Smoke rises after shelling in Mariupol, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 9, 2022. (AP)
Last week marked the 246th anniversary of the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge near Wilmington. British troops, aware of the American militia presence but convinced of their own superiority, proceeded across a partially dismantled bridge at Moores Creek into the waiting ambush of nearly 1,000 North Carolina patriots.
The British commanders greatly underestimated the patriot’s desire for freedom and succumbed to inventive, guerilla tactics of the revolutionists. The battle marked the end of British authority in North Carolina and prompted North Carolinians to be the first colonists to formally declare independence. Just a few months later, the North Carolina delegation to the Second Continental Congress Convention unanimously signed the Declaration of Independence.
Freedom should never be taken for granted. The horror of the Russian invasion against its sovereign neighbor Ukraine is playing out in real time through the marvels of modern technology. Russian President Vladimir Putin exemplifies the pure evil of authoritarian power that many Americans naively thought was a distant part of Cold War history or the figment of the right-wing imagination. The world collectively repudiates Putin’s action and rallies behind the resolute Ukrainian people. Thirty years post-Soviet Union, Ukrainians now know freedom. They are rightfully reluctant to give it up without a fight.
Everyday people are displaying extraordinary courage and resolve in the face of the Russian military might. Ordinary citizens are using guns, not to hunt deer as our president mockingly says, but against a powerful invading army.
Meanwhile, in the strongest and most free country the world has ever known, President Biden engages in intellectually dishonest policies about the pandemic, pot-smoking, pronouns, pedagogy and pistols. Biden continues to hint at constricting the rights of legal gun owners by falsely linking the violent crime in Democrat-controlled cities to legal but rare “ghost guns.” In similar fashion, North Carolina Democrats proposed gun control bills that would restrict lawful gun ownership and reclassify normal firearms as illegal assault weapons.
Ukrainians may not have a Declaration of Independence as we do: “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, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” These are truths not because they were written on a piece of paper 246 years ago. These are truths because we were created by God and we derive our rights from God — not man and certainly not government. While I fervently believe in the power of local politics, this international human tragedy underscores the need to be vigilant of our own constitutional rights.
Ukraine and her spirited people have my prayers for courage and a peaceful resolution. Hopefully, history will remember the Russian invasion of Ukraine like the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge.
Maureen Krueger is President of Moore Republican Women and Secretary of Moore County GOP
