Willing

Every time I hear the word willing I think of the scene from the Shootist where JB Books is giving Gillum a shooting lesson.

Gillum is almost dead on at hitting the target. So is Books.

Gillum remarks how close their groups are.

Books then tells him that there is more to shooting, particularly live targets.

He first says that there wasn't a man he shot that didn't need killing. He never killed for fun or sport. He killed in self defense.

He mentions that a lot of gunfighters had a gimmick to give them an edge, though he still won his gunfights without them.

The reason was simple. He was willing.

Many a man blinked or hesitated. Books did not.

So it is today just as always.

There must be total commitment. Not just in the event of a gunfight, but to Freedom in its totality.

So it was at Valley Forge.

The Brits beat the Americans back to Pennsylvania. Winter camp was set up at Valley Forge 12/19/1777.

Soldiers died at a rate of 12 a day due to lack of supplies.

11,000 started the winter. 2,500 died as cold, hunger and disease tool their toll. There were desertions. The rest held out and held on.

They were 12 to 60. They were white, black, red.

According to Hessian Major Carl Leopold Baurmeister, the only thing that held the Americans together was their 'spirit of Liberty'.

This was the place where Washington was seen kneeling in the snow, asking for guidance and strength.

He was inspired by those men, who, deprived of boots and clothes and food, nonetheless stayed the course.

They were inspired by his leadership.

All were inspired by Freedom.

It is no less a commitment now.

Everything or nothing.

We must be willing to die for Freedom.

We must be willing to live for Freedom.

The storm is coming.

We must be willing to weather it.