Lou Calling: Could You?

Could you?


235 years ago 56 men pledge their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to start our new nation.

24 were lawyers, 11 were merchants, 9 were farmers, all were men of means and well educated. And they ALL knew they would be executed if caught by the Red Coats.

Of the 56, nine fought and died in combat.

Of the 56, five were captured and tried as traitors, before they died.

Of the 56, two had sons killed in combat.

Of the 56, two had sons captured and imprisoned.

Of the 56, twelve had their home ransacked and burned.

Of the 56, one, Carter Braxton, died in poverty, after the British destroyed his ships, he had to sell everything to pay his debts.

Of the 56, one, Francis Lewis had his wife imprisoned by the British where she died.

Of the 56, one, John Hart, was driven from his dieing wife’s bedside. All his properties destroyed. Returning home, found that his children had vanished.

Of the 56, one, Thomas Mc Keam, so forced to move his family, every thing he owned taken by the British, he too die in poverty.

Of the 56, one, Thomas Nelson urged General Washington to bombard his personal home at Yorktown , where Cornwallis was head quartered. Washington did. Nelson died bankrupt.

When asked “What kind of government do we have?” Benjamin Franklin answered, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

I ask, could you, as the very product of these men of vision and commitment, do as much?

If nothing else this day, say a prayer in memory of those 56 patriots. And remember too the nameless ones, in the snows of Valley Forge, who crossed the Delaware bound for Trenton . And those who stood at Breeds Hill or those at Fort Mc Henry. And those who stood on the ramparts at Yorktown to cheer as Britain stuck her colors .

Could you do it too? Don’t cop out saying this is a different time, deferent century.

Remember Franklin's words. “A republic, IF you can keep it.”