Jasper County, GA Dedication
Jasper County GA Dedication
July 7, 2021
Thank you Congressman Hice, Representative Holmes, Chairman Henry, Commissioners, and each of you for being here today.
The Documents of America’s Law and Government
begin with the Ten Commandments - God’s Law - the Source of Liberty for men and nations. Upon this foundation and its enduring principles, America was birthed and built.
At its birth in 1620, the Pilgrim fathers wrote and signed the Mayflower Compact, laying the foundational principle of self-government under God.
In 1776, The Declaration of Independence proclaimed, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…” underscoring the principle that Rights come from God, not government.
In 1791, the Bill of Rights to the US Constitution was adopted ensuring the principle that Government is established among men to protect unalienable rights and as they are given by God, government cannot take them away.
For over two centuries these principles have been the Source, the structure and the sinews of our Constitutional Republic producing unprecedented freedom, opportunity, prosperity and charity.
Throughout its history, America has been a beacon of light to the world giving hope to all who live under tyranny’s bondage.
In his book The Last Green Valley, Mark Sullivan tells the true story of one such family, the Martels, Emil, Adeline and their two young sons William and Walt.
The Martels were descendants of ethnic Germans, who a century earlier accepted Catherine the Great’s offer of free land and privileges in the Russian territory of Ukraine.
Through hard work and skill, they became successful farmers and tradesmen providing grain for Russia and a good life for themselves and their families. Over the years, the kulaks, as they were called, became valuable to Russia, but by 1944 they had become even more valuable to Hitler and the Third Reich who saw their pure blood as the seedbed of a master race.
That year, German authorities gave the ethnic Germans two days to pack their belongings and return to the Fatherland, leaving behind them their farms, their livelihood, and their dreams.
And thus began The Long Trek.
Wagons, horses, mules, and people came in waves - the young and the old, the strong and the weak, caught between two armies, the advancing Soviet army and the retreating German army.
They inched along through blizzards and over icy roads, with machine gun fire raining down from Soviet planes and cannon fire shaking the ground beneath them.
After a year, the trek took a new turn, German authorities ordered the Martel family and thousands more to board trains that would transport them on to Germany. At this point, the family was separated, As German soldiers shoved Adeline and the boys onto the train, Polish militia arrested Emil. Watching in despair, Adeline heard his last words, “Go West, I will return and I will find you.”
The Long Trek was a mere prelude to the year ahead. A year that would challenge them to the depth of their soul and tax them to the limits of human strength. Along with 2,000 other prisoners, Emil was taken to a Soviet POW camp in Poltava. Adeline and the boys were taken to Soviet controlled East Germany to work on a communal farm.
Each trying to hold on to their dream: Emil’s to reach freedom in the West and Adeline to find the green valley, she had seen in a book, a valley with a river winding through it surrounded by snow capped mountains.
Emil spent almost a year in the Soviet camp, enduring bitter cold, starvation rations, back-breaking labor for 12-14 hours a day, and every cruelty a human can inflict on another, At the end of himself, he collapsed, bereft of faith, hope, and strength; it was at this point that God brought a man into his life who helped Emil see that it was God who had kept him alive and who had a plan for his escape. With faith renewed and hope restored, Emil made a daring miraculous escape. After riding on railcars, sleeping in snowy forests, living off food in trash cans and walking for weeks he crossed the border into West Berlin.
Meanwhile in East Germany, Adeline knew if she were to ever see Emil again, she had to escape across the border into West Germany. Faith in God, raw courage, and hope for her family to be reunited emboldened her to cross Berlin’s east border into freedom.
Through the efforts of the Red Cross the Martel family was reunited and after several yeas of fulfilling all the lawful requirements Emil and his family came to America - the West and freedom. Under sponsorship of Adeline’s uncle they came to Montana and eventually settled in Bozeman. It was here, Adeline found her green valley, yes, with a river running through it and snow capped mountains surrounding it. The boys graduated from high school, William class Valedictorian. Emil and his sons went on to build a very successful Construction Company.
Where else in this world could such a a story happen, America is a nation of many such stories, but if America had not been built upon godly principles, and human rights protected by law, the story of the Martels would have never happened.
This, as Charles Dickens would say, is a Tale of Two Cities - government under man and government under God - a stark contrast. Our forefathers chose government under God, for centuries Americans have enjoyed the blessings of Liberty we live in their Legacy of Liberty, a legacy for which many have died to protect.
To preserve the blessings of Liberty to our posterity, we must teach the principles in these documents and the stories of the men and women who sacrificed life and liberty to procure them. We must keep them alive in our hearts.