As part of our collectivist re-education, President Barack Obama, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Democrat Presidential Candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton have been lecturing us that we “didn’t build that”.

Hillary Clinton began two decades ago with her manifesto “It Takes a Village”. The Dallas Morning News wrote of the book:

…then First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton chronicled her quest—both deeply personal and, in the truest sense, public—to help make our society into the kind of village that enables children to become smart, able, resilient adults. It Takes a Village is “a textbook for caring….Filled with truths that are worth a read, and a reread”

You can’t raise your child on your own….it takes a village.

And, corporations don’t create jobs, according to Mrs. Rodham Clinton:

You just know she really wanted to say, “And, your little dog, too.” Sorry, had to do it.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, enunciated the collectivist ideology with this charming lecture:

And, of course, President Barack Obama said:

Well, my collectivist nimrods, it doesn’t matter how many roads or bridges are built. It doesn’t matter how “caring” your village is. And, it doesn’t matter how fabulous your education is. Without the individual spark. Without the individual drive. Without the rugged individual. Ain’t nothing getting done.

With this in mind, allow me to recommend to you four books that will renew your faith in the individual and in the United States of America.

1. Hamilton by Ron Chernow

Alexander Hamilton was truly a self-made man. Born in the West Indies and out of wedlock, he came to the British Colonies to be educated and stayed to be a Founding Father. He was a voracious reader and largely self-taught, including the law. Hamilton believed in Capitalism with a capital “C”. Top aide to General George Washington during the Revolutionary War, he wrote the Federalist Papers (with James Madison and John Jay), devised the banking system and was the first Secretary of the Treasury.

If you thought the Founding Fathers all got along, WRONG. Really wrong. There is almost sometimes a Soap Opera feel with all the backstabbing and sniping the Founding Fathers did. Author Ron Chernow really captures the personalities of Hamilton, and the other Founding Fathers, especially Aaron Burr, who killed Hamilton in a duel.

“Americans often wonder how this moment could have spawned such extraordinary men as Hamilton and Madison. Part of the answer is that the Revolution produced an insatiable need for thinkers who could generate ideas and wordsmiths who could lucidly expound them. The immediate utility of ideas was an incalculable tonic for the founding generation. The fate of the democratic experiment depended upon political intellectuals who might have been marginalized at other periods.”
― Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton

2. Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger

The subtitle of this great book is “The Forgotten War That Changed American History” and that is true. Unless you are a United States Marine, the child or parent of a United States Marine or have heard the “Marine Corps Hymn”.

From the Halls of Montezuma
To the Shores of Tripoli;
We fight our country’s battles
In the air, on land and sea;
First to fight for right and freedom
And to keep our honor clean;
We are proud to claim the title
of United States Marine.

“Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates” is a book about “the Shores of Tripoli” and much, much more. Those Dead White Males are at it again. Disagreeing and backstabbing and all kinds of stuff. This time it’s 2nd U.S. President John Adams and his Vice President and third U.S. President Thomas Jefferson.

The United States of America was still in its infancy and trying to get goods to market. The Barbary Pirates (Muslims) were boarding our ships and taking our ships and marketable goods for themselves. They were also enslaving our ships’ personnel and guests and demanding ransom. This all seems so familiar.

John Adams wanted to continue paying protection money, to keep the shipping lanes open, and ransom. to bring our people home. Money we did not have. Thomas Jefferson saw that we didn’t have the money and that the price of the extortion would continue to rise.

Stephen Decatur of the U.S. Navy and Presley O’Bannon of the U. S. Marines are individual heroes along with many others. The State Department back doors our heroes and Benghazi is involved. Sound familiar to you, too?

“asked how the Barbary states could justify “[making] war upon nations who had done them no injury.” The response was nothing less than chilling. According to his holy book, the Qur’an, Abdrahaman explained, “all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave.” Christian sailors were, plain and simple, fair game.”
― Brian Kilmeade, Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History

Individual heroes standing up to cutthroat villains. This should be a movie.

3. Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell and Patrick Robinson

And, speaking of movies, “Lone Survivor” was a good movie. The book “Lone Survivor” is great. Marcus Luttrell, aided by ghost writer Patrick Robinson, is brutal in his descriptions. The impossible choice his Seal Team faced, the battles in which his team members were killed and how they died, the grueling time while he was lost and trying to find his way, and the tribe that found him and helped to save him.

Yes, Marcus Luttrell was part of a team. Yes, a tribe helped him. At so many times, Mr. Luttrell could have given up. The description of his thirst was enough to make me want to give up. Marcus Luttrell persevered.

This is from a Daily Beast article on “Lone Survivor”:

Grievously wounded and delirious from thirst and fatigue, Luttrell crawled for seven miles looking for water and sanctuary. A rocket-propelled grenade hurled him into a mountain crevice that fortuitously hid him from the Taliban. Eventually he was discovered by friendly Afghans and carried down the mountain to their village. Invoking an ancient Pashtun code requiring them to protect and defend a guest to the death, the tribesmen guarded him from marauding Taliban fighters until the U.S. military arrived several days later.

How many groups of people “crawl seven miles” for anything. There was no road or bridge for Marcus Luttrell. Only individual wherewithal.

4. 13 Hours by Mitchell Zuckoff

Again, maybe you have seen the movie. I encourage you to read the book. The details of these security officers attached to the CIA annex close by the Benghazi Special Mission Compound is grueling to read. The fact that the details are grueling is what makes reading the book important.

I still don’t know what Hillary Clinton was doing that night. Was she up all night trying to coordinate rescue of her personnel? Was she coordinating rescue with then CIA director General David Petraeus? Why were her personnel left so bereft of security?

Ambassador Chris Stevens worried about security. Hillary didn’t honor his request for more security. From the book:

“Stevens worried about his staff and himself. In early June, he sent an e-mail to a State Department official in Washington asking that two six-man Mobile Security Detachments, known as MSD teams, of specially trained DS agents be allowed to remain in Libya through the national elections being held in July and August. Stevens wrote that State Department personnel “would feel much safer if we could keep two MSD teams with us through this period [to support] our staff and [provide a personal detail] for me and the [Deputy Chief of Mission] and any VIP visitors.” The request was denied, Stevens was told, because of staffing limitations and other commitments.”
― Mitchell Zuckoff, 13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened In Benghazi

History always repeats. Two hundred years later and we are still struggling with how to deal with Benghazi and Tripoli.

Other books that you may want to peruse include:

On Her Own Ground by A’lelia Bundles- Madam CJ Walker, a child of former slaves, an American entrepreneur.

Night by Elie Wiesel- Took me three times to make it to the second page. Brutal and honest. Survived to become a hero for all.

These people all may have walked across a bridge or down a road built by others. That is very true. Without enduring courage and individual spirit they would not have survived or thrived.

Think about that the next time you hear a Collectivist tell you that you “didn’t build that”.