Dave McCracken
Moderator In Memoriam
I never had to look far to find heroes. Pop was a mass of scars and gristle when I was born. He earned his PH in a B-24 someplace over Europe.
Mom was a hero also. She shouldered the burden when her fit, able husband came back to her in 1946 as a bloody mess. Years later she taught me that courage has no bravado, no press agents, no bands playing. She fought cancer to her dying day. She gave out but didn't give up.
I kew heroes in the military, folks who walked through fire, literally. And if I kept up with them, it was because I was more scared of letting them down than of Charley, flaming JP 4 or Satan himself.
I knew heroes in the Md Division of Correction. Good folks who walked the hellish tiers and cells of our worst prisons, who dealt with folks that made Hannibal Lector look like a wimp. Sheepdogs protecting the flock by guarding the wolves.
I know heroes now. Recently I drove 3 vets of WII to their memorial in DC. One was a Seabee in the Pacific, another a Marine who served from Guadacanal to Okinawa. The third was in the 101st Airborne and made that jump into the darkness just before D Day. He brought his wife to the memorial. Taking them there to see a monument so belated in the building was an honor.
I do not believe I'm especially fortunate in this, you have heroes near you too.
I went to PGC this morn and shot some wobble. One young man there was shooting with his father and on leave from the Marines. He heads out soon for the war. I pray he makes it back.
229 years ago today, some outstanding people committed their "Lives, Fortunes and Sacred Honor" to the revolutionary concept that people can govern themselves. To ensure that their descendants, both actual and spiritual, enjoy that same freedom, they wrote "The Right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed".
That Right is coming under more and more fire these days. Various reasons are given,like" We do not need guns these days, the government can protect us"...
Most governments now and through history, are oppressive. Some are little more than legalized brigandry.
My wife's Aunt Helga was born into a large Jewish family in Berlin in 1928. In 1944. she escaped from Birkenau by being so emaciated she could get between the wires on the electric fence. Out of maybe 30 members of her extended family, she's the sole survivor.
Ask her what it's like to live where the government determines who may possess the means of defense and who may not.
Another reason given for denying citizens the means of defence is "For the children". Somehow,according to these folks,guns exert an evil influence like Sauron's Ring and poison the area around them, turning good folks into orcish murderers.
S'Funny, I can trace my name back to a man born in 1708. I can name the generations in between. I can trace another line back to 1693. 5 of my ancestors fought in the Revolution, one died at Saratoga. Another died in 1862 near Antietam Creek, fighting for what he believed in. In all that time, with all generations having guns accessible, there's been no suicides, no tragic accidents, and the only homicides were in the line of duty. 300 years of safe and responsible gun ownership.
The reason some folks and factions advocate gun control is not guns, it's control. Worse than heroin or crack, power and control are addictions that ruin lives and destroy freedom. Free armed people are hard to control, and the would be Saddams and Hitlers know this.
Perform a revolutionary act. Take someone shooting that has never been. Show them the truth and ensure they know that the rights laid out in the Bill Of Rights will remain ours and our children's only as long as the Second Amendment stays intact. Teach them to bust a clay, punch a hole in a paper target or slay a fierce and wily tin can with a 22.
Do it "For the Children".
And, maybe the mirror will show you a Hero.....
Mom was a hero also. She shouldered the burden when her fit, able husband came back to her in 1946 as a bloody mess. Years later she taught me that courage has no bravado, no press agents, no bands playing. She fought cancer to her dying day. She gave out but didn't give up.
I kew heroes in the military, folks who walked through fire, literally. And if I kept up with them, it was because I was more scared of letting them down than of Charley, flaming JP 4 or Satan himself.
I knew heroes in the Md Division of Correction. Good folks who walked the hellish tiers and cells of our worst prisons, who dealt with folks that made Hannibal Lector look like a wimp. Sheepdogs protecting the flock by guarding the wolves.
I know heroes now. Recently I drove 3 vets of WII to their memorial in DC. One was a Seabee in the Pacific, another a Marine who served from Guadacanal to Okinawa. The third was in the 101st Airborne and made that jump into the darkness just before D Day. He brought his wife to the memorial. Taking them there to see a monument so belated in the building was an honor.
I do not believe I'm especially fortunate in this, you have heroes near you too.
I went to PGC this morn and shot some wobble. One young man there was shooting with his father and on leave from the Marines. He heads out soon for the war. I pray he makes it back.
229 years ago today, some outstanding people committed their "Lives, Fortunes and Sacred Honor" to the revolutionary concept that people can govern themselves. To ensure that their descendants, both actual and spiritual, enjoy that same freedom, they wrote "The Right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed".
That Right is coming under more and more fire these days. Various reasons are given,like" We do not need guns these days, the government can protect us"...
Most governments now and through history, are oppressive. Some are little more than legalized brigandry.
My wife's Aunt Helga was born into a large Jewish family in Berlin in 1928. In 1944. she escaped from Birkenau by being so emaciated she could get between the wires on the electric fence. Out of maybe 30 members of her extended family, she's the sole survivor.
Ask her what it's like to live where the government determines who may possess the means of defense and who may not.
Another reason given for denying citizens the means of defence is "For the children". Somehow,according to these folks,guns exert an evil influence like Sauron's Ring and poison the area around them, turning good folks into orcish murderers.
S'Funny, I can trace my name back to a man born in 1708. I can name the generations in between. I can trace another line back to 1693. 5 of my ancestors fought in the Revolution, one died at Saratoga. Another died in 1862 near Antietam Creek, fighting for what he believed in. In all that time, with all generations having guns accessible, there's been no suicides, no tragic accidents, and the only homicides were in the line of duty. 300 years of safe and responsible gun ownership.
The reason some folks and factions advocate gun control is not guns, it's control. Worse than heroin or crack, power and control are addictions that ruin lives and destroy freedom. Free armed people are hard to control, and the would be Saddams and Hitlers know this.
Perform a revolutionary act. Take someone shooting that has never been. Show them the truth and ensure they know that the rights laid out in the Bill Of Rights will remain ours and our children's only as long as the Second Amendment stays intact. Teach them to bust a clay, punch a hole in a paper target or slay a fierce and wily tin can with a 22.
Do it "For the Children".
And, maybe the mirror will show you a Hero.....
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