CC Biker & motorsports
VOL 5 ISSUE 4
PLEASE TELL’EM CC BIKER AND MOTORSPORTS SENT YA
MAY 2020
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CC BIKER & MOTORSPORTS
MEMORIAL DAY 2020: REMEMBERING THOSE WHO FOUGHT FOR OUR FREEDOM Kelli Morgan-Langley WRITER “Our flag does not fly because the wind moves it. It flies with the last breath of each soldier who died protecting it.” This quote, in two sentences, sums up what Memorial Day is really all about. For most people, Memorial Day is simply a paid day off: a day to go to the park, or the beach, or the mountains; to bar-b-que and drink a few cold ones with their buddies; to kick back and enjoy a three-day weekend. Most people never give a thought to what this “holiday” is really about. They don’t think about the men and women who have shed blood, and given their lives, so that we have the freedom to do the things we do; to go the places we go; to live the lives we live. In other words, the freedoms we take for granted each and every day, until they are restricted. This Memorial Day is shaping up to be quite different. In the face of a virus that no one seems to quite understand, under a government that no one seems to quite understand, our freedoms have been restricted like few of us today have ever seen. Whether you lean right or left, there are more questions than answers coming in regarding our republic now than ever before. We are not allowed to congregate in groups of more than eight or ten, we cannot go to the movies, to the zoo, or even out to enjoy a nice dinner. Basic supplies such as toilet paper, baby wipes, meat, dried beans and rice, and bottled water are either non-existent or rationed. We are being forced to wear gloves and masks if we want to shop at some establishments. Our citizens are being urged to “snitch” on those who don’t follow these unconstitutional mandates that have been put in place. For the first time, small businesses that Americans have put blood, sweat and tears into are declared “non-essential”, leaving the proprietors and employees wondering where their next pay-check is coming from, while the politicians who have implemented these policies are still collecting their checks. Folks above the age of 65 and
those will chronic illnesses are being told to stay in their homes and are being forced to rely on friends and relatives to bring them basic necessities. Our elders, many of those from the “Greatest Generation”, are in retirement homes, unable to receive visitors. This is an unprecedented time in American history, and one our founders would more than likely be ashamed of. Places of worship are closed, and people who chose to ignore this order are being cited or arrested for merely worshipping with a congregation (even if they’re sitting in their own private vehicles). Since 1607, this country has been based on freedom of religion, and now we cannot sit in our cars and listen to a sermon on a radio station without being censured? Have we, as a nation, forgotten what we were founded on? And how can we “celebrate” Memorial Day, a day to remember those who gave their lives to protect these very freedoms which are being taken away from us today?
Beginning in 1765, American Colonists have fought for their freedoms. In that year King George III established the The Stamp Act, an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain which imposed a direct tax on the British colonies in America and required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London, carrying an embossed revenue stamp. Printed materials included legal documents, magazines, playing cards, newspapers, and many other types of paper used throughout the colonies, and it had to be paid in British currency, not in colonial paper money. The Colonists rebelled against this act, calling it “Taxation without representation”. Resistance to these
taxes, especially the Boston Tea Party in 1773, cause even more a rift between the American Colonies and Great Britain. The Americans began an armed rebellion in 1775, and in 1776 Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence, effectively emancipating the Colonies from British Rule. Over the next seven years a bloody war raged, killing over 25,000 Americans. These were only the first to die for the freedoms and rights which were strictly American. In 1787 the Constitution was written, and in 1791 the Bill of Rights was added, giving we Americans out “inalienable” rights, many of which we are losing now. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That 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 to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness.” This, from the Declaration of Independence, has described the way Americans have viewed themselves and their freedom for almost 244 years, and these rights and freedoms have been paid for with the blood of men and women unafraid to sacrifice their lives for these freedoms.
Between 1783 and 1861 Americans died in several other skirmishes and wars, including the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American war, but 1861 saw the ultimate war for freedom, and we were fighting each other. The American Civil War killed over 655,000 men: the North fighting for slavery to end; the South fighting over State’s rights and freedoms as outlined in the Constitution. In the end almost four million people who had been enslaved prior to the war were freed. That freedom came from the blood of those who fought so hard to protect what they felt was the American way of life…in the end the slaves were freed, but the states were also given the power to govern themselves. So while each side lost a little, freedom was gained by many more. And those lives which were lost, on both sides of this conflict, are the price that we paid. The twentieth century brought new challenges to our great nation. As we expanded into the west, millions of people migrated here from all corners of the globe. Most of these people came to escape treason, famine, and unrelentless dictators who had taken over other countries of the world. These immigrants each brought different skill sets which led to a boom in the nation. Manufacturing, farming, industrialization, mining, financial institutions, and many other areas of business began to prosper in this young nation. In 1914, civil unrest in Eastern Europe led to the beginning of World War I. Communism was becoming wide-spread, and dictators were anxious to obtain more and more power. At the outbreak of the war, the United States avoided the conflict while trying to broker a peace. When the German U-boat U-20 sank the British liner RMS Lusitania on May 7, 1915 with 128 Americans among the dead, President Woodrow Wilson insisted that America was “too proud to fight” but demanded an end to attacks on passenger ships. Germany Memorial Day 2020 Continued on page 3