Martin Caidin: On American Patriotism

"I'm not a fanatic.
This is my country.
I believe in this country.
[Despite] all the errors.
I think we do more soul-searching than any other country in the world.
I gave a college talk one time, and this was when they were anti-bomb, anti-everything.
I said, 'Hey all you shitheads out there.
I want to tell you something.
In 1945, this country had to make a tremendous decision.
We had something no one else had, the absolute weapon.
We were the only people on Earth who had the atomic bomb, and we had the means to deliver it.
To prevent another war, or the rise of communism, or rebirth of fascism.
We had the means to take over the entire world!
Really!
To use what we had would have made us exactly like those we had just defeated.
Instead, we gambled on the human race.'
Whether we make it or not doesn't matter to me, that was the finest moment of any nation in the course of history."

-Martin Caidin, The Bionic Book: The Six Million Dollar Man And The Bionic Woman Reconstructed, p.182-




Martin Caidin was the author of Cyborg, the book upon which The Six Million Dollar Man (1973-1978) was adapted. Caidin came from the inner workings of the American government through the CIA.

What struck me in his aforementioned quote was his the guts in speaking to a college campus and delivering the counter-cultural message he does given the era.



Well some things never change. The freedom to speak is something not afforded at some campuses across the United States today where students are indoctrinated with an almost anti-American bias and where shutting down the conversation seems to be the modus operandi. Evidence may suggest its worse than ever with the rise of radical groups intent on shutting down conversation through violence.

We could use a few more Martin Caidins speaking on college campuses today. Very hard choices were made by President Harry S. Truman, a Democrat, and others. But these were men of character and conviction, traits often lacking in some men and women today. Sometimes its important to self-reflect and take a closer look at ourselves as a nation and to a man and woman. Aren't we in this together?



Where you are from, your demographic, your party affiliation, should have nothing to do with your loyalty to country and to your fellow citizens. It's that simple.

The late Caidin might be stunned by the things happening in this great country today and particularly at some colleges across the nation.



This post comes in honor of the fourth of July and as a tribute to all that have served and given their lives to protect our freedom and way of life. Those that served and lost their lives gave the greatest of all sacrifices so that those who do not sacrifice for country can speak freely.

Thank you.