"DONT TREAD ON ME"
As a
veteran of the United States Armed Services and a patriot of my country, I am not
averse to speaking out in support of our Land of the Free. Don’t get me
wrong, I don’t stand on a soap box and I don’t chase down folks to argue my
points to, but if I am standing in line at the local gas station and I hear
someone begin talking smack about America, I might speak up and respectfully
defend her. I gave an oath to do so and that didn’t end when I completed my
tour of duty and removed my uniform.
I am
also a motorcyclist, I ride an old beat up cruiser from the ‘70’s, it is
scratched and dented, and dirty and loud but it is my ride and it has carried
me over many miles without fail. On this bike I have a sticker, it is yellow
with a coiled snake in a patch of grass drawn on it and the words below the
snake read…”Don’t tread on me.” It is small, 3 x 5 inches or so. I take pride
in Gadsden’s flag; the meaning for me behind the flag as I understand it, is that
I won’t go out and pick a fight with someone but if you threaten me, those I
love or the land I stand on, I will strike to protect it. As a soldier I took a
similar oath to my country when I joined the Army and I hold that oath very
close to my heart to this day. Love it or leave it, this is America, and there
is no free’er country in the world. In no other place on earth can I, given the
opportunity simply by asking for it, and stepping up to work for it, attain
whatever level of success I wish. Not to say it isn’t difficult at times, I
know this more than many having suffered for years with PTSD, not everyone
feels like they may have been given that opportunity, but here in America you
have the choice to be or not to be, to speak up for or against the
establishment and to live wherever you want to. You can go to school or sit at
home and grow flowers to sell on Saturday mornings in the city park if you
wish. But you will have to go after it,
nothing is free, including the freedom we enjoy in this country to do as we
please. And it’s the soldiers who’ve paid for that freedom.
Unfortunately
in recent history there are those who’ve tarnished that ideal for those of us
who wave Gadsden’s flag. Please don’t let a couple of mislead, dare I say
mentally anguished people destroy a symbol constructed to gather those whom
believe in our country to fight together for her. God bless the officers whom
were ambushed and whose lives were stripped from them and their families. These
men donned a badge and took an oath to serve and to protect this country’s citizens,
how dare these two villains pass judgment on them and take their honorable
souls from our lives. God knows these two officers and they will stand by each
other’s side to protect us forever more from another place, God bless them. As
for the other two, they will be damned and suffer the consequences.
Some
folks in the media have gone on to equate Gadsden’s flag to radicalism because
of events such as this. It’s time to focus on the villains, and the mechanism
that began these events, not the symbol. It is a symbol of strength and pride,
bravery and commitment, let’s let that stand, lets pray for the victims of this
latest event and reclaim the flag as something we can be proud of, not allowing
the villains to discolor it and nor the media to change its meaning.