Local speakers urge people to fight for the American Dream

Brig. Gen. Jim Cash always felt he was a part of the American Dream.

He believed any young person could share in it, too, he told a crowd of 200 at a Celebrate America pep rally at the Flathead County Fairgrounds Trade Center Sunday.

Today, he's losing that belief.

His 16-year-old twin granddaughters, he fears, won't have the same chances he had. A neglectful erosion of personal rights and freedoms has been taking place on Capitol Hill, he said, which threatens the foundations of this country.

"And we're doing it to ourselves," he said, by not staying vigilant in protecting what Americans have fought wars for since its founding and what framers of the Constitution signed their names to 222 years ago.

"Socialism is nothing but a short course in communism," he said, drawing applause from the crowd assembled for a noon meal and patriotic program organized by the Flathead County Republican Women.

"We're approaching government ownership and total government control," he said of President Barack Obama's proposals for everything from auto industry bailouts to a national health-care system.

Turn the tide, Cash told the crowd, by taking back enough Congressional seats to regain the 60-member filibuster threshold, realigning Congress through elections in 2010 "and complete the task in 2012 by electing a conservative president."

Cash was followed by Jerry Molen, Bigfork resident and Oscar-winning filmmaker of "Schindler's List" and "Rain Man" fame.

"There are a lot of people out there who want us to remain quiet, to be docile … make no waves," Molen said of his fellow conservatives in the audience.

So, he admonished, 'speak out, make our voices heard" to representatives in Congress and to members of a "compliant media."

"To them I say, 'We're back,'" he said. He blamed mainstream media who support "devious politicians' with an agenda to chip away at personal freedoms. But it's up to Americans to quit 'sleeping through platitudes, promises … lies' that lull the public into complacency.

"Sadly, we almost fell for it," he said. "Freedom can be lost an inch at a time … and, sadly, there are those who would take it away from us."

He's comforted, though, to see the public disturbed by the direction the country is headed. But he invites disagreement.

"It proves what a great country we live in," Molen said. "The important thing is that we all speak to each other. We can't permit the other side to shut us out."