“WHERE’S THE SPIRIT?” By: Appleseed (rwva.org) What is the Spirit of ’76? Was it the elation felt earlier in 1776, when we forced the British to leave Boston? By mounting cannons on Dorchester Heights, forcing the British to choose: either leave, attack our fortifications, or be bombarded without mercy. Some choice! Was it the iron determination expressed in the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, when the signers understood they’d better all hang together, else they’d hang separately – and pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to the cause? Was it the guts needed to carry through that grim December of 1776 – “times that try men’s souls” – when the Continental Army, enlistments expiring, attacked Trenton and Princeton? Later, in the latter part of the Revolutionary War, patriots looked back on the “Spirit of ‘76” and wished that Spirit still walked the land. What was that Spirit? Look it up. I don’t think you will find an easy answer. But the patriots experienced it, and experienced what they felt was a disappearance of it in the last years of the Revolutionary War, regretted it was gone, and wished it was back. Personally, I think it was the grim determination to “see it through”, to push for liberty right to the very end, right to death. Alexander Hamilton, an intelligent, rational man, urged General Lee, at Monmouth Courthouse to “let us die here, rather than retreat!” Are those the words of a rational man? Given a choice to “run away, and fight another day” or expend his life right then and there, likely to no avail – what kind of choice is that? Could it be that Hamilton was experiencing the “never say die” spirit of 1776? The in-your-face-attitude some Americans had back then, the “you can try and take my liberty – but one of us is gonna die…” – an attitude very much in the spirit of ’76. If you are a caring American, you have to miss those founders. Everywhere around you today, in this country, is “whatever”. “What’s the difference between ignorance and apathy?” – and you answer, “I don’t know and I don’t care!” The Spirit of ’76 was something precious. Something to be treasured. Especially when it’s gone. As they found out, as the Revolutionary War continued. As we should, today. We should miss that spirit. We should regret its passing. We should hope it can and will come back. As recently as WWII, we had it. Read about the Pacific war – how the Japanese were amazed that even before the fighting for an island was done, Americans on bulldozers were pushing out the runways which would allow softening up the next island. Tales of bulldozer operators raising blades to fend off Japanese MG fire until they could crush the pillbox from which it was coming were not unusual. The way home was through Tokyo, and B-29s were routinely overloaded to the extent takeoffs were problematic. In fact, protocol for the delivery of the first A-bomb called for it to be armed before takeoff; a Navy ordnance expert volunteered to fly the mission so the bomb could be armed in flight, after takeoff – otherwise, a crash on takeoff might have set it off. That’s the Spirit of ’76. The “can do” spirit. It’s been gone, not years, but generations. Fortunately a few, very few, of us keep it alive. Somehow it struggles on, flickers on, from one generation to the next, always in danger of disappearing, always in danger of being snuffed out, by our politically correct crazed, diversity worshipping crowd. We can get it back. We HAVE to get it back. It’s essentially about “what it means to be an America” – you can’t be an American without that spirit. It’s not a legal definition, it’s a spirit, the touchstone of what made this country the greatest on the planet and the absence of which will doom us. Appleseed will get it back!
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 00:46:29 +0000
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