Roy Exum
I get a lot of email and try to have good judgment when it comes to what I keep and what I cull. The big search engines like Google and Yahoo pick up everything I write so I get responses from all over the country. I look at each of them as a personal note. I very rarely share them, instead using the opinions of others as a magnificent teaching source. It’s incredible what so many people teach me.
Last week a reader shared a home-made video with me that made me nervous. I agree with so much of what this former Marine had to say but, brother, if you want to start a fight in any bar just start yapping real big about religion or politics and somebody bigger than you will have an opposite view.
The video I watched was spoken from the heart.
The guy who made it is brave. I know I’ll like him if ever we meet so I emailed him back and told him he really ought to think about putting this out in public. It’s pretty volatile, as you will soon see, and it is right on the edge of what can get a guy fired from his job, in dutch with his in-laws, or make your dentist look at you funny.
His wife then called me and said they had talked it over and he wanted to stand up for what he thinks is right, and to “let ‘er rip!” I still have qualms about it but yesterday afternoon it started popping up all over the Internet. This former Marine addresses President Obama in the fiercest fashion after watching his city get attacked by a terrorist and the subsequent funerals that tore all of us apart.
So with some reservation because I want nothing bad to happen to this guy, I’m going to share some highlights and if you want to watch the entire rant, all it takes is a few keystrokes to YouTube.com and look at the video entitled, “Chattanooga Marine Veterans’ Direct Address To Mr. Obama.” Just so you’ll know, as of late yesterday afternoon over 720,000 had watched it.
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"I'm not going to address you as President or the Commander In Chief. You don't deserve it. I fail to see in any way that you have earned it," came the opening salvo.
"I am a citizen of the United States of America. More importantly, I am born and raised and a current resident of Chattanooga, Tennessee. I am proud to say that I'm a United States Marine…. I work six days a week at a blue collar job to provide for my wife and two sons, which doesn't leave much time to do anything else. But, this is important, so I made the time."
"The day of the attack, you delivered a statement and you don't even have the decency to stand up," the Marine derided Obama’s lack of manners. "You talked on the Charleston issue standing up. You talked on the Boston Marathon Bombing standing up. Baltimore … standing. Michael Brown, standing. Greece, standing. Washington Naval Yard shooting, standing. Whitney frickin’ Houston, you stood up.
“Four Marines gunned down and killed, followed by a sailor . . . all on American soil, while on duty, but unarmed, defenseless, and you sit, slumped down in a chair and ramble through some poorly-scripted apology that seems as sincere as ‘If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.’
"We have a saying in the Marine Corps at the end of your service," he added. "You're told: 'Don't drop your pack.’ Mr. Obama, you never put your pack on."
The former corporal solemnly named the names of those who were killed in the attack and expressed his "deepest and sincerest condolences" to the families before he stepped back from the camera to stand at attention and observe a moment of quiet:
-- “United States Marine Corps, Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Sullivan, age 40, two tours in Iraq, earned two Purple Hearts
-- “United States Marine, Staff Sergeant David Wyatt, age 37
-- “United States Marine Corps, Sgt. Carson Holmquist, age 27, two tours in Afghanistan
-- “United States Marine Corps, Lance Corporal Skip Wells, age 21
-- “United States Navy, Petty Officer Randall Smith, age 26
Returning to glare into the camera, it was obvious he wasn’t through … he was just getting started. “It seems to me, and apparently I'm not alone, that you have done more damage to this country than anyone. A once proud nation that stood for liberty, justice, and freedom is now in chaos. These people are fighting each other; there's rioting in the streets; history is being censored by political correctness."
“There are actually debates about whether or not to destroy protected national monuments. Those monuments were made long before your 2008 entrance into our leadership. They explain the journey of Americans' travels. They celebrate the men and women that gave so much, including their lives, and fought for our freedoms and liberties that you're so quick to dissolve, which actually makes sense.
“You don't want us remembering that people once rose up and fought for our freedoms from an over-controlling government. And while you were busy taking away those freedoms and liberties one by one, I never thought there'd be a day that Americans would fear paying their respects to fallen heroes whose only fault was showing up for work that day."
He bemoaned the fact children no longer recite the Pledge of Allegiance “because God offends them” and then, recalling how the Founding Fathers defeated tyranny, he said, “Mr. Obama, you are a tyrant and nothing more."
He shredded Obama’s administration, its lack of transparency, the scandals, the crimes.
"No more! No more back-room deals and secret documents, bills that can't be read before voting up. We're no longer asking for answers, we are demanding them. We are no longer asking you to take action, we demand it. We are no longer asking for your attention, we will be listened to. Remember this, if nothing else: You work for us, not the other way round."
"May God bless the United States of America, and my prayers to Chattanooga, all the families and friends of those lost, and all the victims associated," he said in closing. "My family is here for you, and if there is anything that we can do, please let us know."
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I have very purposely omitted his name although I know who he is and where he lives. That’s because if the day ever comes that I need to jump in a foxhole, this is the Marine who is going be right beside me.
royexum@aol.com