On 01 July 2021, I first wrote an article regarding how there are no more safe paths, no more neutral zones, no more areas of peace to rest upon. After the last 15-days, the world has witnessed this reality, and I revisit this topic to issue a plea. Today, make a choice. Tomorrow go to work implementing that choice.
In mentioning the following, I am not discussing religion but social history. The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-Day Saints holds sacred “The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of JESUS CHRIST” as holy scripture. The book contains a record of a civilization ruled by kings; then, the king proposes a society ruled by judges where their own conscience and written laws govern every person. Both systems of government worked well. The reign of the judges ends in chaos when the chief judge is murdered, and the people break up into separate tribes. That is a couple of hundred years of history boiled into a few brief words; however, the pattern holds true for several other societies not recorded in books considered holy scripture. I find the following fascinating as a template for the current time the world finds itself facing.
Why do societies fail?
Most societies fail because leaders have violated the core fundamental principles those societies were built upon. The people have lost the way to hold the leaders accountable to the fundamental principles that originally built the society. In modern societies, these principles are codified laws from founding national documents, and holding the leaders accountable would involve lawyers and judges, as well as time and other leaders committed to holding together the system to ensure those who broke the system are held liable and accountable before the law, and not a mob.
Pick an empire, Rome, Greece, Israel, Egypt, Nephite, etc., all of them suffer the same fate as they crested the height of their time and slid into failure and ruin. The leaders failed the people. The government decided they did not have to perform their only job, to look out for the safety and security of the people, and the people died, and the government fell into ruin. What have we witnessed across the globe, governments not listening to their people, refusing their people, and denying rights and liberties to their people in the name of personal power, wealth, and highly temporary fame.
Australia and New Zealand, the COVID measures are so beyond the pale horrific, and totalitarian that the government is doing more harm than the disease the government proclaims to be fighting. China has blatantly broken the treaty with Hong Kong. Nobody outside of Hong Kong appears to care enough to issue strong demands, let alone support Hong Kong’s citizenry in reclaiming that which is their right by treaty. North Korea continues to vacillate and sway to whatever music China plays in the hopes of catching scraps, as their people suffer and die from malnutrition, disease, and neglect.
Head into the Middle East, and that powder keg is going to blow again real soon. Terrorists in Afghanistan never stay in Afghanistan, and now with a pipeline to China, money, and weapons from America, and new ways and means to launder money, how soon before the Middle East becomes a free-fire zone, the European mainland becomes a terrorist free-for-all shootout to rival America’s Wild West, and Africa descends into more tyranny and villainy?
Where are the leaders of government? Where are the government representatives? Our globe has changed since 2000; the hoped-for peace from the end of the last century has turned into a blood bath of terror on a global scale fed by low-intensity conflict (LIC). Just as major international conflicts dominated the previous century, this century is being dominated by small brushfire LIC conflicts. Our modes of war must change, our governments must adapt, our societies must change, and we are 20+ years into the new century. The government still thinks this is 1995, money is free, music is 1980s good, and the future is bright and happy!
The Decisions for Today
What do you want most? What government is most important to you? Is your government system sufficiently powerful enough a motivator to propel you to action to save it and pass it along to the next generation? America has had leaders who have been quoted as saying something to the effect of, “The blood of current generations must renew the tree of liberty to remain free.” What will you sacrifice for liberty today, for your children to experience freedom tomorrow?
LIC is here to stay. LIC will be the “gentlemen’s war” of this century. Where the wealthy pool resources and purchase mayhem and destruction for their pleasure. If society does not change, all representative governments will be lost in the turmoil created by these “children having fun.” Worse, those little fracases could become full-blown international conflicts with nuclear weapons very easily — all based on the WWI model of human ineptitude and our human weakness for killing ourselves.
The decisions are yours, and yours alone to make. Collectively, your choices will move you into one of two groups, those fighting for representative government and those opposed to representative government. Truthfully, do not expect to experience peace; there are no safe paths, no routes through tulips and rainbows on gossamer wings of spun sugar plums. The enemy is awake; the enemy has prepared a legion of useful idiots and ivory potentates to give orders.
But, the decisions must be made, and the sooner the decision is made and communicated, the easier life becomes, for then you know your purpose!
The Actions for Tomorrow
Act with haste, prepare with confidence, and move with speed. Get loud! Stand like a rock! I was told standing is not an activity. The person proclaiming that has never stood still and faced down an enemy, or they would know just how arduous standing can be! Seek learning through study, discussion, questions, and faith. Seeking learning through faith means that you will actively believe until you can prove otherwise, even if it means waiting patiently for a while to learn more.
I learned this principle in the US Army. I fully did not expect to learn this lesson, but learn it I did. I believed in the chain of command. Basic Training and Advanced Individual Training did nothing to dissuade that the chain of command needed to be accepted, supported, and obeyed unquestioningly. Then I got to my first duty station and began learning my role in the chain of command as an active participant. First, I refused to believe, then I believed in faith, then I tested and learned, then I acted above and beyond my rank and got swatted down for breaking the chain of command. Always the same counsel, you are a great soldier/sailor, but you make decisions above your paygrade, and this rubs higher ranking people wrong. My response, how am I responsible for the choices and consequences of those higher in rank choosing to be offended?
Everyone is now in the same boat; the chains of command cannot be trusted. We must each think and act for ourselves for the betterment and security of our country, families, homes, freedoms, and the next generation. We must each choose to throw off the shackles of the past, learn the lessons of history not taught in school, and then act to save the best in our societies before the wolves of terrorism steal everything. We each must become the sheepdogs of war!
© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
The images used herein were obtained in the public domain; this author holds no copyright to the images displayed.
President Biden, you, and your administration disgust me! I did not vote for you, but I was willing to support you as president back in January and show you respect. Even though I continue to have reservations regarding the veracity of the 2020 Elections, the transparency of the election counts, and the skullduggery witnessed, I was willing to give you a chance. Your actions in Afghanistan have sundered my cherub-like demeanor and turned the extended olive branch into a torch for your pyre!
Finally, we come to the absolute crux of the matter. As Commander in Chief, the honor of commanding men and women in the military comes with a corresponding responsibility. The country loves her military and trusts you to treat them appropriately. You did not do so in January and got a minor backlash. You are not doing so in Afghanistan and will catch a much higher backlash as the media watches a repeat of Saigon in Kabul as the Embassy is evacuated. Your buddy Obama has a dead Ambassador he has never answered for, which (historically) has always been a declaration of war. What do you have? An entire country laid to waste, the waste of millions of dollars in materials, millions of lives destroyed, and the wasted efforts of millions of people and multiple presidents. You have betrayed the American people’s trust, and you will be held accountable, just like your good friend Mayor Lightfoot (with stickyfingers) is being held accountable in Chicago, only many, many magnitudes worse!
After 9/11 and the terrorist attacks on that day, the corporate media, as early as 9/12, began trying to curb patriotism, stop the cheering, make citizens feel ashamed of being Americans, and going so far as to decide what American’s can and cannot see due to sensitivity and a perverted desire for nationalism to return. During 9/11, I served onboard the USS Barry (DDG 52), an Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer. Our ship was undergoing some maintenance that kept us tied to the pier when our carrier and battle group was called to New York. We still served the battle group; we just did it tied to the pier. Our sister ship, another Arleigh Burke, was off the 100-fathom curve performing ship inspections when a German Destroyer sent their condolences extraordinarily and uniquely to our sister ship, and our Navy, and the US Government. Just remembering the action of this German Naval Destroyer brings tears and chills. How humbling it was to have our national tragedy recognized by such a great ally and former enemy! To that crew, you know who you are, thank you!
Patriotism is a celebration of all we are, all we have achieved, and the hope of more extraordinary achievements to come. America never claimed to be perfect, never desired to be the “shining city on the hill,” but America is one of the few countries who actively strive, and for that, I would live nowhere else! I celebrate America’s Civil War, not because of the slavery issue or the thousands of dead, but because America proved that individual States’ rights are paramount in American governance. Yes, we need to have some standards between the states for which the Federal Government is responsible, but individual States’ rights are critical to the American Republic, and I would have it no other way. Do we, the inheritors of this Republic, understand how precious States’ Rights are to us individually?
Let us be perfectly clear; the corporate media would have all Americans celebrating nationalism instead of patriotism. So, let’s clean up the confusion on these terms. Nationalism, as detailed by Webster is, “an idea and movement that promotes the interests of a particular nation, especially to gain and maintain the nation’s sovereignty over its homeland.” The plasticized version of nationalism’s definition coincides with 
One of the little-known founding fathers was 
Thomas Paine was an English-born American political activist, philosopher, political theorist, and revolutionary who authored, among many others, “Common Sense” and “The Right’s of Man,” two books highly recommended for future reading. Thomas Paine is quoted saying, “Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.” Of all the self-evident truths a patriot should never forget or be confused upon, this is the single most significant point and hinge for a country’s future. The other self-evident truth, needing full remembrance, comes from President Thomas Jefferson, “The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” The legitimate government will always injure the citizens, hence the need for a smaller, more responsible, and flexible government.
Please believe and live the following truth; you, as an individual, are the key to America’s future. Your choices are essential; your consequences suffered or enjoyed are part of your story that makes America grow or shrink. Your choices and consequences will determine both your destiny and America’s destiny. A “Liberty FIRST Culture” depends upon you, and you are worthy of the heritage and the honor of this position!
Poerksen is not mentioned to sell his book, although it is an excellent read. Poerksen is mentioned because, during the Obama presidency, modular language’s tyrannical actions took an enormous leap. Words never before plasticized began to be stretched to describe all sorts of things they do not fit. For example, Speaker Pelosi called Veterans of the United States “Terrorists” and used this label to weaponize the government against veterans. We all should remember the day a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich became racist and was removed from millions of sandwich lovers’ diets.
Thus, this article aims to provide you, the reader, with a clear, distinct definition for the term patriotism. That patriotism continues to be plasticized to cover the work of terrorists who are burning, rioting, looting, and destroying America remains a consideration of great importance. The first job of any American who desires to retain their liberty and freedom is to learn.
While my answer might not be your answer, our combined answer will strengthen those who desire to become patriots. I gladly shoulder the title patriot because America is me, and I am American! I am a veteran by the grace of God; but, I am an American because my fathers and mothers came here from foreign lands so I could have the opportunity! I am a patriot by choice; there is not another country on earth like America. After traveling ¾’s of the way around the world, I would not live anywhere else. I am a patriot by conviction; I firmly believe the world is better with America, with all her myriad of faults than without America.
DNC-Consulting 