The 2012 Vote; an American Obligation to Defend the Constitution, Freedom
11-1-2012
The large majority of Americans who have inherited our freedom received it as a gift earned on the sacrifices and lives of the relative few. The blessing of liberty handed to us came with no price tag attached except an expectation to defend her against any foreign or domestic enemy. The wisdom of the forefathers and our constitution allow us to accomplish the latter without bloodshed, with the ballot.
My personal history as a Baby Boomer reflects freedom borne from no sacrifice of my own. Captain Don Ellis, a 24-year old P-47 fighter pilot and five brothers from Wisconsin Rapids, fought America’s foreign enemies in World War II. My father was shot down over Italy on October 4th, 1944, badly injured, captured after three days on the run and finished the conflict as a prisoner of war. With bent and burnt hands and missing finger, he would look at his young sons or daughters years later trying to leave an unfriendly vegetable uneaten on the plate with a now family-famous line instilled from distinct memories of his own past hunger: “You’d eat that if you were in prison camp.”
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| “The writer’s father, Captain Don Ellis, was shot down in a P-47 over Italy on October 4, 1944, badly injured and spent the rest of the war in a German prison camp.” | |
In November of 1944, less than a month after my father was shot down, the eldest of the five brothers, Lieutenant Charles Ellis was killed in action serving as a tank commander near the border of Belgium and Germany. For decades since, the young officer had rested under a white cross in Europe near the Village of Klienhau where he died. Until this year, his family had no details of how he was killed, when a first- hand internet account entered by a soldier in that fierce battle of the Hurtgen Forest discovered by an Ellis nephew told us that 28 year old Charles had been crushed to death when the tank overturned on the lip of a water-filled crater. Two crew members had also drowned. The ultimate pain felt by Private Ryan’s mother slumping to an Iowa farm porch as news of her son’s deaths travel up a winding dusty road in a Hollywood movie has been too real far too often for American families paying the price. The toll of liberty has no end.
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| “22-year old fighter pilot Don Ellis, one of five brothers fighting from Wisconsin Rapids, runs from his P-39 two years before being shot down over Italy.” | “Home again with younger sisters Marie, Margaret and Irene, the Ellis brothers of Wisconsin Rapids, Bob, who would become among Wisconsin’s most famous musky fishermen, Don (the writer’s father), Art, and Fred celebrate war’s end. The oldest and 5th brother, Tank Commander Lt. Charles Ellis, was killed in November , 1944 in the battle of Klienhau near the Germany-Belgium border.” |
On September 11, 2012, an attack on the US Embassy in Benghazi, Libya, killed US Ambassador Christopher Stevens, US Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith, and US embassy security personnel Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods. Obama and his administration repeatedly blamed the attacks on a reaction to an anti-Islamic film. Although evidence strongly supports a coordinated terrorist attack that killed former Navy Seals Woods and Doherty as they fought to the death and were turned away three times in their pleas for assistance, Obama and his administration remain silent to accusations of lies and cover up.
A common theme of scandalous government is a willingness of a corrupt media to refuse to seek the truth for the people. In seven weeks since the attack at Benghazi, with an election looming that could represent the demise of freedom and rise of socialism and further government intrusion, only a minute percentage of American or Wisconsin based media have spotlighted the story or questioned the president. As of November 1st, the story including a letter written by Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson and three other US Senators fiercely questioning Obama on Benghazi has been the focus of virtually no Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigative focus. Connect with “Outdoor News” to read the senatorial letter.
On October 4, on the anniversary of my father’s fall over Italy, I cancelled a subscription to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. On November 6, in memory of my uncle who died for my freedom, with the ballot I will make official this endorsement of Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and freedom.
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| “Tank Commander Lt. Charles Ellis of Wisconsin Rapids was killed in action near the border of Belgium and Germany. The inscription on the American Cemetery wall, states, ‘In Honored memory of those who gave their lives for their country’.” | |
More importantly, I will officially reject the socialism that threatens the very soul of America. It is the only way you can hand your children what you have already been handed long ago… with the only condition being to protect it.
Protect it now. Your fight is here.
Dick Ellis, Publisher
On Wisconsin Outdoors
In God I Trust