The following have been created from various talented artists to celebrate the spirit of this Memorial Day holiday.  We hope you will enjoy as we share them.

At the conclusion the famous 1963 “March on Washington” with a quarter of a million people in attendance, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a minister for Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama began his famous 16-minute speech.  To this day his inspired words, courage, and tenacity sound as a clarion call to remind the people of this great nation, regardless of race, gender, or religious beliefs that we must continue Dr. King’s fight of true equality amongst all men and women.  Equality is not a destination to which we arrive.  It is a continuing journey along which we must be ever vigilant to ensure parity for one and all.  None has ever said it better than the great Dr. King and today we honor this great man and hope you take a moment to read his famous words.

“I Have A Dream”, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., August 28, 1963

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating “For Whites Only”. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

On this Patriots Day we must stop and remember all those that make America possible; past, present and future, for freedom is indeed not free. Our prayers and condolences are extended to the victims and to the families of those who perished on September 11, 2001, at Ground Zero, the Pentagon and at the Pennsylvania plane crash site.

We are blessed to personally know many great American Patriots. I am particularly encouraged everyday by one particular American Patriot that I know as a true friend. He has zeal for life, commitment to his family and fellow man, and a strong trust in God. He demonstrated incredible courage and valor without regard to his personal safety in New York at 7 World Trade Center on this tragic day. He among many others were called Hero’s on that day. “Lex” you inspire us everyday! Deeds not words….Semper Fi

We also extended our most heart felt gratitude to the men and women of the US Armed Forces who every day make great sacrifices at home and abroad who protect our great nation. For all American Patriots thank you for your dedication, honor and courage to call your self and more importantly be recognized as an American Patriot. May god bless America and may god bless all American Patriots.

Fact non verba…

Ashbury International Group is fortunate to have a connection to Major Land through Gary Gregory, the Ordnance Production Manager here at Ashbury Precision Ordnance. Gary is a retired marine Master Sergeant and spent many years in the Marine Corps serving with Major Land as a gunsmith for the Shooting Teams. Since retiring they have maintained a close friendship over the years.

 Photo credit: Charles R. Overbey

 Photo credit: Charles R. Overbey

 Photo credit: Charles R. Overbey

 Photo credit: Charles R. Overbey

 Photo credit: Charles R. Overbey

 Photo credit: Charles R. Overbey

By the time colonists declared themselves free of British rule on July 4, 1776, they had the highest standard of living in the world, higher than that of England itself.

In the 167 years since the first 500 settlers landed in Virginia to carve a society out of the wilderness, their number had grown to more than two million. A majority could read and write.

They had established colleges – including Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Columbia universities and the University of Pennsylvania – in five of their thirteen colonies.

They had developed a postal system that from Maine to Florida and from New York to Canada. A public hospital had been established in Pennsylvania and one was evolving in New York.

And, having largely governed their colonies to their liking for more than 100 years, they had come to think of themselves as Americans – though they paid taxes, as well as penalties, to the motherland.

First it was one thing, then another: The Iron Act limited the growth of the American iron industry. The Currency Act banned the issuance of paper money. The Sugar Act applied duties to imported sugar and other items such as textiles, coffee, wines and indigo, doubled the duties on foreign goods reshipped from England to the colonies and forbade the import of foreign rum and French wines.

The Stamp Act imposed taxes on all printed materials, including newspapers, pamphlets, bills, legal documents, licenses, almanacs, dice and playing cards. The Quartering Act required colonists to house British troops and supply them with food. The Townshend Revenue Acts imposed taxes on paper, tea, glass, lead and paints. Fishing had been banned in the North Atlantic, the colonial government in Massachusetts had been suspended, and the English infantry had come ashore at Boston Harbor, firing pointblank into a crowd.

The First Continental Congress formed the Continental Army under the leadership of George Washington, and appointed a committee to draft a declaration of independence.

Called upon to write the draft, Thomas Jefferson expressed the convictions in the minds and hearts of the American people at that time. The political philosophy expressed in the document was not new; its ideals of individual liberty had already been expressed by Continental philosophers.

Jefferson summarized this philosophy in “self-evident truths” and set forth a list of grievances against the King of England in order to justify before the world the breaking of ties between the colonies and the mother country. That summary would become this country’s most enduring document.

It reads, in part: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights … that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

“Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government … when a long train of abuses and usurpations … evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

Two hundred seventeen thousand died for that conviction between the time the “shot heard ‘round the world” was fired across Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts on April 19, 1775 and British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered to Washington at Yorktown, Virginia on October 17, 1781. More than 6,000 suffered non-mortal wounds.

The fight for those convictions has been ongoing.

Statistics show that all told, as of March 2010 more than 42 million Americans have served in the nation’s military during times of war. More than 650,000 have died on battlefields, another 540,000 have died in service, and nearly a million and a half have suffered non-mortal wounds.

And, there are more than 17 million American military veterans still living.

Ashbury International Group salutes them all and God bless the United States of America!

We also recognize and extend our sincerest heartfelt appreciation to the families of these courageous warfigthers and public servants that perished, and the sacrifices they made and continue to make in support of their loved one’s service to America. God bless the defenders and warfighters of our great nation, and God bless America.