Faith of Our Fathers
If for no other reason we need to win this election for our fathers and grandfathers who fought in WWII and all the other wars to secure our freedom. I don’t know if win the election or secure the election is the proper term. Based on rally sizes, yard signs, and people we meet on the streets, the election appears to be decided. But when we look at the election in 2020, we know the other side has other plans. No one has ever explained why a handful of states could not count their ballots on election night and after days of delay happened to find hundreds of thousands of mail in ballots and drop box ballots that magically appeared.
I remember a story my dad told us. They pulled up outside of Berlin where miles of anti-tank embankments were buried in the ground. The stone embankments that stuck up making impossible for tanks and other equipment to advance. My dad saw an attempt to weld make shift plow blades to the front of tanks to move dirt over the embankments. That worked okay for pushing a load of dirt over the first row. But when the tanks reversed, those plow blades would get stuck. So my dad took others to farms to collect whatever hydraulic systems they could, along with steel to make plow blades. They welded up make shift plow blades on the front of tanks with the hydraulic systems able to lower and raise the blades. They also added steel plates on top of the tanks to protect the operators on the front of the tanks. Soon the embankments were under enough earth for the tanks and other equipment to pass onto Berlin. I always wanted to ask my dad why they didn’t use bulldozers laying around. I assume the Germans were smart enough to move heavy equipment inside the perimeter.
After capturing Berlin, Patton’s army went on clean up duty that included liberating Nazi concentration camps. My dad saw a few of those camps first hand. Military personal were ordered to never discuss what the saw in those camps. My dad never talked about what he saw in those camps. But the sight haunted him the rest of his life. Knowing the camps were filled with mostly Jews and know the hatred Hitler and his closest advisers had against Jews, my dad developed a motto. I served under my dad in the Army Reserves in the 1970’s. Every few months he gave his canned speech. “We put this uniform on to protect the rights and freedoms of everyone. Even when we don’t agree with them.” That statement referred to the memory of the people who suffered under the Nazi’s because the Nazi’s divided people by their beliefs. And when the Nazi’s didn’t agree with their beliefs, there was only one solution.
Today the world is threatened by the hatred and beliefs of a couple of left over Nazi’s who believe they need to continue Hitler’s plans. Of course the entire political situation is a lot more complicated than than. The threat is a lot more spiritual based than it is political. Most people understand that.
My dad was born and raised on the south side of Milwaukee in what used to be an old Polish neighborhood. He was raised in the old Catholic church and like most in those days, learned little from the Latin masses, but knew there was a God. That was until he saw those Nazi camps. After seeing unexplainable suffering, my dad couldn’t believe there was a God. Good thing that finally changed a few days before he died when he accepted Jesus as his Savior. But my dad went through life with a burden hundreds of thousands of WWII veterans had to carry in silence. Being a Catholic, he still saw a reason to stand up against what those Nazis did to Jews. My dad decided to remain in uniform to do make sure that never happened again. It doesn’t matter what people believe. American was founded on the belief everyone has the right to worship the way they choose and it was the responsibility of every American to defend that right.
October 2024 shed new light on the spiritual battle we are facing in the US and all over the world. Harris’ response to a few young men shouting, “Jesus is king,” sparked a flurry of responses from the Christian community. There were a thousand ways Harris could have responded, but as Ben Carson pointed out, people respond by what is in their hearts. Without giving it a second thought, Harris responded by telling them they were in the wrong rally. They belonged in the smaller rally down the street.
After Trump caught the attention of the media by working a day at a McDonald’s, Harris had to grab the spotlight with a stunt of her own. A scene that would hopefully quite the ruckus created by her response, or lack of response to, “Jesus is king.” Harris staged an event in a Christian church giving a sermon where she continued to neglect the name of Jesus.
This election, the speeches, and events are turning more and more spiritual as election day draws near. Politicians need to be reminded, “We put this uniform on to protect the rights and freedoms of everyone. Even when we don’t agree with them.” It is just not Christians against the Nazis left overs pulling strings in the background. We need to preserve the original intent of the authors of the Constitution to make the United States a country where every religion is allowed to be safe from oppression. Free to worship as they please. Free from government interference as long as they are within the law and they respect the rights of others.