The person in the foreground, she represents a lot of people in this country now-a-days. She's just going about her business, blithely unaware of her surroundings. The sun is shining, everything is good.
Now that lion in the background? That lion represents a lot of people "out there". Both within this country and especially beyond our borders. A predator sensing an easy kill, confident that the target is paying no attention whatsoever, confident that there will be no retaliation, confident that no danger will come to them.
Most predators will not go after their prey if they sense there is the possibility that they could somehow be injured or even killed in making an attack. The price of the meal isn't worth the risk.
Right now, our freedom, our way of life and our belief systems are under attack. The predators can sense weakness, they sense that there is no risk to themselves at all. American citizens and interests can be attacked at will.
Recent events seem to bear this out. The enemy senses that they can attack us at will and that our government will do little, if anything, to retaliate. In essence, we have given them free reign.
What we need to do is make it clear, both in words and especially in deeds, that if you mess with the United States, if you kill or harm American citizens, then there will be a horrible price to pay. You will be made to pay and you will be made to pay dearly.
We need a return to the days when the following held true:
"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."Right now we stumble from one crisis to the next. No one takes the U.S. that seriously anymore. We need to change that and we need to change it NOW!
The following should be our motto as regards the way the rest of the world sees us:
"No better friend, no worse enemy"Mess with us at your peril but if you stand with us, we've got your back.
Cross posted at The Lexicans
The rest of the world will take us seriously once again... IF we get rid of Obama. It begins and ends with him.
ReplyDeleteBuck that is indeed the first step we need to take. But there is much more work to be done. Much of the foundation was laid during the Reagan years. Much of the damage lingering from the Vietnam era and the idiocy of Carter was repaired. I think George H.W. Bush could, and should, have done more. But his Presidency did not damage the country. IMHO, he essentially didn't break anything. Clinton's administration tore down much of what the previous administrations had built up.
DeleteI left for my Germany assignment in January of '92, an election year. Bush Senior was still President. As we all recall (many of us with a shudder), Clinton was elected to office and was there for eight long years. Now I spent most of that time in Germany, not returning to the U.S. until the spring of 1999. I noticed a perceptible difference in the country as a whole. Things were NOT better, they had definitely gotten worse.
Now I don't know how history will judge George W. Bush, but I firmly believe that he was a good man who made good strides in repairing some of the damage done by the Clintonistas. But truly, Slick Willie had poisoned the well. The Congress was derelict in their duties and the MSM was by then nearly completely partisan.
Now this, this, buffoon in the White House. Unqualified, inept and seemingly hell-bent on tearing down the very bedrock foundations that this nation was built upon. Heck, I'd take Carter back over this jackass. Carter may have been ineffective and naive but I truly don't believe he was a traitor. The current fellow? I'm not so sure.
I'm glad you said what you said...as I get older I find I get just as upset, frustrated & passionate about USA as I did at 18-20, but now it's on the conservative side ...I feel maybe more helpless about the people in our country...sort of like the old story about putting a frog in pot of water, if it's hot when you do it, he jumps out immediately, but if its cold when you drop it in he swims around even as it gets hotter to the point where he dies.....people are putting up with more & more & more , but if we were to jump from 1985 to 2012 we would be in midst of another revolution!
DeleteTotally agree with that jump from 1985 to 2012. The changes in the country from that time to this, well it's simply mind boggling.
DeleteI'm afraid that right now, we ARE the frog. And the water is definitely getting hotter.
Great observation Greg!