There are two widely different quotations I’ve been thinking of this past week, the first is from my Bible study, and the second, is from my time as a cadet at the Air Force Academy.
The first quote is from Ecclesiastes 3:1 and 7, which reads: “There
is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens…a
time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak.”
We as a nation, and certainly
as Virginia Veterans are at a highly consequential time…a time to tear apart
the destruction we’ve seen transpire…there can be no mending until that is
done. WE have extended our time in silence for too long and it is time to
speak…the way things are going, it may be our last opportunity. And we tear and
speak by getting EVERY Veteran to vote!
The second quote is from the 1970 movie “Patton.” I first saw it with
my classmates, while enduring the basic cadet physicality of Jack’s Valley in
1972. Fully realizing it was a George C. Scott “caricature,” however, it was,
and remains, motivational…just listen:
Now, an army is a team. It lives, eats, sleeps, fights
as a team.
Now, some of you boys, I know, are wondering whether or
not you'll chicken out under fire. When you put your hand into a bunch of goo
that a moment before was your best friend's face, you'll know what to do. Now,
there's another thing I want you to remember. I don't want to get any messages
saying that we are holding our position. We're not holding anything. Thirty
years from now when you're sitting around your fireside with your grandson on
your knee, and he asks you, "What did you do in the great World War
II?" -- you won't have to say, "Well, I shoveled ---- in Louisiana.
We are indeed in a battle for
our United States. AVV is a Team, an organization that understands time is
running out, and that we must speak overwhelmingly through the ballot box. We are
not interested in holding or squeaking by, but rather, by being decisive in our
just cause. NOW is AVV time!
Lord, You have put us here in
THIS time for us to do Your will now! Let us not waste the time we have. Give
us the wisdom and magnify our time to accomplish good works, in Jesus’ name.
AMEN.
So what time is it? AVV
TIME! Every Veteran, Every Vote!
