Today we celebrate Veterans' Day, Nov. 11.
Our Veterans have protected the Freedoms guaranteed in the Declaration of Independence and the
U.S. Constitution - things like individual freedom and equality of opportunity.
As we all solemnly pledge to protect and defend the freedoms of our constitutional republic from every foe, both domestic and foreign, we must remember that our soldiers have done their jobs, from the beginning, of protecting our Constitutional Republic from foreign foes. We have a role to make sure our citizen representatives that we send to Washington protect those Freedoms from domestic as well as foreign enemies.
I have served my country in Iraq as a civilian employee of the Department of Defense and have worked along side many great military personnel. They are the heroes and along with all else they do, they made it possible for me to do my job.
One of the most important things we have done in Iraq is that we made it possible for Iraqis to get a taste of freedom. A man who tastes freedom is never the same. This is the hope of Iraq and the hope of America provided we do not forget that it is our freedom that makes this nation great and makes it possible for us to do good in the world.
Remember - from the Declaration of Independence, the promise of our Hope:
Truth is self evident, not what the Government says it is.
We are endowed with Life, Liberty, Equality and the pursuit of Happiness by God, not by Government. Government's role is to protect those rights.
Prosperity comes from the private sector, not the public sector.
Security comes from strength, not appeasement and isolationism.
Self government is the way of Free Men.
May God bless our veterans.
Tommy Crangle
Third District congressional candidate
tcrangle@aol.com
* * *
A plea to the conservative-libertarian-tea baggers
After reading the Veteran’s Day posts by Tommy Crangle and Robin Smith I just have to respond. The ideals you so eloquently speak of in your articles are indeed worthy of our attention, especially considering the shape our country is currently in. There are currently millions of people out of work and without insurance, many of them veterans.
Not everyone can live on Signal Mountain and afford to run for congress. You speak of high ideals and freedom, yet defend the very institutions that have taken these things away. You see, it wasn’t those business leaders and bankers that made this country great or gave us freedom in the Revolutionary War, Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan (not to mention numerous other battles). It was the lowly soldier sitting in his foxhole. It was the farm boy from Tennessee, the dockworker’s son from New York, and the girl next door that was fighting for those freedoms. It was the coal miner in Harlan County Ky., the Rosa Park’s of the civil rights movement, and the Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s that made this country what it is. Not the Rockefeller’s and DuPont’s.
I use to be a fervent believer in your conservative ideology. Friedman, Hayek, Rush and others were whom I listened to. They have many valid points in what they believe. They do not however have a lock on the truth. If they did we would not be in the state we are in. Who can deny that during the last couple decades those business leaders and bankers have achieved the kind of freedom to conduct their business in relative freedom that they sought? The Securities and Modernization Act was put into place and the longstanding barrier between different banking institutions, the Glass-Steagall Act, was torn down in 1999. NAFTA and the WTO agreements were signed and numerous other policies put into place to give businesses the “tools” they needed to “compete.”
What the American citizens have received in return is paltry compared to what those in power have received. Profits have not gone to the majority of Americans who produced that wealth. It has only trickled up, not down. Without economic wealth the majority of Americans are not able to have freedom.
If someone gets cancer or another major disease then most likely they will become bankrupt. This is not the American dream, and the same benefits we give to our soldiers should be available to all Americans.
I know we have the best health care in the world, but you must ask yourself who is making all of the money we spend on it? It’s not the nurses who walk the floors and take care of the sick and dying; it is not the janitors who make sure the hospitals are clean. It is the doctors who are making hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars. It is the executives and preferred shareholders who are becoming rich. It is also Congress, which has 237 millionaires among its ranks.
Mr. Crangle, you say in regard to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that the “governments role is to protect those rights.” I agree. You say, “Prosperity comes from the private sector, not the public sector.” Again, I agree.
Now we must ask ourselves why that prosperity isn’t being shared with the rest of us. We must also ask ourselves why we shouldn’t hope and expect the government to come to our aid when this isn’t being done. After all, we have no other place to turn to. We have no money to buy off our politicians, no money to pay for our health care, no unions like in Detroit to bargain with businesses (like VW) that have come to the south to exploit our historically low wages we are paid. Who else do we turn to to help us?
We have only the government to turn to, just like when we are faced with a foreign threat we turn to our government to protect us, we must now turn to it to help us fight the biggest threat we face that comes from within. The business leaders and bankers, who are one of our biggest assets, are also one of our biggest threats just like they have been from our inception.
I’m reminded of Andrew Jackson and his “den of vipers” comment about the bankers he fought but even more of what Lincoln reportedly said at the close of the Civil War, “I have two great enemies, I have the confederacy in front of me and international bankers behind me, of the two I fear the international bankers most." I feel the same. Yes, I fear our deficits, our levels of taxation, terrorists, and harming our country by restricting our business community too much. However, I fear more the level of desperation our fellow citizens are feeling when they are left jobless and sick and hopeless.
If this is what it means to be an American and free then maybe we’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere. I blame the business leaders and bankers for this, not the government who is responding to the crisis perpetrated by them. After all, who else will we turn to in our time of need? Warren Buffet? Rush Limbaugh? Goldman Sachs? No thanks. We’ve given them a free reign long enough, we’ve given them enough rope and they have in my opinion hanged themselves with it. Let them swing.
To quote Robin Smith, former head of the Tennessee Republican Party, “There can be no higher purpose for our government than the defense of our nation.” Once again I agree.
Ian Sudderth
Chattanooga
Veteran Marine who served honorably in the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines as a machinegunner in an infantry unit. He was awarded the National Defense Service Medal, received the Rifle Expert Badge twice and a letter of appreciation. He was honorably discharged in 1996.
* * *
How does one expect to convince others when we begin by calling them "tea baggers?" That's offensive.
But, I took the time to read further and it appears Mr. Sudderth has some serious misconceptions.
To be sure, there are some places where unions are necessary in order to provide a mechanism for labor to negotiate their deal with corporate management. However, many unions have become a worse blight than the management they purport to defend against.
Where is Detroit right now? For that matter, where is the auto industry in general?
Nikola Tesla invented the electrical generation, transmission, and distribution system used in this nation as well as much of the equipment used. He and George Westinghouse did a marketing and technological battle with Thomas Edison over whose system would become the standard. Westinghouse Electric Corporation prevailed. Over time they became one of the largest manufacturers of electrical equipment, appliances, transformers, generators, radios and radio transmission equipment, televisions and TV stations, computers, motors, nuclear power plants, and any number of other types of equipment and parts used in the electrical and related industries.
Westinghouse is no more.
Tom Edison's deal, General Electric, used to manufacture semiconductors, motors, generators, appliances, radios, TVs, and anything else one might imagine related to electrical and electronic equipment and parts, just like Westinghouse. They manufactured transformers in Pittsfield, Mass., Hickory, N.C., Rome, Ga. and Shreveport, La., and I was fortunate to have been able to work with both GE and Westinghouse for about 20 years.
I was able to keep from saying, "I told you so" when a young engineer blew up the lab with an electromagnetic pulse in Hickory while we were testing a lightening generator, but couldn't hide the grin. I was also there when my friend Grainger Poe, a union steward, said, "Now boys, y'all are going to keep up your demands and five years from now we'll be standing across the street saying 'I used to work there'." during a meeting.
He missed it by a month. The plant was eventually closed, and I'll leave it to anyone interested to research why either General Electric or Westinghouse either is no more or is less than a mere shadow of its former status as a giant of industry.
RCA, another Tom Edison deal, is another company that was huge. They manufactured such low tech systems as sonar, radar, tactical weapons guidance, and also manufactured radios, TVS, and other electrical appliances. The RCA stuff we buy today at Wally World is manufactured by Thompson CSF, a French company. Why?
If someone must file bankruptcy for contracting cancer, could that be because they either have no or inadequate insurance? Isn't that what insurance is for? Perhaps if we didn't demand five dollar prescription drugs, five and ten dollar copays for doctor visits, and any number of other insurance bennies, insurance might be more affordable for everyone.
And Mr. Sudderth, if you want the same medical care as a veteran ... please feel free to step on out in front of any soldier, sailor, marine, or airman while they're defending your right to turn around and offend them.
Royce E. Burrage, Jr.
Royce@Officially Chapped.org