Freedom-lovers have been through many trials and victories this year. It seems unending and can be exhausting, but we must remember we are fighting for our freedoms and our children’s future; history shows we can and will turn this around and win.
2020 is certainly a year for the history books. It’s the year everything changed, when government boldly stepped into our very living rooms to regulate us, and Democrats openly began burning down our cities and threatening our livelihoods.
We had some important victories, especially here in Texas. As Democrat local officials seemed to readily embrace the role of tyrant, Texan citizen-leaders like Grant Bynum and Shelley Luther stepped forward and said enough is enough, and resisted simply to provide food for their families. The tide began turning, and we slowly won back some of our liberties.
Then came the tragic death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. Democrats and their activists seized the moment to begin burning our cities to the ground and demanding they get our tax dollars that are normally set aside for the police.
Now mask mandates are back, with penalties of fines and potential jail time, and Democrats are pushing for a statewide mandate.
The radical left is moving, and some freedom-lovers are getting tired of 2020.
I understand and feel the same despair threatening my own heart—but we must not give in!
It’s June. It’s half-time right now. Democrats nationwide have made it very clear by their actions that their targets are nothing less than our own freedom—attacking citizens’ ability to provide food for their families, imprisoning those who don’t obey their orders, stirring up lawlessness and chaotic violence, etc. We the people can and must defeat them. And if you think our righteous cause is hopeless, let me show you a historical figure who’d strongly disagree.
General Matthew Ridgway
December 1950, Korea. Right on the cusp of Allied forces winning the Korean War, Communist China jumped in and reversed almost all of the heroic gains achieved by America’s legendary Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
In his book “The Savior Generals,” conservative Victor Davis Hanson describes our country’s response as frantic. Nearly all in the highest levels of American political and military command thought the situation hopeless, and plans were being made to abandon Korea altogether. Troops were tired and just wanted it all to be over.
Sound familiar?
Then one man changed it all. Sent to replace a loss in MacArthur’s command structure, Gen. Matthew Ridgway—an oddball disliked by many—was sent to take command of the Allied army in Korea. No one thought he could salvage the situation.
After studying what was going on, Ridgway believed he could and saw opportunities no one else did.
He tended to the needs of his troops, lifted their morale, and reminded them why they were there and what the stakes were: the freedom of not just South Korea but America.
Then he laid his trap for Communist China.
The result? South Korea was saved, and the Communist forces were so annihilated that up until recently, China was extremely wary of directly challenging the U.S.
Ridgway’s heroic efforts made him part of an elite club of military heroes who took seemingly lost causes and made them memorable victories that positively changed the future. Hanson dubs such as “savior generals.”
Ridgway’s story shows us a cause can seem to be lost but is actually the opposite. The lesson for us is to calmly look at what the situation really is, encourage each other, and take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves.
We must also remind ourselves why we’re fighting. It can be easy to give up if we forget what the stakes are. If Ridgway were here right now, addressing us who are tired, weary, and beginning to darkly wonder if defeat is inevitable, I think I know what he’d say in light of Democrat rioting and tyrannical rule.
In fact, I’ll let him speak for himself from Hanson’s “The Savior Generals”:
“The real issues are whether the power of Western civilization, as God has permitted it to flower in our own beloved lands, shall defy and defeat Communism; whether the rule of men who shoot their prisoners, enslave their citizens, and deride the dignity of man, shall displace the rule of those to whom the individual and his individual rights are sacred.” (pg. 176)
Our liberties are at stake. Some of you may have begun to believe 2020 is lost, but history shows it only takes one man or woman to change everything.
Maybe one person reading this will be 2020’s savior general.
Maybe it’s you.
Onward.
