Sometimes the knights in shining armor appear as crews’ wearing jeans, overalls and steel toed boots.
It doesn’t take an emergency beacon to activate them, just a need… and they come. Purposefully, without condition, ready to move, activate and respond. They throw the gear bags, kiss the ladies & babies, and head out. The rest is figured out upon arrival.
Superior Construction, came from Jacksonville, Ajax Paving from Fort Myers, Honc from the Cape and trucks with subs from just about everywhere. There’s both a unity and similarity that flows when callouses are clasped and the melding of purpose comes together. Few words are needed, because it’s a task centered outlook, let’s git r’ done – no quit.
I asked Richard to put this together. {Direct Ruble Link} The drone video is from FAI photography. The song is by Lucy Thomas. The message, well, given all of the critics who say America’s best days are behind, perhaps they need to pause a little bit and remind themselves what we are capable of. Enjoy:
.
What has been accomplished in two weeks of 24/7 reconstruction is nothing short of remarkable. Then again, this is the Christian America we know well. The truckers, pullers, spreaders, drivers, welders, machinists, heavy equipment operators, tugboat operators, barge haulers, diggers, pumpers, tradesmen, all of them, just people.
Damn good people at that.
People who represent what makes our nation unique. The invisible, salty, mostly scruffy and beautifully comfortable about it, yet critical network of blue-collar crews that keeps it all operating. God, how I cherish them so.
At the core of our American purpose is a decency and unity. Critics don’t like to talk about it, but American workers are fundamentally good. When something seems impossible, for blue-collar Americans ‘impossible‘ is just another starting point, if you get out of the way. Don’t lose sight of that.
No other nation on earth was ever conceived on the principle of allowing people to manifest their own destiny, while keeping government out of their lives. The vision, the premise and the purpose, was to allow you the freedom to determine your place in life; and even, at any time, change that determination and strike off in an entirely new direction.
Our labor and aspirations would not be pre-determined by caste, tier, creed or social status; but rather by our personal vision for our own future. The right of self-determination.
This election is a time to reflect on the value of work; the great personal benefit of endeavors achieved; the pride in accomplishment -regardless of scale- amid this thing we call life; and all of these considerations have absolutely nothing, not-one-thing, to do with the money we assemble in the process.
What is the current value of a former seed that became a tree nurtured toward its continued maturity over decades? What was that seed worth at the time it was planted? We can only see the value in hindsight many years later. What value lay in the blood at Fort McHenry?
The job, per se’, was simple. Hold the flagpole in place. Keep that representative flag held high, no matter the cost. And yet, that cost, my God THAT COST, could it ever be quantified appropriately? A simple yet consequential task that expressed the fullest measure of devotion to the underlying premise, freedom.
America!
Several years ago, Florida Power and Light won the prestigious international Edward Demming Award for excellence in multi-platform engineering, efficiency, superiority and total quality in the process of energy management.
However, the scruffy rednecks did not blow every PhD intellectual out of the water with slide rules, CAD programs, articulated and quantified quality improvement processes and engineering acumen. They did it with hard hats and dirty fingernails.
Because they lost the award, the jaw-agape Japanese spent 6 months visiting and reviewing FPL and later published a 1,000-page study essentially saying FPL “wasn’t really good, they were just lucky.”
You see, the reviewers couldn’t actually quantify the reason why the Florida-based energy company was so successful. In response the FPL field leadership laughed, took out magic markers and wrote on the back of their hard hats: “WE’RE NOT GOOD, WE’RE RUCKY.”
A few years later, every single Kuwaiti oil field was blown up by Saddam Hussein. Global analysts and think-tanks proclaimed it would take 5 years to cap them all off and restart the Kuwait oil pumping industry. Well, the Kuwaiti’s and Saudi’s called Texans, who had them all capped and back in working order in 6 months.
We are a nation that knows how to get shit done.
A few more years pass, and the Northern Chile mine workers were trapped two miles underground. The eyes of the world began to tear as the word spread. Most began to whisper no one could save them. Who did they call for help? A bunch of hick miners from USA coal country who went down there, worked on the fly, engineered the rescue equipment on site, and saved every one of them.
Yup, that’s our America. Ingenuity born from freedom.
Across the pond a half-breed Islamic whack job, armed with an AK-47 and a goal to meet his virgins, began opening fire on a train in France. The scruffneck Americans on board didn’t run to the nearest safe room and hide themselves amid baguettes and brie. They said, “let’s go”, and beat the stuffing out of that little nut with a death wish.
Legion d’Honneur or not, that’s us. That’s just how we roll.
Lady Liberty can stroll along the Champs-Elysées with a swagger befitting Mae West because without her arrival, they’d be speaking German in the Louvre.
Yet, for the better part of the past decade, a group of intellectual leftists have been teaching our children that it’s better to be sitting around a campfire eating sustainable algae cakes and picking parasites off each other; because ‘save the planet’, or something similarly minded. It would appear, they hate the outcomes and inequities from freedom.
So, we get to today, and right now those who wish to “fundamentally change” our nation are waging a full-frontal assault against our constitutional republic. The bombardment seems overwhelming.
Leftist city and state leaders have abandoned rule of law in favor of supporting a mob effort to destroy our sense of national unity. Political activists, left-wing ideologues under the guise of democrats, and a host of media allies are conducting information warfare on behalf of their objective. Big tech social media companies are attempting to remove the voices of those who are fighting back.
There is a great deal of purposefully driven anxiety and fear amid our nation as this multi-faceted internal war takes place. However, there is a primary element to this effort that each person can shield themselves from, and act to counter. We are, yet again, in Fort McHenry.
Do not let your sense of self succumb to this assault. Do not let them win the battle for your peace of mind.
It might, heck, -check that- it does seem overwhelming at times. But that is the nature of this collectivist strategy. That is the purpose of this bombardment. We must hold strong and push back against their lies and manipulations. If you look closely at their attack, it is weak and much of it is psychological bait. Do not fall into the trap of despair.
When we share the message, “live your best life”, it is not without purpose.
Every moment that we allow the onslaught to deter us from living our dreams, is a moment those who oppose our nation view as us taking a knee. Do not allow this effort to succeed.
You might ask yourself how I can, one person, a flea looking into a furnace, retain an optimistic disposition while all around me seems chaotic and mad.
That’s the point; it ‘seems’ chaotic and mad because it has been created to appear that way. There are more of us than them; they just control the systems that allow us to connect, share messages and recognize the scale of our assembly. We cannot comply our way out of tyranny.
Every second that you live your life with thankfulness for the abundance within it; every moment that we CHOOSE to engage with fellowship; every day that we accept guidance from God – however you define him to be; and every moment we cherish this time to be a beacon of optimism; is a moment that we withstand that barrage and hold the flag in place. It is a genuinely patriotic position not to succumb to the attack.
If you allow yourself to be drawn into crisis and despair, you allow them to win. If your center of normal is based around this overwhelming onslaught, you will eventually concede liberty in favor of peace. Once we stop living in liberty, we no longer have peace.
It is time to hold that flagpole again. To remember the reason the seed was planted. To cherish the tree of liberty.
We must withstand this onslaught, any onslaught, and rally to the origin of our true national spirit. We must rally to a standard of Americanism and accept this is not that. In essence, we must individually take a stand. Purposefully, deliberately and with forethought, we must engage those around us to get rid of this sense of foreboding.
This approach is how we win the larger battle. Again, it seems simple, but keeping that flag standing tall requires the heart of a lion and dirty fingernails.
All around us, in every tribe and region, there are people who need you to show them the strength that you have. Strength of spirit. Strength of fellowship that you will not relent from expressing. Lead your children, your children’s children, and the children of community with an unwavering and steadfast example.
No matter what noise is shouting from the loudspeakers we must withstand it; you must withstand it. We must make eye contact and remain joyful.
We cannot allow despair to be the status quo; and we cannot allow a generation to experience a world without joy.
Our nation needs more people like you, right now. Don’t wait… engage life. Resolve to get optimistic however you need to do it. Then let that part of you shine right now. This is how we fight.
Hold up that flag; give the starter smile. Rally to the standard you create and spread fellowship again. God knows we need it.
When I hear President Donald Trump say, “Let’s Make America Great Again”, I also hear the familiar echo “cowboy up” people.
Git ‘r done.
It’s high time we stop being embarrassed about our exceptional American nature, and start being proud of it again.
Because when it matters most, when it really counts, when it’s really needed, there’s a whole bunch of people all around this world of ours that are mighty happy when swagger walks in to solve their problems.
Yeah, let us recommit to “Make America unapologetically Great Again”.
Swagger on, MAGA. NO QUIT!
cross posted at https://freedomaustralia.freeforums.net/thread/2861/tribute-git
Lest we forget, the founding fathers/mothers of this country were squarely positioned in the currents of Enlightenment thinking. They were heirs to Descartes, Locke, Bacon: the philosophic (epistemology) notion that perception and/or reason are the basis of knowledge. That position inevitability leads to the primacy of the individual – and everything (freedom, science, capitalism, etc.) that flows out of it.
The Constitution enshrines the primacy of the individual while establishing the limits for governance of society. Self determination. Individual accountability. Golden Rule. This, above all else, is what the post-modernist Marxist, collectivist Left detest and fear.
Marx was a lazy welfare bum living off the Engles family. Mao was the Chinese version of Pedo Pete, picking out young girls at random, with impunity.
What a tribute to AMERICA!
Thank-you Sundance.
this is your very best stating simply our feats and pride of USA with tears thank you a thousand times sundance God Bless
Awesome Sundance! A Time for the Choosing! Cowboy the F*&k Up!
Made my heart sing. Thank you for sharing.
That was beautiful. Thanks again for the reminder. I needed that.
One of the guys on that train in France who beat the snot out of the jihadi scum is running for Congress in Oregon and has a chance to win.
You are a Barnabas, a son of encouragement. Thank you and God bless you and yours
This level of “git er done” would have never happened in a Democrat run state……………….
It took Louisiana over 5 months to get the bridge over Lake Pontchartrain re-opened after Katrina.
Democrats Kathleen Blanco was Governor and Ray Nagin were NOLA Mayor at time.
And Democrats don’t think America (Americans) are exceptional !
Too many riders, not enough horses.
That bridge is the prime example of what can get done vs. what isn’t getting done as too many people live off the backs of others.
To Save America, the Demented Party needs to be wiped out November 8th.
Well, a lot of grit and DeSantis leadership made miracles happen in Florida. His election margin in 2022 will tell the tale. Hope he do the same for the USA.
Alleluia
If elections in the U.S. were fair, meaning no cheating one legal, registered voter, one vote, there would be very few democrats elected. Taking our country back from the lying, cheating political corruptocrats should be just another thing we will roll up our sleeves and get done starting this election cycle.
Watch the polls BACK DOOR all night long. WIth a camera. Do not be intimadated
I keep hoping there is some plan afoot to insure there is no election cheating, but half the nation is busy doubling down on their efforts to cheat because they realize they are in BIG trouble with Biden saying he will run.
“The vision, the premise and the purpose, was to allow you the freedom to determine your place in life; and even, at any time, change that determination and strike off in an entirely new direction.” Reminded me of what I used to tell our sons when they were teenagers and felt like they were hitting the wall in some way. I’d let them talk it out, give advice if asked (or required!), but I always finished up something like, “Don’t forget– this is the country of second chances and new beginnings. All you have to do is decide to change, and then do it.”
That’s it! That’s the story I wanted you to repeat, Sundance. American ingenuity at it’s best! Then and now!
After losing everything I loved, I felt like giving up but Sundance and this awesome recovery from Ian has given me renewed hope and is making the patriotic pride rise up in my throat again.
THANK GOD FOR YOU, SUNDANCE!
THANK GOD FOR TOXIC (so called) MACULINITY, DIRTY FINGERNAILS AND ALL!
Incredible! Amazing what builders can do versus the MAOcrat destroyers.
That was beautifully written.
So proud to be an American.
Beautifully written SD.. having been an outside contractor I have full appreciation for what was accomplished in record time. Yes, nothing short of American EXCEPTIONALISM. Bravo to the get r done men and women. Linemen included.
The men are geniuses as far as I’m concerned. I would not have a clue as to where and how to begin to rebuild.
They are amazing. All of them. I am in awe.
Hoover Dam, Empire State Building, Willow Run B-24 plant….
Please do not forget about the Floridians along the shallow leg of the St.John’s River. Many have not even begun the process of cleaning up and restoring their lives, as the river is still above major flood stage until at least next week. Residents unaffected by Ian who live with in a days drive need to be ready to help. I am glad S. Florida residents have stepped up to help their neighbors. It makes sense for the contractors to try and hire as many locals as possible, instead of paying per diem to resident out-of- town cleanup workers as those monies could be used for more bodies.
…”For it’s not by flesh and blood, but by spirit”…
First and foremost…
The valley of dry bones Ezekiel 37
1 minute 38 seconds
“My Father has many mansions”…
Seek and you shall find… in …”that still and quiet place”…
Freedom!
TREMENDOUS! (Wish I’d written it!)
My allergies are acting up – got damp eyes as I read this, and watched the video.
Again, TREMENDOUS!
Building stuff is fun.
Very uplifting! Thank you Sundance. Some of your best input.
Yeah, baby. What the bureaucratic state around the world and especially in the U.S. of A. fears most is the can-do spirit of American ingenuity. The farm-boys and city-boys that won WW2 were the kind whose motto is: “We can do anything to everything.” And that is exactly what they did. U.S. American can-do dam’sho gets it done. Once, when I was discouraged by the way things were going in my life, an old saint in the congregation told me, “Son, God can make a way where there is no way. Follow Him.” I’ve been doing my best to do just that ever since.
Last week I was out on the patio having a beer with two of my neighbors. They keep the news going on their teevee and they were complaining vociferously about the rotten situation in Washington D.C. I listened to their rant for a while and then said, “Yeah, but I can’t help noticing that here we sit, enjoying this beautiful afternoon. We’ve got a roof over our heads, plenty of food, heat, water, electricity, nice cars, and the road going past our houses is glass smooth. Plus, even tho this is a dry county, ain’t nobody looking over our shoulder fussing at us for having a beer. So y’all tell me: Do we really have much to complain about?” They just looked at me and laughed and said, “Naw, I guess we don’t.” So we all had a good laugh and started talking about something else.
Thank you!!
As a now retired proud union millwright i had the privilege to work at several FPL sites in my day, mostly at Turkey Point and at Fort Myers. God Bless you Sundance for what you do. Dont Ever Give Up, EVER!
Wow! Sundance… this has to be the BEST essay you have written. Thank YOU so much for this.
It reminds me of why I came to this Country and you are exactly right as to why people choose to come here.
Inspirational beyond measure.
Just thank you.
Much love to you and yours <3
MAGA on, Patriots!
That has been our reputation for a long, long time…
While reflecting on that thought, I remembered a sign hanging in the bowels of one of Uncle Sam’s Yachts, a bird-farm, on which I was stationed for a time, long ago and far away.
In this engineering space, a machine/electrical shop populated by the ‘black shoes’ aka engineering types with no aversion to getting dirty, hard work, and the long hours necessary to getting- *F; -done along with possessing semi-archaic knowledge of things like trouble-shooting –analytical/logical deduction, herding electrons, metallurgy, etc., etc., etc. hung the sign which simply stated, “We can fix ANYTHING but a Broken Heart and the Crack of Dawn.”
Good people to know and be able to count as friends and neighbors.
Beautifully said!
“Sometimes the knights in shining armor appear as crews’ wearing jeans, overalls and steel toed boots.
“It doesn’t take an emergency beacon to activate them, just a need… and they come. Purposefully, without condition, ready to move, activate and respond. They throw the gear bags, kiss the ladies & babies, and head out. The rest is figured out upon arrival.
“Lady Liberty can stroll along the Champs-Elysées with a swagger befitting Mae West because without her arrival, they’d be speaking German in the pLouvre.”
Wow! You said so much, so eloquently! I was in FL for the 2004 hurricane season. It was quite the ride! TY for your reporting and updates. Godspeed !
Fabulous article, Sundance. I am so glad that I read the entire article – there was so much more to it than I envisioned. The video and accompanying song choked me up. Those drone shots are amazing. Glad they are being put to use – for good. When I was a young girl, I often felt embarrassed because my dad usually had broken down cars and trucks parked around our house. He could fix anything. My dad and his younger brother actually worked on building highways in California. My dad later worked at San Onofre. Being young and stupid, I had no idea how tough my blue-collar dad and brothers were. They left me a legacy of patriotism and love of America. They are all gone now. Thank you for paying tribute to them and to those tough Americans who are doing the hard work NOW. ================“I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living.” Psalm 27:13
The same knd of thing happened in 1994 when the Northridge Quake happened. Everyone was saying it would take years to get things back to where they were.
The Republican governor hired people and got out of their way, The job was done in months NOT years.
A terrific tribute…thanks Sundance. And we STILL are the onliest nation to get to the Moon…and back. Patton saw this work ethic in high-gear when he raced across Europe. With ‘elite immortals’?…No with the ordinary GI…who we now know were anything but ‘ordinary’.
Then, in perhaps the greatest show of Good Will towards Men in history….the USA led the charge in re-building Europe AND Japan. We did not punish our foes, we did not exact revenge on our former enemies. We HELPED them rebuild.
And, IMO,…..it is the legacy of A Lincoln…NOT to punish our former ‘foes.
No country in history has done what we have.
I posted this traffic would be moving normally before the end of the month. Day after the storm. My perspective is from raising a daughter, NCAA championship track star with an engineering doctorate. Her largest construction project was 4 billion dollars. Her biggest motivation is when someone says it can’t be done. (she runs and wins ultra marathons. 4,000 parachute jumps)
Her biggest hurdles are gubment building codes hindrances.
Take a project like this and remove interference and America shines.
They kept Pete the pot hole Czar out of the way.
To each is given a bag of tools
A shapless mass a book of rules
To each is given ere life is flown
A stumbling block or a stepping stone
“NEVER QUIT…” My friend Carl McKettrick said that to me years ago during my lowpoint. I took it to heart…thankfully.
I miss him alot. RIP my friend
“No other nation on earth was ever conceived on the principle of allowing people to manifest their own destiny, while keeping government out of their lives. The vision, the premise and the purpose, was to allow you the freedom to determine your place in life; and even, at any time, change that determination and strike off in an entirely new direction.
Well put Sundance. Now we have to get rid of the elites who want to take it all away from us.
Glorious
toxicmasculinity!May God bless the Workers.
If you have ever attempted a *simple* DYI project – Need I say more?! :):)
Ingenuity is born from freedom, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
Christ, freedom and ingenuity (and the prosperity that accompanies it – see Psalm 1) are inseparable.
The MSM swamp propaganda machine is feverishly working to spin us into hopelessness.
We are still a Christian nation, but our government is not. The condition of this nation is not due to collective backsliddenness. Instead, our government which is fallen to evil and corruption and therefore under the headship of satan who runs all world systems (Luke 4:6), is attempting to eradicate Christ and his influence in the world.
This not a philosophical statement. Christian lives and livelihoods are in the crosshairs. As we have all seen, this agenda is being implemented at several levels but has intensified recently to the point that now our children are targeted for predation and death.
Some would say that America is being punished. I have heard it said many, many times.
My take is that Christian America is collectively in the place of Joseph in the book of Genesis who was positioned by God to save many lives through extreme situations and hardship (Genesis 50:20).
The American “Git’r Done” spirit is a direct result of our relationship with Jesus.
Stay faithful. Trust God. Love Jesus.
Whatever and wherever your sphere of influence is, git’r done.
For 2 years I’ve been saying 100 million Trump votes in 2024. I’m changing it.
One hundred TEN million Trump votes in 2024. 110.
Just watch us.
Trump 2024
Sundance, I am so glad that you reposted your very excellent… uplifting, unifying and patriotic writing!!!
We Americans need to remember from where we came and who “ we” really are.
For all those who came before us
and for all those to come….
we must humbly, respectfully
and confidently
appreciate and admire
and be
who we are now.
Thank you for all you do❣️
Love, love, love you, Sundance💖
✝️❤️🇺🇸
FP&L is not to be admired. Their division, NextEra Energy, is the leader in building windmills and solar farms across the country. They are at the government trough slurping up the tax dollars for the destruction of America’s power grid by adopting, and bragging about, the WEF Davos Net Zero energy policy. Nexteraenergy.com.
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!!!
FPL is the pits
San Fran Nan was here to meet with ceo during Con Ronna 19 next day Florida Plunder & Loot had vax mandates.
Oh by the way she thought she was going to buy property on Jupiter Island, NOT.
FPL “leadership” IS NOT the “git-r-done” folk. They are worthless “educated” stooges who have virtually nothing in common with those who have dirty nails. US corporate “leadership” are, for the most part leaches. You can admire one and despise the other in good conscience.
To be a little bit fair though, I know enough of the Demming Award to recognize there had to be a few good managers involved. It’s an incredible accomplishment to win it.
Oh, dear. Are you sure you want to “be a little bit fair”? Tough crowd here on this Saturday morning.
In any event, I guess a few commenters have now laid a good stomping on anyone who happened to feel celebratory and grateful. Well done, you Gladys Kravitzes
Just occurred to me–Gladys was a Karen before being Karen was a thing..
I’m always tough on the current batch that creates “corporatism” as an evil entity, but certainly no “Karen”. I love the “dirty nails” part of our society and for more than half of my life have been one of them.
Those who want to stop oil are stupid and evil. This could not have been accomplished if they had their way.
Ask anti-fossil-fuel nuts why they want to stop natural gas, which produces 2 molecules of water for each molecule of CO2 (which plants love and need). Our use of natural gas let us ‘meet’ the so-called Paris Accord goals, which none of the signatories met themselves. Ask a fossil-fuel-nut what the energy and pollution costs of solar power/batteries/windfarms are. crickets. Ask them when they gave up their cars, air travel, and airconditioning/heat/lightbulbs.
I recently asked a Trump Hater to give me just one reason he hated Trump, which was worse than Biden. Stunned silence for a while from him and his wife. He then said Trump lies. I then asked for just one lie that was worse than Biden’s lies. Silence … Then ‘Trump nominated Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, who lied about his sexual assaults’. He looked embarassed… I didn’t press on.
But asking the crazies who are hypnotized to explain their contrived hatred with specifics is minimally confrontational, and FUN !!! For any answer, you can point out a truly disgusting corrupt Biden/dem behavior if you structure the question as a comparison, which this dude was aware was awaiting any answer he came up with. .
Fun, yes. But they still vote. And still influence other fools to do likewise. Maroon see, maroon do.
especially since some sources have reported it’s renewable..all generated by the earth’s crust. And… never to run out.
Sundance, I saved this when you posted it the other day. I was having a bad week, I had gone to my happy place and told God I knew he had a plan but I sure could use a sign. It was that night I read this. It was my sign. You have no idea what this did for me. I have printed this and have it on my desk to revisit as needed. Thanks for all you do and please don’t stop.
After a years-long barrage of negative, fake “news” there are many who are despondent these days. But unlike you, they are weak in a spiritual sense and unable to see or do ANYTHING positive. We need more people like you to seek truth and then act to spread it to others. All the best.