CAN FREEDOM SURVIVE?

CAN FREEDOM SURVIVE?

By Andy Weddington

Wednesday, 13 July 2022

The raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next 500 years.  -James Forrestal 

"Dear Joyce, Bob, and family,

     Thank you for your wonderful letter and for digging up the election results for us. We love to hear from you for you're the only ones to let us know what's going on in Monrovia. The election was disappointing, wasn't it? We wonder what kind of a world our children will inherit from us the way things are going. The people who live across the street from us are also Republicans (which is fortunate as living out here in the country one has to get along with the nearest neighbors as one doesn't often see the one further on!) and they say we're just losing all our freedoms one by one. We agree, but what can we do? Govt. has gotten so big that it can easily stifle those who complain. Some of the articles I read in Readers Digest give me goose bumps. Also, if you want to curl your hair (sans permanent) read A Texan Looks at Lyndon by J. Evetts Haley."

That was the opening paragraph of a five-pages letter, in cursive, signed, "Love, Norma". 

Dated: December 14, 1964

And so not quite 58 years later not much as to concerns about freedom disappearing has changed.

Though Lyndon long dead and Joe aka: Brandon lives. 

Wouldn't Norma be surprised by the size of government today, fading freedoms, and dementia is not a disqualification to be President. 

Goose bumps? 

She'd stroke or heart attack out. 

Truth is freedom has been under attack since founding. 

That's not going to change.

Courage the sole preservative. 

Norma's choice of the word "stifle" curious, eerily relevant. 

Rhymes with rifle. 

Salute to the Founding Fathers. 

As to rifles ...

A new bit of family history learned just last evening after dinner.  

Old inherited papers from years ago, long stored in bins for lack of time to carefully study, led to Internet search. 

One site to another. And so on. 

The jaw-dropper of goose bumps ... 

My wife had a step uncle - World War II Sailor. 

Merlan Clifford Emberson, Aviation Radioman First Class Petty Officer (ARM1c), U. S. Navy.  

Six months shy of his 27 birthday, Petty Officer Emberson landed on a beachhead Monday, 19 February 1945.

Iwo Jima. 

He died in combat that day. 

Oddly enough, Merlan was born the same month and day his younger step brother (my late father-in-law who, too, was a WWII U. S. Navy Tin Can Sailor), Bob, died - 04 August - 56 years after his brother. 

And Merlan and I Washington State natives 39 years apart.

Goose bumps. 

All woven into the Grand Design; mysterious only to the living.

Can freedom survive?

It will. 

Yet, only for as long as citizens like Merlan and Bob will step forward - courage. 

As to Secretary Forrestal's opening quote forecast four days after Petty Officer Emberson's death ...

Heat-of-the-moment exuberance. 

Understandable. 

Unlikely.