Jim Goldsworthy, Columnist
Item 1: The same day Martha Coakley said there are no more terrorists in Afghanistan because they’ve all gone to Yemen and Pakistan, three U.S. Marines were killed in Afghanistan by some terrorists who apparently never got the word to leave.
SSgt. Matthew Ingham of Altoona, Pa.; Cpl. Jamie Lowe of Johnsonville, Ill.; and Cpl. Nicholas Uzenski of Tomball, Texas, died in an ambush. Ingham remained calm under fire and called in air support, and his actions saved the lives of 12 other men.
Item 2: The Associated Press reported recently that four Vietnamese men were sentenced to prison terms of up to 16 years for trying to overthrow their communist government.
In a nation that gives the impression of wanting to be a part of the world community, they were accused of promoting multi-party democracy. They could have been sentenced to death.
One, who got only five years because he showed remorse and admitted breaking the law, said, “During my studies overseas (at Tulane University in Louisiana), I was influenced by Western attitudes toward democracy, freedom and human rights.”
Two others said they had confessed only under duress, and the third said he was “immature and made a mistake.”
Unless we grow lazy or timid and abandon our Western attitudes toward democracy, freedom and civil rights, such a thing won’t happen in America. Neither will it happen in many other nations, thanks largely to us and other English-speaking people who think like we do.
South Korea has remained free for nearly six decades because — unlike South Vietnam, which was still free when America’s troops left there — our Congress did not throw it to the wolves.
Some Americans apparently want us to believe that the rest of the world hates America. (Listening to them makes one wonder how much they like it.)
My buddy Gary and I meet plenty of folks who feel otherwise when we go to Little Round Top at Gettysburg — the scene of the bloodiest battle in our country’s history.
Gary dresses as a Union lieutenant, and I’m still trying to decide what uniform to wear. He tells folks about the battle, and I try to tell them about the cannon we’re leaning against.
So many people stop and talk to us that we have a hard time getting away for lunch, and they’re not just from America. They come from all around the world.
No matter where they’re from, virtually all have one thing in common: One way or another, they owe their freedom to America and its troops ... and many of them seem to be aware of that.
Three men in civilian clothes came up to Gary and me last July, and one (who spoke better English than I do most of the time) told us they were from Taiwan.
He said their senior member was a general in their army, and I believed that immediately because something about him shouted, “Here is where the mojo lives.”
They were polite and friendly. The interpreter asked if Gary would explain the insignia on his uniform and tell them about the battle. I could almost see the ramrod go up his backside, and it was like listening to somebody who actually had been there and lived through it.
That done, the interpreter said to my astonishment that the general wanted to know about the pins on my Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 172 cap with the logo that says, “I Support.”
The ramrod having been transferred to me, I told them the feather had been painted by an American Indian with the symbol that honors our countrymen who were Prisoners Of War or who remain Missing In Action, and the pin that depicts three soldiers represents a statue that stands near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
I said the pin that shows the Twin Towers draped with an American flag was given to me by a man who served with the soldier from my high school who received the Medal of Honor — posthumously — during World War II.
That general must have had a better command of English than he let on, because his eyes went wide open when I said, “Medal of Honor.”
Finally, I pointed to another pin that consists of a pair of empty combat boots and an American flag and told them the caption on it reads, "The Price Of freedom Is Not Free."
I looked at them and added, “But that is something you already know."
When the interpreter began to take a group picture, the general took my arm and stood next to me.
As they prepared to leave, I took off my cap, shook hands with each of them and said, "Welcome to America."
They walked over to a nearby statue of Maj. Gen. Gouvenor Warren, and we figured they were talking about us because they kept looking back at us and nodding to each other.
Gary and I were like two little kids who'd just had Derek Jeter come up and introduce himself, only more restrained.
He said, “Those are three men who love America.”And with good reason. America has been watching their small nation’s back for more than 60 years, helping them to maintain its freedom from people who would devour it in an instant.
That brief encounter had suddenly become terribly important to Gary and me. We hoped we had conveyed to those men our belief that the preservation and cultivation of liberty is a duty that’s shared by all who have liberty, no matter who we are or where we live, and that we must share it as friends.
Americans like to say that America is a free country, but will it ever be truly free so long as people elsewhere live subject to tyranny?
You’ll have to decide that for yourself. I know what I think.
