Author Ryan Cristián

Today, this Veterans Day, as with any politicized holiday, we need to remember what it is that we are actually celebrating.

What I am about say will no doubt be disliked by many, simply for my speaking the truth, and possibly censored by others for the very same reason. In my view, there is no better day than today to honor the sacrifice of so many by taking the quintessentially American action of speaking truth to power and exposing the lies they we are sold by the State.

Far too many have been conditioned from birth to blindly serve, and to see anything else as an affront to what this country represents. Yet this nation has not represented what it claims for quite some time, which is why I do what I do, to awaken those lost in the lies to the reality that their loyalties have been hijacked by those who care nothing for the love we share of this country’s core values.

Whether or not these core values were ever truly practiced by this nation’s founders, they have become real for us. This slowly materializing mountain of lies is also why there is such a forceful effort to make holidays like today about glorifying the State and its war efforts, as opposed to those they tricked into carrying them out, and to make those of us saying anything less out to be deceivers and manipulators — truly accusing us of that which they are guilty. This is classic propaganda, in the truest sense of the word. The saddest part is that so many have bought into this; so much so that they do not even know their own history, and then turn around and call those of us still embracing the true values of this country, the enemy, treasonous even.

President Theodore Roosevelt, summed it up best:

“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we must stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but, it is morally treasonable to the American people.”

So, today, all I ask of those of you out there currently recoiling in disgust due to my willingness to speak ill of the country on such a day, is, first, to understand that I am not speaking ill of this country, that is the deception. I love this country. I am speaking ill of those who have deceived the masses, and who seek to use your love of this nation to carry out wars of aggression in your name. Second, to take a step back and simply look at what such blind subservience to those in power (who arrogantly lie to maintain it) has done, both to those in this country and to those around the world who dared to think for themselves.

Especially on a day like today, we owe it to ourselves, and to those who gave their lives for a cause they likely realized in the process of pursuing was not what they were told, to speak the truth and not blindly acquiesce to the jingoistic pressure of the brainwashed masses. It is not hard to do just a little research and see just how many veterans tell quite a different story about what we should be proud of, and what we are really doing overseas. It is also not difficult to see just how hard the establishment works to keep their message suppressed and veterans drugged up and in the shadows.

As Ray McGovern said in a past article for Consortium News:

“Memorial Day should be a time of sober reflection on war’s horrible costs, not a moment to glorify war. But many politicians and pundits can’t resist the opportunity.”

And as James Madison, our fourth president and an author of our Constitution, wrote:

“Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. … No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”

And as this government wages war on it’s own people in the interests of a foreign nation, today we celebrate those who stand for the true values of this country, the true values of humanity, even, and especially, when it comes at great cost to those standing for what they know to be right. Today, I celebrate all of you, standing for honor and integrity, devoid of political party, ethnicity or religion. The true patriots.