Our Mission is Honorable and Straightforward
Having abided by my oath for all my adult life, I am deeply concerned to see a new administration openly ridiculing our Constitution and Bill of Rights.
I cautiously joined Oath Keepers and watched at first, seeking to discover the direction that it was taking. While I watched several hotheads tried to promote extreme measures and were uniformly rebuffed by the leadership. As a result, I am confident now that there is a strong commitment to keep Oath Keepers apart from any militant organizations.
To me, our mission is honorable and straightforward– In years past, the leaders of history’s greatest Republic asked us to put our lives on the line and take an oath to defend and uphold our Constitution and our way of life against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We all raised our right hands and accepted the risk and the obligation.
Long accustomed to foreign enemies, we now face a new challenge. To meet it effectively, we must close ranks and firmly remind our elected leaders that they are bound by the same oath.
James A
Please donate and support Oath Keepers mission, every little bit helps!
November 21st, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Amen! As a retired career Military person (M/Sgt)Army National Guard, and unemployed teacher of history, Civics and English in California (where else) I couldn’t agree more. Unfortunately our so called “elected leaders” consisting of liars, cheats, thieves, perverts, socialists, and in the Emperor Obama’s case,a closet racist, are our biggest enemies. This weekend our “leaders” are selling out this country with their bankrupt health care theft, thereby turning us into just another tired, 3rd world socialist nation. This is the 21st Century–where and when does this crap end?
November 22nd, 2009 at 3:47 am
Service to the county is not pretense.
The big difference, between a soldier, sailor, airman, & marine, (police & firemen) and a civilian …is an Oath to service, to sacrifice even our lives if necessary to defend the country, to save lives… “their can be no more noble action from men”.
A “soldier” has a “duty” of sacrifices… his freedom, his time, his comfort, his limbs and even his life. for his fellows and country. That is honor, that is how you earn honor of service.
The other two groups who put it on the line each day are police and firemen. That too is honor,
Those who also take an oath to serve and protect.
Civilians do not have this duty, they do not take an oath to serve / sacrifice. IMHO they can never earn the honor without this service, with out this oath.
All civilians can do is pretend. They can not know, they have never served.
I am a funny little man who believes
whole-heartedly in the honor of service and sacrifice. You have to do it, not pretend to…you must serve, you must sacrifice, just to want to is not enough…that is pretense.
Those of us who looked death in the face, know and understand me. You all know… honor does not rub off it must be earned. Honor is a decision.
In this country anyone can serve, a civilians choice, few do. Civilians rather be safe (not risk their life), live their life of comfort.
I fully support this decision…their decision, their choice.
That is why I sacrificed, that is why I served… I gave my adult life for the right to decide, to allow others that choice.
Hence the term Oath keeper. A group of honorable men and women who know sacrifice, not for themselves but for the country.
To me service, sacrifice, and keeping your word. That is proof of honor, love of country, adherence to the constitution. There is truth in action.
This honor is earned (like a RANGER tab) and not bestowed on just any individual.
You have to “prove” your worth (honor) to me. I will not assume it.
And the only proof I will accept is current, or prior service…and that proof is the oath.
To be successful, keep you mission pure, do not get distracted. To keep your mission pure, our objective in sight.
Our mission is Keep the oath we all took.
Our objectives is – to recruit like minded service men and women, police and fire, they all took the oath, they all proved they have honor of service.
Educate the other Oath Takers, to our way of honor… why integrity(keeping your oath) is vital to freedom.
Finally – do not honor or vote for any one who does not respect his oath, or the US Constitution.
We must be careful, not be distracted by others who pretend to know sacrifice, who pretend to know service to the country. Those who did not serve. Who have other (not on mission) political agendas.
Their mission is not clear, IMHO civilians do not even understand mission, how could they ? They only pretend.
They (pretenders) want honor by association with honor not putting forth the effort earning it, for themselves, (the sacrifice of service).
Civilians chose the not to honor the Constitution with service or sacrifice. It was their choice.
My point is…These interlopers, and pretenders will corrupt and misguide the OK mission.
They can never understand, they never served. They can only dupe them selves and others into thinking they do and this is a fraud.
They lack the honesty of action, integrity of service, honor of the oath. That is the power we have our integrity, or service our word.
Those who chose not to serve… only dilute the the resolve… required for victory, they are an liability not an asset.
I have to be honest, here I will not be lead by an pretender, and will not tolerate them, they have not earned the honor.
I do not think any less of them, they chose not to serve it was their choice… they did not sacrifice… I will not dishonor those who did.
They can never know, they have never earned the honor of serving and the Oath.
They made their choice not to serve not to sacrifice. They have no honor of service, they have not earned it.
How can they be trusted, with this sacred mission, there is no proof, of their honor, there is no action of service.
Let me apologize for any hurt feelings, but it is what it is. Service to the county is not pretense.
There is no pretending in combat.
Men and women of honor will save this country, by example of service and sacrifice, honesty and and integrity (the ability to keep your word).
Mission and objectives are clear.
Keep your word, find others who served (recruit), educate them (in truth), and do not vote for people who have no honor…(those who disregard the Constitution).
Service, Honor, Integrity, Courage,Truth, and Purity of Mission, coupled with respectful disobedience.
Those are our tools and tactics in this fight, and it does no good to debase them or dilute their power.
Once again sorry to be so harsh, but to win we need truth, honesty, and frank talk. PC is not my strong suit. But you are one or the other, if you have any integrity, or honor you know.
November 22nd, 2009 at 2:19 pm
i totally agree with this and i support the u.s. constiution. to the period
November 25th, 2009 at 9:54 am
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Hey James,
I wanted to welcome you to Oath Keepers.
I stand with you in your decision to become one of us.
And all of us, whether we be currently serving military, military veterans, currently serving peace officers or fire fighters, former peace officre or fire fighters, or patriotic civilians, are in this thing TOGETHER !
I welcome your support. I welcome your committment to our Country and our countrymen’s Constitutional rights and liberties.
We stand together… regardless of our “pedigree”.
Again, welcome James.
I’m proud to stand with you as a fellow Oath Keeper.
NOT ON OUR WATCH
Eddie Gilbert
USMC SSgt 70-78
Peace Officer 97-present
November 25th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Apparently George Hill (Comment #2, above) thinks, unlike the leadership of Oath Keepers, that civilians, or those who have never taken the Oath, do not belong in Oath Keepers because “All civilians can do is pretend. They can not know, they have never served.” He feels that civilians “dilute” the “mission” of Oath Keepers, because they have never proved their loyalty to the country and to their countrymen.
In answer to this allegation, I would like to relate a little story. It is the story of Thomas Hastings, the Pastor of a little church in Boston, Massachusetts who, when it became apparent to nearly everyone in New England that conflict with Great Britain was all but inevitable, earnestly preached peace and patience to his congregation. He was appalled that people were openly calling for armed resistance to the Crown. Christ, he believed, unequivocally taught obedience to legitimate authority in all things, since all authority came ultimately from God. And the Crown was certainly legitimate authority!
Even when several protesting Bostonians were shot down in the street by British troops during the winter of 1775, he counselled peace and forgiveness for the British soldiers, who were swiftly put on trial, defended in court by the rising young attorney and patriot, John Adams. Many in Hastings’ congregation stopped attending his church and called him a traitor and “British sympathizer.” Even his wife, who ardently sympathized with the dominant revolutionary sentiment in Boston, became more and more distant, eventually taking their two young children, aged five and eight, to “visit” her parents in Sturbridge, a town about twenty miles west of Boston. Hastings was devastated. His world was falling apart. Madness, it seemed to him, had gripped Massachusetts and now even his wife had succumbed to it.
His congregation dwindling, Hastings was forced to work part time at a blacksmith’s shop around the corner from his church, as an assistant to the smith. Even the smith was hostile toward him, because his reputation as a “Tory” now preceded him everywhere.
As animosity toward the British government in Boston became more intense, Hastings thought of moving out of Boston into the countryside. He took a position with another smith at Warton, a village only five miles away from Sturbridge, where his wife and children, who he missed terribly, were still “visiting.” He was living there when the fighting at Lexington and Concord Bridge took place. British cavalry seemed to be everywhere around Boston, searching for weapons and military stores hidden by the militia and their allies. One night, acting on a “tip” from one of their informers in Sturbridge, British cavalry herded most of the people in the town into the Congregationalist Church there and locked them in. The soldiers broke into and looted the homes of the townspeople, looking, primarily, for weapons and ammunition. Somehow, no one could tell exactly how, the church caught fire and everyone locked in it were killed, including Hastings’ wife and children, and their grandparents. Townspeople later told Hastings that it was rumored the British commander, frustrated at finding nothing to justify his actions, ordered his soldiers to “fire the church.”
Something in Hastings snapped. For days, he sat staring at the ruined church. For a time, he drank heavily, but he managed to stay sober long enough to join the revolutionaries. He began secretly training with experienced militiamen on military tactics and strategy, and, to the degree possible, on marksmanship and the use of the bayonet. He made his way with his unit to New York, where General Washington was preparing to fight the British at Breed’s Hill, on Long Island. In the ensuing battle, Hastings distinguished himself by his bravery and sacrifice, and by the savagery with which he fought, bayoneting British soldiers and cutting their throats. He was wounded in the battle, but kept fighting until the British drove the revolutionary forces from their fortifications. He became a soldier with the Continental Army, was promoted three times, and served throughout the War until the Battle of Trenton, when he lost his right foot to frostbite.
Washington personally commended Hastings many times, and after the War, the general, and later President, did whatever he could to help the former Pastor. Finally, Hastings came to work at the smithy at Mount Vernon, where Washington called him “Vulcan.” Hastings never spoke about the War, never bragged, and never went back to being a pastor. Nor did he ever enter a church again.