What are your plans for the fifth of July? No, that is not a typo, I mean Monday, July 5th. Nearly every American celebrates Independence Day with street dances, pancake breakfasts (there is the pancake thing again), patriotic parades, barbeques and fireworks. There may be slight variations, but the central theme remains; on Independence Day everyone bleeds red, white and blue. Unfortunately, on the fifth of July, patriotism is stuffed back in a dusty cardboard box stored on a shelf in the garage, put to rest for another 364 days. Desperate times call for desperate measures so I am asking you to do things differently this year. To help you understand the importance of my request, let’s review another precarious time in our nation’s early days.

It was December, just five short months after 56 of our founders pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to fellow patriots by signing the Declaration of Independence. Our nation was in peril. That winter, fewer than 45 percent of colonists were willing to bear arms for independence, with 20 percent remaining loyal to the crown. Interestingly, just like in modern day politics, 35 percent had “no opinion” (ah yes, the 1776 version of the “moderate”).

The cry for liberty no longer rallied patriots to arms, and America’s future looked bleak. In desperation, Thomas Paine penned The Crisis; a short motivational essay encouraging our Continental Army to fight at a level beyond their abilities, equipment, and supplies. In this work Thomas poetically warned, “These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” His words saved our fledgling republic 234 years ago, but will they have the same effect today?

Just this once, don’t stuff your love of country back in the cardboard box; instead, stand for liberty. Our great American experiment in freedom is dying; more specifically it is being strangled by the cancerous ideology of collectivism infecting Washington D.C. Between today and the general election on November 2nd, you have 120 days to fight for freedom. Will you? Years in the future when your descendants ask, “Were you truly a patriot or were you just a ‘summer soldier’”, what will you say? We are an all volunteer force so the choice is entirely yours. Either rise now and defend liberty, or forever wish you would have. The line is drawn, our cause is just, and America needs our help. Will you answer the call?