Texans and the rest of America seemed to dig the film. Hollywood? Not so much. 

After sixteen states on the promo tour, countless packed theatres, great reviews and two screenings for Congress, I had yet another audience member grab my arm and ask “When is Hollywood going to make more films like this? Can you tell them to make movies that we want to see?” 

—–

“Ma’am,” I would explain, “If Hollywood wanted to make more films like Border, right now I would be in the middle of a three picture studio deal instead of on a bus tour of the South Eastern United States. I’m sorry but I don’t have an answer for you. “ She was a very nice lady. I hated to disappoint her. 

So last fall I’m kicking back in the barn, flipping through the ranch real estate section of Farm and Ranch magazine when the phone rings. It’s Kip Perry, co-owner of Echo Entertainment. Echo had been around for 23 years. They had cut their teeth on movie trailers for Disney and sports shows for ESPN. They had done a few TV series, and now Kip wanted to take me out to lunch. 

Lunch was good. Small, but good. We went to a very trendy Hollywood European style restaurant where everybody has the option to sit with strangers and get their food on a board. I loved the spread. It was tasty, cute and very petite. Just as Kip was about to go into his pitch, I had to stop him: “Dude, I’m sorry. This food tastes great, and looks even better, but I’m still hungry. I need to order another lunch.” 

The fact that the meeting didn’t end right there and that he actually laughed was the first sign of how much I was going to enjoy working with this guy. 

“We’re going to do a show about rookies, people who have never run for political office before. Every day citizens who have said that enough is enough! People who feel that they need to make a difference. We are going to follow them for the next year as they give up their regular lives and make their political runs for the US Congress.” Kip said, as I put down my second board of prosciutto and Brie. 

“Sounds hot, is that the kind of show your company usually does?” I asked. 

“I’m starting a new company.” He said. 

“Oh. Okay, but I highly doubt that you are going to get a network to pick up a series about grassroots conservatives wanting to make a difference.” I said. 

“We’re going to start a new network too.” 

“Really?” Now he had my complete attention. 

I could feel the schpiel approaching: “Yep. It’s going to be a three-platform media company: web, mobile, cable and satellite VOD. We are going to build programming around the core values and beliefs upon which America was founded. Then our viewers can jump on our social networking sites and participate in the kind of national conversations that are currently being dominated by only one side. We will make programming for all Americans. We are calling it “RightNetwork.” 

The guy was pretty winded and he wasn’t even a smoker.                          

Last December we started filming “Running.” It has been an adventure and an inspiration. There is a hunger in this country and watching regular folks put everything that they have on the line to be a part of the national political process has been simply stellar. 

                       
—–

As in any start-up company, we get to wear many hats. I dug working with Kip so much that we got to create more shows together: 

“Politics and Poker”….every week Tom Wilson has four VIP guests come to his fake TV house, with his fake TV wife, Julene, to talk politics and play poker. Remember, this is not a politically correct network. If our guests want to drink beer or scotch while they play, then they drink beer or scotch. The winner gets a check for his favorite charity and the producers get to have a ball. I don’t know what I like more, seeing national security experts and counter terrorism agents critiquing mis-en-scene in the latest box office efforts or having leggy blonde models extol the virtues of marksmanship and the importance of gun ownership.  The humor and chemistry of this show lets us go places where no one else is going on TV. Think “I Love Lucy” meets “This Week.” I am really excited to see what happens. 

—–

“Kivi TV”….Kivi Rogers is awesome. I darn near peed in my pants when I first saw his stand up routine about roller skates. This guy gave up a steady gig as a successful aerospace engineer for a shot at a stand up career. On the way he had time to make six kids and do eleven USO tours.  He brings the kind of …”it’s okay to laugh at ourselves” humor and hip common sense to the table that just might get us to remember that we are all Americans again. 

 —–

I gotta tell you, I love going to work every day. We are always creating something. But maybe one of the best jobs that I have been able to do is find great independent films to license that Hollywood and the mainstream media won’t show. 

To be able to pick up the phone and talk to another filmmaker and say, “Hey how would you like millions of people to see your film,” is cooler than hell. 

To be able to have an idea on Monday and in the can, cut and delivered by Friday, rocks. 

Even though we had never released even one public sentence about RightNetwork,  the MSM got wind of us last April. By mid-morning the Huffington Posts and Politicos articles had thousands of posts on us. 

Joy Behar spent a good portion of her show railing against us with Lewis Black. 

Keith Olberman gave us a “Worst Person In The World Award”…even though we had never met him. 

But I think my favorite was a comment from a Huffy deriding Kelsey Grammer as a spokesman for what they thought was obviously going to be a homophobic, racist network.  The irony of the fact that Kelsey was currently starring in La Cage Au Folles on Broadway, seemed to be lost on this particular blogger. 

RightNetwork launched today. We will be on computers and phones across the country. We will be available on 4 million television sets, with millions more to follow.

We will bring America the unexpected. We are proud Americans who want to step forward to bring all of America into the conversation. 

We want to create a place where Americans can be inspired and entertained. 

We want to make a difference.

That probably doesn’t mean a hill of beans to a whole lot of people, but when you work in Hollywood, in a culture that tends to treat flyover country like the red headed stepchild, and compares your religious beliefs to those of Al Quaeda, it rocks when you can sit down as a family and watch a show that reminds you of how you grew up: A show that honors the core values that you try to raise your kids with.

Peter Berg

My Dad used to say, “Once the kids stop saying “Yes, sir” and “Yes, ma’am”, it all starts to go to hell.” When I was a kid, I just thought he was hard on us. When my kids use “Yes, sir” and “Yes, ma’am” at the mall, the stares that we receive from the other parents lead me to believe that they may feel the same way.

The kids in “Friday Night Lights” speak in the same fashion.  Yeah it is a Texas thing, but those kids show a respect for their elders that one doesn’t always find in Southern California, or many other places outside of small town USA.

Likewise, in crafting Dillon’s military family for the show, Peter Berg did not make quarterback Matt Saracen’s constantly deployed Army father an excuse to bash the previous administration or comment about the war effort. Instead he focused on the emotional conflict that wrestled inside of this young man and how his family, coach and friends rallied to aid and strengthen him.  When his father is killed in action, Matt must confront his deepest inner conflicts, but by facing them, and his father’s  shattered body, he is able to painfully, but eloquently, deliver his eulogy.  Matt now faces the world as a man.

Coach Taylor asked his players to do him a favor and take a knee. “You might have heard that Matt Saracen’s father passed away….I thought it might be nice if we said a word for him and his family.” Coach Taylor looks to one of his less talented players who also happens to be Matt’s best friend: “Lance?” Lance looks to his teammates, “You all wanna bow your heads?” He then leads them in The Lord’s Prayer.

The next few screen moments are filled with team unity, kindness, compassion and sadness for their buddy.  I was pretty blown away to see open prayer on television. Even though the moment was true to the story, prayer in school isn’t big in Hollywood.

This episode was still on my mind, and in my TiVo queue, as I traveled out of town to cover a State High School Football Championship.

We had open access to the team on the field and in the locker rooms. So I was surprised when the coach asked us if we could take the cameras into the hallway for a bit while they said a prayer.

At first I thought the request stemmed from a desire for privacy. We obliged.

But I later found out it was about the law. I had forgotten that it is illegal for a public school to pray together. This coach was looking out for his school and his kids. “We may be a small farm town, but the ACLU reaches us too.” He advised me.

How did we come to this?

I was raised believing that we were a nation founded on the principles of religious freedom, yet our current reality is that US citizens need to pray behind closed doors or risk arrest?

I went to a Catholic high school, so praying before a game was standard fare for us but even my buddies in the public high school said a Hail Mary before every game.

Heck, games have been won on Hail Marys. Brett Favre does it all the time.

“Friday Night Lights” works because it has a great cast and tells great stories, but if today’s public high school football players can’t pray in the locker room, at least they can see it on TV thanks to a guy with the talent and cajones of Peter Berg.

Over the past few years, throughout this country I have heard the same thing from audiences over and over, “Why doesn’t Hollywood make the kind of movies that we want to see? Why don’t movies represent our values?” 

This is an outstanding opportunity for lessons learned. To everyone outside of this community, I implore you to take a long and hard look at the people who are standing up for Roman Polanski. The stars. The studio heads. Many of these people are the powers that be who green-light projects. These are the people that we pitch to. These are the people who decide whether or not our films get distribution. These are the people who decide what product should be available to you and your children.

Hollywood is the voice of popular American culture. Control Hollywood and you can steer the direction of the country. 

Roman Polanski is a talented director. He has many friends who do not want to see him go to prison. He has many friends that do not want the eye of judgment to be turned on them. 

Let’s put the workplace, friendship, history and the passage of time away for just a moment and look at the facts: 

At age 43, Roman Polanski drugged a 13 year old girl. He plied her with alcohol and then he sodomized her. She was 13. She was a child. He was an adult, a powerful Hollywood player. She was in grade school. After confessing his crime, he ran away. 

She was 13! 

If you cannot look at this and say that this is wrong, if you cannot recognize an act of rape and pedophilia when you see one, then I submit that you have not lost your moral compass, you never had one. 

I believe the rule of law needs to apply to all Americans equally. I do not support vigilante activity. But if Mr. Polanski had done that to my daughter, and had I found him first, I do not know that I could have guaranteed his safety. I do not know a father among my friends and family that does not feel the same. 

Yes, I am probably shooting my career in the foot, again, by writing this article, but if we say nothing, then we are complicit in the perversion.

Edmund Burke wrote, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

How about it Hollywood? Do we still have a few good men? Are there any other fathers out there?  Has this town completely forgotten who we are? 

We are Americans? We are supposed to stand for something. We are supposed to lead by example. How can we face the threat of Sharia and say that abusing women, killing gay people and marrying prepubescent girls is wrong, if we do not protect our own children. 

Where are we headed as a nation, as a culture, if we do not make a stand?

There is no shame in artists receiving monetary compensation to sell ideas, products or a presidential agenda. When everything is transparent and contracted aboveboard, this is called advertising. When this process is whispered into being, strategized and set into motion from the shadows of government and from behind closed doors, it is propaganda.

From Sun Tzu to Psy Ops, propaganda has won wars, toppled cultures and changed civilizations. As a self-identified enlightened and educated culture, we  thought ourselves beyond such base manipulation. We were wrong.

Where were the voices of dissent on the NEA conference call when so called “artists” were asked to further the President’s agenda?

I have danced ballets and I have done commercials; one side art, the other side business. What side were the NEA recipients on?

Art for propaganda was an essential tool of Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse Tung. What the heck is it doing in the White House? This should outrage freethinkers, citizens and artists from every corner of America.

The National Endowment of the Arts strategy has been traced straight to Valerie Jarrett, President Obama’s policy facilitator and Grande Dame of his inner circle. As disturbing and possibly illegal as this is, it becomes truly frightening when you connect the rest of the dots:

1)      The Democrats repeated commitment to implement the Fairness Doctrine and destroy conservative talk radio.

2)      S.733: The bill that would give the President control over the internet in the event of an “emergency.”

3)      On Sept. 20, 2009, President Obama stated that he would look into bailouts for print newspapers because he is concerned that blogs will take over the world and be a threat to democracy.

Imagine that: the President of the United States is concerned free speech may be a threat to democracy. Is anybody paying attention?

Thomas Jefferson knew that a free press is essential to a free republic. Control the flow of information and you control the people. This hasn’t changed much since 1933.

Perhaps this is not as visually arresting as book burning, but the results are the same. Joseph Goebbels needed to ensure that the views of the Nazis were put forward in the most persuasive manner possible and make certain that no one in Germany could read or see anything that was damaging to the Nazi Party.

Is this that far removed from the news coverage of Honduras or the under-reporting of turnout for the 9/12 DC rally?

But I submit to you that these propaganda assaults will fail because they are lacking the one element critical to mission implementation: fear.

President Obama and his team are convinced that they are smarter than the average American citizen.  They don’t just say Middle Americans “cling to their Bibles and guns out of fear,” they truly believe it. This administration has banked on using fear to push stimulus packages, carbon taxes, bailouts and health care reform. That is their Waterloo.

Fear is not at the core of the American psyche; independence and patriotism are. And when enough Americans step back, take a breath and realize the extent of this manipulation, they awaken with a determination and that is truly frightening to those that would attempt to govern from the shadows.

The fear is now on the other foot.

The Muslim Brotherhood has long taught their operatives in the USA to attack their opponents with charges of “hate speech” and “racism” whenever they were called out to defend their positions in public. The Democrats have called out their big guns: congressmen, congresswomen and even an ex-President to do the same. Why would anyone do this if they were not “afraid” of an informed public debate?

It will not work this time. The sleeper has awakened and she sees the man behind the curtain.

Apathy can no longer be counted on as a tool for those who would seek to control the populace and erode the Constitution.

In this “Constitution Revolution,” the American people are not coming after you with guns or explosives; they are armed with truth, a desire for transparency, a desire for enlightened and informed public discourse, a demand for civic responsibility and a call to politicians to honor their oaths to the US Constitution.

I spent all day yesterday up and down Pennsylvania Avenue with people from all over the Union.  One guy I met had 45 autographs on his t-shirt from people from 45 states. He only needed 5 more to make it a day.

The mainstream media has reported the rally as anti-Obama or anti-government, both are partially true, but I believe that pro-Constitution would be much more accurate. Pro-Constitution and polite.  This was more than a peaceful demonstration. I never heard so many excuse mes and thankyous in my life, and not a drop of litter to be found.

There was some anger yesterday, there was a lot of frustration, but mostly there was a multitude of Americans determined to have their voices heard. I am talking about people of all colors. I am talking about people with long hair, short hair, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Libertarians, conservatives, cops, teachers,college students, grandmas, grandpas, great grandmas, moms, dads and kids.

The frustration demonstrated yesterday has been building for longer than nine months. What do the people want? They want the Federal Government to listen to the will of the people. They want the Federal Government to stick to the Constitution. They want the Federal Government to Keep the Czars in Russia.

When I filmed “Border,” I was afraid that the greatest threat to the future of our country was apathy. Those fears were completely swept away by what I experienced yesterday. But the fresh new hope that surged through all of us was tempered by the MSM media reports that we began hearing as soon as we left the Capitol.

I was hit with a nauseating wave of déjà vu. I had a flashback to when I was in Honduras, when a couple hundred Marxist revolutionaries and pro-Zelaya supporters demonstrated and the next day it was on the front page of newspapers around the world. But put one hundred thousand  Constitutionalists in the streets of Tegucigalpa and it won’t make U.S. news at eleven.

When we first arrived at yesterday’s demonstration, CNN was reporting  that 30,000 people were expected. By the afternoon FOX news was reporting 60,000. The Saturday evening newscasts all said that “thousands” of people had turned out. Later they updated to “tens of thousands.”

At the rally, at noon on Saturday, we began hearing that DC police estimates were 1.2 million. I could not confirm that with any of the DC police officers that I spoke with. However, I did speak with a retired NYPD Sergeant towards the end of the day, he had a significant background in crowd control, including the evacuation of Manhattan on 9/11. This Sergeant put the number between 1.4 and 1.6 million.

The London Daily Mail would later put the number at 2 million. For the better part of two hours we saw Pennsylvania Avenue packed with humanity walking towards the Capitol Building. For the longest time it seemed like an unending river of humanity.  Fourteen blocks of streaming individuals!!

I ducked under police tape blocks away from the Capitol Building. Police officers immediately stopped me. I told them that I was press. The officers said that they didn’t care. I was told, “Get back. The venue is full.” They wouldn’t guess at how large the crowds were, but it was clear that they were stunned by the size of the turnout.

Where I stood, thousands of people were being turned back. I had to go around the demonstration to make my way closer to the steps of the Capitol.

I don’t know how many people were there. Maybe satellite photos will later give us an accurate count, but I would estimate that 90 percent of the demonstrators never even saw the event stage. Possibly 50 percent of the crowd never even got close enough to the remote speakers to hear what was being said.

No one cared. They didn’t come to hear the VIP speakers, they came to be with other Americans. They came because this is their house.

I couldn’t help but wonder what President Obama was thinking as he flew over us in Marine One on his way to Minnesota.

As I looked out down from the balcony of a twelfth story Pennsylvania Avenue  apartment, our host told me that in all of her decades in DC, she had never seen anything like this.

Either the entire corps of the Mainstream Media are entirely incompetent or they are complicit in propaganda of the greatest proportions.  Do not be fooled.

Robert Gibbs said on Friday that the White House was unaware of the rally… he didn’t know who this group was.

Mr. Gibbs, this is not a group. These are the American people, and they came here to remind you that you work for them.

All day long, I saw people pushing strollers. I saw people on crutches and in wheelchairs. But the image that will stick with me the longest was when I saw an elderly woman, possibly near 80 years old, lying in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue. She was seizing very badly. She had walked almost a mile in the DC heat, but her body just couldn’t take it. Her elderly sister looked on as the paramedics worked on her. I don’t know if she made it, but she was a patriot.

I will put her courage and commitment up against the arrogance of the political elite any day.

There is nothing stronger on this planet than the united will of the American people. Yesterday this nation turned a corner. The American people have awakened, and they want their country back.

Photos taken by Barbara Auchter

Frank Munoz died on the 73rd floor of The Second Tower on Sept. 11, 2001.

For days after 9/11, his family searched the hospitals because some sick person put his name on a fake Internet survivor list. 

I didn’t cry for him until two years later when my wife and I stood at the edge of Ground Zero. 

Afterwards, Lisa and I wanted to get a burger. A block away, we walked into a bar called O’Hara’s. On 9/11, O’Hara’s had their windows knocked out and the building was covered in debris. 

We sat with two electricians and Con Smith, the owner until closing time. The guys had worked on the pile every day until it was gone. They still sit together like ‘Nam Vets do 40 years later. 

This September 11th^, I will fly on an American Airlines plane. That is my own personal “F**k Y**” to the people who killed our friends. I know it isn’t much. 

I am going to DC because I like the way we came together on 9/12/01. I want to be around other people that feel the same way. 

I wanted to be able to write something really profound, but all I can think of is that I wish my friend Frank was still alive.

President Obama has entered into a special trade pact with Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. Once the treaty is signed doctors and teachers from Cuba and Nicaragua offer their services to help the American “poor.” As soon as they enter the United States and become embedded in the countryside, they immediately begin organizing and indoctrinating the “poor” as to how oppressed they are and how they are entitled to the same lifestyle, privileges and properties that the “rich” enjoy. 

Honduran President Roberto Micheletti and Chris Burgard

The “rich” are now defined as anyone who has more than two bedrooms in their home. In this imaginary, future America, President Obama owns several mansions across the nation, yet he declares that it is the patriotic duty of every “rich” homeowner to turn their 3rd and 4th bedrooms over to the “poor.”   

President Obama raises the minimum wage by 60% percent. The “poor” hail him as their champion. Unable to meet the federal minimum wage requirement, thousands of small businesses close. Overnight 7,740,000 Americans lose their jobs. The American economy slumps even further. 

Taiwanese investors agree to build new hydro electric power plants to revitalize the failing American energy grid. However, they rescind their offer when President Obama begins to talk of nationalizing energy production. Other foreign investors take notice and foreign investment in America stalls. 

Even though the country cannot afford it, President Obama starts to subsidize gasoline. He gives the” poor” free electricity. He then makes a deal with Hugo Chavez and the Iranians to give free tractors to the poor. In the most rural parts of America every public works project has a big sign on it: “This has been built for you by Barack Obama!” 

The “poor” people love him for it. 

President Obama also makes huge concessions to the labor unions. Teachers now get paid whether they are in the classroom or on strike. As a result instead of a 220 day school year, American public schools are now only open 70 days per year. Public school students are hit the hardest. They soon fall far behind the few American students who can still afford private school. However, with the teacher’s union in his debt, President Obama now has a ready demonstration force that can be mobilized for public rallies at a moment’s notice. 

About this time, President Obama loses trust in the Secret Service and military personnel assigned to protect him. House minority leader, John Boehner and others believe that the President has his own private security force made up of Nicaraguans and other foreign nationals. 

With the end of his second term in sight, President Obama decides that he doesn’t want to leave office. He banks on his charisma and the devotion of his cult followers to allow him to follow in the footsteps of Hugo Chavez.  

President Obama declares that he will add a referendum to the ballots for the upcoming Presidential primaries. There will be a special box on the ballots that Americans can check in order to eliminate presidential term limits. 

But Americans rise up against this attack on their Constitution. There is not a single printing company in the United States that will print the illegal ballots.

With the exception of only three legislators, the entire Congress votes against the President. Undeterred President Obama again turns to his friend, Hugo Chavez. Millions of illegal ballots are printed in Venezuela for use in the United States. 

President Obama orders Joint Chief of Staff, Admiral Mullen to distribute the illegal ballots to every polling place across the nation. When Admiral Mullen refuses, the president fires him. 

The US Supreme Court orders Admiral Mullen reinstated and the illegal ballots confiscated. 

President Obama then takes his cause to the streets. Organizers, the unions and the “poor” rally to his side. The mob breaks into an air force base and seizes the illegal ballots by force. 

In this fictional, future United States, there are no articles of impeachment, but the law does apply to all citizens equally, even the President.           

Article 239

The citizen who has served as head of the Executive branch shall not serve again as President or Vice President of the Republic….He who violates this disposition or proposes its reform….shall immediately be removed from office. 

The Supreme Court orders President Obama arrested. On a Sunday morning at 6am, Admiral Mullen and the military carry out that arrest warrant. 

In this future, fictional United States, the office of Vice President is vacant. Vice President Biden had recently resigned, so according to Constitutional succession the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, is sworn in as President. 

World reaction is swift. Within hours, the Organization of American States, the European Union and the United Nations all stand against Nancy Pelosi’s administration. Putin, Calderon and Gordon Brown stand in solidarity with the Castro brothers, Daniel Ortega and Hugo Chavez, in demanding that Barack Obama be reinstated immediately. 

With the exception of Germany, Panama and Israel, the United States stands alone against the world. 

There is reported troop movement on the US Southern border. Hugo Chavez threatens to move in with Nicaraguan and Venezuelan troops in an effort to “restore democracy” and help Barack Obama avoid a civil war. Americans live in fear of foreign invasion. 

Foreign operatives and paid organizers spread cash and chaos wherever television cameras are likely to be found. They threaten American citizens. 

Americans are afraid to leave their houses. 

The pro-Obama factions immediately take to the streets. The rallies number in the hundreds and sometimes thousands. The demonstrators call each other “comrade.” Posters of Che Guevara are predominate among the protesters. Red bandannas and clothing are every where. Communist leaders from the 1980s direct graffiti artists to blanket the capitol streets in propaganda. The protesters burn diesel fuel and tires in the streets. They carry a blind old lady off of a bus and then torch the vehicle. They fire bomb a Popeye’s restaurant while there are still women and children inside. At one demonstration, they cut holes in an airport fence and charge government forces. A young man is killed. 

In response, pro-Constitution rallies soon pop up. The demonstrators wear red, white and blue clothes. They don’t litter. They don’t burn things. They don’t attack security forces, vandalize or burn businesses. The pro constitution rallies number in the tens of thousands. The biggest rally hits one hundred thousand.  But the Main Stream Media focuses almost exclusively on the Obama rallies and the violence that they create. The outside world never knows the full extent of popular support that the US Constitution carries within its borders. 

Fortunately for us this is a purely fictional future United States. I do not believe that President Obama would ever do these things. Unfortunately for the people of Honduras, this is their reality. Ex President Manuel Zelaya did all of these things. The story you have just read is true. The President and the country were changed to put it into an American perspective. 

I spent two weeks in July and August covering the events in Honduras for Pajamas Media. I interviewed, spoke and traveled with campesinos living with no electricity and dirt floors, teachers, military officers and enlisted personnel, missionaries, business leaders, national police, the House Minority leader, the Chief Supreme Court Justice, the ex First Lady: Xiomara Castro, hard core ex president Manuel Zelaya supporters, community organizers, militant revolutionaries and the current Honduran president: Roberto Micheletti. 

I lost count of how many times I heard…”We never thought this could happen to us! We are a democracy.” 

Hondurans were shocked when their democratically elected leader, Manuel Zelaya, began shifting dramatically to the far left and began to adopt the policies of Hugo Chavez. 

After Manuel Zelaya was arrested and removed from office, Hondurans were stunned when President Obama called this a military coup. Within hours, President Obama stood in solidarity with Daniel Ortega, Hugo Chavez and the Castro brothers in demanding the return to power of Manuel Zelaya. 

Manuel Girbal, a retired Honduran Army officer wanted me to know that the Honduran military swears an oath to the Constitution, not the President. In his eyes, by protecting the constitution, the military was protecting the people. 

Chief Supreme Court Justice, Magistrado Presidente Rivera explained to me that the Honduran Constitution does not have articles of impeachment, but that the law applies equally to all men, even the president. Manuel Zelaya broke constitutional law and that is why the Supreme Court issued an arrest warrant and ordered the army to serve it. 

Later, as Honduran troops deployed once more to guard the Presidential Palace and the Marriot Hotel from pro Zelaya demonstrators, I was asked by an Army Lieutenant why the United States had abandoned their friends in Honduras. Honduras gets a lot of criticism from its neighbors for leasing Soto Kano airbase to the Americans. Soto Kano is strategically located and plays a huge part in stopping the flow of drugs into the US. This lieutenant had served five months in Iraq because President Bush asked him. He wanted to know why President Obama had now abandoned them. 

From the president on down to the peasants, from the right to the left, Hondurans are asking their Northern cousins to come and see for themselves what is going on in Honduras. 

Unfortunately for them, Michael Jackson died the same week that Manuel Zelaya was removed from office. It was Michael Jackson that dominated American television screens. 

Regular Honduran Presidential elections are scheduled for November 29. Hondurans are hoping to have free elections and a new president. According to the constitution, President Micheletti is ineligible to ever hold the office of president again. 

The EU has cut off over 90 million dollars in aid to Honduras. The US has cut off military aid and suspended diplomatic visas. All joint US/Honduran narco/military operations have been suspended. Labor unions across the planet have demanded that longshoremen refuse to unload Honduran fruit and coffee cargos. Between this and the US tourism warnings, the Honduran economy is taking a huge hit. 

In spite of all of this punishment, Honduras is standing tall. Everyday that they do not cave into international pressure brings them one day closer to their Presidential elections.

Over and over Hondurans told me that they would rather have six months of hell, than a lifetime of communism. 

In the two months since Manuel Zelaya was arrested, Daniel Ortega has declared that Nicaragua needs to change their constitution in order to extend his stay in power.   

Oscar Arias, the president of Costa Rica and the man that Hillary Clinton put in charge of mediations between Zelaya and the Micheletti administration came out last week with similar demands on the Costa Rican constitution.

 There are lessons to be learned here and there are friendships that should not be forgotten. 

Those of us who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it. Those of us who do not pay accurate attention to the plight of our friends and neighbors may not fare much better.

They started a war. My ancestor, Francis Lightfoot Lee was one of those men. They started the revolution that birthed this nation. 

Now we are engaged at a crossroads of history, testing whether the leaders of this nation so conceived and dedicated, still hold those same truths and ideals to be self-evident. 

Iranian citizens have taken to the streets of their cities in the pursuit of freedom and liberty. They sought, and deserved, their own revolution. The Iranian government murdered and persecuted them for it. Our government voted present. 

Manuel Zelaya attempted to trample the Honduran Constitution and follow in the footsteps of his communist brother: Hugo Chavez. In the face of such tyranny, the Honduran people rose up in a revolution of their own and sent their  King George packing. Within hours, the same US government that dared not meddle in the affairs of the Iranians, sponsored a United Nations Resolution condemning the Honduran people for resisting the spread of communism. 

We will meet in the next few days to drink beer, eat hotdogs and enjoy multitudes of pyrotechnic displays reminiscent of the rockets red glare and the attack on Fort McHenry. 

Let us also take a moment to remember Neda and all those who are suffering in the quest for freedom. The Honduran Congress had the might of its military to deal with a would be dictator. Would the situation in Iran be different today if her citizens were armed as we Americans are under the Second Amendment? Would the Iranian Basij Militiaman who murdered Neda have ridden so confidently into that crowd if he knew that he faced a citizenry able to defend itself? 

I have the freedom today to write this article because on April 19, 1775 a handful of armed farmers and merchants stood and held their ground against the greatest super power on the planet. When the Minutemen stood at Concord’s North Bridge and fired the shot heard around the world, they forever changed the course of history. 

That moment brought the audacity of hope to the people of  Honduras and it should be cherished by Americans. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this on this 4th of July weekend. 

But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate this weekend, we cannot hallow our history if we don’t remember the true meaning of our country’s birth: Revolution. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The Saul Alinskys and the William Ayers of the world will mourn the loss of  Manuel Zelaya and all that he represents, but those of us that are proud of our American heritage will pass on the Dreams of Our Fathers to our children this weekend and every day to come for the rest of our lives. We here highly resolve that all of those who have given their lives for the preservation of freedom shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall continue on in freedom, and that the government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.

My buddy Dave came back from Iraq without his leg. He was willing to die to keep my family and the rest of America safe. I can never thank him enough for his sacrifice. All he ever says is: “I was just doing my job.”

Just doing my job? My kids sleep safely every night because hundreds of thousands of  men and women like Dave stand watch for us every night. 

Last week a bunch of us helped out at “Operation Gratitude.” Operation Gratitude puts together care packages for the troops. They are approaching the 500,000 package mark. They aren’t just sending gifts. They are sending their love and appreciation to those who would protect us. It was an honor to be a part of their project. I wish that I could bottle the emotion and love that was in that building and share it with every serviceman, women and veteran in America. To you guys over there, we love and appreciate what you are doing for us, to our core. To us at home, if you love our troops, please let them know. 

Another friend of ours was wounded in Iraq. When she got to Germany she was given a hand made quilt that someone had sent from America.  That a stranger had put so much love and time into this gift meant the world to her. She carried it all through her surgeries and rehab. 

May God Bless you all and wrap you in a quilt of his love. 

Thank you.

Mohammad Asgari worked for the Iranian Interior Ministry to protect the security of their IT network. Officially President Ahmadinejad received two thirds of the vote with around 24.5 million votes, while his closest rival, Mir Hassein Mousavi, received over 13 million votes. According to figures leaked by Asgari, President Ahmadinejad came in third. 

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians are in the streets demanding liberty. Officially 37 have been killed: shot in the streets and in their dorm rooms. Iranians are standing up to the Mullahs. They are standing up for freedom and they are being killed.

These are not people who were promised a day in the park for a free rock concert, sausages and beer. These are people who are risking everything to go against an evil theocracy. It is no longer simply a matter of candidates, the Mullahs are in real danger of losing their power, and they know it.

Ronald Reagan stood at the Berlin Wall and demanded: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” In that moment the world changed. That was leadership.

There is an opportunity here of historical proportions. Two thirds of the population of Iran are under the age of thirty. Most of them are pro-American! These protests have the potential to take down a regime. The Iranian people are crying for democracy not theocracy.

Where are you Mr. President?

As a citizen of the world, why aren’t you decrying the violence and thuggery going on in Iran at this very moment?

As a human being, why aren’t you applauding the brave Iranian women tearing off their headscarves and leading this revolt?

Today Iran is a country where kids have to play rock and roll behind closed doors for fear of being arrested. Women are stoned to death for alleged adultery and gay people are executed for being themselves. The country is screaming for change, they are willing to die for it and yet you remain silent?

Mr. President you told Ahmadinejad and the Iranian Mullahs that, “We will extend a hand if they will unclench their fist.” Sir, they are using that fist to hammer their own people for exercising the very human rights we hold dear.

Where are you Mr. President?

Tonight the Mullahs are expecting the largest protest ever. The Iranian people must know they are not alone, that free people across the planet stand with them.

Democracy was brought to the people of Iraq with the blood of our servicemen and women.  Will you shed some television time to free the people in the streets of Iran?

As the president of a republic birthed out of revolution, will you hold out your hand to the revolutionaries who are ready to die in the streets of Tehran for freedom?

For the past five months I have seen you on the television eating cheeseburgers, pondering puppies, swatting flies and pushing fear-driven agendas. Will you have the audacity to take five minutes to broadcast a message of hope to the Iranian people?

With all due respect Sir, I believe this to be a defining moment in your presidency. For you to continue to remain silent will be nothing short of a moral failure that history will not soon forget.

Sir, you do not have to endorse any candidate, you only need to endorse democracy! Germany and France already have! Why can’t we?  

We Americans, those of us who do not subscribe to the teachings of Saul Alinski, are extremely proud of our heritage. We hold ourselves to the standards and ideals of that “Shining City on the Hill.” We expect our President to act like the leader of the free world, not react like a Chicago politician. 

Sir, destiny is calling and this is not the time to vote present.

Who are you Mr. President?

We stand at a precipice.

Dr. Martin Luther King had a dream that he was willing to die for. For that he was, and always will be a hero in my family.

Millions of Iranians also have a dream that they are willing to die for, and we Americans would be so proud to have a President who stood up like he had a pair, and held his hand out to them in liberty and fellowship.