Taking Back Monday

I have struggled all day to find the words to express my feelings on yesterdays health care vote, and it's hard and complicated. I was in hopes that patriotism would win out over socialism, but I guess I knew in my heart of hearts that it wouldn't. However folks it is not the end of the world. It is a battle lost, but make no mistake the war is still to be won.

The grand photo op moment of Nancy walking arm in arm with John Lewis was supposed to draw parallels of heroes past, but friends those are not American heroes nor should they ever be thought of in that light. You want to think of heroes think about my brothers at Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan, think of our service men and women providing aid in Haiti. They work for their health care, and with out complaint.

From the winter at Valley Forge when General Washington had lost ever battle and still crossed the Delaware to attack on Christmas day and won against the hardest fighting men the world knew at that time, those men were heroes. AOC John Finn manning a machine gun at Pearl Harbor in a hopeless situation, the 1st Infantry division landing on Omaha beach, our Marines on Iwo Jima, the Chosin reservoir, Hamburger Hill, Beirut, on the USS Cole and the people in the twin towers, these are heroes. Remember the call from Todd Beamer "Let's Roll", it's time to roll.

We as a people have faced hard times before and we will face these times of adversity as well.

People have set on the side lines too long, not is the call to action I am adding a note above, sent to me to day from my old Shipmate Dave that I just had to include on this blog, which summed a lot of this up.
We never need to spit on Congressmen are call names, what we must do is remain civil and e-mail our Congressmen until their system crashes, call them 24 hours a day and hold them accountable. Vote them out when the time comes to vote, and find that hero among us who we need representing us. Be active, use social networks for more than Farmville. Tell everyone how you feel. We can make a difference, we must, or we risk losing our country for our children and grandchildren.