“We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last, best hope of earth.” From President Lincoln’s annual message to Congress, 1862.

Victor David Hanson describes what is happening in America as two forces squeezing the life out of the American citizen. If one can imagine a nutcracker the crushing force of which is simultaneous, that is the feeling for over half of the American population. How can they mount a resistance when relentless compression is coming from the top down (“woke” turned weapon) and from the bottom up (banking turned Big Brother)?

Instinct tells us to take cover with familiar safeguards. Our routines are familiar safeguards. Our families and communities are familiar safeguards. Our governance systems are familiar safeguards. Call 911 for help. Ask to see the curriculum of your child’s school. Write your congressman or senator.

At this moment in American life, however, we cannot fully count upon familiar safeguards. 911 may not be available. The police may be defunded in your community. The school board you thought had your child’s best interest as its chief mission may have the exact opposite in mind. Get a copy of sex education materials produced by Planned Parenthood called Get Real and see exactly what your child is experiencing in many public schools, beginning in Kindergarten. The person you sent to Congress will send you a form letter thanking you for contacting his or her office and asking for future support.

Surely our Constitution is there to help us. Our federal Constitution, through its three co-equal branches, is supposed to protect the liberties with which our Creator has endowed us. We are endowed as individuals—not identity groups—to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness among other things. No government has graciously granted us rights. Our rights come from God.

We have a right to our own associations. We have a right to personal privacy in our affairs. We have a right to raise our children and educate them as we, their parents, see fit. We have a right to resist being the walnut in the nutcracker that wicked and perverse forces are pulverizing.

While the above is true, and however grateful we are for the Blessings of Liberty, the Constitution cannot protect us where personal honor is absent. The Constitution is not meant to come to the rescue. The Constitution is meant to prevent rescue from being needed by requiring those entrusted to protect us to swear on their honor that they will restrain themselves from operating outside of its boundaries.

What, then, do we do if that Oath has been broken and honor in many of our national leaders does not exist?

We must rescue ourselves. We must rescue ourselves against great odds analogous to those at the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War. It takes real courage. The conditions in November 1950 in Korea were arctic. American troops, as part of the United Nations forces on the Korean Peninsula, were attempting to reach the Yalu River and reunite North and South Korea. The Chinese took a military stand to prevent it.

Three hundred thousand Chinese troops thwarted the UN’s two-pronged attack. American commanders, unaware of the enemy forces’ strength, ordered our forces north to the river. The troops were stretched thin in the freezing cold. Night after night, Chinese troops encircled and stormed American positions. The terrain was brutal—a spine of steep hills and hairpin turns. Finally, with UN forces in retreat, one regimental combat team was stranded alone. Lt. Colonel Don C. Faith, Jr., took charge. For four days and nights, he fought superior numbers until his unit disintegrated under phosphorus grenades and unrelenting fire. He remained with his men and died in the cold atop his jeep.

Eventually, 670 men straggled to safety and another 319 were rescued. Their four days and nights of resistance gave UN forces the time needed to be evacuated by sea. Colonel Faith was left in North Korea in an unmarked grave. He was finally returned to the United States in 2013.

This is the heroism we need now. American citizens are still waiting to be evacuated from Afghanistan. The State Department criticizes those volunteers who are trying to help. The Commander-in-Chief has not given the order to rescue those abandoned. Therefore, we must rescue them by supporting those who are making the attempt.

Our country is being invaded by hundreds of thousands of persons of unknown character and health. In addition to COVID, diseases unknown in the United States for decades are entering our shores. The government is sending sociopaths, the mentally ill, and terrorists to live in our communities. Our federal laws do not allow persons to enter the country unvetted. Therefore, we must demand that the laws be faithfully executed and that Congress pass no new spending bills until the border is closed and an assessment can be made.

Colonel Faith was an American citizen whose behavior we should be able to recognize in each other. He refused a battlefield medal. He performed his duties with honor. It is hard to stand alone against forces that seem overwhelming. In being honorable today in America, we might lose friends. We might have to postpone personal priorities. We might have to take firm stands. We might have to change familiar routines. And we might find ourselves facing physical threats.

But it is up to We, the People, with inspiration from heroes like Colonel Faith and Abraham Lincoln, to nobly save the last, best hope on earth, not as they did, with actual battle, but simply by standing up for our convictions. The nutcracker forces attempting to squeeze the life out of America will have no power over a knowledgeable, courageous, and honorable citizenry. This is the call of duty behind the United States Constitution and the God-given rights it protects.

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