By DR. LARRY MOSES
No one asked me but… Memorial Day is coming up. I know most of you already celebrated it on Monday, but for us purists, Memorial Day is May 30. The federal government in 1968 passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which moved four holidays to a specified Monday so we could all have a three-day weekend. It took a few years but all fifty states now comply with the law.
When I was a kid, the holiday was called Decoration Day and while it was originally designed to commemorate the fallen of the Civil War, it now has evolved to cover all those who had fallen in the defense of the country.
I do not remember a great emphasis on this holiday in my family as I was growing up. However, I know it was observed with great vigor in my wife’s family. My wife continues the tradition as she recruits me each year to help her to honor not only the fallen warriors but also others as we decorate graves. I hope everyone took some time from their barbeque to pay tribute to those who have made it possible to fire up the grill.
No one asked me but… I just finished reading David McCullough’s book 1776 and David Hackett Fischer’s book Washington’s Crossing. They are both about the first year of the American Revolutionary War.
This was a fitting time to read these books. The fallen in this war were the first Americans to die in defense of liberties this nation once cherished. These books not only chronicle the war, they give you a greater understanding of the American Constitution.
For instance, the Second Amendment which reads “…a well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed….” is made more understandable. The vast majority of the colonial troops were not members of the Continental Army. They were amateur soldiers. They were members of various militias that arrived on the scene to bail out the struggling Continental Army under the command of General George Washington.
These militias were loosely organized military units with officers, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers which more or less followed orders within a command structure. General Washington found the militias, who often elected their officers and non-commissioned officers, less disciplined than his Continental Troops, and his advisories, the Hessians and British regulars. However, Washington also came to realize without them he could never have succeeded. The dependence on these homegrown units set a whole new standard as to how a nation should defend its citizens.
While our founding fathers saw the dangers of a standing army, they also understood the need for a military force that could defend the country. They turned to the idea of an armed militia made up of every able bodied American male to protect the founding principles of this nation.
Those principles are stated in the Declaration of Independence that “all men…are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…. to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their Just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it…” Regardless of whether the threat was external or internal, the militia would be there to protect the citizens.
Alexander Hamilton, writing in The Federalists No. 29, stated: (Armed Government forces) “can never be formidable to the liberties of the people while there is a large body of citizens, little if at all inferior to them in discipline and the use of arms, who stand ready to defend their rights and those of their fellow citizens.”
The Second Amendment has nothing to do with hunting, protection from your neighbor, or target shooting. The Second Amendment is about protecting the American citizen’s unalienable rights whether that threat is foreign or domestic.
George Washington stated it this way: “A free people ought not only be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of Independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government.”
James Madison agreed with George: “A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country. The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation where the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.”
There was a time when I believed every American male should be trained in the use of the latest military style weapons. I have changed my mind. With the move to gender equality, I now believe ever male and female in America should be trained in the use of the latest military style weapons. Not only should they be trained in their use every household should be supplied with a weapon and a thousand rounds of ammunition per American adult. This would be a “well regulated militia” and would be the greatest defense this nation could have.
I always feel comfortable when George Washington agrees with me even if Harry Reid and Charles Schumer do not.
Is there anywhere else in the world where this is the case? Try Switzerland where virtually every family has a government issued military grade weapon in their home. Switzerland was the only small country not invaded by Hitler during WWII. In Israel, nearly all citizens have military training, and military-style weapons in their homes.
The first Americans to take up arms to protect citizens against a legal, but oppressive government, were 70 militiamen who stood at Lexington on April 19, 1775. It was a move to stop a government official, General Gage, from taking a stockpile of weapons. This encounter ended with 250 government officials being killed by militia who were defying the legal authority of the land.
Today the citizens of that state have been disarmed by their government without a whimper. Of course, the state officials indicate that it is done for their own protection.
In 1775, Benjamin Franklin wrote: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
That is as true today as the day Franklin wrote it.
