For 79 years, the USS Arizona has rested silently on the floor of Pearl Harbor. Since 1962, a monument placed above the fallen battleship in the shallow bay has honored the lives of the 1,177 officers and crewmen lost with their ship.
It also serves as a powerful reminder to America of the high cost of failing to remain vigilant.
Following the devastating Japanese attack on December 7, 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt somberly and accurately predicted it would become “a date that will live in infamy.” What was unthinkable only days before was suddenly, painfully clear—even the great United States is never so powerful that we can afford to let our guard down.
This also applies today. Surveying the state of our nation today, we can again see the costs of a failure to remain vigilant. While our nation has enemies around the world who would love nothing more than to see another 12/7 or 9/11, our greatest threat today does not come from outside our borders.
It comes from within.
Following the attacks on both of these infamous dates, our nation came together and rallied to the military defeat of our enemies. But today, the main effect of the attacks is evident in our nation’s apparent inability to come together in anything at all.
To know the history of the ideas that have led to this fragmentation of our country is to know that few espousing the ideas have, well, any idea what they’re really advocating.
A cautionary correlation. The very idea that the most fundamental human institution of marriage could be redefined by the courts would make no sense to the Greatest Generation—the generation that responded to Pearl Harbor by vanquishing the enemy in Asia and in Europe. Not to mention the idea that entrepreneurs could lose their businesses for refusing to use their talents to celebrate an event such as a same-sex wedding ceremony. This judicial overreach is an unprecedented threat in long-established law and our cherished religious freedom.
Think about this for a moment: Can you imagine the Founding Fathers trying to understand some definition of “health” and “rights” that could be used to justify the slaughter of innocent children in the womb?
I could go on, but the point is made: what enemies outside the United States have been unable to accomplish for almost 250 years is now far advanced by those who have embraced destructive ideas, and forced them upon a society that was busy living their lives.
A society that was not vigilant.
Well, at Center for Arizona Policy we are paying attention, and we are Speaking Boldly. And we have a hope based in a faith that previous generations of Americans also held . . . a hope that the same Creator who endowed every person with unalienable rights also gives his faithful ones the ability to reclaim the values that allowed our nation to become a beacon of freedom to the world.
I am confident that America is far from done. But we are also far from the values and spirit that built this nation. We have so much to do.
On this December 7, will you join me in fighting to defend our most precious and natural rights and freedoms? A gift today of $250, $500, $1,000, or more will help us reach our Year End goal of $500,000, allowing Center for Arizona Policy’s team to go into 2021 Speaking Boldly, with all the resources we need to win for life, family, and freedom.
As we today remember the sacrifices of those sailors 79 years ago, we also remember countless other heroes—those who put everything on the line on battlefields and the seas, in the streets and in fields, in courts and town squares—those who would rather die than surrender the gift of freedom we have been given both by God and by our ancestors.
Today, we find ourselves today in a battle not of our choosing, but one that demands a strong defense from those who love our families, friends, state, and nation.
Join CAP in Speaking Boldly with a Gift
Blessings,
Cathi Herrod, Esq.
President
P.S. I hope you will again join me and CAP in protecting our most cherished freedoms and values—life, family, the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Whatever you can give today or before Year’s End will be used to further enshrine these values in the laws and policies of Arizona. Thank you.
You may also mail your tax-deductible contribution to:
Center for Arizona Policy | P.O. Box 97250 Phoenix AZ 85060