Health Care-The Modern Valley Forge

"THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER" and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth." - Thomas Paine December 23, 1776 Valley Forge

When I awoke this morning, it occurred to me that my fellow patriots are no doubt feeling extreme despair over the newly voted upon Health Care reform bill. Certainly, it feels as if everything great about this country is being eaten away by the great monster Government, and a sense of defeat is of course the first sentiment that will occur.

We, as a young country, have endured many hardships. Both World Wars, the Great Depression, September 11, and watching the checks and balances enacted by our founding fathers crumble. Are we to countenance the death of our liberty and freedom, or stand up as proud Americans and say we will not concede defeat? For with despair, defeat is bound to follow. Isn't that what we have always been taught? Surely no one who has been deprived and disheartened has ever come out the winner, right?

But let us take heart in the trials experienced by those first Patriots, now long gone from this Earth, whose bravery and sacrifice gave us the freedom we all want to preserve. They withstood the pains of battle, but also of hardship, famine, want, and disease. When General George Washington chose Valley Forge as the site of the militia's winter home, he was sharply castigated. What an inhospitable place to choose as a winter garrison for soldiers, some as young as 12, who were already suffering from lack of food, clothing, and medical care. But Washington chose Valley Forge, Pennsylvania because of its centralized location, making it easily defensible.

Over the next six months, while our ragtag army was poorly housed at Valley Forge, they drilled and practiced becoming a far stronger force, while 2500 of their fellows in freedom died of cold and disease. Still they fought on, because they knew that those who lived through the winter of '76 would face just as difficult a task ahead; the fight for liberty and freedom from tyranny. They would take up their muskets, if they had them, and fight the British who had spent their winter eating, drinking, and warm, and their lives leaching off the very livelihood of the Colonials.

When these men and women emerged from their winter adversity, they were already victorious, for the hardships they had just been through were a testament to their strength. Within five years, they had handed us the most precious gift any person can give to another. Freedom.

The same freedom we saw whittled away yesterday, with the Government takeover of health care. In unemployment and foreclosure, we're feeling the modern equivalent of the misery that surely shook those men to their bones.

Now, the question remains, do we cower like whipped dogs, and lay down our arms? Or do we fight on like those brave patriots did, even while facing the most abject adversity?

I can't answer for anyone else, only myself. When the original patriots handed us the key to heaven, many modern Americans have disdained it, and handed it back to the government monster that is eating us all alive. I can only say that I will see this through, without fear, because even those colonials were handed many defeats at the hand of the enemy, only to emerge victorious. As will we.