10 HIM got better, faster, stronger and a little fatter (thanks to YHC’s Coffeeteria, complements of Dunkin. Hey, the coffee was good!). No worries, PAX got fatter in fellowship too! Bonus: The impromptu car show was cool! Big welcome to FNG’s Timmy Rogers (n.k.a. F3 Biddie) and Luke Maloney (n.k.a. F3 Bolt). Among 16 PAX on our Q list YHC was super excited to be able to Q 2x in less than a week. Here’s the break down from a very muggy Saturday morning:
WARM-O-RAMA
• SSH – 18 IC
• Sealjacks – 30 IC
• Crabflippers – 18 IC
• High knees (in place) – 18 IC
• Compass Squats – Jump Squat & turn N, E, S, W (1 rotation = 1 rep) – 10 OYO (a new crowd-pleaser for sure, based on the mumble chatter
• MNC – 10 IC
PATRIOT RUN to North Bedford Street Park
THE THANG – Blackjack 21’s – Merkins/Reverse LBC’s
• “Hit me!” option from the F3 Workout Deck – 5x deal/per PAX
(21/Blackjack = a pass)
(Other draws = #of exercise on the cards)
(Sandbags = 4 sandbags/10 PAX. Never pass 1 by, carry to middle or end)
Keep track of your rounds. YHC was able to get to 9 Merkins/12 Reverse LBC’s/Gas Pumpers before time ran out
PATRIOT RUN – Return to AO
3rdF shared about mid-workout:
SUA SPONTE LEADERSHIP YHC first heard of Sua Sponte leadership years ago from an illustration shared by Greg Laurie, making the point that Christ himself was a Sua Sponte leader.
Many, following the movie The Passion of the Christ, were claiming the film was anti-semetic. People were pointing fingers faulting the Jews, the Greeks and Romans, and everyone but themselves for the death of Christ. Fact is, he died for each of us as sinners and I’ve heard people say that if you were the only person who needed saved, Christ still would’ve died for you. In fact, 1 Timothy 2:4 says, “God…desires all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”
He died in our place on the cross. He was arrested, beaten, tried and killed ALL FOR US and FOR ALL OF US. In reality, it was all my fault that he died! But as we bear the guilt or lay the blame on others (It was the Jews! It was the Romans! It was the Greeks!) the sinless Savior Himself was practicing Sua Sponte leadership, as He stated in John 10:18 – “No one takes it [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from the Father.”
He chose to die for you and for me…of His own accord!
The book, QSource, by one of F3’s founders, Dredd, says, “Sua sponte is Latin for of his own accord. [A man] acts Sua sponte when…he takes the initiative to act on his own accord. Sua sponte is also the motto of the U.S. Army’s 75th Ranger Reg. It is a recognition that to become a Ranger a man must be a triple volunteer: first the Army, then Airborne School and finally the Ranger Regiment. Rangers aren’t drafted, they must make the choice themselves–3x! The Rangers are elite because every man there is taught to be a Leader and every leader is directed to take the initiative to do what is necessary to accomplish the unit’s mission. (I.e. “I got this!”)
In F3, a Sua sponte leader is a man who has been freed to Lead. He is a Leader who exercises Individual Initiative (I2) by taking action in furtherance of his group’s articulated purpose WITHOUT SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS. He initiates movement toward advantage for his group in the absence of explicit authority because he is the rare man who will Lead with or without another Leader to direct him. He is That Somebody.
F3 could not function without HIMs willing to be That Somebody.”
F3 is an organization that was created in order to invigorate male community leadership. THAT is our mission. Carrying out that mission, whether it be communication, Site-Q’ing, organizing a 2ndF or 3rdF outreach opportunity, just plain old Q’ing, keeping each other accountable, stepping up to take someone’s place to Q, planting, growing, serving, etc., means each of us must be That Somebody, it means we must practice Sua sponte leadership…just like the Rangers, like many others before us, like Jesus Christ himself! (Quotes adapted from: Qsource, 189)
Tools of the Trade
A shameless plug for the tools of the trade in the above pic: Both are available at F3nation.com where you can click on the Gear button to pick up your own.
BOM/COT:
Announcements: Q schedule is out and includes a leadership Pow-Wow scheduled for Wednesday evening 9/2 @ 6:30 pm. Summit volunteered to host, details TBA. All invited!
Naming of FNG’s: Welcome again to Bolt & Biddie
Prayer: Prayer offered for a few PAX’s marriages. For Brineball, having a doc look at a nerve issue. For Chattahoochee. And a few others which slip YHC’s mind as of this writing, but they never slip God’s mind.
Lawn Chair Coffeeteria: YHC invited all PAX to stick around the circle after the COT for coffee/munchkins. Good times. Camaraderie.
YHC had the privilege to stand in the gap for Chattahoochee while he’s following quarantine protocol after he kissed a girl and he liked it. Got you covered brother…”I got this” if you know what I mean Quattro.
Today’s workout called for pulling out the stack of pavers in YHC’s shed–they haven’t been out since WBOC posted and did a Delmarva Life story on F3 First State, so YHC dusted them off, chalked them up with some new motivational messages, and put ’em to work again in the hands of 11 strong PAX.
Remember when…
WARM-O-RAMA: • SSH – 18 IC • Swartzjacks – 18 IC • IW – 10 IC • Prisoner Squats – 15 IC • Shoulder Tap Merkins – 10 OYO
Patriot Run (around short block)
THE THANG:
(Partner Up) Paver Pass • American Hammers/Plank & switch (til each team does sandbag transfer – 2 sandbags opposite ends of parking lot, partners run and switch bags to other ends all while everyone else is doing AH’s or in Plank)
Shout-out to Fireplex (who bowed out to respond to the fire call, but gave us a good piece from the Night Train as they were going by). Monkey Humpers…next time! To all the men and women of Milton Fire 85, thank you for all that you do to keep our community safe.
Paver Overhead Squat Press • 1 PAX POSP, partner runs to Cone 3 ☆ 8, 6, 4, 2 Burpees per round …great push on the extra credit Burpees Waterfall!
Paver Sunday Drive – Done as bonus (not punishment) by teams who finished early — it pays to win! • PAX Wosey “Drive” w/paver
3rd F shared mid-workout – First, PAX took the time to read the motivational message on each paver, then…
Thomas Edison said, “If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.”
Back in May YHC watched an episode of one of the ESPN E60’s. It was titled Cliff Diving, but it wasn’t about cliff-diving at all. Instead it was about a man named Cliff Devries, diving.
Cliff is the diving coach at Rochester Institute of Technology. He says in the documentary, “You might see me walking down the road and think ‘Man, he’s got it rough,’ but there’s more…which is a little beyond what you think right now.”
In high school Cliff was the Empire State Games diving champion and selected as an All-American in his junior and senior years. That led to a scholarship to dive for the University of Kentucky with Olympic dreams.
As a diver he was always pushing himself to get better and to do harder, more complicated, dives. He was a competitor! But then he noticed his movements were getting worse. I’ve seen some of the videos of this highly skilled diver, flopping on his back. Something was going wrong.
An MRI revealed that a 6″ tumor in his spinal column was the cause of the loss of movement in his shoulder and arm. At 21-yrs-of-age, complications during surgery to remove the tumor, left him with severe trauma to his spinal chord. Totally paralyzed on his right side, he was told he’d be in a wheelchair the rest of his life.
Cliff grew tired of hearing that and determined he’d walk again.
His walk would leave you with some impressions, but he does walk. He has been coaching at RIT since 1999 and has always longed to get back on the diving board. A few years ago Cliff Devries did just that, and it has now became his annual tradition to dive on his birthday. He slowly climbs the 10M ladder, shuffles to the end of the spring board and dives in to the applause of his family, his team, and the crowd watching.
Such an inspiration, as he’s telling his story he states: • “There’s always more to you; there’s always more to what YOU CAN do.” He reiterates, “You might see me walking down the road and think, ‘he’s got it rough,’ but when you look beyond what’s on the surface, there’s always more!”
Hw says, “You’re not gonna find alot of beauty in what I do; it’s alot of hard work, alot of emotion, all balled up into a half-second fall into the water.
But then he asks a series of inspiring questions: “When you see my dive, what else can YOU do? What can you find in yourself? And this question is even more key: What can you find in others? When you look in the mirror, what else is there? What more can you bring out–which is a little beyond what you think right now?
All of this brings to mind the familiar verse from Philippians 4:13, which says, “I can do all things through [Christ] who strengthens me.” That verse is meant to inspire us in a variety of life’s situations where we cannot seem to find strength to go on, or to do what we need to do; it’s meant to carry us through in stating that we can, in fact, find whatever strength is necessary, both in highs and lows, by trusting in Jesus Christ.
I think as leaders, as High Impact Men (HIM), husbands, fathers, and brothers we ought to be asking ourselves (and those around us) the same questions: When we look in the mirror we have to be inspired to ask: What else is there? What else do you have? What more can you bring out…which is a little beyond what you think right now?
COT:
Announcements:
All PAX invited to join YHC & Gump this evening in Georgetown for RuckingChallenges “Scav Ruck”. Friday Gloom will be the “Suns Out Guns Out” ruck, all PAX also invited to join the fun: Step off @ 2 a.m. for first 7 miles at Primis in Lewes, final 3 miles will be part of Roving RuckF3st Friday.
YHC reiterated that the COT is just that, a Circle Of Trust and that the GroupMe is an extension of that. Just a maintenance issue to continue to build our trust with one-another and to lock shields.
Prayers: YHC prayed for PAX to be able to live out the inspiration heard from Cliff Devries. Prayed for Chattahoochee. Prayed for Semi’s family traveling to and from GA. And Praised for Fireplex and others who serve as VF in our communities.
Special thanks to Chattahoochee for the opportunity to stand in the gap. Honored to Q. Humbled to lead. Always grateful for those who won that first battle (over the fartsack) and posted to get better and get stronger and there’s never any regrets for doing that! Well..almost never. You lapped those who slept.
Bolt 45’s IC (4 Count) – 15 squats to halfway down. 15 squats halfway to full down. 15 full squats.
Windmills – 20 IC
Mountain Climbers – 20 IC
Mosey .5 miles to Holy Hill
The Thang
The Super Sheldon Cooper on a “freaking hill” – Complete 10 Burpees, 10 Squats, 10 Merkins & 10 Big Boys. Nur up the hill and mosey down and complete 9 Burpees, 9 Squats, 9 Merkins, & 9 Big Boys. Nur up the hill & mosey down and complete 8 Burpees, 8 Squats, 8 Merkins, & 8 Big Boys. Nur up the hill and mosey down and complete 7 Burpees, 7 Squats, 7 Merkins, & 7 Big Boys. Nur up the hill and mosey down and complete 6 Burpees, 6 Squats, 6 Merkins & 6 Big Boys. Nur up the hill and mosey down and complete 5 Burpees, 5 Squats, 5 Merkins, & 5 Big Boys. Break for the 3rd F.
F3 Message – See below
Right back at it for another round or two before returning to CHOP.
Nur up the hill and mosey down and complete 4 Burpees, 4 Squats, 4 Merkins & 4 Big Boys. Nur up the hill and mosey down and complete 3 Burpees, 3 Squats, 3 Merkins & 3 Big Boys. Nur up the hill and mosey down and complete 2 Burpees, 2 Squats, 2 Merkins & 2 Big Boys. Nur up the hill and mosey down and complete 1 Burpee, 1 Squat, 1 Merkin & 1 Big Boy.
Mosey .5 miles back to CHOP.
Count-O-Rama, Name-O-Rama, and the Circle of Trust. Please keep all our HIM in your thoughts and prayers.
F3 Message 07/21/20 – From Ron Hutchcraft Ministries Posted 09/15/2016
I’m a tornado and hurricane kind of guy. I mean I don’t like them but, I’ve lived where you learn about those things. I’m not an earthquake kind of guy. I’ve never lived where those mattered much. But when I was in San Francisco, I was where earthquakes are a big deal! Most people there still have dramatic stories to tell about what happened during that big quake in 1989, the one that interrupted the 3rd game of the World Series. Some of the heaviest damage and injury was in the Marina District of San Francisco.
Well, actually, I was doing a youth radio program back then, and we went there to record part of it. In fact, we were right on the comer of Beach Street and Divisadero where several buildings collapsed or burned, including one that had been totally consumed by fire. One of the neighbors described the scene for us, one very different from this quiet neighborhood with beautiful rebuilt homes. The night of the quake was total chaos. This neighbor described that awful fire with the unbearable heat that had destroyed the building on the other comer. He said, “The fire started out with a gas leak. It was small. If I could have gotten over there, I literally could have put it out with a bucket of water. But then it started to spread and pretty soon there was no way to stop it.”
I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “A Bucket of Water, or a Three-Alarm Fire.”
God believes in fighting fires when they’re small, when you can still put them out with a bucket of water. He talks about it in Ephesians 4:26-27, our word for today from the Word of God, and some of the most insightful verses in the Bible for preserving relationships. Here’s what God says, “In your anger, do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.” Could it be that you have let a fire smolder in some relationship in your life? Let it go, let it grow and you will have a blaze on your hands you cannot control.
Maybe there is a strained relationship in your life right now, between you and your mate, or you and a child, you and a co-worker, you and your parent, you and a spiritual brother or sister. Maybe there’s trouble in your marriage and so often, honestly, it’s the guy who’s the last to admit that anything’s wrong. Men – let’s face it – tend to be postponers when it comes to dealing with relationship difficulties. But I’m telling you, the fire isn’t going to stay the same size. Relationships of all kinds burn down when someone lets the small fire just go, until it becomes this uncontrollable inferno that can do so much damage.
In fact, the Bible says that when you let conflict or strain or anger go longer than a day, you literally give the devil himself a place to get into your relationship. Four verses later, in Ephesians 4:31, God lists the kind of ugly things that come from letting relationship fires go unaddressed: “All bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander, every form of malice.” Look, can you see some of those flames maybe right now growing in a relationship of yours.
Don’t wait another day to do something about the fire. It’s as small now as it’s ever going to be. Gently confront what you have to confront, forgive what you have to forgive, apologize for what you need to apologize for, and overlook what you have to overlook, but deal with whatever is between you, whatever is breaking or broken.
Because I’ll tell you this, the devil is standing there with his gasoline can ready to pour gasoline on that fire so everyone involved will get burned. You need to come running with whatever water it will take to put it out now. A bucket of water now is a whole lot better than a 3-alarm fire later.
20 seal jacks i/c 20 seal wave i/c 20 plank jacks i/c 20 harry rockets i/c Capri lap around parking lot Side shuffle, nur, side shuffle, mosey 20 ssh i/c 20 Imperial walkers i/c 20 Windmill i/c 20 crab FLIPPER
The Thang
1 HIM carries coupon out to wall, climbs wall, and returns without coupon.
Rest of HIM do the following exercises as many times as possible;
Lunges with slosh pipe Swerkins Abyss merkins Dips on slide ladder Log row Tire sledge Flutter kicks Squats Coupon curl
3rd F
Play The Man • Devotional https://bible.com/reading-plans/4023/day/3?segment=0
Round 2 1 HIM runs out to wall, climbs wall, and brings coupon back while rest do listed excercises
NUMBER RAMA NAME RAMA COT
7 HIM showed today: Semi, Streudel, Fireplex, Doubtfire, Quarto, Toy Soldier, Bovine
Did things a little different today for the warm up. Extra Credit went to Woodstock for showing up ready to warm up but “had to fly.” Pun is intended
-Warm up- Mosey to Old waters edge church 10 4 count merkins Mosey to Church across from old HOB 15 SSH Mosey to Tequila Real 10 4 count Squats Mosey to the Park 15 baby arm circles F and R 15 big arm circle F and R
The Thang: 11s 10 Wide Merkins 1 Big Boys 9 Wide Merkins 2 Big Boys 8 Wide Merkins 3 Big Boys And so on
Mosey to Kings 10 Dips 10 step ups
Mosey back to chop.
5 on 5 Ultimate football play to 10 Drop pass 5 merkins Interception 5 Merkins Incomplete pass 5 merkins Winners choose exercise at the end .
Winners Fireplex-Strudel-Ruxpin-Chappie-Bovine
Winners picked 10 Diamond merkins So 20 for losers
Ended with BOM and COT No message today but Fireplex said something about losers and winners though lol.
Bolt 45’s IC (4 Count) – 15 Squats to halfway down. 15 squats halfway to full down. 15 full squats.
Windmills – 20IC
Toy Soldier Set – 50 LBC’s, 25 E2K’s (each side), 15 Big Boys
Mosey (Patriot Run) approx. .47 miles to the school
The Thang
PAX completed the Hindenburg BLIMPS routine from the exicon. We modified the sprint portion to a straight line between FOUR light poles that were approx. .02 miles apart. Sprint to pole#1 and perform an exercise at pole #1, sprint to pole#2 & perform exercise, sprint to pole#3 & perform exercise & lastly to pole #4 & perform exercise. Plank it up until all PAX are in. That completes Round #1. Reverse directions and perform the second exercise working back to the pole where it all started. Rinse and repeat until all 6 Rounds are complete. Round # 1 – 10 Burpees, Round #2 – 20 Lunges (10 each leg). Round #3 – 30 Merkins. Round #4 – 40 Imperial Walkers. Round #5 – 50 Plank Jacks. Round #6 – 60 Squats. Chattahoochee caught the planned spelling error on the reversal of the imperial walkers and the merkin sets. So…we completed 40 merkins to make up the difference when we returned to Aegis.
F3 Message – The 3rd F was shared after completing Round #4.
Mosey (Patriot Run) approx. .47 miles back to Aegis
PAX finished the beatdown strong with 40 merkins OYO.
Count-O-Rama, Name-O-Rama, and the Circle of Trust. Please keep all of our HIM in your thoughts and prayers.
Welcome to FNG – Yukon.
F3 Message – 07/04/2020 – Excepts from Tony Cooke Ministries
Quotes, Stories, and Illustrations for the 4th of July
“Do not let anyone claim tribute of American patriotism if they even attempt to remove religion from politics.” – George Washington’s Farewell Address to Nation
“Sure I wave the American flag. Do you know a better flag to wave? Sure I love my country with all her faults. I’m not ashamed of that, never have been, never will be.” – John Wayne
“America was established not to create wealth but to realize a vision, to realize an ideal – to discover and maintain liberty among men.” – Woodrow Wilson
General Omar Bradley said, “America today is running on the momentum of a godly ancestry, and when that momentum runs down, God help America.” Bradley also said, “We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount… The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.”
“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not but religionists but by Christians, not on religion but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” – Patrick Henry
“We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that ‘except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it.’ I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel.” – Benjamin Franklin (From the debates at the Constitutional Convention, June of 1787)
2 Chronicles 7:14 – if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
Proverbs 14:34 – Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.
“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our constitution was made for a moral and religious people… it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other…” – John Quincy Adams
Only in America
1. Only in America can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance. 2. Only in America are there handicap parking places in front of a skating rink. 3. Only in America do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions, while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front. 4. Only in America do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries and a DIET coke. 5. Only in America do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our junk in the garage. Hello. 6. Only in America do we use answering machines to screen calls and have call-waiting so we won’t miss a call from someone we didn’t want to talk to in the first place. 7. Only in America do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.
The Inscription on the Statue of Liberty, written by Emma Lazarus Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me; I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
No King But Jesus! The Colonists grew in their resilience and confidence in God, to the point where one Crown-appointed Governor wrote of the condition to the Board of Trade back in England: “If you ask an American who is his master? He will tell you he has none, nor any governor but Jesus Christ.”
The Committees of Correspondence soon began sounding the cry across the Colonies: “No King but King Jesus!”
From America’s God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations, William J. Federer, Fame Publishing.
“It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.” – George Washington
1 Timothy 2:1-4
1. Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, 2. for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. 3. for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4. who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
“In reading over the Constitutions of all fifty of our states, I discovered something which some of you may not know: there is in all fifty, without exception, an appeal or a prayer to the Almighty God of the universe…. Through all fifty state Constitutions, without exception, there runs this same appeal and reference to God who is the Creator of our liberties and the preserver of our freedoms.” – D. James Kennedy
“History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse, or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster.” – General Douglas MacArthur
“I speak as a man of the world to men of the world; and I say to you, Search the Scriptures! The Bible is the book of all others, to be read at all ages, and in all conditions of human life; not to be read once or twice or thrice through, and then laid aside, but to be read in small portions of one of two chapters every day, and never to be intermitted, unless by some overruling necessity.” – John Quincy Adams
“Under God” and the Pledge of Allegiance The words “under God were taken from Abraham Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address, “…that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth…” and were added to the Pledge of Allegiance on June 14, 1954 by a joint resolution of Congress, 243 (Public Law 83-396). (The Pledge was initially adopted by the 79th Congress on December 28, 1945, as Public Law 287.) On June 14, 1954, President Eisenhower signed into law the pledge:
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which is stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
President Eisenhower gave his support to the Congressional Act, which added the phrase, “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance, saying:
“In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America’s heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country’s most powerful resource in peace and war.”
President Eisenhower then stood on the steps of the Capitol Building and recited the Pledge of Allegiance for the first time with the phrase, “one nation under God.”
From America’s God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations, William J. Federer, Fame Publishing.
“In America, nobody says you have to keep the circumstances somebody else gave you.” – Amy Tan
“My County, ‘Tis of Thee” was written by a Baptist minister, Samuel Francis Smith. “The Pledge of Allegience” was written in 1892 by a Baptist minister, Francis Bellamy. The words “In God We Trust” are traced to the efforts of Rev. W.R. Watkinson. Rev. John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
“The choice before us is plain: Christ or chaos, conviction or compromise, discipline or disintegration. I am rather tired of hearing about our rights and privileges as American citizens. The time is come – it is now – when we ought to hear about the duties and responsibilities of our citizenship. America’s future depends upon her accepting and demonstrating God’s government.” – Peter Marshall
“Every generation of Americans needs to know that freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.” – Pope John Paul II
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” – John Adams
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” – Edmund Burke
“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.” – Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence
“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we will pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of Liberty.” – President John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, Friday, January 20, 1961
“In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility — I welcome it.” – John F. Kennedy
“Freedom is the last, best hope of earth.” – Abraham Lincoln
“…I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’” – Martin Luther King, Jr. (From his “I Have a Dream speech, delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963)
“Patriotism is not so much protecting the land of our fathers as preserving the land of our children.” – Jose Ortega Y Gasset
A teacher went into her classroom about fifteen minutes before the class was supposed to begin and caught a bunch of boys in a huddle on their knees in the corner of the room. She asked what they were doing, and one of them shouted back, “We are shooting craps.” She replied, “That’s all right. I was afraid you were praying.”
During the dark days of the American Revolution, when the Continental Army had experienced several setbacks, a farmer who lived near the battlefield approached Washington’s camp unheard. Suddenly his ears caught an earnest voice raised in agonizing prayer. On coming nearer he saw it was the great General, down on his knees in the snow, his cheeks wet with tears. He was asking God for assistance and guidance. The farmer crept away and returned home. He said to his family, “Its going to be all right. We are going to win!” “What makes you think so?” his wife asked. “Well,” said the farmer, “I heard General Washington pray out in the woods today—such fervent prayer I have never heard. And God will surely hear and answer that kind of praying.” And the farmer was right! It happened because Washington put his hope in God.
“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” – Thomas Paine
“I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.” – Patrick Henry
“The U. S. Constitution doesn’t guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.” – Benjamin Franklin
In June of 1863, just weeks before the battle of Gettysburg, a college president asked Abraham Lincoln if he thought the country would survive. President Lincoln replied: “I do not doubt that our country will finally come through safe and undivided. But do not misunderstand me… I do not rely on the patriotism of our people… the bravery and devotion of the boys in blue… (or) the loyalty and skill of our generals… But the God of our Fathers, Who raised up this country to be the refuge and asylum of the oppressed and the downtrodden of all nations will not let it perish now. I may not live to see it… I do not expect to see it, but God will bring us through safe.”
“Finally, let us not forget the religious character of our origin. Our fathers were brought hither by their high veneration for the Christian religion. They journeyed by its light, and labored in its hope. They sought to incorporate its principles with the elements of their society, and to diffuse its influence through all their institutions, civil, political, or literary. Let us cherish these sentiments, and extend this influence still more widely; in full conviction that that is the happiest society which partakes in the highest degree of the mild and peaceful spirit of Christianity.” – Daniel Webster.
The United States of America is 226 years old today (July 4, 2002). That’s a long time for a nation to remain free. But, when you take the long, historical view, America is just a CHILD among the nations. Egypt, China, Japan, Rome, or Greece all make America’s history seem so short. Consider what a brief time we’ve really been here as a nation: When Thomas Jefferson died, Abraham Lincoln was a young man of 17. When Lincoln was assassinated, Woodrow Wilson was a boy of 8. By the time the nation mourned the death of President Wilson, Ronald Reagan was a boy of 12.
Edward Gibbon, author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, has attributed the fall of the Empire to:
1. The rapid increase of divorce; the undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis of human society. 2. Higher and higher taxes and the spending of public monies for free bread and circuses for the populace. 3. The mad craze for pleasure; sports becoming every year more exciting and more brutal. 4. The building of gigantic armaments when the real enemy was within, the decadence of the people. 5. The decay of religion–faith fading into mere form, losing touch with life and becoming impotent to warn and guide the people.
Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Delivered November 19, 1863 Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
“I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in the Assembly every morning…” – Benjamin Franklin, 1787 Constitutional Convention
TRIBUTE TO THE UNITED STATES This, from a Canadian newspaper, is worth sharing. America: The Good Neighbor.
Widespread but only partial news coverage was given recently to a remarkable editorial broadcast from Toronto by Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian television Commentator. What follows is the full text of his trenchant remarks as printed in the Congressional Record:
“This Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and possibly the least appreciated people on all the earth. Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts.
None of these countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States. When France was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up, and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.
When earthquakes hit distant cities, it is the United States that hurries in to help. This spring, 59 American communities were flattened by tornadoes. Nobody helped. The Marshall Plan and the Truman Policy pumped billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent, warmongering Americans.
I’d like to see just one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplane. Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tri-Star, or the Douglas DC10?
If so, why don’t they fly them? Why do all the International lines except Russia fly American Planes? Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man or woman on the moon? You talk about Japanese technocracy, and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy, and you get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy, and you find men on the moon – not once, but several times – and safely home again.
You talk about scandals, and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everybody to look at. Even their draft-dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets, and most of them, unless they are breaking Canadian laws, are getting American dollars from ma and pa at home to spend here.
When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both are still broke.
I can name you 5000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble. Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? I don’t think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.
Our neighbors have faced it alone, and I’m one Canadian who is tired of hearing them get kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles. I hope Canada is not one of those.”
Stand proud, America! Wear it proudly!
Quotes by Ronald Reagan “I believe this blessed land was set apart in a very special way, a country created by men and women who came here not in the search of gold, but in search of God. They would be free people, living under the law with faith in their Maker and their future.”
“Our liberty springs from and depends upon an abiding faith in God.”
“The truth is, politics and morality are inseparable, and as morality’s foundation is religion, religion and politics are necessarily related. We need religion as a guide.”
“If we lived by the Golden Rule, there would be no need for other laws.”
“I believe with all my heart that standing up for America means standing up for the God who has so blessed our land. We need God’s help to guide our nation through stormy seas. But we can’t expect Him to protect America in a crisis if we just leave Him over on the shelf in our day-to-day living.”
“My fellow citizens, those of you here in this hall, and those of you at home. I want you to know that I have always had the highest respect for you, for your common sense and intelligence and for your decency. I have always believed in you and in what you could accomplish for yourselves and others.
And whatever else history may say about me when I’m gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears; to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty’s lamp guiding your steps and opportunity’s arm steadying your way.
My fondest hope for each one of you, and especially for the young people here, is that you will love your country, not for her power or wealth, but for her selflessness and her idealism. May each of you have the heart to conceive, the understanding to direct, and the hand to execute works that will make the world a little better for your having been here.
May all of you as Americans never forget your heroic origins, never fail to seek Divine guidance, and never lose your natural God-given optimism.
And finally, my fellow Americans, may every dawn be a great new beginning for America and every evening bring us closer to that shining city upon a hill…My fellow Americans, on behalf of both of us, goodbye, and God bless each and every one of you and God bless this country we love.”
