In my first job after leaving the army in the seventies, I was assigned Cleveland, Ohio as my sales territory, but that industry was controlled by the mafia, La Cosa Nostra. I knew a man who reportedly was a capo, a captain in the mafia, and bought him dinner in Akron, my hometown. I explained that I did not agree with but understood his lifestyle and friends, which is what they called each other. I said my friends, the US Army Special Forces, were also all about respect. I told him I wanted to be respectful and explain my intentions, but also wanted to be treated with respect myself and feed my family. He said he would speak to his friends, and we would meet again. Later, he told me his friends appreciated me showing them respect and also appreciated my service in Vietnam. He said I had their full blessings and respect, and nobody would ever hassle me in Cleveland. His friends kept their word.

I could never have such a conversation with the al-Qaida and other Muslim radicals. Nobody can. They have no code of honor. They know nothing of offering respect to anybody with differing views. Everything we hold dear such as charity, women’s rights, loving thy neighbor; they see as total weakness. They could care less that our President has a Muslim name. It means nothing to them that every Hollywood star now has a good friend who is their token Muslim. To them, respect has a different connotation: abject, cowering fear. It is all they understand and all that they offer, the raised scimitar of oppression.

Simply put, they have a 7th century mindset, and will lie, behead, intimidate, and do whatever is necessary to destroy Christians and Jews, including using our own system against us to that end. They not only do that very well, we help them with brazen ignorance. We naïve, now often-wimpy, Americans; or I should say our leaders, know nothing of respect either, and it all starts at the top. At town hall meetings across our nation, Americans are angrily exercising their first amendment rights, and are being chastised and belittled for it by our elected officials, instead of them respecting us and listening to our concerns. Our President bows in subservience to the King of Saudi Arabia, apologizes for our actions to foreign countries who should be fawning at our feet for the good and rebuilding we have done there, and disrespects us as he lectures us on television almost daily, instead of spending most of his time managing our affairs.

The Hollywood Hyper-liberal Head-bangers have recorded pledges to support the President, and he welcomes it. President Obama, here is a thought: Have you ever heard of “servant leadership?” You pledged to work for us, not the other way around! You are a manager, the Chief Executive, not the monarch, king, or our Grand Poobah. It is the same thing with each of you in the Congress, republicans and democrats alike. We are the bosses, not you, or your union thugs, your unvetted czars, your liberal media lackeys, and your Brooks Brothers-suited apologists and hangers-on. If you Washington elitists actually work for us, you earn respect from us. If you do not, then we will fire you with our votes, or by recall if you anger us enough.

Because of you, our supposed leaders, racing hell-bent for government healthcare, we daily teeter on the steep cliff-edge of an economic depression. You ignore the al-Qaida threat with the mistaken impression that we will not be attacked again. You attack CIA employees from yesteryear, to try to take our eyes and ears off of healthcare and cap and trade debacles that over two-thirds of Americans do not want. Hear me, you elected Pharisees, everyone will occasionally be ignorant, but it is pure folly to make a career out of it. That, however, is what you inside the Beltway have been doing. In American jurisprudence they say that ignorance of the law is no excuse, but we should remember that the ignorance of lawmakers is also inexcusable.

Our former President and do-nothing Congress, protected us well from attack, but also spent money like a Beverly Hills housewife with a platinum card to match her hair color. But now, our current President and do-even-less Congress are spending our children’s money, our grand-children’s, and their children’s. We have 33 czars now running our lives who had to go through no congressional vetting whatsoever, like cabinet members, congressmen, and major appointees have to do. Congress has not even plugged that dike. Checks and balances went out the window. We also have some Americans now who love America for the same reason some farmers love their cow; Because they can milk it, and that is who you politicians play to. American work ethic, freedom to compete, and ingenuity created the fatted cow, and now you do all you can to let it get drained, so you can buy votes with promises of free milk and cookies for the lazy, ignorant, and unprincipled. And so, you suppress and do not help them. They remain poor, as they never learn that through struggle comes growth and self-actualization. You have made patriotism a dirty word, but whenever that happens we get taken to the cleaners.

So, what is the answer? The answer is simple, very simple. In fact, it is already written down. It is the US Constitution. In the past, world leaders, even some of our own, have disrespected that great document and all that it represents. And when they have, brave determined Americans have made believers of them no matter how great the challenge to do so.

Many raised and trained in the word of God, Americans are the first there to assist and give when there is a major catastrophe anywhere in the world, often the only ones there. It is our volunteer spirit that is borne of all our precious freedoms, and our naive leaders cannot even see that. They are too blinded by their own ego and idealistic theories of Shangri-La. Here and around the world, courageous American fighting men and women faced down tyranny and freed the oppressed, risking their very lives to do so. So many, so very many shed their blood and tears into the soil of foreign lands and far-off places, and even here in America, to teach respect for what our Constitution clearly defines. That is what America is about. American heroes defined freedom in Bouganville, St Mere Eglise, Bataan, the Chosin Reservoir, Khe Sanh, Ahn Khe, Mosul, Kandahar, Baghdad, Normandy, Sicily, North Africa, Selma, Alabama, Fort Sumter, Gettysburg, and San Juan Hill. American patriots defeated, liberated, and educated people all over the world and taught billions to respect our Constitution and all it represents, including the legacy of valor of those Americans who have protected it at all costs. We Americans, under God, will always rise up in defense of our freedoms and that treasured symbol in the cause of freedom, even when its attackers are our own elected leaders. It is a lesson that I caution our leaders to learn from history, because when you attack our freedoms and our very Constitution, then do not whine if you see bloody wounds in your flesh, the result of eagle’s talons.

May God bless America and strike down, any way He sees fit, those who are attacking it.