HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA
246 YEARS AND COUNTING
We Need to Bridge the Divide
in Our Great Nation, and
We Need to Get to Work Now!
By: E.P. Unum
July 4, 2022
Yes, July 4th is a time for celebration. It is also a time for giving thanks. On that day, the 246th birthday of our nation, for as long as I can remember, I think of the words of the poet, Fitz-Greene Hallack and his poem Marco Bozzaris, 1867:
But to the hero, when his sword
Has won the battle for the free,
Thy voice sounds like a prophet’s word,
And in its hollow tones are heard
The thanks of millions yet to be.
The words conjure up thoughts of Lexington and Concord, Valley Forge, New Orleans, Gettysburg, San Juan Hill, Belleau Wood, Midway, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Okinawa, The Battle of the Bulge, Anzio, Pork Chop Hill, the Frozen Chosin, Khe Sahn, Quang Tri, Fallujah, and many others, all of which entailed great sacrifice of American blood and treasure for the cause of freedom…and for the cause of millions and millions of future generations to carry on.
We have so much for which to be grateful, but we ought never to forget the sacrifices of all those who came before us, especially our Founding Fathers who sacrificed their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to forge what today stands as a beacon of freedom in the world. That freedom has provided the foundation for all that we have accomplished. In 246 years, a mere blip on the radar screen of human existence, American Exceptionalism has created the single greatest economy and system of growth and wealth known to mankind. By any yardstick of measurement, American citizens enjoy the greatest wealth on a per capita basis of any other nation on earth. There are nations all over the globe that have existed for thousands of years that have not come close to the achievements America has made in education, science, engineering, technology, medicine, flight, exploration of the universe, and many other fields in its 246 years of existence.
Yet, some want to denigrate our history and change the very foundations and principles upon which we have been created. To all those, I am reminded of the words of Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence:
If there be any among us who would alter this Union or otherwise change its Republican Form, let them stand as monuments to the precept that error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.
We find ourselves today mired in seemingly unending problems, not the least of which include:
• runaway inflation,
• excessive and sometimes ridiculous government spending,
• rising gasoline prices at the pump,
• a porous southern border,
• supply chain issues,
• poor and even negative growth in GDP,
• rampant crime in the streets of our cities,
• a weak and feckless foreign policy,
• a crisis in our education system which is hell-bent on emphasizing critical race theory and transgender nonsense in elementary schools rather than reading, writing, arithmetic, and American history.
In the face of all these challenges, it is important to remember the words of President John F. Kennedy who eloquently reminded us that
“Most of our problems are man-made; therefore they can be solved by man”.
I believe we can fix every single one of these problems with a change in leadership and some common sense business and economic management, coupled with a commitment to return to the principles that made our country the envy of the world. These may be found in one simple word…ALL. The letters of this word stand for:
A Return to God
Love of Family
Love of Country
We need to focus our attention on those things we can control, and ignore or cast aside those things we cannot. One of those things we cannot control is the ill-constituted January 6 Committee Meetings whose expressed mission is to ensure that former President Donald Trump be prohibited from running for the Office of President of the United States ever again. The Committee itself is an affront to our Democratic System and Rule of Law. It is also morally and ethically corrupt and unfair. The way to deal with this issue is to respond with facts, not emotion.
Here are a few very important things that existed on January 6, 2020, of which Americans need to be reminded, none of which can be refuted by the January 6 Committee:
On January 6, 2020:
1. Gasoline at the pump was $1.93 per gallon on average.
2. There was zero inflation.
3. Our “supply chain” was functioning quite well.
4. The U.S. Economy was the strongest in over 50 years.
5. The U.S. Southern Border was controlled and secured.
6. No U.S. Serviceman was killed over the prior year in Afghanistan.
7. The Taliban was not armed with over $85 billion in sophisticated American weapons including artillery and millions of rounds of ammunition.
8. There were plenty of workers to fill labor needs.
9. Unemployment rates for black and Hispanic workers were the lowest in fifty years.
10. The stock market was at a record high as were pension and 401-K Plans.
11. Interest rates were at record lows…including mortgages.
12. Housing prices were at record highs.
13. Operation Warp Speed produced three vaccines to help control Covid.
14. Trump was still President.
On the issue of controlling government spending, something Democrats are loathe to do, here are just a few examples of the waste inherent in existing government programs. These are tiny in comparison to the billions of wasteful spending from the Biden Administration in 2021 and 2022:
a) Toilet Videos: Stanford University used $6.7 million in funds provided by the National Cancer Institute to build an artificially intelligent toilet system that videos the user’s anus, monitors urine and stool flows, and creates a unique “anal print” to gauge its owner/user’s overall health.
b) Fake Farms: A loan processing company sent about $7.0 million worth of Paycheck Protection Checks to fake farms in impossible places like Beach Haven, NJ, a tiny resort town on a sandbar (near where I used to live) to create fake farms called The Beefy King Cattle Ranch and Deeley Nuts Tree Nut Farm. There are no farms in Beach Haven, N.J.
c) A Mathematical Model of Defecation: $.6 million. Funded by the National Science Foundation measured animal dung from pandas, elephants, warthogs, and other animals, then weighed the excrements noting size and shapes and the duration of defecation. 43 species at Zoo Atlanta were also studied all directed to diagnose and develop noninvasive techniques to diagnose animal illnesses.
d) The Leapin’ Lizards Study: Under a $75,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, Harvard biologist researchers used a leaf blower, a wooden pole, and Caribbean Anole lizards to test concerns about theoretically worsening “climate change-induced hurricanes”. 47 lizards from the Turks and Caicos Islands were blasted with the leaf blower with wind speeds up to 108 miles per hour, filmed the critters as they hung on, and kept recording as they eventually lost their grip on the pole and blew away. But the conclusion of the study proved very beneficial: the bigger the lizard’s toes, the better able to survive a hurricane.
Fascinating expenditures! All told, in a new report from an Illinois-based non-profit entity known as American Transparency, reflecting on the March 2022 report from the Government Accountability Office, some $281 billion in improper and mistaken payments alone in 2021…without even attempting to count the billions wasted on fraud-ridden COVID-19 “Relief Program Payments” were spent!. This reinforces what former President Ronald Regan once said about wasteful government spending: “Government Programs are the nearest thing to eternal life we will experience here on earth”. I give you the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as further examples. Big Government begets waste and a lack of accountability.
It is clear that the average American has not heard any of this, and certainly, students in academia are not being taught this. So, it is incumbent upon us to continue to write and release this information on social media, in columns such as those published by Rip McIntosh and in conservative newspapers around the nation. But, making people aware of the problems is only one step toward putting forth solutions. So, here are some of EP Unum’s Suggestions to deal with the problems plaguing our nation:
Solutions Offered:
1. Put America First in all things, and start truly caring about our citizens. Stop criticizing our nation and its institutions on the world stage. That includes the Supreme Court.
2. Abandon the war on fossil fuels.
• Commence drilling all over America, in the Bakken Fields, in Alaska, offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific Northwest, and the Eastern Shores.
• Expand Fracking.
• Restart the XL Pipeline and other pipelines.
• Expand Coal output.
• Increase oil production to 16 million barrels a day, and watch this increase in supply drop prices at the pump precipitously.
• Achieve American Energy Independence once again, and watch Europe and Asia purchase our excess output for their needs and quickly abandon purchasing Russian oil and gas. Then, take note of the positive impact on the cost of other products dependent on oil and Gs throughout the American Economy.
3. Enforce the laws on the southern border, and stop the flow of illegal immigrants by finishing the wall started by President Trump,
4. Implement strict long-term prison sentences for smuggling illegal drugs. Make trafficking of fentanyl a capital offense punishable by death.
5. Provide agents on the southern border with support for enforcing the law. Give them the weapons necessary to do this and to shoot to kill any smugglers or drug cartel members who defy our laws.
6. Use the Office of the Commander in Chief to abandon the teaching of Critical Race Theory at all of our military academies as well as our armed forces. Transgender members of the armed forces should be compelled to resign from military service. Above all, do not attempt to mandate that all service persons be vaccinated. Covid vaccinations should be voluntary and not mandated with the threat of a dishonorable or general discharge.
7. Abandon the teaching of CRT and Transgender topics to schoolchildren in grades K thru 8 immediately. Better yet, do away with CRT entirely as it has no place in our country and is devoid of academic credibility.
8. Strengthen and support all police and firefighters in our cities and abandon the no-bail philosophy as it just does not work and increases crime.
9. Seek assistance from NATO to use its fleet to help Ukraine navigate the mines in the Black Sea to export its wheat to the starving nations of Africa. Putin’s aim is not the conquest of Ukraine as much as it is to create famine and thus try to diminish the resolve of European nations.
10. Stop the nonsense about Climate Change. It is NOT the EXISTENTIAL THREAT you and your mentor Barack Hussein Obama make it out to be. We should continue to explore ways to develop alternative energy sources but this will take years to accomplish. We should not destroy our economy to achieve a goal that is completely unachievable in the time frame being proposed. Americans cannot afford to buy battery-powered cars and the infrastructure is not in place to service them.
11. Bolster our military. Increase spending in the Space Force and cyber warfare. Demand the resignations of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley. Demand the resignations of cabinet members like the Secretaries of Education, Secretary of Energy, Secretary of Homeland Security, and Secretary of Transportation. They are incompetent and lack leadership skills.
12. Stop the January 6 Committee immediately. The country does not need to be put through yet another exercise of “Donald Trump hating”. It serves no useful purpose.
As President Kennedy said, “Our problems are man-made; therefore they can be fixed by man”.
Time to get to work.
If you do not take an interest
in the affairs of your government,
then you are doomed to live under
the rule of fools.
Plato
