Today is the birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps and tomorrow is Veterans Day. I wish to raise my voice in appreciation to those honorable men who have served their Republic to fight for their Faith, Families, and Freedom throughout our remarkable history. 

Our fighting men have been misused and abused, neglected and disrespected by their government and nation alike. Their lives have been wasted in foreign wars for foreign causes. They have been callously used as the New World Order’s Praetorian Guard. 

Yet, by and large, our military men have been honorable men who believed they were doing their duty by answering their nation’s call to fight. Though I would prefer those honorable men to stand up and refuse to go fight unconstitutional wars, may we always remember those who fought with honor regardless of the wicked reasons wicked men sent them to war. 

Those who have fought have suffered extreme deprivations and hardships to obtain and maintain our national Independence and free system. Many of their brothers-in-arms died. Others died inside and returned home broken men. Why did they sacrifice so much? 

Throughout history, mercenaries have fought for pay, peasants have been conscripted, and reluctant laymen were ordered by their political superiors to go off to war. In America, however, men have stepped forward to defend an ideal – Freedom. Just prior to the 1964 presidential election, Ronald Reagan cut through the partisan rhetoric and spoke to the heart of the issue facing us each time we go to the ballot box: 

“[T]his idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except the sovereign people, is still the newest and the most unique idea in all the long history of man’s relation to man. 

“This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. 

“You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right. Well I’d like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There’s only an up or down – man’s old-aged dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. And regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.” 

This is what our fathers, brothers, and sons have fought for, bled for, and died for. The human spirit rebels against the notion of being forced to do anything. Our forefathers, however, were the first in modern times to craft a system ingenious enough to enable government to secure our rights without infringing them while also having enough energy to keep our self-governing society running smoothly. Our veterans have fought, in a word, for Liberty. 

But why must we fight at all? We must fight because even though Freedom is our birthright as children of a loving God, we live in a fallen world where Freedom has been the exception and tyranny the rule. When he was sworn in as the governor of California, Ronald Reagan said: 

“Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. And those in world history who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again” (Ronald Reagan, Inaugural Address, January 5, 1967). 

History demonstrates that many nations have attempted to establish Freedom. History also laments, however, that these attempts have nearly all spluttered and failed within a very short period. When we acknowledge this fact, the very existence of the United States of America becomes startling and almost unbelievable. 

Nothing quite like the American Republic has ever existed. Certainly, even the freest societies of antiquity – the Israelites and the Anglo-Saxons, for instance – never attained to the heights of prosperity, might, influence, wealth, stability, equality, and individual autonomy that the American People have obtained. This unique position, this blessing of Liberty, is what our warriors have signed up to fight for. 

Do we honor our honorable warriors? Do we regularly remember them, thank them, and recognize them? Do we keep them in our prayers? Are we truly appreciative of their great sacrifices, both in terms of physical and mental exertion, injuries and trauma sustained, and being away from family and homeland? I hope you remember them, remember their sacrifices, appreciate what they have done and why they have done it, and make a good use of the Liberty they have vouchsafed. 

John Adams, colorful as ever, said: 

“Posterity! You will never know, how much it cost the present Generation, to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make a good Use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the Pains to preserve it” (John Adams to Abigail Adams, April 26, 1777). 

If our fighting men of the past had had the ability to look into the future and see what our nation would become, do you think they would have risked life and limb to enable it? I doubt it. I doubt our good, upright warriors would have fought to uphold a tyrannical, hedonistic, debauched, corrupt, bloated, secretive, hostile government and nation – a nation that scarcely remembers them, couldn’t identify the locations of their fiercest battles on a map, tears down monuments erected to their memory, mislabels them “baby killers” and “imperialists,” and fanatically seeks to erase them from history. 

The way we mistreat, misuse, and malign our men in uniform is shameful. We can oppose unconstitutional wars, as I have, reject interventionism, as I have, decry war crimes when they happen, as I have, oppose the Marxian agenda promoted by top military brass, as I have, while still recognizing the worthy efforts of many of the men who have fought for our Republic. God bless them! 

It is time to expand our historical memories and recall what our brave men have done for our nation. We should remember their names, the names of the battles they fought, and, most importantly, the ideals they fought to uphold. Battles like those of Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill, Trenton Princeton, Kings Mountain, and Yorktown, should be emblazoned in our minds. The names of our great heroes, men like John Parker, Joseph Warren, Ethan Allen, Nathanael Greene, Francis Marion, John Paul Jones, and General Washington, should be on our tongues. And we ought never forget, not for a single day, the sublime principles of Independence, individual Liberty, rule of law, natural law, and virtue. 

When we salute our flag on special days like today, we don’t salute a lifeless piece of fabric – we salute the principles it represents and the men who have toiled and bled to perpetuate them. As critical as we must be at times with the Marxist jackals who have hijacked our government and wrecked out society as we have sat by idly and ignorantly, we can’t afford to let ourselves spurn the memories of those who have given so much for this Republic. 

The Marines Corps motto is “Semper Fidelis,” or always faithful. My plea to you today is to be always faithful to the principles of Faith, Family, and Freedom that make life worthwhile, to the amazing nation we live in, to our honorable veterans and military warriors, and to the God, even Jesus Christ, who presides over this world, favored our humble forefathers, gave us the Constitution, raised up our Republic, and will yet preserve a righteous remnant who comprehends their God-given rights and exerts themselves to regain them, maintain them, and hand them down to their children. 

Happy Birthday, Marines! Happy Veterans Day, American warriors! Semper Fidelis. Sic Semper Tyrannis. Long Live Liberty! 

Zack Strong, 
November 10, 2023