Election 2024: Restoration, Not Just Maintenance or Managed Decline

We are down to the wire. November 5^th, here it comes.

The polling is up and down and all around. Trump is ahead of Kamala Harris by one or two points in all the swing states, according to many polls. Yet the lingering fears of voter fraud and election tampering remain high among the MAGA faithful. Vigilance and voting early is important, but ensuring that the Democratic machines cannot manufacture ballots is also a must. Has anyone paid attention long enough to prevent that gross corruption? We shall see.

To the credit of the RNC and its new leadership, Republicans are proactively fending off voter fraud issues and election integrity problems. Still, I agree with Evan Power, Chairman of the Florida GOP: every state should adopt the Sunshine State’s flawless, effective, and smooth voting procedures. Once a state synonymous with crisis-level counting problem (Elections 1876, 2000, 2018), Florida has become the hallmark for sound election procedures—and across two time zones!

I have my fingers crossed for Donald Trump to win, whether by a little or a lot. But the fight will not be over, not by a long shot.

Our country is bitterly divided. The fact that Americans are so invested—nay, obsessed—with the Presidential election is contrary to everything that the Framers hoped for. The Presidency has become too oppressive and omnipresent in our life and times. Note that I wrote “The Presidency” and not “The President.” As Greg Greenwald has observed, the United States government has been functioning without a functional president for the last six months, the perfect evidence that the Deep State is real and needs to be eradicated root and branch.

The federal government spends too much, does too much, is too much.

I welcome Elon Musk and retired US Congressman Ron Paul’s cost-cutting proposals. Forget the Office of Government Efficiency. Just go “Javier Milei” on the federal government and start shutting down all the useless, unconstitutional executive departments. I would start with the Department of Education, but Housing, Transportation, the Interior, Commerce, and a few others should be on the chopping block ASAP.

But I want to make a greater plea from our next President and our remaining, resilient citizenry, regardless of who wins the Presidential election this November.

I am tired of managed decline, and I do not want the hastened, woke decline of Kamala Harris and Company. Aren’t we tired of the specter of Communism becoming a little more concrete with every passing year? Aren’t we tired of the next generation struggling with deeper mental issues and steeper financial problems?

Since the end of the Cold War, post 9-11, we have seen nothing but the casual then accelerated erosion of our constitutional Republic. Though I have a slight, cautious optimism that Trump will win the election, I fear that he will continue to lose the war: the war against culture Marxism, the fight against moral decline, and the battle against unconstitutional oversight and overreach.

It’s not only his failures from his previous four-year team. George W. Bush relished the surveillance state, and Barack Obama fed the Military-Industrial Complex as well as fomented government intrusion into one-sixth of the American economy (Obamacare).

We the People can no longer neglect nor ignore the burgeoning, ballooning national debt, either. From the erosion of the dollar to skyrocketing costs for food and fuel, unconstitutional indebtedness must be savagely savaged. No more excuses!

Will President Trump step up and change course from his previous four years? He cut the regulations; he allowed energy production to flow unhindered. There was generous economic improvements. But the spending, the immigration issues, the Swamp all remained stagnant or malignant. We can no longer tolerate Trump-like half-measures as a people or as a country. Four more years of managed decline and tapering the excesses of the political Left plus the Woke DC bureaucracy won’t cut it. And We the People should not tolerate it.

It saddens me that I must look to once-backward foreign countries like Argentina and El Salvador for hope and guidance. Nayib Bukele has cleaned up his country, locking up all the gangs, improving public safety to such a level that his Central American nation is safer than the United States! He is expanding business, investment, and international prestige for his once-pariah state. He turned a gang-invested hell-hole into a must-visit destination.

Then there’s libertarian President/Rock Star Javier Milei. This man has taken a chainsaw to every government program. He is privatizing at the fastest clip in modern history. He hasn’t just tapered but flattened inflation. And he embraces cultural restoration, as well. He educates the next generation about the Right to Life. He has lectured Globalist Cesspools like the WEF and the UN that their collectivist visions are myopic dystopias.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not just winning another war on terror, but he wins with such assiduousness. No prolonged battles, and terrorists in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and Iran are on the run. He puts his people first. He stops illegal immigration and stands up for the rights of Christians, though they are a minority in his country.

Why can’t we have good things, too? Shouldn’t the President of the United States make these broad, bold moves? Trump should follow the example of his international peers. But will he?

Above all, the United States must be re-united around our constitutional republic, our Anglo-American legal traditions, our Judeo-Christian heritage, and most importantly our Revolutionary Legacy. Right now, these historic accolades are not just under attack, but in disrepute and disarray.

I welcome Governor Ron DeSantis’ reminder of the Vision of our Founders during his RNC 2024 Speech. The American People need to revive that vision, for where there is no vision, the people perish (Proverbs  29:18). It is time for us to cry out “Restore, Restore” (Isaiah 42:22) as opposed to settling for the maintenance of the status quo or managed decline.

President Trump, Restore America’s greatness, and make it stand the test time!

Scott Morefield: It's Over

This is a hard truth to accept, but here's where we are:

To fellow Ron DeSantis supporters who still think there’s a chance: He visited every county. He and his PAC spent tens of millions of dollars door knocking and organizing what seemed like a solid ground campaign. He had the support of a popular governor and key conservative media…

— Scott Morefield (@SKMorefield) January 16, 2024

DeSantis put the most work of any candidate in a generation to win Iowa.

He practically lived there. He went to every county, he got many of the key endorsements from Iowa lawmakers, including the unprecedented endorsement from Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds.

Ron DeSantis worked hard, and it didn't pay off.

I agree with Scott Morefield at this point: it's over.

Trump will romp New Hampshire, and he will sweep South Carolina. The momentum has been established in Iowa, plus the strength of the President's former incumbency.

The factors are too strong for any contender to overcome.

I wish Governor DeSantis the best. I am so grateful for his service to the state of Florida, and his example to the rest of the country. He is still a winner to me, and I think that he will prosper in whatever he pursues. This country had so much opportunity awaiting with a DeSantis Presidency, but the voters in Iowa have set the stage for a Trump comeback, and another Trump defeat in November.

Tenth Amendment Center: George Washington's Farewell Address, Warnings Ignored for Generations

 

On Sept. 19, 1796, the American Daily Advertiser published George Washington’s farewell address. When people remember or discuss the address, they most often recall his warning against political parties, his admonition to avoid permanent, entangling foreign alliances, and his insistence that “religion and morality are indispensable supports” to political prosperity.  His warning on factions is almost eerily prophetic: "The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism." It sure sounds familiar, doesn't it? Most people start with a faction-first mentality - and support or oppose government actions based on who is doing it. And the Constitution is in shreds as a result. But wait, there's more. Washington continued: But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty. If we aren't there right now, we're so close it might be indistinguishable. Most people read right over what might be an even more poignant warning in Washington’s address; a warning we failed to heed to our own detriment - for generations. Washington advised that we should hold tight to the original Constitution and avoid giving in to the temptation to turn it into a “living, breathing” document that changes at the whim of whoever holds power. As Washington put it, we must “resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts.” Washington wrote that “one method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the Constitution, alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown.” We see these alterations in the Constitution all the time – mostly courtesy of the federal courts as they have expanded various clauses to “authorize” federal actions that were clearly left to the states and the people. They've twisted restrictions on power and used them to authorize the monster state of today. Thanks to these constitutional “alterations,” the federal government has interjected itself into almost every area of our lives, from dictating how much water flushes down our toilets to the kinds of plants we can grow in our back yard. Of course, we can’t place blame solely on the courts. Not even close.  Presidents have seized a wide range of unconstitutional powers, further altering and undermining the constitutional system.  And Congress has done its part, punting much of its responsibility to the executive branch by passing broadly worded bills that allow executive branch bureaucrats to essentially write the law after the fact. Washington warned us that these kinds of alterations would undermine the system. In fact, he called them a "weapon" by which freedom is destroyed.

Warnings Ignored: George Washington's Farewell Address Audio and Video Podcast - with Reference Links Here The Unheeded Advice in George Washington's Farewell Address Article Here

Thomas Jefferson, who helped convince Washington to stay on for a 2nd term, had a similar warning: To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition. Washington wrote that “time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of governments as of other human institutions.” He warned that constantly changing the meaning of the Constitution through government action would ultimately prevent any kind of stable system from developing. “Experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing constitution of a country; that facility in changes, upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; and remember, especially, that for the efficient management of your common interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable.” We certainly see this tendency today. The federal government makes up its own rules as it goes, completely untethered from any foundational principles or absolute limits. The founders and old revolutionaries called this arbitrary power - and it's how they defined tyranny. That's why it was one of the most important of the listed grievances in the Declaration of Independence. Those who embrace the idea of a “living, breathing” Constitution argue that it must be flexible to “change with the times.” Washington wasn’t ignorant of this fact. He admitted the need for flexibility, but insisted change must happen within the Constitutional system itself through the amendment process, not via political maneuvering by the government itself. “If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit, which the use can at any time yield.” [Emphasis added.] Sadly, Washington’s advice has not been followed. Not even close. Virtually every change to America’s constitutional system has been by usurpation. The "federal" government has run up trillions upon trillions in debt. It fights unconstitutional wars across the globe. It spies on virtually everybody and violates the right to keep and bear arms.  It reaches into every corner of your life, attacking your liberty at every turn. Washington was right. Whatever transient benefit the federal government may have brought by these actions has been “overbalanced” by evil. And until the people start heeding these warnings, it's only going to get worse. We're working hard every single day to get these foundational constitutional principles out to more and more people. Nothing helps us get that job done more than the financial faith and support of our members. Please consider joining us today - for as little as $2/month here: https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/members/ Help us take a stand for the Constitution and liberty - whether the government wants us to, or not. Concordia res parvae crescunt (small things grow great by concord)   Michael, Mike and the rest of the TAC Team

MoveOn.org Confuses Fascism with Democracy

The Regressive Left believes in democracy, if the outcomes suit their political agenda.

Anything else is fascism to them, straight up.

Here's the latest stupid rant from MoveOn.org whining about the collapse of democracy. The fact is that they don't like that Republicans and conservatives are fighting back, and fighting back better using their own activist techniques against them!

Dear MoveOn member, 

As Trump continues to threaten fascist violence in response to a possible indictment (he just told a right-wing talk show host that there will be "... problems in this country, the likes of which perhaps we have never seen before" if he is charged with a crime).¹

And as his white supremacist henchmen in the U.S. Congress do the same (Lindsey Graham: "literally, there will be riots").²

We have some heroes we want to tell you about whom we hope you will directly support and who are trying to preserve our democracy one state at a time.

These five candidates are quietly going about the business of stopping Trump's handpicked accomplices from taking over the highest election office of five states—secretary of state.

Before we tell you about these champions for democracy, understand whom they are trying to defeat. Who they must defeat. The people they are running against are literally Oath Keepers, insurrectionists, leaders of sham lawsuits, white supremacists, vote suppressors, and election deniers.

These five include anti-democratic, pro-fascist Republicans ready to overturn any election or suppress any vote if the result isn't what they want.

That's why we are asking you not to give to us but to give to the five candidates we have listed below. By clicking here, your $3 donation will be split evenly between these five campaigns, all of which are trying to protect our democracy from the fascism of Donald Trump.

As you know, in many states, the secretary of state is the single most important position for ensuring election integrity and preventing Trump's next attempt at a coup. That's why in the five swing states of Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, and Michigan (all states won by Biden in 2020), Trump and Steve Bannon are pulling out all the stops—from candidate recruitment to flooding the airwaves with dark money—to secure the top elections post in each.

And that's why MoveOn made the unprecedented decision this year to lean in heavily in these races. We know that if we are not diligent, these election deniers will attempt to disregard the will of the people and install Trump in the White House. These are the Democratic candidates we are supporting:

Democrat Adrian Fontes in Arizona, who is running against Republican Mark Finchem. Finchem participated in the insurrection on January 6 and is a member of the white supremacist Oath Keepers. He said the 2020 election was "rigged" and a "fraud."³

Democrat Cisco Aguilar in Nevada, who is running against Republican Jim Marchant. Marchant openly declares he would not have certified the election results for Joe Biden in 2020. He has said it is "very possible" that he will submit alternate electors in 2024, if he's elected.⁴

Democrat Jocelyn Benson in Michigan, who is running against Republican Kristina Karamo. Karamo still believes Trump is president, claims she saw fraud in Detroit, where none existed, and filed a sham lawsuit to get the Supreme Court to throw out the 2020 results.⁵

Democrat Jena Griswold in Colorado, who is running against Republican Pam Anderson. Anderson refuses to denounce Donald Trump's attacks on our democracy and has campaigned alongside Erik Aadland, a devout election denier running for Congress.⁶

Democrat Bee Nguyen in Georgia, who is running against Republican Brad Raffensperger. Raffensperger championed one of the most restrictive voting rights laws that the GOP pushed after losing the 2020 election, blocking drop boxes, restricting early voting, and denying water to voters waiting on line for hours in the heat.⁷

Without overstating it, stopping Trump from returning to the White House in 2024 may well depend on these five Democratic candidates winning their seats. Please split a $3 donation to these candidates now. Every dollar you send will go directly to them.

Thanks for all you do.

–Chris, Arvin, Chloe, David, and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. "Trump warns of 'big problems' if indicted, says he'd still run for office," The Washington Post, September 15, 2022
https://act.moveon.org/go/168028?t=4&akid=332675%2E54027705%2EkY6-wa

2. "Graham Predicts 'Riots in the Streets' if Trump Is Prosecuted," The New York Times, August 29, 2022
https://act.moveon.org/go/168029?t=6&akid=332675%2E54027705%2EkY6-wa

3. "At least 11 Republican nominees for state elections chief have disputed the legitimacy of the 2020 election," CNN, August 19, 2022
https://act.moveon.org/go/166771?t=8&akid=332675%2E54027705%2EkY6-wa

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid.

6. "Secretary of State Candidate Pam Anderson Won't Say If She Thinks Trump Should Run Again in 2024," Colorado Times Recorder, September 14, 2022
https://act.moveon.org/go/168027?t=10&akid=332675%2E54027705%2EkY6-wa

7. "Everything You Need to Know About Georgia's New Anti-Voting Law," The Nation, April 1, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/166772?t=12&akid=332675%2E54027705%2EkY6-wa

Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. Paid for with regulated funds by MoveOn.org Political Action, PO Box 96142, Washington, D.C., 20090.

MoveOn.org has never had any real credibility, ever since they stood by the stained Presidency of Bill Clinton. Now, they are busy carrying water for the regressive left, looking for every excuse to criminalize any political opposition in the country.

The left-wing, socialist, communist, Satanist forces in the United States know that their time is limited. They will stop at nothing to hold onto whatever little power they have left, and they will shame, blame, and defame anyone who tries to stand in their way.

But there is a massive uprising of the citizenry in this country which is refusing to put up with this abuse, this destructive, this moral chaos which has become all too common. We the People are exercising our rights as citizens in a democratic Republic, and no one is going to take them away under the guise of besmirching us as fascists.

Revisiting Reaganism with George F. Will, Fifteen Years Later

Time to move on from Reagan,
wrote George F. Will as far back as 2007

Right before President George W. Bush's administration ended, George F. Will told conservatives that they needed to move on from Reagan.

Sadly, he didn't accept that the movement voters wanted meant Trump: a nationalist, populist, more isolationist foreign policy which focused on American citizens, stopped mass immigration (legal and illegal), and stopped with the reckless, globalist agenda-setting spending.

Will's call to move on from Ronald Reagan was published in 2007:

George F. Will:Conservatives must temper worship of Reaganism

WASHINGTON — In this winter of their discontents, nostalgia for Ronald Reagan has become for many conservatives a substitute for thinking. This mental paralysis — gratitude decaying into idolatry — is sterile: Neither the man nor his moment will recur. Conservatives should face the fact that Reaganism cannot define conservatism.

Reagan is dead, and Reaganism is dead. He met many of the challenges facing the country during the 1980s, and he scored a significant win in consigning international communism to the ash heap of history.

Today, the United State is looking at a harsher fate if We the People do not tackle the domestic marxism infecting our schools, universities, and other institutions.

That is one lesson of John Patrick Diggins' new book, "Ronald Reagan: Fate, Freedom and the Making of History." Diggins, a historian at the City University of New York, treats Reagan respectfully as an important subject in American intellectual history. The 1980s, he says, thoroughly joined politics to political theory. But he notes that Reagan's theory was radically unlike that of Edmund Burke, the founder of modern conservatism, and very like that of Burke's nemesis, Thomas Paine.

Burke believed that the past is prescriptive because tradition is a repository of moral wisdom. Reagan frequently quoted Paine's preposterous cry that "we have it in our power to begin the world over again."

This notion of "beginning the world again" would re-emerge with Barack Obama. Sadly, the change that he thought he would bring would be nothing more than corporate elitism spitting on the needs of everyday Americans. Reagan cared about America, he loved the American people, but the domestic issues we face today cannot be solved by the Reaganism of yesterday.

Diggins' thesis is that the 1980s were America's "Emersonian moment" because Reagan, a "political romantic" from the Midwest and West, echoed New England's Ralph Waldo Emerson. "Emerson was right," Reagan said several times of the man who wrote, "No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature." Hence Reagan's unique, and perhaps oxymoronic, doctrine — conservatism without anxieties. Reagan's preternatural serenity derived from his conception of the supernatural.

George Will depended way too much on quotes. What a distraction!

Putting aside the stylistic problems, Will does drill down a deeper issue: conservatism without anxieties. The truth is that every human being should be in tune with the Laws of Nature and Nature's God. This repository of natural law defines and embeds the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. 

We want the Laws of Nature to be crystal clear to every American. Then would they be restored to the cultural and legal heritage of this country. So, for this part I find Will's criticism a little unfounded.

Diggins says Reagan imbibed his mother's form of Christianity, a strand of 19th-century Unitarianism from which Reagan took a foundational belief that he expressed in a 1951 letter: "God couldn't create evil so the desires he planted in us are good." This logic — God is good, therefore so are God-given desires — leads to the Emersonian faith that we please God by pleasing ourselves. Therefore there is no need for the people to discipline their desires. So, no leader needs to suggest that the public has shortcomings and should engage in critical self-examination.

I disagree with this take. The Scriptures could not be clearer regarding human direction and will in conjunction with God's will and desires:

"12Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." (Philippians 2:12-13)

Diggins thinks that Reagan's religion "enables us to forget religion" because it banishes the idea of "a God of judgment and punishment." Reagan's popularity was largely the result of "his blaming government for problems that are inherent in democracy itself." To Reagan, the idea of problems inherent in democracy was unintelligible because it implied that there were inherent problems with the demos — the people.

Human nature is flawed as well as fulsome, no doubt about that. Human nature does need to be limited, not expanded upon. This notion of human expansion and cheery optimism led to higher spending during his administration, with no real interest in tackling the massive debt that has only grown much, much worse over the last forty years.

There was nothing — nothing — in Reagan's thinking akin to Lincoln's melancholy fatalism, his belief (see his Second Inaugural) that the failings of the people on both sides of the Civil War were the reasons why "the war came."

It's essential for a president to rally and cheer up the citizenry, certainly, so I do not believe that a president should beat down on the national electorate exclusively. There is room, and much need, for course corrections among the people, no doubt. There is a fallen aspect to human nature which cannot be ignored, of course, for for that reason the United States Constitution instituted so many checks and balances on political power.

As Diggins says, Reagan's "theory of government has little reference to the principles of the American founding." To the founders, and especially to the wisest of them, James Madison, government's principal function is to resist, modulate and even frustrate the public's unruly passions, which arise from desires.

See above.

"The true conservatives, the founders," Diggins rightly says, constructed a government full of blocking mechanisms — separations of powers, a bicameral legislature and other checks and balances — in order "to check the demands of the people." Madison's constitution responds to the problem of human nature. "Reagan," says Diggins, "let human nature off the hook."

"An unmentionable irony," writes Diggins, is that big-government conservatism is an inevitable result of Reaganism. "Under Reagan, Americans could live off government and hate it at the same time. Americans blamed government for their dependence upon it." Unless people have a bad conscience about demanding big government — a dispenser of unending entitlements — they will get ever larger government.

There is a great deal of truth to this indictment. Reagan did not cut the spending, and he only slowed the growth of government. Today, forty years after the last inflation crises under President Jimmy Carter, the American public is enduring the long-term cost and consequences of printing money ad libitum.

But how can people have a bad conscience after being told (in Reagan's First Inaugural) that they are all heroes? And after being assured that all their desires, which inevitably include desires for government-supplied entitlements, are good?

Barack Obama would echo similar sentiments during his 2008 campaign and into this first and second inaugural. The cheery optimism that treats human beings as basically good, while the government and the environment are the truly flawed features, will create nothing but problems for true constitutional governance.

Similarly, Reagan said that the people never start wars, only governments do. But the Balkans reached a bloody boil because of the absence of effective government. Which describes Iraq today.

George Will was a vocal opponet of the War in Iraq, as was John McLaughlin and a number of other paleoconservatives. Strangely enough, George Will hated President Trump, who was the first President in thirty years to keep the United States out of war and scale back American military commitments around the world!

Because of Reagan's role in the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Diggins ranks him among the "three great liberators in American history" — the others being Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt — and among America's three or four greatest presidents. But, says Diggins, an Emersonian president who tells us our desires are necessarily good leaves much to be desired.

It depends on what the desires are, and it depends how individuals push to realize those desires. If people want to use the government to fulfill their desires, they will find and create nothing but frustration. After Reagan, we have yet to see a Republican President who has been committed to cutting the spending and shrinking the size and scope of the state.

Will Trump follow through, should he get re-elected in 2024?

If the defining doctrine of the Republican Party is limited government, the party must move up from nostalgia and leaven its reverence for Reagan with respect for Madison. As Diggins says, Reaganism tells people comforting and flattering things that they want to hear; the Madisonian persuasion tells them sobering truths that they need to know.

The American people have many sobering truths to face, like the fact that demographic demise, via births and mass immigration, is hurting the structure of the country. The excessive spending due to the reckless entitlement promises must come to an end. 

Reagan said that government is the problem, but he never stopped growing that problem. The next generation of leaders and representatives in Washington DC and around the world will have to get used to saying NO to lobbyists, grifters, and consultants, and say NO to growing government.

Human nature needs a heavey dose of NO at this time, now more than any other, and Reaganism cannot provided that needed check and balance.

Memorial Day in the Czech Republic: Still Celebrating the United States of America

  This is one of those "I didn't know that." This is an amazing story of remembrance. In the Czech Republic , the school children of the equivalent of fifth grade are each assigned one of the American and Canadian liberators buried there. Their grave is the student's responsibility for the year and they learn all there is to know of their own hero. Their surviving family is sent letters and they respond to the annual child who tends their loved one's grave. No apology needed here! Have you ever wondered if anyone in Europe remembers America 's sacrifice in World War II? There is an answer in a small town in the Czech Republic . The town called Pilsen ( Plzen ). 

 Every 5 years, Pilsen conducts the Liberation Celebration of the City of Pilsen in the Czech Republic . May 6th, 2010, marked the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Pilsen by General George Patton's 3rd Army. Pilsen is the town that every American should visit. Because they love America and the American Soldier. 

Even 65 years later... by the thousands, 

The citizens of Pilsen came to say thank you. 

Lining the streets of Pilsen for miles  

From the large crowds, 

to quiet reflective moments,

including this American family's private time to honor and remember their American hero.

This is the crash site of Lt. Virgil P. Kirkham, the last recorded American USAAF pilot killed in Europe during WWII. It was Lt. Kirkham's 82nd mission and one that he volunteered to go on. At the time, this 20-year-old pilot's P-47 Thunderbolt plane was shot down, a young 14-year-old Czech girl, Zdenka Sladkova, was so moved by his sacrifice she made a vow to care for him and his memory. For 65 straight years, Zdenka, now 79-years-old, took on the responsibility to care for Virgil's crash site and memorial near her home.  

On May 4th, she was recognized by the Mayor of Zdenka's home town of Trhanova ,Czech Republic , for her sacrifice and extraordinary effort to honor this American hero.  

Another chapter in this important story... the Czech people are teaching their children aboutAmerica 's sacrifice for their freedom. 

American Soldiers, young and old, are the Rock Stars these children and their parents want autographs from. 

Yes, Rock Stars! As they patiently waited for his autograph, the respect this littleCzech boy and his father have for our troops serving today was heartwarming and inspirational. 

The Brian LaViolette Foundation established The Scholarship of Honor in tributeto General George S. Patton and the American Soldier, past and present. 

Each year, a different military hero will be honored in tribute to General Patton's memory and their mission to liberate Europe . This award will be presented to a graduating senior who will be entering the military or a form of community service such as fireman, policeman, teaching or nursing -- a cause greater than self. The student will be from 1 of the 5 high schools in Pilsen , Czech Republic. 

 The first award waspresented in May 2011 in honor of Lt. Virgil Kirkham, that young 20-year-old P-47 pilot killed 65 years ago in the final days of WWII. 

Presenting Virgil's award will be someone who knows the true meaning of service and sacrifice... someone who looks a lot like Virgil. Marion Kirkham, Virgil's brother, who himself served during WWII in the United States Army Air Corps!!! 

In closing... Here is what the city of Pilsen thinks of General Patton's grandson. George Patton Waters (another Rock Star!) we're proud to say, serves on Brian's Foundation board. 

 And it's front page news over there not buried in the middle of the social section. 

Brigadier General Miroslav Zizka, 1st Deputy Chief of Staff, Ministry of Defense, Czech Armed Forces. 

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