Steve's Say...

My Father was born in Milwaukee on August 22, 1921. His parents were both immigrants from Europe who came through Ellis Island just before WWI and journeyed to Milwaukee to settle with other German kin who were willing to sponsor them. Once in Milwaukee, they became integrated into the ethnic community.

This process of integration was not easy. Speaking no English and being fit only as a laborer here in America, my Grandfather was the butt of many jokes and ridicule. He managed to get by and raise a family with seven children but became unemployed in the 1930’s like many others. My Father said he became quite bitter later in life for having left the Old Country. He never did find steady work in his later years but found an eager audience in the taverns for his stories and tales of the Old World.

“If Grandpa liked the Old World so much, why did they come to America?” I asked my Father.

“Because Grandma was tired of living in the Old World where people never knew when the King’s men would show up and destroy all you’ve worked for. In America everyone is free. You can become anything you want.” Then he added, “They knew someone had to make a sacrifice to come to America and they were willing to do it for all of us.”

So all of my Grandfather’s children were born in America, went to school where they learned and embraced English as their native tongue, and came to believe that there was no greater place on earth to be. During the Depression my Uncle Joe was one of the few to find work cleaning out ash bins for the city when he was 18 years old. This lone income from Uncle Joe supported the entire family during these times. He gave my Grandmother mother 90% of his wages and kept 10% for himself. My father and his siblings took cabbage sandwiches everyday to school. He hates cabbage.

The kids in the family all found work somewhere as they grew older, setting pins or as a waitress or laying bricks. All believed that each of them had the ability to become what they could become. Because they were free.

Then Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin began their games to add to what the Japanese were already doing in China for almost a decade and World War II became reality. All of my uncles became willing soldiers and went off to Europe to do their part. Why? Because they were Americans. Americans believe in personal liberty and the institutions provided by her forefathers to secure it for posterity. They knew their liberty was under dire attack. And they answered the call. Enthusiastically.

My father trained at Fort Hood in Texas during the summer of 1944. On New Year’s Day, 1945, he and thousands of other young American men left for the European Theater on the Queen Mary out of New York City harbor. By January 17th, he was in Bastogne, Belgium, as a relief infantryman for the tired survivors of the Battle of the Bulge. He participated in the advance into the Rhineland whereupon he was shot on February 28th.

After his recovery in a French hospital he was sent back to the front to become the ID warden for the dead soldiers being shipped back home. This was the hardest job he’s ever had. He understood how important it was to the families back home that he ALWAYS got his work done correctly down to the last detail. They were counting on him to be exceptional. And he wanted to be exceptional more than anything. Because he was an American.

This experience awakened his desire and provided the opportunity for him to go to college to become an accountant, a far cry from his training as a factory mechanic. He met my mother, got married and raised a typical Catholic family of seven kids in Wisconsin. My parents taught us about America, what it means to be one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. My father made this lesson crystal clear to me one day when I was about 10 years old. As I blabbered on about how great it was that he and our soldiers and allies all fought Hitler to eliminate evil from the world, he stopped me abruptly. “Hitler was only one man. There are many other people in this world right now doing the things Hitler did. There is always going to be someone trying to take away your freedom. And if you’re not willing to fight for it, you don’t deserve it.” Since then, while I always remembered this wisdom and periodically reflected on it, its full meaning has only lately come into focus.

Many events and movements since WWII tested America’s belief in itself including the Cold War, Civil Rights reforms, assassinations, the Vietnam War, Watergate, Arab Oil Embargo, runaway inflation and interest rates, and the Iran Hostage Crisis. These turbulent times from the Fifties through the Seventies caused many people living in America to doubt the idea of America and what it meant to the world. Then a clear talking, ordinary man born in the Heartland of America arrived on the political scene. He articulated so plainly, clearly and concisely the idea of America, why it is exceptional and what she brings to the rest of the world. He was an ordinary man doing extraordinary, exceptional things. He was none other than Ronald Reagan, the “Great Communicator.”

Reagan reawakened the American attitude that there is no problem that can’t be solved with the self-sufficient wisdom of fee individuals making decisions for themselves. He reformed the tax code, changing the highest marginal tax rate from 70% to 28%. This change unleashed the huge reservoir of ingenuity locked up by confiscatory tax policy in American entrepreneurs. He also restored confidence in and respect for America around the world with his controversial “zero-point” Cold War policy and his unwavering belief in peace through strength. His relentless pursuit of this ideology increased America’s economic and military might, eventually leading to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. His way embodied the ultimate model of leadership. And he accomplished all of these wonders with both Houses of Congress controlled by the opposition party.

Since Ronald Reagan left office in 1989, the American scene has changed dramatically. We now sit on the brink of financial collapse due to overwhelming government spending at all levels and the Federal Government trying to nationalize much of the private sector.

The current government wishes to gain complete control of banking, housing, transportation, health care, energy, even the airwaves and the internet. In order to accomplish these goals, the American people must be subdued into handing over their personal liberties enshrined in our Constitution by whatever means possible. Crises and emergencies have been the methods used thus far, from “pandemics” to man-made global warming (wait- climate change) to “45 million people without healthcare.” The language employed and tactics used by these collectivists seduce many into surrender and tempt many others into compliance. None of these policies and ideas are exceptional and thus have no place in America.

Will America cease to be exceptional? I think not. Most of us living in America are Americans, and we will not capitulate to this robbery of our heritage. We will do whatever it takes to resist this annihilation of our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness endowed on us by God and preserved through our Constitution. The real question is just how far these people perpetuating these transgressions are willing to take this.

American Exceptionalism does not come from our military might or that we are some kind of super race, but comes from the limited government provided in the founding documents. These documents exalt personal liberty as the rule of law and create a firewall against tyranny. The corresponding responsibility that each individual citizen undertakes when accepting the title of “American” drives them to act exceptionally and accomplish exceptional things. This idea of America shines out to the world, the idea that in a free country any individual can use their own talents and efforts to become whatever they can become. The belief that anything is possible in America makes it exceptional. If we lose or discard this intrinsic trait of being American, it is certain that we will go to ruin, regardless of riches or military might or alliances. We are Americans. It is our job to be exceptional. The world needs America to be exceptional. No one knows this better than the Europeans do right now.