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By Geoff Olander
Sacrifices are made everyday, but when we compare them to
the sacrifices made by the men and women of the American Revolution,
how much sacrifice have we really made? It’s reported
that after the war over 25,000 American soldiers lost their
lives. This figure does not include the militias, minutemen,
and innocent women and children that dedicated themselves
to freedom and liberty.
A lot of us ask ourselves, “What can we do?”
There is no one answer to this question, but there are plenty
of solutions to the problem. Visit your local European cultural
event; donate a little time and money to a Scottish society,
or maybe even write a P.O.W. just to say hello. These are
just a few of the dozens of things you can do. Decide what
kind of world you want your children to grow in, and take
action.
Too many times do I hear people complain of what they see
going on around them and when it comes down to doing something
about it, they fold. “I don’t have time”,
“I don’t have any money”, and “I’ll
do it tomorrow”, are excuses I hear everyday for not
helping our Folk. In very rare cases these are sometimes true,
but most of the time, it’s because those people lost
passion or never had it. You can’t just sit down and
expect things to change themselves.
Instead of getting that CD you wanted, going to McDonalds
for lunch, or watching your favorite sitcom, why not try,
at least once, doing something productive? Don’t put
your people on hold for these things till next week or even
tomorrow. Do it today. It’s time to give pride back
to our Folk.
General Washington asked what is probably the most important
question in any of our life times - “Victory or Death?”
No one is asking you to be a martyr. We are just asking you
to do what is right. The soldiers and civilians of the Revolution
devoted their lives to achieving freedom for you. We not only
owe it to them, but to our children as well, to wake up and
do something. Continental soldier Joseph P. Martin wrote of
what he witnessed in the winter after the battle at Monmouth.
His writings spoke of men sleeping in hay in tents. They would
even resort to eating bark off the trees. Some were said to
have roasted their own shoes and ate them as well. Martin
also wrote of a group of officers that killed one of their
favorite dogs for food. Examples like these and others prove
the dedication it takes to achieve our goals. By 1781, the
British had surrendered, but the struggle for the colonial
soldiers had just begun. The most crucial and vulnerable time
for America was after the war had ended. As a result of this,
Washington and his troops stayed on guard for the next 2 years.
Just before most of the army was planning a revolt, Washington
chose to address the soldiers personally. In front of a group
of officers at a meeting house in New Windsor, Washington
stood up; he pulled out a letter from Congress to the soldiers
stating that their grievances are not being ignored. With
all officers’ eyes on him, he could not read it. He
pulled a pair of reading glasses from another pocket, put
them on and said, “Gentlemen, you will permit me to
put on my spectacles. For I have not only grown gray, but
almost blind in the service of my country.” Witnesses
say there was not a dry eye any where in the room. At that
moment, Washington had saved the American Revolution. If a
sacrifice this big can be made, then why can we not sacrifice
so little?
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