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Kelly's avatar

Thank you, Jeff, for this post. About two years ago I started purchasing Christian shirts. Starting during Pride month last year I thought, hey, I can wear what I’m proud of and every day during the month of June and almost every day since then I have worn shirts and hats with Christian messages. I often wonder if it matters to anyone. It rarely starts a conversation and never with anyone who challenges me. I have had the thought before that maybe it’s doing things I’m not aware of. Perhaps I’m encouraging other believers to be bold in their faith or showing them we are one person stronger of a body of Christ than they realized. But the end of this post was just the encouragement I needed not to give up my simple ministry of always wearing the word of God on my shirt (I have about 50 different ones now) or my favorite hoodie emblazoned with the name of Jesus across it. I do my best work being kind to masked shoppers in Trader Joe’s. 🤣 so thank you for encouraging me. Keep this sub stack going. I love coffee and covid but I need this even more. You do great work. God bless you.

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Christine McKellar's avatar

It started decades ago. My mother knew, which is why she wrote this poem in 1962. She was awarded two Valley Forge Medal of Freedom honors for two other patriotic poems: "Pledge of Faith" (1962) and "This Nation Under God" (1963). She gave all she had in subsequent years: letters to the editor, school board meetings, etc., and was shunned, ignored or called insane because of that. I have boxes of her materials and writings dating back to the 1950s.

Wake Up, America!

Wake up, America, our country’s at war!

We’ve been invaded by a faceless corps,

No guns, no tanks, no planes overhead

But round us the enemy with silent tread…

Gray shapes drift through the countryside,

Shadowy figures who strike, then hide;

Hitting our schools, churches, unions, and then

They retreat for a while to advance again.

“Invaded,” you say, “but how can it be?

Why, this is the land of sweet liberty—

No invader's foot has touched our shore –

How can you say we are at war?”

Look around you, friend. Turn off the TV.

Open your eyes and you will see,

Like an overripe fruit they’ve said we’d fall

On doses of socialism seasoned with gall.

Say there, clerk, you with the chewing gum—

Don’t you know the battle’s begun?

Oh! I’m too emotional? There’s no danger here?

The only thing we need fear is fear?

Well, you’re right little man, but I’m not afraid,

I just want to see an effort made

To route the enemy from these gentle shores

And then move on till he is no more;

Erase him completely from the face of earth

And pave the way for freedom’ s rebirth.

“Who is the enemy?” you mean you don’t know?

He’s a hodgepodge of matter who at the word GO,

Strides through the world oblivious to reason,

Securing his goal with lies, murder and treason.

Methods don’t matter: results are what count

And clunking along the casualties mount.

How many chained, tortured? How many dead?

For how many the answer, “Better dead than Red”?

No guns, no tanks, no planes overhead

But round us the enemy with silent tread…

For each alien soldier, ten willing dupes

Swelling the ranks of the enemy troops.

But listen, what is that rustling noise I hear?

Are the grassroots stirring both far and near?

Is there a whirring of wings across our land?

Yes, it’s the American Eagle—he’s taking a stand!

Too long he’d been sleeping secure in his nest,

Great wings folded, head on his breast;

Till startled, he heard the grassroots rustling

And, looking down, saw his countryman hustling

To man the barricades.

Screaming defiance, down he swoops,

Strong wings flailing the ferret faced troops,

Setting them scurrying in sheer desperation

Back to the Kremlin—and mass liquidation.

Now, high, wide and handsome, the Eagle is flying

And all over the world glad voices are crying:

“They’ve done it again! Once more we are free.

Thank God for America and liberty!”

The moral of the tale we know full well,

“Good intentions pave the road to hell.”

The moral known, the lesson learned—

Freedom and respect must both be earned. – Rita S. Brehm ©1962

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