2020 Veterans Day Message for Fellow Vets and True Patriots

As we pause this year to honor the service and sacrifice of our family members, friends, and those who have served beside us, we are confronted with a stark reality. The land we love and the constitution we swore to protect is under a serious assault threatening to destroy the foundational underpinnings of our grand (yet admittedly imperfect) 244-year experiment in Liberty. The enemy we face is inside our lines and we are poised to be overrun.

Many of us over the age of 40 may remember as children in school that all Americans used to start each day by pledging that we are “One Nation, Under God, Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for All”. We did not apologize for putting our hands on our hearts and swearing allegiance to our Nation. As veterans, we proudly salute our flag as it is raised or passes by, and when we die, it covers our coffins and is carefully folded and given to our loved ones in remembrance of what we were willing to die for in the service of our Country. 

As veterans, we come from all walks of life. As American military service members, we have served alongside others from widely different backgrounds representing the vast diversity of our unique Nation. It did not make a difference where you were from or what advantages (or lack thereof) you had as a civilian. It did not make a difference regarding the clothes we wore or the car we drove when we joined the service. In a classic sense, the US military is the proverbial “melting pot” that used to represent much of the American experience, which made us strong. As veterans, we were brought together, broken down, rebuilt, given core values, and instilled with a common purpose. Our value as individuals was based on what each of us brought to the team, and not our former civilian existence or possessions. We learned to rely on each other and extend a helping hand.

As veterans, we have served our Nation together united by a brotherhood of service to our Nation. Our common shared sacrifice of giving up individual selfish pursuits to serve our Nation bonds us together with an appreciation for what that means. Regardless of our service branch or jobs, or where we have served, we all at one point have sworn to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and ended that oath with, “So Help Me God”.

It is to this last point that I now make my plea to all who have served, continue to serve and/or consider themselves as American Patriots. Our Nation has corrupted its core values, representing evil as good, and good as evil. We have witnessed a rejection and revision of our history and the desecration of our monuments to those who have served and paid the ultimate sacrifice. We watch as people are shouted down, attacked, and “canceled” for expressing their ideas. We have seen any thoughts or ideas contrary to a certain narrative be censored and blocked. I fear this Nation will not survive if its citizens continue to reject the higher authority of God that our founders recognized, and instead remain focused on the supremacy of their own selfish interest and defining their own “truth” as their ultimate authority.

I ask all of us to consider the words of President John F. Kennedy during the end of his inaugural address in 1961:

“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.

    My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

    Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.”

It is time to remember that the Oath we swore does not have an expiration date. As Americans, regardless of whether you have served or not, do we have the courage to say and do what our Founders boldly committed to in the Declaration of Independence?

“...With a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”

I pray we do. Without God, there is no Country.

May God Bless America, Again.