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There is No Cavalry Coming. We Are The Cavalry.
“You are the last line of defense.” — Bari Weiss
In our day, there are a lot of speeches, a lot of “real good talkers”-one of them conned his way into the Presidency — a lot of profound thinkers who can express thoughts we are thinking but capture them in such a creative fashion as to merit our undying appreciation. I have just viewed a video of one of the best examples of that kind of talk, bar none, and I am passing it along with very little textual summarizing as no mere words of mine could possibly do it justice.
This is the speech of Bari Weiss, formerly one of the top political writers at the New York Times and now the Publisher of one of the finest online publications available, The Free Press. I wish every single American citizen would view this incredible speech or read the text as it is that invaluable to an understanding of what we actually face after September 11 and October 7. Her video follows the one line from her speech I will quote here in an attempt to illustrate how important this speech really was:
There is no place like this country. And there is no second America to run to if this one fails.
So let’s get up. Get up and fight for our future. This is the fight of—and for—our lives.
The text may be accessed here. It is not pleasant reading, nor is the video pleasant viewing — which are the exact reasons I am trying to send this to as many citizens as I can reach. As she said, “YOU are the last line of defense.” And please heed these words:
Do not bite your tongue. Do not tremble. Do not go along with little lies. Speak up. Break the wall of lies. Let nothing go unchallenged.
Our enemies’ failure is not assured and there is no cavalry coming. We are the cavalry. We are the last line of defense. Our civilization depends on us.
We are the cavalry. We are the last line of defense.
God Bless America.
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@seawriter
With respect, as I thoroughly enjoy your writings and reviews and comments, I respectfully submit you have either not viewed the speech or you have perhaps inadvertently missed the entire thrust of the message.
The picture reinforces the point of the post. There is no one coming to rescue us. We have to do it ourselves. If you still disagree, and feels it contradicts the post I will take it down.
“Be the skunk at the garden party.” I liked that.
Another thing she talked about was how eye-opening this is. Eye-opening for a new generation. The last one I can think of that was eye-opening for a new generation was 9/11. I’m not certain when my eyes were opened, but it was long before that. My reaction then was, “Why is anyone surprised?” But people are surprised every time. Each time, a few more people wake up. But it is never enough.
Thank you for passing this message along.
Did you mean calvary or cavalry?
Please do not take it down, I have heard the speech and it is what we all need to hear. Many of us have disagreements with Bari as we should but her message is correct: we absolutely MUST not be silenced by fear of what may be visited upon us by those who do not wish us well. So then, use your voice and even if what you say is in conflict with what Bari often says be glad that someone with influence from the other side of things political and cultural is willing to stand for your right to speak.
Point taken; please do not take it down. I spoke too hastily as often happens when the hour is late and many of the much-needed brain cells have already called it a day! Thank you, Jim
It was late when I put it up, too. I honestly wondered if you were right and my intention was wrong. You are one of the folks on Ricochet I most admire. There are few others I would have made that offer to.
Thank you. Fixed it. As hard as I try one of those little gremlins will slip in there from time to time– one of the problems of being one’s own editor!
I watched the video with great interest. She and I have a common adversaries. I do not think she exaggerates the danger.
Yeah, I read it and listened to it, being on the FP mailing list. Thanks for posting it here to broaden the reach.
Great talk, thanks for posting. Things do indeed look very dark, but there have been many previous times when they looked that way and courage, intelligently applied, overcame the darkness. I’m reminded of something written by the French writer Georges Bernanos, living in exile in Brazil following the defeat of his country:
No one knows better than I do that, in the course of centuries, all the great stories of the world end by becoming children’s tales. But this particular one (the story of England’s resistance–ed) has started its life as such, has become a children’s tale on the very threshold of its existence. It mean that we can at once recognize in it the threefold visible sign of its nature. it has deceived the anticipations of the wise, it has humiliated the weak-hearted, it has staggered the fools. Last June all these folk from one end of the world to the other, no matter what the color of their skins, were shaking their heads. Never had they been so old, never had they been so proud of being old. All the figures that they had swallowed in the course of their miserable lives as a safeguard against the highly improbable activity of their emotions had choked the channels of circulation..They were ready to prove that with the Armistice of Rethondes the continuance of the war had become a mathematical impossibility…Some chuckled with satisfaction at the thought, but they were not the most dangerous…Others threatened us with the infection of pity…”Alone against the world,” they said. “Why, what is that but a tale for children?” And that is precisely what it was–a tale for children. Hurrah for the children of England!
Men of England, at this very moment you are writing what public speakers like to describe in their jargon as one of the “greatest pages of history”….At this moment you English are writing one of the greatest pages of history, but I am quite sure that when you started, you meant it as a fairy tale for children. “Once upon a time there was a little island, and in that island there was a people in arms against the world…” Faced with such an opening as that, what old cunning fox of politics or business would not have shrugged his shoulders and closed the book?
But only a two years before Bernanos wrote, Britain had signed the Munich agreement. General Edward Spears, along with many others was overcome by despair:
Like most people, I have had my private sorrows, but there is no loss that can compare with the agony of losing one’s country, and that is what some of us felt when England accepted Munich. All we believed in seemed to have lost substance.
The life of each of us has roots without which it must wither; these derive sustenance from the soil of our native land, its thoughts, its way of life, its magnificent history; the lineage of the British race is our inspiration. The past tells us what the future should be. When we threw the Czechs to the Nazi wolves, it seemed to me as if the beacon lit centuries ago, and ever since lighting our way, had suddenly gone out, and I could not see ahead.
Yet it was only two years after Munich that Britain demonstrated its magnificent resistance to Nazi conquest.
And yes, Britain today is in bad shape, probably worse than the US. “Nothing is saved forever,” as Connie Willis said in one her books; it will need to be saved again and again. We wish the best for those fighting for civilization in Britain as we fight for civilization in this country.
Bari is one of those leftists who is reasonable and I can listen too. In this case, she’s right . . .
Adding to the comments above: Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were a young married couple during a time of great cultural and social impoverishment that were being created, they believed, by promiscuity and family abandonment. They modeled their wonderful family life for all of England to see so as to promote virtue as a rewarding lifestyle. :) We make fun of Victorianism today, but its precepts saved countless lives as families began to experience true joy in the results of the sacrifices they made for the sake of their children and spouses.
Things can turn around and surprise us.
I like Bari Weiss. That said, this sounds like a pastiche of Reagan and Kisin. That’s okay, we’ve had worse pastiches. And she’s very sweet.
That’s how I interpreted it.
Posted before I read the entire thread. But I’ll leave it here and just say that I listened to the entire speech. Thank you for posting it.
Part of the new problem is that unless Britain starts having a lot more children, and soon, the muslims can just wait them out.
ibid.
And part of the problem now in much of Europe is that much of the aging population is already past childbearing age. “Things can turn around” is much more difficult in that situation.
What surprised me was how pleasant her speaking voice is.
I subscribe to Bari’s site and heard her speech on Rumble. It was, indeed powerful and wonderful. I would also recommend her podcast, Honestly. She posted a brillant talk by Sam Harris on the “bright line between good and evil”. I subscribed to Harris’s podcast for a brief time, but found him a bit too much a creature of he left for my tastes. However, the speech which Bari posted from Harris is amazing and, perhaps, the best talk on the 10/7 attack I have heard. There is no relativism in his words. He calls out the evils of Islam without any equivocating. It is something well worth listening to. I highly recommend it. It can be found on Rumble on the Bari Weiss podcast Honestly.
Halfway through it before called away. I like it a lot — as I thought I would. She’s good people.
I have a now-ragged-worn T shirt I wear to walk the beach– “Reagan for President”– I never wear it without hearing at least one or two or more people yell at me– Where is he when we need him?? This includes much younger people who could not have known anything about him but general reading. The mention of President Reagan always caused at least general nostalgia in me and lately more like a mild depression when I look at the despicable disgrace of a corrupt derelict presently occupying the space formerly graced by that great man. I often use the phrase in remembering him: Remember when we had a real President?
To your point, I see your reasoning but the only quibble I might have, if, indeed, it is a quibble, is that we need many, many, many more such pastiches. I thought hers was very powerful and I hope many more try to get it out to as many citizens as possible.
Amen to all of that. No quibble here.
Finally finished this. It’s a good speech, and I’m glad she gave it.
This applies to things large and small alike, the idea that there is no cavalry coming. I’ve said the same here several times over many years, so of course I agree with Weis. I particularly appreciate her journey from leftism, and a little bit of self-deprecating humor *that lands* goes a along way.
I also got a great kick out of her lower taxes joke. It’s a masterful, gentle swipe at big-tent Republicanism. The audience was laughing at themselves. Now that’s how to bring the audience over the hump into your camp.
I’m not going to watch the video.
We Americans face nothing from October 7. We were not attacked. Israel was attacked.
I do like the advice about no cavalry coming. I think that we should be giving that advice to Israel. We are not the cavalry for them. No cavalry is coming. They need to solve their own problems.
It is very disturbing to see so many people who seem unable to differentiate between the national interests of Israel and the national interests of the United States. I agree with John Mearsheimer that US support of Israel is unprecedented in world history. It is very strange.
The justifications for it are also strange. I saw a quote from RFK Jr. saying that having Israel on our side is “almost like having an aircraft carrier in the Middle East.”
As far as I can tell, we don’t have any airbases in Israel, folks. People just spread falsehoods about this, and just about everyone falls for it.
Israel is a major strategic liability to the United States.
Give it a rest, Jerry.
I deleted the rest of this comment.
I was leaning toward “Stifle yourself,
EdithJerry.”Who put the Baby Ruth bar in the punchbowl? (Oh, that’s not a candy bar?)
Americans were attacked and killed in Israel, however. I guess they don’t count, as they were probably Jews.
Still waiting for you to become our Ricochet Iran or Qatar correspondent, since we are the worst country in the world.