BUFFALO SPIRIT LEADERSHIP
By Maj. Gen. Jerry R. Curry
(Ret'd)
CurryforAmerica.com
Poet Josiah Gilbert Holland said in 1872, “A time like this demands strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands … men who will not lie.” We need those kinds of leaders now more than ever, leaders who love their country and who have a “Buffalo Soldier” spirit.
In September 1867 a party from Troop G, 10th U.S. (Colored) Cavalry, was attacked by seventy Cheyenne Indians and all the members of the party were killed except for one soldier named Randall whose horse was shot out from under him. Single handedly he held off the attacking Indians until help arrived from a nearby Army camp and drove off the Indians. Randall suffered a gunshot wound and eleven different Indians jammed their lances into his body, but none of them were able to kill him.
The Cheyenne returned to their camp and told stories of having fought a new type of American soldier. One who, “fought like a cornered buffalo, who like a buffalo suffered wound after wound yet did not die, and who like a buffalo had a thick and shaggy mane of hair.” And so the name “Buffalo Soldier” came into being. But most important was the spirit that the Buffalo Soldiers brought to the fight, the unconquerable, indomitable spirit of the plains buffalo. Today America’s leaders, especially our military leaders who work in the Pentagon and the White House, need to be re-infused with love of country and the Buffalo Spirit.
From Maine to Florida, from Texas to Alaska to Hawaii, most Americans love their country and feel the Buffalo Spirit rising up and crying out inside of them to: cut spending ; cut the size of government; put principle above personal politics; make the Congress live within its means and not spend more than it has in its accounts; obey the nation’s laws and the Constitution, especially as it concerns illegal immigration; and continue to maintain the strongest and best military establishment the world has ever known. Congress, the President, his Administration, and the hierarchy in the Pentagon all seem to need a deep swig of elixir of Buffalo Spirit. They need to emulate the lives and actions of our private citizens by putting principle above politics and personal interests rather than setting the nation up to fail.
Those political leaders who really do love our country are careful to obey its laws, follow our constitution and only take actions that bolster the nation’s economy, not harm it. They do not insist on projects that destroy our economy like failing to approve the CSX Pipeline; or fight to adopt destructive projects like ObamaCare; or fail to supply guns, ammunition and explosives to countries like the Ukraine whose forces are fighting to destroy ISIS, or to provide supplies to rebel forces which are fighting for their countries freedom and future.
The actions of the current Administration do not indicate a love for the United States or for the principles of freedom and democracy bequeathed to us through the writings and speeches of the Founders of our great country. We must not allow this extraordinary country of ours to be destroyed by political leaders who would remake it into a land that would be unrecognizable to the nation’s Founders, to men like George Washington, Patrick henry, Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln. There is no compromise, no half-way point between good and evil.
Politicians think they have a divine right to rule over the citizens of our nation. Our Founders would be horrified to see politicians legislating family morality, telling citizens where they can or cannot live, the kind of house they can live in, the type car they can drive, the kind of food they can eat, what their children can study in school, how much a citizen can earn, the type and cost of medical care a citizen is authorized to have. America is the last bastion of democratic freedom on earth
Over the years Congress has
more than adequately demonstrated, under the
leadership of both political parties, that it can
wastefully spend the American citizen’s money
without regard for responsible leadership and
stewardship. What both Congress and the White House
need to demonstrate to our citizens now through good
and responsible government is that they have a
genuine love for the nation and its citizens. They
also need a good dose of Buffalo Spirit. If freedom
is lost in America, it is lost to the entire
structure of the civilized world.