Last Ounce of Courage: A Movie For Patriots

  I just finished watching an incredible movie.  A few months ago I saw previews of a movie called “Last Ounce of Courage” and mentioned to my wife that I would like to see it.  She found it at Amazon.com and ordered it.  This movie had been sitting in a box with some others for quite some time and she pulled them out today and we decided to sit down and watch it tonight.

The story is about a Vietnam veteran who lost a son in Iraq or Afghanistan, not really sure which, but where isn’t important.  The story is what is important.  Bob Revere is a mayor of small town America who watched his son go off to war and saw him return in a casket.  The story line revolves around Christmas but the underlying reality of today’s America is what matters.

Bob Revere is a Medal of Honor recipient from Vietnam who takes a stand for freedom when the ACLU, and the media naturally, threatens his town with lawsuits and other strong-arm tactics over acknowledging that Christmas is celebrated as the birth of Jesus Christ.  Revere embodies the spirit of America and what we are losing because We the People have allowed ourselves to be intimidated into acquiescing to the views of a very small minority of people who are agnostic, pagan, and/or just downright evil.

Anyone that knows me can tell you that I am about as tough and hard-nosed as anyone can be but I found myself teary eyed through the entire movie.   It made me swell with pride and ache with sadness and concern at the same time.  This movie took me back 42 years to my time in the military.  It took me back to a time when friends died on distant battlefields in third world hell holes that no one remembers or cares about today.

I think of friends who died in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Central America, and South America; in unknown and unacknowledged counter-insurgency operations all around the globe.  Many died in places no one ever knew about because the operations were so highly classified that company and group commanders didn’t know where they were or what they were doing.

It made me think of the sacrifices made by the 1.3 million who have died since the beginning of our Republic and the countless millions who have suffered crippling injuries, both physical and mental, to preserve the ideals founded in 1776 and written into the Declaration of Independence; and later, in 1791, written into The Constitution of the United States of America.  It made me think of the millions more, like myself, who were fortunate enough to serve in the military without the debilitating injuries so many suffered through, and still suffer through today.

Our nation is losing the freedoms so many have sacrificed so much to provide for us.  Like Bob Revere we have become comfortable with giving in to tyranny without realizing we are doing so.  In one line in the movie Revere says “that’s just the way it is, kid” when talking to his grandson.  Many sit in comfy homes, with plenty to eat, with warm roofs over our heads, and do little or nothing to honor the sacrifices of so many who deserve to be honored. Honoring them is more than a parade on Memorial Day or Veterans Day.  While these things are important, they aren’t the most important things we can do.

Little by little, a government run by dictatorial minded thugs intimidates us into giving away the legacy left by those who have put their lives on hold, or sacrificed themselves, for an ideal that was more precious to them than their own lives.  We give in to the threats of lawsuits by bullies because we want to “just get along and live in peace”.  During the Benghazi hearings Hillary Clinton said “at this point, what difference does it really make?”.  My blood boiled when I heard those words come out of the mouth of one of the most despicable people to ever sit in a seat of government.

What difference does it really make, indeed!!  The more important question is “What difference do I make?”.  What difference do I make  in the bigger picture of liberty for my children, my grandchildren, my great grandchildren.  Like Bob Revere, I served my country honorably in the military.  But again, like Bob Revere, that isn’t enough.  Our future generations need us more than we have ever needed anyone.  The “greatest generation” fought Hitler, Tojo, and Mussolini in World War II to defeat the most evil forces on earth at the time, all to preserve my chance to live free.  Like Revere’s grandson I hadn’t been born yet when my father joined millions of other men to put their lives in harm’s way for a future generation they would birth.  The wars of my day, I thought, were for freedom of our country but they really weren’t, at least not directly as World War II had been.  The wars against Communist expansion were more about the freedom of others living in countries far away from our shores, yet stopping the expansion of evil, in the long run, was necessary for the protection of our land also.

We are in a war today, right here in America.  It isn’t a shooting war, yet, but is a war none the less.  Our war is against the principalities and powers of darkness as described in the Holy Bible, powers that control our government.   We are fighting a war for the very soul of a nation and a future of liberty for our children and future generations.  If we lose this war it will be decades before there will be a chance for freedom, if that chance ever comes.  We are fighting corrupt politicians like Bob Menendez who has sex with underage girls, paid for by our tax money and protected by a corrupt political system that values their power more than they value morality and what is right.  Menendez is only one of many corrupt politicians and bureaucrats who demean the values America stands for, yet sit back and condemn those of us who value honesty, integrity, and morality.

The TEA Party rallies and recent gatherings at state capitols to support the 2^nd Amendment are encouraging but more needs to be done.  People have finally become alarmed enough to stand up and be counted even though they know a despotic government is recording their words, their actions, their phone calls, e-mails, and internet site comments.  All this is being done to intimidate us into silence or to build a lists of “enemies of the state” to be arrested and murdered when the time comes for the final takeover.

Some cower in silence, and/or temper what they post, out of fear of reprisal from the government.  I have been told numerous times that I should stop writing the articles that I write and posting what I post on social network sites, or tone down the rhetoric out of concern for who might be reading and taking notes.  I am critical of despots in government, regardless of political affiliation, and that is dangerous I am told.  The media is already in the pockets of the despots but the independence minded patriots are not, and will not be intimidated into silence.

We the People can win the war against tyranny but we can’t do it by being silent.  We don’t need to run out into the streets shooting guns and yelling, but we cannot win by sitting silently and allowing the thugs in government to run roughshod over our freedoms either.

Go to the movie theater and watch this movie, or better yet buy the DVD and watch it with your children and neighbors. Pass it around to those who will watch it and stand up for freedom.  No one who has fought for freedom, or anyone who has lost a loved one in that fight, will be able to sit through this without tears.  I can’t imagine how anyone who loves freedom will be able to watch without being touched deeply.  I sit here and write this with tears in my eyes, thinking of the sacrifices of so many and how close we are to throwing all of those sacrifices away out of apathy.

Please share this article with everyone you know, make it go viral in honor of those who have given all for your freedom and those who are still sacrificing for liberty today.  You can watch the trailer here.  Also, go to www.standusa.com and join in the community of Americans taking a stand for liberty, I have.

I submit this in the name of the Most Holy Trinity, in faith, with the responsibility given to me by Almighty God to honor His work and not let it die from neglect.

Bob Russell

Claremore, Oklahoma

February 10, 2013