“A New Year…Reflections, Resolve, and Commitment”
| “A New Year…Reflections, Resolve, and Commitment” |
| Greetings everyone, and I hope to be one of the first to wish you all a Happy New Year. We all take this time to reflect on the year past and look to the year coming. And yes, folks still make those New Year’s resolutions, and fitness centers see their memberships swell for 90 days. So, I would also like to take the time to share my reflections on the outgoing year and insights on the incoming year. This past year, 2025, was a memorable one for me. It was a year that allowed me to be a part of great events in American history. In April, I was humbled to witness the 250th remembrance of the beginning of the American Revolution at Lexington, Massachusetts. I stood there with friends and watched the reenactment of the “shot that was fired heard ’round the world,” when 77 men took the field of Lexington Green and refused to be disarmed, to surrender that which made them free citizens: the right to keep and bear arms. After watching that memorable event, I then had the honor to run the Lexington Patriots 5-Mile Run. What a thrill it was to finish that run—going uphill, mind you—passing the very place where our fight for independence began, passing the statue of the Massachusetts Minuteman. Then there was the blessing of traveling with 25 college conservative students, sponsored by the Young America’s Foundation, to Normandy, France, for the 81st anniversary of D-Day. Watching these young Americans place a wreath in the American cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach, walking with them and describing the actions that took place there, on Utah Beach, and at Pointe du Hoc was unforgettable—especially when you saw the tears in their eyes. But to have these young people be in the small town of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, to watch and a few other ol’ paratroopers jump from a C-47 aircraft that flew 81 years ago into a drop zone taken by the 101st Airborne Division Pathfinders was special. To see their faces, smiling, welcoming me as I walked off the DZ to turn in my parachute, will forever be etched in my mind. And that jump may end up being my last because of the hip replacement surgery I underwent at the end of this year. The year 2025 was the 250th birthday of my United States Army, the same Army in which my dad served in World War II. How glorious it was to see the American Army parade through our nation’s capital, reminding the country of the Army’s motto, “This We’ll Defend.” And so it was that our Navy and Marine Corps also celebrated their 250th birthdays—our armed forces who stood up before a nation was born. In November, I was blessed to speak at the Longview, Texas, Marine Corps League Birthday Ball—a Soldier giving testimony to the greatness of our U.S. Marine Corps. It just doesn’t get any better…well, it could have been better if Army had beaten Navy this year. But in reflecting back on 2025, I look forward with great excitement and anticipation to 2026. This coming year will be the 250th anniversary of our American independence. Also, for those of us who reside in Texas, March 3, 2026, will be the 190th anniversary of Texas’s independence. Yes, there are two Declarations of Independence that will be celebrated—America and the Lone Star State, the only state in the Union with its own Declaration of Independence. Consider where you were for America’s 200th Bicentennial Independence celebration. Ponder what has happened in our Republic over the last 50 years and ask yourself: Are we heading toward greater independence, or slouching toward dependence? We live in the greatest nation this world has ever known, and one of the youngest. Yet we are facing challenges that seek to undermine this grand endeavor into self-governance and individual rights, freedoms, and liberties. Think of these words from the 18th-century Scottish political philosopher Alexander Fraser Tytler: “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.” Ask yourself, where is America in this cycle? In 2026, we must display the resolve to break this trend and not allow Tytler’s cycle of a constitutional Republic to come to fruition. We must remember what was sacrificed for us to be where we are today—yes, in Texas and America. We must find the great courage once again that those from whom we are descended endowed to us. And yes, as Tytler articulated, it begins with spiritual faith—not religion, but a resolve to recommit to our fundamental Judeo-Christian faith heritage. No other nation was founded on the premise that individual rights are unalienable and endowed by the Judeo-Christian faith heritage Creator God. So, as we reflect upon the year 2025 and recall what was done 250 years ago to establish the conditions for our independence, we must seek out that very same resolve. And we have a very important and definitive choice to make in the 11th month of 2026. We can choose to be independent, free, and have liberty…or we can choose apathy, dependence, and a return to bondage as desired by the Marxist leftists. Happy New Year. Happy 190th Independence Day, Texas. Happy 250th Independence Day, America. Steadfast and Loyal. |