Moderating message.

A story has been told that George Washington, during the cold and bitter winter of 1777, while in his quarters at Valley Forge, had a vision. It prophesied three great historic events: the War for Independence, the War Between the States, and an invasion of America by vast military forces from Europe, Asia, and Africa.

According to the story, Washington said of the Civil War: "I saw a bright angel, on whose brow rested a crown of light, on which was traced the word 'Union,' bearing the American flag which he placed between the divided nation, and said, 'Remember ye are brethren.'"

After describing America's struggle and victory in the third and greatest peril, he said, "The bright angel ... cried with a loud voice: 'While the stars remain, and the heavens send down dew upon the earth, so long shall the Union last.'"

Abraham Lincoln did not shred the Constitution, as readers have claimed in back-and-forth exchanges about a review of the book called The Real Lincoln (March 20 issue). The Warren Court did, beginning with Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. Neither did President Lincoln open the door to "Roosevelt's unconstitutional 20th-century liberalism"; the communist/liberal/insider establishment kicked the door down. They kicked down a thousand doors, and continue to kick them down to this day.

The establishment's motive was and is the destruction of the country they hate. Lincoln's motive was the preservation of the United States, which he loved.

United, the colonies won our independence from mighty England. United, our country defeated its powerful enemies on the battlefields of World War I and World War II. United, we became the most powerful country in the world. United, and only if we are united, we shall be victorious in the ultimate struggle.

This is the same struggle described by Senator Joseph McCarthy, Robert Welch, Clarence Manion, Cleon Skousen, J. Edgar Hoover, and countless others; the same struggle fought by the John Birch Society for the last almost half-century. Therefore, let us put aside our relatively petty differences regarding a conflict which took place almost 150 years ago and do what the angel in the story told George Washington was done at the conclusion of that conflict, that is: to unite "around the National Standard."

What that means for today is: "Hey, guys, bury the hatchet, and start concentrating on the present and the future." Otherwise, the third part of Washington's vision and prophecy for America will come upon us unawares and unprepared while we are still arguing about whether Lincoln was good or bad.

DAN ELLER, PASTOR

JOHN WAGNER, HEAD DEACON

First Pentecostal Church of Jesus Christ 

Ypsilanti, Michigan