Thoughts on the Fourth of July

On Saturday, I attended a small informal gun show. A few collectors got together to show their collections and gaze fondly at other people's acquisitions.
It was all very well organized. The guns were fine, no ammunition of any kind allowed in the area where the guns were begin displayed. No one, absolutely no one was allowed to handle the firearms without the owner's permission and not a single dummy appeared trying to snap a hammer down on an empty chamber so he could hear it go "click". Beautifully engraved pieces from another time, one a presentation piece, .44 caliber Navy Colt presented to William F. Cody (you know - Buffalo Bill, yeah, he was real, not like Hopalong Cassidy - he lived near North Platte, Nebraska when not out touring with his Wild West Show- died of old age because he had the singular common sense to recognize in 1875 that George Custer was mentally disturbed and willing to go down in glorious, bloody defeat, rather than to drift off into obscurity, so when Cody was offered the chance to guide the 7th Cavalry, he found something else to be busy with). Another a beautiful Colt Revolver owned by Sammy Davis Jr. (did you know he was a fast draw competitor and in his prime, one of the fastest timed draws in the world? The Candy Man could . . .)

There were "veterans" there. To collectors of military firearms, a veteran is a firearm that was fired in anger during combat. They have a special significance because someone held them who answered the call, stood on the line, supported his or her buddies (while America and many of the other WWII allies simply could not countenance the idea of women in combat, the Russians and the French Underground had no such compunctions and their female troops had many courageous and deadly fighters among them) and didn't run away from the responsibility. The "veterans" are quiet now, but to hold them, to fire them is, to the history buff, a step into a time machine. Not to a better time, but to a time that is important to remember. A time when young kids were willing to fight and, in many cases die, for freedom and to sacrifice themselves for a greater good. So that our country could remain strong, and free and a shining beacon of liberty for the rest of the tired old world to see. Its fields and valleys trampled over the centuries by one war lord or another, leading armies seeking conquest, power and the ability to control the lives of others.

Which brings me, finally, to my point. During that show, I spent about an hour talking with a lovely woman, the wife of a friend. A woman who had left her home in England to come to the United States over thirty-five years ago. A well educated woman. A woman who has traveled widely in the world, all her life. A woman is reads avidly, is interested in the world around her and one not at all timid about voicing her opinion after considering the facts. Here is what she had to say, and the reason for this post. (and yes, I did scribble notes while she was talking and after so I would not forget what she said simply because listening to her scared the living shit out of me)

"I am very sad and angry over what I see happening in this country today. It is moving toward socialism at a pace which scares me a great deal. But the movement is insidious because all the well-meaning people who rally to this cause or another are so deep in the forest that they can no longer see the trees. I left my home in England because it had become a country of tired people, people so caught up in their traditions and pomposity that they continued to talk of England's greatness all the while allowing it to descend into economic chaos, political weakness and void of hope for its people. Now, what I see around me here, reminds me very much of the feelings that I had before I came here to get away from exactly what I now see happening here. People living with one hand stretched out to the government, with an entitlement mentality, waiting to be given direction, to be given purpose, to be given hope, when government cannot do that, has never been able to do that in any country in the history of the world. People here used to believe that no matter who you were, no matter how poor your beginnings, you could rise to success through hard work, courage and sacrifice. The majority of the people I see around me now, flock to political leaders like this Obama, who promise much in the name of change, but while he gives change, he takes away freedoms. I do not trust him and I can only pray that our people will wake up and realize that he is a socialistic dreamer with a gift of gab, before it is too late. And I realize that it may already be too late. I despise the two political party system that has degenerated into a contest, not for what is good for the people, but for what is good for the parties. We no longer have government for the people and by the people. There is not a politician on the scene today who does not toady to the parties who give them their life blood of money and power. They talk of representing their constituents, but not a single damn one of them actually does that because to fight for the people is to fight with the very parties that give them their hold on power. The whole sorry lot needs to be thrown out of office and people need to start voting with their intellects and hearts instead of voting party tickets. Americans need to recapture the thrill and satisfaction of succeeding through hard work, sacrifice and the lessons learned from personal failure. Your young people are being turned into soft, over-indulged wimps who have no idea of hard work, or the joys of winning. Your youth sports have gone to a system where nobody wins and nobody loses so that nobody feels badly about themselves. They are taught to feel good about themselves, having done nothing to earn that feeling. Obama seems to believe that he can win the hearts and minds of people around the world that are as smart as he is, but much more experienced and truly much more evil. They toy with him now like a leopard toys with its kill. But they will not toy with him for long. Many of them seek our downfall. They glory in our deaths and the destruction of our cities. Whether it be for political gain, economic power or religious zealotry, they do not wish to engage with us in dialogue, they simply want us dead. America is becoming what I left England to get away from, and I do not find one person in ten who can see it, or even gives a damn that it is happening." She said more, but this is the gist of it.

So, the Fourth of July is coming. Its a holiday, not originally about fireworks and cooking on the grill, and parades and icy lemonade. Its a holiday meant to honor sacrifice and lives lost in a quest for liberty, for freedom, fought by people who did not cling to the obscurity of the masses, who did not play games without keeping score, who were willing to sign their names to a piece of paper that was the equivalent of a death warrant for themselves and their families. But they stood up and willed that their lives be counted for something greater than themselves. They gave this nation to us. Now we have to look at what we are doing with it. I don't know about you, but at some point on the Fourth of July, I am going to be really angry and I am probably going to cry in frustration. You can agree with me, and the English lady, or you can disagree and tell me that I am crazy, or silly, or misguided, or a dinosaur. But what is happening today in this country makes me sick to my stomach. It is not the country I learned about in school and I do not have to love it or leave it. Perhaps we all need to be willing once again to sign our names to another piece of paper and should it prove in the future to be a death warrant, so be it. At least we would then be in some very good company.

Happy Fourth of July.