Their Sacrifices Shouldn't Be in Vain

By Tom Maloy

Memorial Day is the one time when we remember and honor the hundreds of thousands of brave Americans who gave their lives in battle to keep us free.

Many of us fly flags and some even listen to patriotic music. Some will go to military cemeteries where so many of our heroes lie in peaceful rest. We will bring flags and place them respectfully on the grave sites.

But is that the best we can do for those who paid the ultimate price to protect our flag, our Constitution and the American way of life? Through our numerous wars the men and women of our armed forces willingly sacrificed their lives because they knew that freedom is not guaranteed; that to do nothing is to lose it.

These brave patriots did something great and because of what they did, we are free. It is fitting to honor those people on Memorial Day, but what good is one day of remembrance if we allow their sacrifices to be wasted because of our complacency.

Threats to freedom are not always accompanied by war; they are seldom that obvious. Our freedomhas been under attack since the ratification of the Constitution in 1787. The constant usurpations of our constitutional rights are subtle, insidious and devious. Over the past 224 years, our freedom has been gradually and systematically diminished by people and groups who do not believe that the Constitution is the law of the land. They believe that the Constitution is a “living” document and should be reinterpreted according to current circumstances.

Many believe that the Supreme Court is the grand arbiter of such reinterpretation.

They are wrong! The Constitution may be amended, but its meaning cannot be changed via interpretation.

This Country’s Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution in exceptionally clear and understandable language. Only illiterate idiots would have difficulty with its meaning. Currently, that would include half of the Supreme Court, most of the Legislative Branch and, most certainly, all of the Executive Branch of our government.

But even they could understand the clear meaning of this most venerable of documents if they would take the time to read our Founding Fathers’ own thoughts as found in their letters, the Federalist Papers, and even in the Declaration of Independence. They won’t, because that would not be consistent with their nefarious schemes that ignore Constitution principles.

Such constitutional malfeasance can only result from citizen complacency, and by our complacency we risk devaluing the great sacrifices of those we memorialize on this day.

Every individual living in this great country owes our dead American heroes the assurance that the principles they died to protect are upheld. We are the protectors now. Anyone who calls himself a citizen of this country has an obligation to those Americans resting in military cemeteries around the world to get educated in the Constitution and what its writers really had in mind. None of us can afford to allow our elected or appointed officials to change the very foundation of this country in order to promote his or her un-American agenda.

The Constitution is clear that ‘We the People’ are the government. We must all be involved, if not directly in the political process, then with a grass-roots movement like the Georgia Tea Party, which is dedicated to conserving the principles of the Constitution, the exceptionalism of the American Spirit and the only truly free country in the history of the world.

Happy Memorial Day! Honor our fallen American Patriots. But most important, get involved year-round to protect our liberty and assure that their sacrifices have not been in vain.
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Tom Maloy, a retired businessman living in Powder Springs, is a member of the Georgia Tea PartyBoard of Directors. For more information: tom@thegeorgiateaparty.org , or visit the website:www.thegeorgiateaparty.org