profession I have served so long, and a people I have loved so well, it fills me with an emotion I cannot express. But this award is not intended primarily to honor a personality, but to symbolize a great moral code -- the code of conduct and chivalry of those who guard this beloved land of culture and ancient descent. That is the animation of this medallion. For all eyes and for all time, it is an expression of the ethics of the American soldier. That I should be integrated in this way with so noble an ideal arouses a sense of pride and yet of humility which will be with me always: Duty, Honor, Country.

Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying points: to build courage when courage seems to fail; to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith; to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.

Unhappily, I possess neither that eloquence of diction, that poetry of imagination, nor that brilliance of metaphor to tell you all that they mean. The unbelievers will say they are but words, but a slogan, but a flamboyant phrase. Every pedant, every demagogue, every cynic, every hypocrite, every troublemaker, and I am sorry to say, some others of an entirely different character, will try to downgrade them even to the extent of mockery and ridicule.

But these are some of the things they do. They build your basic character. They mold you for your future roles as the custodians of the nation's defense. They make you strong enough to know when you are weak, and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid. They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success; not to substitute words for actions, not to seek the path of comfort, but to face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge; to learn to stand up in the storm but to have compassion on those who fall; to master yourself before you seek to master others; to have a heart that is clean, a goal that is high; to learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; to reach into the future yet never neglect the past; to be serious yet never to take yourself too seriously; to be modest so that you will remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength. They give you a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions, a freshness of the deep springs of life, a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of an appetite for adventure over love of ease. They create in your heart the sense of wonder, the unfailing hope of what next, and the joy and inspiration of life. They teach you in this way to be an officer and a gentleman.

And what sort of soldiers are those you are to lead? Are they reliable? Are they brave? Are they capable of victory? Their story is known to all of you. It is the story of the American man-at-arms. My estimate of him was formed on the battlefield many, many years ago, and has never changed. I regarded him then as I regard him now -- as one of the world's noblest figures, not only as one of the finest military characters, but also as one of the most stainless. His name and fame are the birthright of every American citizen. In his youth and strength, his love and loyalty, he gave all that mortality can give.

He needs no eulogy from me or from any other man. He has written his own history and written it in red on his enemy's breast. But when I think of his patience under adversity, of his courage under fire, and of his modesty in victory, I am filled with an emotion of admiration I cannot put into words. He belongs to history as furnishing one of the greatest examples of successful patriotism. He belongs to posterity as the instructor of future generations in the principles of liberty and freedom. He belongs to the present, to us, by his virtues and by his achievements. In 20 campaigns, on a hundred battlefields, around a thousand campfires, I have witnessed that enduring fortitude, that patriotic self-abnegation, and that invincible determination which have carved his statue in the hearts of his people. From one end of the world to the other he has drained deep the chalice of courage.

As I listened to those songs [of the glee club], in memory's eye I could see those staggering columns of the First World War, bending under soggy packs, on many a weary march from dripping dusk to drizzling dawn, slogging ankle-deep through the mire of shell-shocked roads, to form grimly for the attack, blue-lipped, covered with sludge and mud, chilled by the wind and rain, driving home to their objective, and for many, to the judgment seat of God.

I do not know the dignity of their birth, but I do know the glory of their death.

They died unquestioning, uncomplaining, with faith in their hearts, and on their lips the hope that we would go on to victory.

Always, for them: Duty, Honor, Country; always their blood and sweat and tears, as we sought the way and the light and the truth.

And 20 years after, on the other side of the globe, again the filth of murky foxholes, the stench of ghostly trenches, the slime of dripping dugouts; those boiling suns of relentless heat, those torrential rains of devastating storms; the loneliness and utter desolation of jungle trails; the bitterness of long separation from those they loved and cherished; the deadly pestilence of tropical disease; the horror of stricken areas of war; their resolute and determined defense, their swift and sure attack, their indomitable purpose, their complete and decisive victory -- always victory. Always through the bloody haze of their last reverberating shot, the vision of gaunt, ghastly men reverently following your password of: Duty, Honor, Country.

The code which those words perpetuate embraces the highest moral laws and will stand the test of any ethics or philosophies ever promulgated for the uplift of mankind. Its requirements are for the things that are right, and its restraints are from the things that are wrong.

The soldier, above all other men, is required to practice the greatest act of religious training -- sacrifice.

In battle and in the face of danger and death, he discloses those divine attributes which his Maker gave when he created man in his own image. No physical courage and no brute instinct can take the place of the Divine help which alone can sustain him.

However horrible the incidents of war may be, the soldier who is called upon to offer and to give his life for his country is the noblest development of mankind.

...your mission remains fixed, determined, inviolable: it is to win our wars.

Everything else in your professional career is but corollary to this vital dedication. All other public purposes, all other public projects, all other public needs, great or small, will find others for their accomplishment. But you are the ones who are trained to fight. Yours is the profession of arms, the will to win, the sure knowledge that in war there is no substitute for victory; that if you lose, the nation will be destroyed; that the very obsession of your public service must be: Duty, Honor, Country.

You are the leaven which binds together the entire fabric of our national system of defense. From your ranks come the great captains who hold the nation's destiny in their hands the moment the war tocsin sounds. The Long Gray Line has never failed us. Were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses thundering those magic words: Duty, Honor, Country.

This does not mean that you are war mongers.

On the contrary, the soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.

But always in our ears ring the ominous words of Plato, that wisest of all philosophers: "Only the dead have seen the end of war."

The shadows are lengthening for me. The twilight is here. My days of old have vanished, tone and tint. They have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears, and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. I listen vainly, but with thirsty ears, for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll. In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield.

But in the evening of my memory, always I come back to West Point.

Always there echoes and re-echoes: Duty, Honor, Country.

Today marks my final roll call with you, but I want you to know that when I cross the river my last conscious thoughts will be of The Corps, and The Corps, and The Corps.

I bid you farewell.

[Dan Riehl]

Hey, Ari - I have a thought. Click the link in the post and READ. It makes it very clear that the document in question was based upon many of the very thoughts and ideas you would likely try to reference in an argument. And, with all due respect, if pasting a copy of America's Declaration of Independance on her birthday makes ME "closed minded," - as opposed to SOME cough cough - who can't wait to take exception to it. Well, then, my friend, you'll just have to kiss my close minded Red White and Blue American ass. Or not ... afterall, it's a free country, right? ; )

[Mary]

http://www.archives.gov/national_archives_experience/charters/declaration_transcript.html

Dan, here is another good site . It has several options, also.

Thank you for all you do once again.
~You are very much appreciated ! ~

[bobup]

Ari:the greatest country on this planet was founded on these principles, put that in your crack pipe and smoke it.

Dan: much thanks and keep up the good work

[JustMe]

Ari:

I just read your post.

Have a safe and happy 4th of July.

Then bite my ass and move to some socialist utopia, you disloyal [expletive deleted].

[TheAlamo]

Glad you posted the declaration of Independence. As we know, after the war, our constitution was written. May it rest in peace. I just wish folks would wake up to the fact that this current government is dismantling the constitution as quickly as they can get away with it. Wake up folks, you are being robbed, right in front of your very eyes.

[JustMe]

The Alamo:

The Articles of Confederation were adopted by the Second Continental Congress in 1777, and approved by the States in 1778.

In 1787, a convention of State representatives met and reported our current Constitution, which the Congress submitted to the States for ratification.

The requisite number of States ratified our current Constitution in 1788, and the Congress adopted a resolution putting it into effect.

I totally agree with you concerning how our government is dismantling our Constitution. But save that for tomorrow.

Today is the 4th of July and it is the one day of the year that I feel absolutely good about the United States of America.

Happy 4th of July, my Fellow Americans.

[Mary]

Dan,
~You can please most/some of the people most/some of the time
But you can't please all of the people all of the time
Don't worry~ Be happy ! :O)
~HAPPY 4th to you and your family~

[Sarah]

Right on Dan.. and Ari.. if you don't like the USA, move to Aruba.

[Scalawag]

Someone said it was Independence Day.
Something about a document signed a couple of centuries ago that spoke the desire a young colony wanting to be free from it’s parental influence. I keep hearing people talk about our founding fathers and what they wanted then and for us now. It is unlikely today that we resemble anything they ever imagined.
It seems that we need to generate another Independence Day to rid of us of our present system under the Uniform Commercial Code. We need to go back and let a constitutional government issue our money and instead of the Federal Reserve. We need to go back and require our judiciary to be judicial and stop creating laws from the bench. We need to go back and “stake our claim” to our property to shield us from illegal seizure from commercial and governmental interest through eminent domain. We need to seriously question why millions of Americans “voluntarily” pay taxes through their tax collecting employer and why most affluent citizens never pay taxes. We ought to protest how businesses have been blackmailed into collecting the tax for government. We need to understand more about the decoration that hangs around our constitutional flag called gold fringe and is visible in all government entities…. and sadly most our churches; ignorantly. We need to demand the truth of our history and more from our government-approved and sanctioned education. We need to demand WHY 560,000 citizens in Washington DC have been denied representation in their district yet they are subject to all taxes. Yes, there is Taxation without Representation in America. And I could go on, and on, and on, etc.
It seems that a person has no freedom unless he has the cash to buy some. Shouldn’t freedom be freed on a day such as Independence Day? It seems that each and every American right and activity is taxed, licensed, or permitted through the exchange of those “for the discharge of debt” Federal Reserve Notes.
Perhaps our so-called democracy has reached its apex. Perhaps we are too busy entertaining ourselves that our minds are numb to the obvious. Perhaps we ought to “watch and pray”. Perhaps we are just part of the providential plan of God and soon our usefulness will be finished. Perhaps this July 4th, I too will spend time with family and friends and will try to remember how awesome the Declaration of Independence was for those living in that day and how strangely irrelevant it seems this particular day.
Did someone say it was Independence Day?

[Suzi]

Dan~

I enjoy your blog immensely. The stamps are beautiful.. Keep up the good work..

Happy 4th:-)

[argh]

My homeowners association, informed us yesterday that unless we have a parking permit, issued from the association we will be prevented by off-duty police officers from entering our development. We were also told that if we want to have guests over, we need to have them on a "list" that will be given to the said guards. To bad the deadline in which all this was given had expired PRIOR to notification.

So here I am at home... to afraid to leave because I won't be allowed to return to my HOME.

Yup... Freedom my ASS!

[Gordy]

Happy Independence day.

I have never personally heard of anyone being denied a roof over their head, food in their belly or healthcare, by our government. Anyone who want's these things is free to get them, but not get them for free. That is the God given, constitutionally protected right that that we have. Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Not the means to achieve them.

God bless the USA, her troops and all her citizens.

[Gordy]

Happy Independence day.

I have never personally heard of anyone being denied a roof over their head, food in their belly or healthcare, by our government. Anyone who want's these things is free to get them, but not get them for free. That is the God given, constitutionally protected right that that we have. Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Not the means to achieve them.

God bless the USA, her troops and all her citizens.

[Scalawag]

Gordy, I applaud you zeal and agree partially. However, you have forgotten about the Indians. We denied them of everything you mentioned. And it wasn't that long ago. Why would God give us the right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and not extend it to them?

[Dan]

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