My name is
Bill Winter and I'm running for Congress against Tom Tancredo in Colorado's Congressional District 6.
As a candidate, I'm often told to be careful about what I say so that it is not used against me by my opponents. To that advice I say this--caution is not something I learned in the Marine Corps and the Navy. The Marines are not cautious. The Marines charge in where even angels fear to tread and that is something I will never change about myself.
I am tired of cautious candidates and people who don't stand up for what our Nation is supposed to stand for. I'm tired of people who pander to various groups every two years but then do nothing when those people really need them.
Where was caution in 1776 when patriots stood up against the greatest military in the world with nothing more than muskets? Where was caution on the ridge at Gettysburg when men died for the idea that a nation could exist to provide freedom? Where was caution in 1944 when Americans went up the beach at Normandy or Tarawa or Iwo Jima? And where is caution today when young Marines walk patrol in the streets of Fallujah and Najaf?
I will NOT be cautious. I will stand up for what I believe. I will stand up for America and for equality and for human rights.
If ever there was an inalienable right, surely it must be the right to make your own choices about what happens to your own body, what happens between you and your doctor, and what happens between you and your own family members!
If ever the pursuit of happiness meant anything, surely it must mean the right to live with someone you love and cherish with the full protection of the law, no matter what their gender may be!
If ever the right to life meant anything, surely it must mean the right to see a doctor and get medication, and not suffer and die simply because you can't afford to!
And if ever the right to liberty meant anything, surely it must mean the right to expect your government to obey the law and not intrude on your telephone lines, your computer, and into your bedrooms and libraries and churches!
"We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal."
Either you believe it....or you don't! There can be no middle ground! Either you stand for America and the Constitution and freedom for ALL, or you don't!
Let me finish today with a letter written in July, 1861. Major Sullivan Ballou was third in command of the 2nd Rhode Island Volunteer Infantry Regiment at the beginning of the Civil War. Shortly before the First Battle of Bull Run, the first major engagement of that war, he wrote the letter below home to his wife in Smithfield, Rhode Island.
Sullivan Ballou was killed seven days later at the First Battle of Bull Run.
His letter reminds me of the meaning of the Fourth of July to me, and here's what it is:
The freedom that I so often take for granted, the government that I occasionally curse, and the rights from which I so richly profit every day, have all been provided to me, at no cost to myself whatsoever, by sacrifices that I cannot begin to imagine, made by men and women that I will never know!
There is no way that I can ever repay that debt except to be prepared to offer that same sacrifice if I am ever called upon to do so!
But Major Ballou's letter takes my thoughts in another direction as well, and leads me to one question that I hope you will all ask yourselves: If you could somehow know that this would be your last day, would you still put off until tomorrow telling those you truly care about how much they mean to you?
Forgive my many faults, and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless and foolish I have oftentimes been! How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness, and struggle with all the misfortune of this world, to shield you and my children from harm.
I cannot improve on Major Ballou's words, and I would not dare to try, but I am thankful that I am able to learn this lesson without the threat that he so clearly faced.
I hope you will read on and I hope you will be as moved by Sullivan Ballou's words as I am. I wish you all a truly blessed Fourth of July, and I thank you all for being a cherished part of my life. Even if I have not met you, I know that you are fighting every day for freedom and a better world, and it means a great deal to me!
Thank you very much!
Bill Winter
Camp Clark, Washington
July 14th, 1861
My very dear Sarah:
The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days -- perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write you again, I feel impelled to write lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more.
Our movement may be one of a few days duration and full of pleasure -- and it may be one of severe conflict and death to me. Not my will, but thine O God, be done. If it is necessary that I should fall on the battlefield for my country, I am ready. I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in, the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American Civilization now leans upon the triumph of the Government, and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing -- perfectly willing -- to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this Government, and to pay that debt.
But, my dear wife, when I know that with my own joys I lay down nearly all of yours, and replace them in this life with cares and sorrows -- when, after having eaten for long years the bitter fruit of orphanage myself, I must offer it as their only sustenance to my dear little children -- is it weak or dishonorable, while the banner of my purpose floats calmly and proudly in the breeze, that my unbounded love for you, my darling wife and children, should struggle in fierce, though useless, contest with my love of country?
I cannot describe to you my feelings on this calm summer night, when two thousand men are sleeping around me, many of them enjoying the last, perhaps, before that of death -- and I, suspicious that Death is creeping behind me with his fatal dart, am communing with God, my country, and thee.
I have sought most closely and diligently, and often in my breast, for a wrong motive in thus hazarding the happiness of those I loved and I could not find one. A pure love of my country and of the principles I have often advocated before the people and "the name of honor that I love more than I fear death" have called upon me, and I have obeyed.
Sarah, my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me to you with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break; and yet my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me irresistibly on with all these chains to the battlefield.
The memories of the blissful moments I have spent with you come creeping over me, and I feel most gratified to God and to you that I have enjoyed them so long. And hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when God willing, we might still have lived and loved together, and seen our sons grow up to honorable manhood around us. I have, I know, but few and small claims upon Divine Providence, but something whispers to me -- perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar -- that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, and when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield, it will whisper your name.
Forgive my many faults, and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless and foolish I have oftentimes been! How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness, and struggle with all the misfortune of this world, to shield you and my children from harm. But I cannot. I must watch you from the spirit land and hover near you, while you buffet the storms with your precious little freight, and wait with sad patience till we meet to part no more.
But, O Sarah! If the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the garish day and in the darkest night -- amidst your happiest scenes and gloomiest hours -- always, always; and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath; or the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by.
Sarah, do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again.
As for my little boys, they will grow as I have done, and never know a father's love and care. Little Willie is too young to remember me long, and my blue-eyed Edgar will keep my frolics with him among the dimmest memories of his childhood. Sarah, I have unlimited confidence in your maternal care and your development of their characters. Tell my two mothers his and hers I call God's blessing upon them. O Sarah, I wait for you there! Come to me, and lead thither my children.
Sullivan