Posted originally on the CTH on September 2, 2024 | Sundance 

Happy Labor Day, Scruffnecks! …. and that has nothing to do with the color of your collar.

I’ve sent this message before, and I repeat it because the one consistency in this crazy world of ours is our ability to remember that not a single person has the power to destabilize us.  Everything of great purpose comes from within, and from a loving God. As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn famously said:

“The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world.”

Yes, it’s Labor Day in America. And as we pause and celebrate work, productivity, problem solving, and the value of a nation, our nation, built upon boundless ingenuity – so long as we tend the flickering flame of liberty and freedom, to all my brothers and sisters who do not take part in the grand lies that surround us, here’s my steadfast reminder….

No other nation on earth was ever conceived on the principle of allowing people to manifest their own destiny, while keeping government out of their lives.  The vision, the premise and the purpose, was to allow you the freedom to determine your place in life; and even, at any time, change that determination and strike off in an entirely new direction.

Our labor and aspirations would not be pre-determined by caste, tier, creed or social status; but rather by our personal vision for our own future.  The right of self-determination.

Labor Day is a time to reflect on the value of work; the great personal benefit of endeavors achieved; the pride in accomplishment -regardless of scale- amid this thing we call life; and all of these considerations have absolutely nothing, not-one-thing, to do with the money we assemble in the process.

What is the current value of a former seed that became a tree nurtured toward its continued maturity over decades?  What was that seed worth at the time it was planted?  We can only see the value in hindsight many years later.  What value lay in the blood at Fort McHenry?

The job, per se’, was simple.  Hold the flagpole in place.  Keep that representative flag held high, no matter the cost.  And yet, that cost, my God THAT COST, could it ever be quantified appropriately?   A simple yet consequential task that expressed the fullest measure of devotion to the underlying premise, freedom.  America!

Several years ago, Florida Power and Light won the prestigious international Edward Demming Award for excellence in multi-platform engineering, efficiency superiority and total quality in the process of energy management.

However, the scruffy rednecks did not blow every PhD intellectual out of the water with slide rules, CAD programs, articulated and quantified quality improvement processes and engineering acumen. They did it with hard hats and dirty fingernails.

Because they lost the award, the jaw-agape Japanese spent 6 months visiting and reviewing FPL and later published a 1,000 page study essentially saying FPL “wasn’t really good, they were just lucky.”  You see, the reviewers couldn’t actually quantify the reason why the Florida-based energy company was so successful.  In response the FPL field leadership laughed, took out magic markers and wrote on the back of their hard hats: “WE’RE NOT GOOD, WE’RE RUCKY.”

A few years later, every single Kuwaiti oil field was blown up by Saddam Hussein. Global analysts and think-tanks proclaimed it would take 5 years to cap them all off and restart the Kuwait oil pumping industry. Well, the Kuwaiti’s and Saudi’s called Texans, who had them all capped and back in working order in 6 months.

We are a nation that knows how to get shit done.

A few more years pass, and the Northern Chile mine workers were trapped two miles underground. The eyes of the world began to tear as the word spread. Most began to whisper no one could save them. Who did they call for help? A bunch of hick miners from USA coal country who went down there, worked on the fly, engineered the rescue equipment on site, and saved every one of them.

Yup, that’s our America. Ingenuity born from freedom.

Across the pond a half-breed Islamic whack job, armed with an AK-47 and a goal to meet his virgins, began opening fire on a train in France. The scruffneck Americans on board didn’t run to the nearest safe room and hide themselves amid baguettes and brie. They said, “let’s go”, and beat the stuffing out of that little nut with a death wish.

Legion d’Honneur or not, that’s us. WE ARE AMERICANS! That’s just how we roll.

Lady Liberty can stroll along the Champs-Elysées with a swagger befitting Mae West because without her arrival, they’d be speaking German in the Louvre. Yet, for the better part of the past decade, a group of intellectual leftists have been teaching our children that it’s better to be sitting around a campfire eating sustainable algae cakes and picking parasites off each other; because ‘save the planet’, or something similarly minded. It would appear, they hate the outcomes and inequities from freedom.

So we get to today, and right now those who wish to “fundamentally change” our nation are waging a full frontal assault against our constitutional republic. The bombardment seems overwhelming.

Leftist city and state leaders have abandoned rule of law in favor of supporting a mob effort to destroy our sense of national unity. Political activists, left-wing ideologues under the guise of democrats, and a host of their media allies are conducting information warfare on behalf of their objective. Big tech social media companies are attempting to remove the voices of those who are fighting back.

There is a great deal of purposefully driven anxiety and fear amid our nation as this multi-faceted internal war takes place. However, there is a primary element to this effort that each person can shield themselves from, and act to counter.  We are, yet again, in Fort McHenry.

Do not let your sense of self succumb to this assault. Do not let them win the battle for your peace of mind.

It might, heck, -check that- it does seem overwhelming at times. But that is the nature of this collectivist strategy.  That is the purpose of this bombardment. We must hold strong and push back against their lies and manipulations. If you look closely at their attack, it is weak and much of it is psychological bait. Do not fall into the trap of despair.

When we share the message, “live your best life”, it is not without purpose. Every moment that we allow the onslaught to deter us from living our dreams, is a moment those who oppose our nation view as us taking a knee. Do not allow this effort to succeed.

You might ask yourself how I can, one person, a flea looking into a furnace, retain an optimistic disposition while all around me seems chaotic and mad.

That’s the point; it ‘seems’ chaotic and mad because it has been created to appear that way. There are more of us than them; they just control the systems that allow us to connect, share messages and recognize the scale of our assembly.  We cannot comply our way out of tyranny.

Every second that you live your life with thankfulness for the abundance within it; every moment that we CHOOSE to engage with fellowship; every day that we accept guidance from God – however you define him to be; and every moment we cherish this time to be a beacon of optimism; is a moment that we withstand that barrage and hold the flag in place. It is a genuinely patriotic position not to succumb to the attack.

If you allow yourself to be drawn into crisis and despair, you allow them to win. If your center of normal is based around this overwhelming onslaught, you will eventually concede liberty in favor of peace. Once we stop living in liberty, we no longer have peace.

It is time to hold that flagpole again. To remember the reason the seed was planted. To cherish the tree of liberty.

We must withstand this onslaught, any onslaught, and rally to the origin of our true national spirit. We must rally to a standard of Americanism and accept this is not that. In essence, we must individually take a stand. Purposefully, deliberately and with forethought, we must engage those around us to get rid of this sense of foreboding.

This approach is how we win the larger battle. Again, it seems simple but keeping that flag standing tall requires the heart of a lion and dirty fingernails.

All around us, in every tribe and region, there are people who need you to show them the strength that you have. Strength of spirit. Strength of fellowship that you will not relent from expressing. Lead your children, your children’s children, and the children of your community with an unwavering and steadfast example.

No matter what noise is shouting from the loudspeakers we must withstand it; you must withstand it. We must make eye contact and remain joyful.

We cannot allow despair to be the status quo; and we cannot allow a generation to experience a world without joy.  In this endeavor you can make a difference.

Our nation needs more people like you, right now. Don’t wait… engage life. Resolve to get optimistic however you need to do it. Then let that part of you shine right now. This is how we fight.

Hold up that flag; give the starter smile. Rally to the standard you create and spread fellowship again. God knows we need it.

Yes, when I hear President Donald Trump say, “Let’s Make America Great Again”, I also hear the familiar echo “cowboy up” people.

Git ‘r done, as incredibly and visibly stated in the simple three-word message, “FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!”

It’s high time we stop being embarrassed about our exceptional American nature, and start being proud of it again.

Because when it matters most, when it really counts, when it’s really needed, there’s a whole bunch of people all around this world of ours that are mighty happy when swagger walks in to solve their problems.

Yeah, this Labor Day let us recommit to “Make America unapologetically Great Again”.

Swagger on, MAGA!

HAPPY LABOR DAY.