{"quotes":[{"text":"I think we need to consider a radical rewrite of any form of patriotism that serves the individual at the expense of the community, as that is nothing more than patriotism to one's own small and solitary cause.","author":"Craig D. Lounsbrough","tags":["fourth-of-july","free","freedom","liberation","liberty","patriotism"],"id":35181,"author_id":"Craig+D.+Lounsbrough"},{"text":"To be ignorant of the sacrifices of others that yielded the blessings I enjoy leaves me exchanging the reality of 'blessing' for the assumption of 'entitlement.' And once that happens, I will forfeit the reality of the former which will destroy the assumption of the latter. And in what terribly dark place will that now leave me?","author":"Craig D. Lounsbrough","tags":["america","appreciate","appreciation","assumption","blessing","blessings","cherish","cherishing","entitled","entitlement","fourth-of-july","gift","gifts","give","giving","memorial-day","reality","sacred","sacrifices","sacrificing","united-states","united-states-of-america","value"],"id":65884,"author_id":"Craig+D.+Lounsbrough"},{"text":"While we tediously check our weaponry before entering into battle, do we check our hearts? For without exception, that is the greatest weapon of all.","author":"Craig D. Lounsbrough","tags":["attitude","battle","fourth-of-july","heart","memorial-day","patriot","patriotic","patriotism","sacrifice","sacrificial","weapon","weapons"],"id":99352,"author_id":"Craig+D.+Lounsbrough"},{"text":"Despite how utterly massive they might be, it is never the size of the arsenal nor the strength of the warrior. Rather, it is a heart bent on sacrifice that is the most potent weapon of all.","author":"Craig D. Lounsbrough","tags":["arsenal","attitude","battle","fourth-of-july","give","giving","heart","memorial-day","patriot","patriotic","patriotism","perspective","priorities","priority","sacrifice","sacrificial","warrior","weapon","weapons"],"id":128149,"author_id":"Craig+D.+Lounsbrough"},{"text":"I would entertain the apparently fading idea that patriotism that serves the self is greed dressed in the garments of liberty and adorned with the fashion accessories of other associated patriotic notions.","author":"Craig D. Lounsbrough","tags":["fourth-of-july","free","freedom","greed","liberation","liberty","patriotism"],"id":180628,"author_id":"Craig+D.+Lounsbrough"},{"text":"The most elusive and ultimately impossible act of liberation is freedom from sin and self, and no document or declaration of man regardless of how exquisitely penned can do that. Such an astonishing act of liberation could only have been penned in one place: the cross.","author":"Craig D. Lounsbrough","tags":["christ","cross","fourth-of-july","free","freedom","god","jesus","liberation","liberty"],"id":294034,"author_id":"Craig+D.+Lounsbrough"},{"text":"Rare are the handful of principles that incessantly drive us to stand even when we face the stark realization that we will likely perish in the standing. And rarer still is the person who will surrender all to protect such principles. Yet, the rudimentary principles of freedom and liberty pristinely untarnished by greed and selfishness took captive the hearts of simple people and raised this nation up from untamed wilderness and unchecked tyranny. And let us all be warned that without renewed adherence to these principles, we will rapidly return this nation to untamed wilderness and unchecked tyranny.","author":"Craig D. Lounsbrough","tags":["convictions","core-values","fourth-of-july","freedom","liberty","patriotic","patriotism","principles","sacrifice","tyrrany","united-states","values"],"id":294072,"author_id":"Craig+D.+Lounsbrough"},{"text":"You are silent now who once stood on battlefields ravaged by destruction unimaginable, holding in those desperate places the line of freedom for others you would never know, and who would never know you. And being one of those you never knew, I would give all I have to clasp your hand one single time, look into eyes that witnessed the bloodied carnage that results when freedom refuses to bow to chains of any kind, and simply say 'thank you.","author":"Craig D. Lounsbrough","tags":["combat","fourth-of-july","freedom","memorial-day","military","patriotic","sacrifice","war"],"id":298365,"author_id":"Craig+D.+Lounsbrough"},{"text":"If I have become so pathetically dulled that I hold freedom as my right and the privileges of liberty as my due, I can stand beside the stilled graves of a thousand soldiers fallen in defense of freedom and not feel a thing. And my most solemn prayer is that I will never be this.","author":"Craig D. Lounsbrough","tags":["america","defense","fourth-of-july","freedom","liberty","memorial-day","patriotism","prayer","sacrifice","soldiers","united-states"],"id":305978,"author_id":"Craig+D.+Lounsbrough"},{"text":"The birthplace of anarchy is the cemetery of freedom.","author":"Craig D. Lounsbrough","tags":["anarchy","birth","birthplace","cemetery","chaos","death","entitlement","fourth-of-july","free","freedom","greed","independence","liberation","liberty","memorial-day","patriot","patriotism","selfish","selfishness","united-states","united-states-of-america"],"id":331494,"author_id":"Craig+D.+Lounsbrough"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":23,"pages":3,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}