Veterans Day should be a time of celebration. It should be a time to reflect upon the heavy human cost of freedom willingly risked, that most U.S. citizens take for granted during the rest of the year. But it is not.

For the first time on a Veterans Day, I’m ashamed—not by the absurd hysterical history concocted by anarchists and socialists for their political goals of seizing power and self-enrichment. Neither am I ashamed of the brave men and women who faithfully risked life and safety for their friends, families, and countrymen.

I’m ashamed of the fearful and feckless citizens and voters who have systematically allowed the greatest nation on earth to be torn apart because they could not be bothered to learn, to teach, and to proclaim the great immutable truths of American liberty and American exceptionalism. Quisling politicians and negligent citizens have failed us all. They have made a mockery of the self-sacrifice that is vital to the preservation of U.S. independence and the rightful use of freedom.

I’m disgusted by the events that have taken place in just the past twelve months, and the willingness of gullible American voters to believe the series of false narratives provided and packaged by worthless people in a hopelessly-corrupt media industry. The 2020 elections should have heralded an overwhelming condemnation of phoney Democrat scandals and schemes.

As a nation, we’ve lost the ability to discern the truth in a sea of lies and half-truths. The result is a feeble and cowardly population taken to hiding behind useless paper and cloth masks from a virus that has been feloniously declared, a pandemic, but is not. After all, any contagion that claims the lives of less than one-tenth of one percent of the U.S. population, though tragic, is far from being a pandemic (if words denote any real meaning anymore).

We’ve voted into Congressional offices, criminal politicians who sell their influence for personal gain with impunity while heaping a twenty-five-trillion-dollar national debt upon taxpayers, all while promising federal benefits that they have no capacity or intention to deliver. Meanwhile, a self-absorbed public refuses to consider the consequential harm.

Supreme Court Justices re-write the Constitution through subtle misinterpretations of words and fabricated ideals. The court issues specious claims to rights not written. Sexual perversity has been enshrined in many a judicial decree in hostile violation of reason and the will of the people.

The chain of custody of American history has been broken, largely by the Baby-Boomer generation to which I belong. By entertaining foolish propositions, we have forfeited the moral authority necessary to engage America’s domestic enemies: radical immoral liberals, militant socialists, and crazed belligerent anarchists.

Rather than being the conscience of the nation, the Church has allowed the subjective secular culture to exercise veto power over its transcendent message. Unless the role of Church is set right again, America’s unique virtue will be forever lost. “When the Son of Man returns, will He find faith on the earth?” Probably not.

So what can be done? Plenty. Perhaps today would be a good time to stop forfeiting personal integrity for the appearance of peace with people who are fundamentally wrong. Perhaps, we might muster-up the courage to reclaim the noble principles of honesty and justice and contend for their acceptance.

We can demand that school boards promote the teaching of objective American history again and inspire genuine intellectual achievement rather than settling for minimum standards. We can reject worthless participation awards and encourage unity instead of inciting division through diversity.

We can demand that local governments stop forfeiting our personal liberty to those who cry for entitlements to which they are not entitled, and insist that courts and parole boards impose justice without weakness or favor. We can hold local media accountable to truthful, honest, and balanced reporting of facts instead of fomenting fear through fiction and feelings.

We can denounce those who claim a right to kill the innocent unborn and assist in the suicide of the infirm. We can rebuke and remove cunning politicians who promote cultural corrosion under the diabolical deceit that “people should not be excluded because of who they love.” We can spurn commercial producers and advertisers who sow subtle counter-intuitive messages that defy human biology indoctrinating children and adults with slick and slimy appeals to kindness, compassion, and unity.

Whatever remains of genuine value in American culture—its affinity for righteousness, love of truth and commitment to justice—must be advanced in direct opposition to what creates a happy little feeling devoid of substance. As a civil population, we’ve got to get smarter and be ready to defend against baseless attacks on moral and civil law.

If the super-majority of honorable police and law enforcement officers is not appreciated, who will protect the innocent? Who will defend the nation? We must learn to judge rightly again and courageously do so while there are still a few basic standards worth protecting.

Veterans of every service and political ideology at one time embraced a unified commitment to a common set of standards. Honorably upholding them was the primary reason they chose to serve, to fight, and to lay down their lives for others. We owe them nothing less than validation of their service. We owe ourselves, our children and our grandchildren nothing less than to leave them a nation worth inheriting.

Perhaps next year will be better, and Veterans Day will again be a day to celebrate rather than a day to mourn. But that appears doubtful.