Please reflect on the meaning of Memorial Day, as you enjoy your long weekend
TAT readers,
I encourage all of you to make time this long weekend, to honor those who have given their full measure of devotion, to our nation and its declared values. They have gifted all citizens,’ the time to honor the responsibility of citizenship by pursuing a future, built on the foundation of those values. Those fallen heroes, deserve at least this much commitment from all of us. Every citizen must now pick up the baton, at the feet of each fallen hero and carry it into a future that honors their sacrifice to the morality our nation was founded upon.
Liberty is a remarkably heavy load to bear when borne by few, especially for those who hailed the call, to pick up that baton in the first place. The load of liberty grows far lighter when carried by all, not just those serving in uniform. This is where every citizen must step up and bear their share of the burden, that the fallen can no longer carry.
Liberty is gold for the soul, of every free human being, and even more precious. We all should be inspired to carry, protect and nourish such a treasure. For some, feeding at the trough of fake patriotism, this is like bearing the weight of fool’s gold, not the real deal. They must be made to understand that all of their opportunity, springs from the lifeblood of liberty, so preciously purchased in blood. Our national values, including our constitutional rights, are largely built on a foundation of cutting edge thinking about human rights, society, morality etc., more precisely, the brilliant, inalienable rights enumerated so carefully by Thomas Jefferson, in our Declaration of Independence.
Those rights, born of the moral philosophy of the Scottish Enlightenment, carefully laid out the truth of what it means to be a citizen of liberty. In fact, inalienable rights cannot exist without liberty. This is what I would like everyone to consider over the weekend, as you go about enjoying family and friends. After all, we all remember Jefferson’s line in our Declaration of Independence, about “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
“That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” - Declaration of Independence - Thomas Jefferson - July 4th, 1776
Don’t listen to the political definitions of patriotism. They are very often, poorly framed inferences that suggest different meanings to patriotism than those found in our founding documents. In truth, there are no Republican values and democratic values, but only American values. Invest a handful of minutes on your phone and search for constitution.org and you will find out the truth. Another excellent project is the Avalon Project at Yale. Truth and our founding values, were and always will be so precious as to require investments of blood and treasure to sustain it, just as we did during the Civil War, WW II etc.
As the word, “United” implies in the name of our nation, liberty requires unity over the precious gold of our inalienable rights, but first we must have honest understanding of those rights. This is why we must forgo the madness of listening to so many of those who peddle fake patriotism rather than what Jefferson wrote about in our Declaration of Independence and James Madison codified in both our constitution, and the Bill of Rights.
The more we pay attention to “who we are as a nation,” The lighter our load becomes and concurrently, the stronger our resilience towards those who would divide us with falsities. This requires a dedication to truth, not parties. As Jefferson, Madison, Washington, Hamilton, Adams and far more required, investing in being literate in our form of government, not factions, as political parties were referred to in early America, would ensure the survival of our nascent republic.
The above is but the minimum requirement for citizenship in our republic, lit with the torch of lady liberty but occasionally stumbling on the path forward towards embodying our stated goals. Good citizenship is what will sustain the memories of those lost on the battlefield of freedom. I have friends, military brothers and sisters lost on that battlefield, and every one of them were extraordinary as, human beings, professionals and as citizens, devoted to the highest ideals of our Great Experiment. I will mourn them this weekend, which is always difficult, but will also include heaping doses of gratitude for what they did for all of us.
This weekend, like most of America, I will enjoy the life, those we memorialize, helped pay for and, as has long been family tradition to do, memorialize them at a national cemetery. My parents, both Veterans, lie side-by-side beneath those stark white stones, at the San Antonio National Cemetery. I will take time to pause with them, sitting quietly before their headstones in the pristinely maintained grass and collectively offer inexhaustible gratitude to their neighbors interred there.
On Veteran’s Day and the many days between it, and the Memorial Day holiday, I will visit again, sitting in the soft grass, chatting with my parents and this weekend’s heroes. There are other dear friends interred there as well, who will also merit a visit. As I walk the neatly lined rows, decorated with flags, and other mementos of love and appreciation, I will breathe the air of freedom, the very gift that those we memorialize this weekend, gifted us all.
My warmest wishes for a thoroughly wonderful and reflective holiday.
Paul
One last important piece of business to get done before beginning the weekend…
Thank you, to the brilliant team at The Athina Press, for so artfully and elegantly publishing my book: Modern Minutemen and Women, The Art of Influence: A voter education guide.
My author's copy arrived yesterday, with its final edits fixed. This version is the "professor's copy,” a beautiful hardback. The "student's copy," will be a paperback, priced lower, as to not impose heavy book costs onto students.
This book is highly recommended for and mostly designed, for undergrad and grad school. It's highly recommended for understanding threats revolving around Narrative Warfare, mis and disinformation. Additionally, it discusses in detail, why the US and NATO are mostly impotent in protecting the resilience of our citizens from influence operations and projecting democracy. Even as I type this, we are losing ground to our worst adversaries.
I wrote this book to inform any and all, about the criticality of investing in full-spectrum and ethical influence operations as well as operational expertise, rather than just AI, faux narrative specialists like the new, National Center for Narrative Intelligence, at Ole’ Miss, and those falsely claiming that AI and CYBER, holds all of the answers. Influence is a most human of professions and a field that requires everything, not just one or two tools in our toolboxes. It is also crucial that the US and our allies, only work within the parameters of ethical influence.
Because the US nor our NATO allies, train operators, there is an entire critical field within the national security community, that does not exist at all. I had the good fortune in my career to work with a smaller element of the US Special Operations command, which required operating, not just planning. Our small team developed our own training, and I had the good fortune to have had the opportunity to create tactics, strategies and other critical elements that are not known to most of those in uniform. All my commander required of me was that my work had to be legal and that I could show that it worked. None of this is part of any other element of the US and NATO forces. The bottom line… we are daily at more risk from our worst adversaries.
As noted, our national security community regarding influence, is and has been for decades, impotent and expensive, but still leaves us more at threat than ever. Finally, this book, tells everyone what this field looks like, from the one type of professional, that our influence community... refuses to listen to... the handful of true operators.
Many may not like what they read here, especially those who've made such a disaster out of my profession, but it should also be a wake-up call to citizens. Like the Minutemen on Lexington commons, the bridge at Concord and other commons around Boston, at the beginning of our War for Independence, ordinary citizens must do it ourselves. Our government has clearly demonstrated that they cannot and in most cases, will not.
This book and the student's, paperback version, are available at Barnes & Noble, Inc. or for discounts, please see the extraordinary team at The Athina Press. Their website is as follows: https://lnkd.in/g5yGusJZ
Now my friends and family,
Savor your time with family and friends this long weekend. The lives of those who made the ultimate sacrifice, purchased it at the highest of prices and would want all to live as they no longer can.
Paul