When my personal morale and resolve on this issue was starting to flag, and weaken ... what do I see coming over the ridge? The spine stiffens, the line reforms ... and the advance continues.
That is what leaders do. I feel some shame in the weakness I showed mid-month; but enough of that.
There are leaders out there that get it. We have leaders who have a 21st Century mindset and are not intellectually stuck in the second Nixon Administration.
Go to ~ the 9-minute mark and listen to Lieutenant General John Kelly, USMC - one of Maggie's Boston Marines. All the issues we cover here on Thursday - he brings to the front. I can do no better. Do not limit yourself to just this portion of the speech; you need to hear it all - and then share it with as many people that you can.
I don't make that request but once every few years - if ever. I'm not asking you to send links to this post; thought that would be nice. Just use the YouTube link if you need to keep your secret pleasure - CDRSalamander - to yourself.
The real strength of this nation does not come from making a religion of diversity, or emphasizing the differences among us. To the contrary, we have come to a profound understanding of what our founders; our forefathers and foremothers understood as they built the nation that was once proudly referred to as the melting pot.'Nuff said.
And our armed forces, the ultimate, the most successful institution of American diversity. Servicemembers have come to understand the simple fact that America's strenght was and should be again a people that sticks together by a shared sense of history, values, customs, hopes and dreams that unite us.
There is great power in us as individuals, but even greater power in individuals voluntarily working together to support each other.
They also know that the opposite is true, that we weakened, and will lose what we have if we continue down a path of identifying ourselves as hyphenated Americans, or closed cultural groups focusing on "what's in it for me."
That in spite of the efforts of those who make their living and often fill their pockets driving wedges between Americans based on race, or religion, ethnicity - our service men and women discover early, and on their own while looking at their comerads and standing with them in ranks - that it is not about the color on the outside, but the character on the inside.
It isn't about where on the earth you were born, but why you came to America, and what you did when you got here. It is not about the god you worship, if you worship any god at all; but you will respect the right of your neighbor to respect the god he or she damn well pleases.
Be resolved; advance, advance, advance!
Hat tip DrewM.
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