Free Ohio Now (FON) was honored to participate in Unifying Ohio for Liberty Rally at the Ohio Statehouse on the afternoon of Saturday, August 29. The rally was sponsored by the group Unifying Ohio, which formed in response to the unconstitutional shutdown and face mask mandate much in same way as FON was formed back in March.
There was a modest, but very enthusiastic crowd, and there were several terrific speakers including Ohio Representatives John Becker, who introduced articles of impeachment against Governor DeWine last week in the Ohio House, and Candice Keller, who is a co-sponsor of the articles of impeachment. Both Representatives drove home the point Governor DeWine violated the Ohio Constitution in several ways including by the cancelling the March 17, 2020 election as well as the Governor’s refusal to rein in the Ohio Department of Health, which clearly violated the law in shutting down the Ohio economy. As the articles of impeachment were read off, the crowd cheered in response.
Among many others speaking at the event, was ‘Mo’ from The Walk Away Movement and he gave a very powerful talk about his evolution from being a gang member in LA, who hated whites, to understanding individualism, personal responsibility and that the Democrat Party only cares about votes on election day and does not care about people. He also called out the contradiction of those who pursue ‘Black Power’ and at the same time say that blacks cannot be racist because they’re powerless. It was a very compelling speech!
Unifying Ohio also invited FON to speak, so I came down and am happy to say I was supported by Ezekiel and Ashley from Summit County, who brought a table and some chairs for the event. I had the honor of addressing the rally on behalf of FON. During my talk, I relayed the story of my grandfather and his brothers and their military service and the relevance of their experience to where we are today.
In my family, we have four generations in a row which served in the military. My maternal grandfather and his two brothers served in WWII, my father served in Marine Corps in the 1950’s, I retired from the Navy Reserve in the late 2000’s, and my son joined the Navy in December. My grandfather’s generation is now gone, but their experience serving the country is worthy of being recounted to this generation.
My grandfather, George, served in Italy toward the end of the war and at one point his unit forced the surrender of a much larger German unit. His older brother, Harmon, was a tanker in North Africa and had his tank shot out from under him. He spent several years recovering at an Army hospital in Washington State, and the one silver lining to his horrific experience was that he met his wife, a nurse, while he was recuperating.
George and Harmon also had a younger brother, my great uncle Jimmy, and I’d like to take some time and tell some of his story. Upon graduating from high school in Johnstown, Ohio, Jimmy joined the Army Air Corps and was stationed in the Philippines at the outbreak of WWII. When the war started, the Japanese attacked many places, including the Philippines, and the Allies pulled back to the Bataan Peninsula. When the Peninsula fell in spring, 1942, the Allied POWs were forced marched to a POW camp in what became known as the Bataan Death March and thousands of American and Filipino soldiers were murdered by Japanese troops or succumbed to exposure and dehydration.
Jimmy survived the Death March and his time as a POW at Camp O’Donnel. In the second half of 1944, as the Allies were advancing to retake the Philippines, the Japanese evacuated the POWs to the home Japanese home islands, and he eventually found himself on one of the northern islands working as slave labor for Mitsubishi making drive shafts for the Japanese version of the PT boat. He knew the Japanese were losing the war because over time he saw more and more Allied aircraft.
The day Jimmy was told the war ended, the POWs were in formation, and the man standing next to him literally fell down dead from the shock of the news. The Allies did air drops of food and supplies to the POWs, whose location was marked by “POW” being painted on the roof of the building where they were housed. As Jimmy said, for several weeks you could hear cans being opened 24/7. About a week after the war ended, the former POWs left the compound and made their way to the nearby seashore, and what always gets me with this story is they passed out candy to the kids as they walked through the town.
This is the abridged version of George, Harmon and Jimmy’s WWII military service, but what is here is more than enough to convey to people today that every generation needs to defend America and it’s founding principles of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness and that all men are created equal before the law. In most generations throughout history, defending freedom has come down to the young who have the physical strength to bear heavy loads, walk long distances and to wage war.
If America and her founding principles are going to be saved, no one is going to do it but people like you and me! However in defending America today, we are lucky because we do not have to be young and able-bodied to make a difference. Today people of all ages can use their phones, computers as well as reach out to people directly to tell them that preserving America is a worthy and honorable undertaking!