A Veteran’s Thoughts
By Ski Ingram
June 2024
Like many of you, I was disappointed in the jury’s verdict finding Donald Trump guilty of 34 felony charges. We are still trying to discover what he was found guilty of. Though disappointed, I was not surprised. I hoped for the best, but I did not expect it. We who understand the ramifications of this verdict recognize that America was fundamentally changed on that Thursday afternoon.
It is time for patriots to wake up and see the damage being done. I’ve said it many times that Liberals do not care about you. I am now revising that statement; Progressives do not care about you. Liberals and patriotic Democrats are blinded to the damage being done. May 30, 2024, will be a day that will live in infamy.
I am disappointed but not despondent. Just as we recovered from the attack on Pearl Harbor and went on to win a world war, we will recover from this. I have faith in the American people. I still believe that America is an exceptional country. I believe that good men and women will come to recognize the damage being done. This is not so much a verdict against Trump, as a verdict against our American way of life.
Thomas Paine stated in his pamphlet The Crisis, “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.”
I will never understand how people who claim to love America and the freedoms we enjoy wish to throw these freedoms away in order to persecute someone they do not like. I often wonder what those on the left want in life. I know what the Progressives want, control over you, me, and everyone. They want to be our rulers. I just don’t understand how people who are lifelong liberal Democrats can’t see it. Do they wish to be subjects of a totalitarian government? I liken them to the frog in the pot of simmering water that ultimately loses his ability to escape the water when it begins to boil.
I understand why someone would not like Donald Trump to be their friend. However, I remember what this country was like before he became our president, while he was president and today under the presidency Joe Biden. During Trump’s presidency unemployment was low, gas prices were low, inflation was low, crime was low, and there was a sense of pride in America. People were successful and happy. Today, after four years of Biden and his progressive policies all of that has changed.
When I was drafted into the Army in 1969 our Drill Sergeants worked hard to mold us into the soldiers they wanted us to be. Some of the men, who were not in the best of physical shape, had to be molded and changed physically in order to meet the new standard. Eventually, after 8 weeks, we were one cohesive unit well on our way to becoming fighting men. During that time our core values were not changed. We did not become mean fighting men ready and willing to kill anyone or everyone. We became a group of men ready and willing to defend our country against all enemies foreign and domestic.
When I look at the progressive movement, I see men and women who want to change our core values. They want us to become sheep who will bend to their will. They want to divide the American people into the haves and the have nots. They do this by confusing us into accepting things that have been wrong and will always be wrong, such as men can be women and its okay for men to compete in women’s sports.
They disregard laws that have kept us safe for over two hundred years. It is now legal to steal anything you want from your local store as long as it doesn’t amount to more than one thousand dollars. Rioting in the streets with buildings being burned down, people being threatened and killed is not violence. People who complain about the government, their schools and abortion are now domestic terrorists. Israel has become the war criminal. The terrorist group Hamas are now the freedom fighters. Yes, America is upside down.
Life, from the beginning of time, has always been a fight between good and evil. It is past time for the good to prevail and the evil to fail. Good and honest people need to rise up and declare to the nation that this is all wrong.
Reagan said many years ago. “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” The time to decide is now. Will you be a summer soldier, a sunshine patriot or a freedom fighting American patriot.
I welcome your comments.
