A Nation in crisis... our time is now (Part 1)
The day my future was decisively forged following a personal lesson about courage
(This is the first of three installments on uniting the American people. Courage is the first step.)
One Nation under God, with liberty and justice for all
Isn’t it amazing? In less than two years following a pandemic and a new federal administration1, we are seeing the systemic change in our country, following unparalleled prosperity and employment during the Trump administration and now to the collapse of our beloved freedoms guaranteed to all Americans. America now has a ruthless, self-serving government which promotes prolonged unemployment while employers are desperate to hire workers to good paying secure jobs; inflation—gasoline prices have nearly doubled, the cost of food is rising with some items in short supply, and overall inflation exceeds 6% this year2, the highest rate since the 1970’s. Meanwhile the U.S. government is doing nothing to increase national oil production, while allowing the largest foreign invasion in U.S. history, over 2 million unlawful immigrants and rising crossing our southern border. This is dysfunctional government.
Crime is rampant and the murder rate is the highest in more than four decades. Citizens are being imprisoned for exercising their right of free speech, while looters, rioters, arsonists, child rapists, and even murderers are being released from prison into the streets and not prosecuted. In Chicago this year alone, 16% of the more than 800 Chicago murders during 2021 were committed by criminals who were released on bail for a prior crime.3 The wealthy ruling class, who do not live where you and I live, has spent millions on getting prosecutors and local governments elected who are soft on crime and willing to cripple our police. This is government with reckless disregard for the citizens. The number of gunshot victims in Portland is up 800% following a campaign to “defund the police.”
The federal government has seriously mishandled the virus pandemic from the very beginning, and without lawful authority is trying to forcibly push so-called mandates on American citizens for which the U.S. Constitution strictly forbids. China moves forward undaunted with its threats against our allies in Taiwan and the South China Sea while no repercussions from unleashing the Wuhan virus on the world. Russia is pushing against our ally Ukraine, testing American resolve. This is a week government where its politicians accept bribes from foreign powers and bow before our enemies.
To understand what is happening, you have to understand that government operates in layers of power. Some of these layers are quite visible: our state and local leaders, our congressional representatives, the courts, the federal bureaucracy. Then there are the millionaires, the billionaires, and the multinational corporations, who tend to operate in secrecy, and the lower echelons rarely are aware of the power of the higher layer of decision makers and influencers. The higher you follow the ladder (and the money), the closer you come to Pure Evil. It is very simple. These people and institutions hate God, they hate your entitlement to freedom and liberty, and they hate you. These two things: your love of God and Freedom, are the greatest threat to their conquest of power.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Eph. 6:12 (KJV)
Yes, this is what America looks like today. You and I, planted here in the middle of a disaster. And I’m glad you are here, for we are precisely in the right place at the right time for the right purpose. There is no better time to be alive than right now, at this very moment, to effect change. This is the opportunity you have to “Make America Great Again” to quote the former President Trump4. Our national crisis has never been greater since the Civil War—it is even more formidable than all the threats of WWII, when we knew who was the enemy and where was the enemy. Today there is darkness and uncertainty. At the founding of our great nation, the patriots who lived and died to build this Nation—who sacrificed for Unity—set the example we can follow today. What those great men and women taught us is that with courage, leadership, and unity, we can save a nation. This is a trifecta, and I begin with the first and most important element, courage.
What is required is courage, leadership, and unity. This is a trifecta
Courage
Here is one of several stories about how I learned about courage.
Exactly fifty years ago, in the late spring of 1971, something terrible happened on our small family farm in Aetna Township, Michigan. It was a beautiful sunny day, the sky was clear and windless, and I was taking inventory of my exotic game ducks which I had hoped to sell to restaurants for a nice profit. In addition to the ducks, I had game quail, chickens, and a small herd of dairy goats for personal milk and to sell to neighbors. My parents had a small herd of beef cattle, mostly “cuts” donated to us by the feedlot where I had worked the year before.
On this beautiful day, there was a sudden eeriness that descended on the birds; the ducks and chickens began to make noise as though an predator was in their midst. And indeed, this predator was more formidable than any living thing could have imagined. Though the air was perfectly calm, I suddenly realized why the fowl were in a mode of panic: rapidly moving across the sky from the west against the pristine blue sky was a cold front of rolling black, purplish clouds, followed by what appeared to me dark and massive downpours of rain. My first thought was to head out to the grazing area to get our livestock undercover in the barn, which was about 50 or 60 yards way. As I approached the barn, I could see my mother and brother Tracy were were already there, trying to coax the animals inside—but the goats and cows wouldn’t budge, standing firm in the open area. As the wind kicked up, we began to be pelted by a blast of hail, and the sunny day turned to darkness in just minutes. Speechless, the three of us ran up an earthen ramp into the hay loft area of the barn to get out of the pelting ice. Then, “let’s close the doors!” somebody shouted.
The noise of the storm was horrendous, and before I could get close to the open doorway I noticed the hundred year-old timber walls of the 40- by 80-foot span barn began to bellow like pumping an accordion. It was almost as dark night night time, but the wind with the ice and hay straw blowing against my face made it impossible to open my eyes, and the hard wind blowing through the open doors made it impossible to stand. Blinded by the wind and debris, and thinking I was about to blow over, I could firmly feel my hands gripped on either side by, I thought, my mother and Tracy.5
And just then there was that climactic crashing sound, and I could feel the loft floor “drop beneath my feet” as though we were falling, but most of all, even though I could not open my eyelids against the fury of the wind and the ice, I remember the intense bright light, brighter it seemed than staring at the sun.
I don’t remember how much time lapsed, maybe it was 30 seconds, or maybe it was two minutes, but I realized I was sitting or lying on the roof of the barn, about 25 yards in front of where the barn had stood. Three sections of the four-section roof remained in tact, lying flat on the ground. Later that day we were told that pieces of the fourth section of roof had landed on neighboring farms nearly a mile away. According to witnesses, a wide tornado dipped out of the storm as though it was targeting our barn.
As I stood up, there was a pleasant, soft, warm rain, just perfect to wash the dirt from my face. It was still cloudy and dark. At that moment, I did not understand or realized what had happened, but I did see Tracy in the area of the apple orchard, nowhere near me, running in a state of shock to the neighbors down the road, the Goldthwaite’s. I had not a bruise or a scratch.
My mother was not so fortunate. Immediately I did not see her, and I franticly began to search around the wreckage. Mother was buried under a mishmash of timbers and debris in the basement area of the barn, directly below the area where we had been standing. She was halfway conscious, but she was in shock, moaning in pain and could not speak. Those 14-inch thick timbers weighed tons each and could not be moved.
As I started to run for help, I could hear a chain saw cutting on the roadside in front of the farm house. It turns out that the tornado also ripped out one of the giant maple trees in front of our house, blocking both lanes of Hwy. 131. The driver of one vehicle was a member of the local volunteer fire department and had a chain saw on hand and was cutting up the tree so that traffic could pass. “We need help!” I hollered across the orchard, “my mother is trapped in the barn!” The volunteer fireman was able to cut the timbers so that by the time the ambulance arrived, the paramedics could safely carry Mother to the ambulance. Her leg was broken in several places and bleeding, and her head was badly bruised, swollen, and bleeding. Mentally and physically, she never fully recovered from her injuries. I count it a miracle that the maple tree came down to block the highway, supplying me with emergency help.
Here is the lesson: while this remarkable experience was very painful and difficult to endure at the time, I realized that God loved me and that God protected me with his angels. I was approaching my junior year in high school and had many plans which would not be fulfilled. Most of my birds were dead or missing. The storm wrecked not only our farm, I also had to spend a great deal of time caring for my mom during her slow recovery, causing me to miss school and to cut back on sports and other school activities. But, I did have a strong sense of purpose and importance, feeling that I had the strength of God’s Army behind me.
It was not courage that brought me through the tornado. Rather, I received courage after the event because I felt the power and protection God provided during a difficult situation which I could not have survived without Devine intervention. Following this incident at age 17, I have had no fear of any difficult situation. Nothing is hopeless, there is always hope. This is an example of the gift of courage received after an experience. Other people learn and grow in courage over a lifetime of experience.
We are all important to God as his children, and each one of us has a different experience. In my case I had faced a powerful evil that I could not see, and that I was hopelessly weak to match in combat, but God more than compensated for my weakness. And the best part is this: in the end there is great joy in victory when the Evil One is toppled in the midst of the weakling. That is when you savor the moment of victory. And when you realize that you are on the right side of God, and you are standing on his promises, you are imbued with a courage that can only come from the experience of God’s blessed miracles.
In a matter of a few minutes and without warning, I experienced the dark, cold, evil fury of the storm, casting its fury upon me, and then a moment later, the warmth and brightness of God’s love and protection.
Now, here in America during this time of political and economic disaster, and attack on religious freedom and personal liberty, we have been placed in the moment that we can resist the darkness and evil, and God will supply the victory.
Max Lucado, the Christian author states, “…the theme of the Bible—is that all the injustices of the world will be turned on their head. Grand reversals are God’s trademark. When we feel as though everything is falling apart, God is working in our midst, causing everything to fall into place. He is the King of quiet providence…”6 I have experienced this personally, many times since that terrible day fifty years ago.
We are not born with courage, and courage is not automatic. It comes from collective experience and faith in God, and when you have seen the hand of God move in your own life and affairs, you will no doubt that you stand on the promises of a Greater Power. Today the oppressors, at one level millionaires and billionaires with their “dark money”, and at a higher level the unseen source of the evil that torments us, mocks God, hates our Judeo-Christian beliefs and principles, and strive to divide our nation through their nonsensical edicts. The oppressors want to deny Christians and Jews the right to assemble and practice their religion. The oppressors want to deny parents the right to teach their values and morals to their children. The oppressors wants to destroy the American economy so that only the ruling elites, as they see themselves, will enjoy the fruits of your labor.
As in my case, courage is sometimes forced upon us. A good example was the Osama bin Laden attacks on September 11, 2001. If you remember that day, then you will recall how all Americans banded together in unity for a common purpose. We didn’t ask for that, but we had no choice. And Americans united to step up to the cause.
Your mission then, should you decide to accept it, is to resist the evil oppressors, trust God to prevail, and you will be rewarded beyond your wildest imagination. Regardless of your faith or religion, or maybe you have no religion, we must stick together—we must work together, that we can restore the great liberty and wealth of knowledge that God bestowed upon this Country. The evil today is all around us: it is in our schools, our justice departments, our government. Freedom is threatened with censorship, the right to gather, to go to church, even to choose the medical treatment that you decide. Before we can defend our freedoms, we must have courage, the first and most important step. We don’t have a choice. In 2021, we have arrived at the moment. We either “do or die”.
After courage, the second element is leadership. Most politicians today are not leaders and do not understand leadership. And leadership is the subject of Part 2.
(The author, Leslie French, J.D., is a Congressional Candidate for Washington District 3. To learn more about Mr. French subscribe to The French Connection. It’s free!)
I refuse to refer to Joe Biden as “President Biden”. Maybe he is “PINO (President-In-Name-Only) Biden". It is clear that PINO Biden is not the commander and he is not in control of this presidency: he even complains publicly that he forgets he is president.
Runaway inflation is the greatest threat to any national economy. It is equivalent to having your personal earnings cut by the rate of inflation. Your retirement fund shrinks in real value. Capital becomes more difficult and more expensive for businesses to obtain, and in the case of the U.S. government, federal taxation and monetary policies become meaningless as an inflated economy rages out of control. And worse we drag down many trading and economically allied countries with us.
Carlson, Tucker. Those in power would rather talk about Chicago than solve problems there, https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-chicago-crime (referenced November 12, 2021).
In a future article I will explain why I voted for Donald Trump for President in 2016 and 2020, and why I will support him if he seeks the office again.
I will not deny that it is possible that my hands were held by persons other than my mother and brother, because moments later, after the tornado had lifted, the three of us were separated by a distance of at least 75 feet apart each, and none of us were standing.
Lucado, Max. You Were Made for This Moment (p. 9). Thomas Nelson (2021). (If you are disturbed by the troubling events of the past two years, I heartily recommend reading this book.)