As the tenth anniversary of 9/11 approaches, we at Ashbury International Group wish to pause for a moment to add our heartfelt sympathies for the 2,977 people who sacrificed their lives that tragic day. We honor the faith and courage of all those loved ones left behind who have had to rise from the rubble of their own lives. We express deep gratitude to the thousands of first responders who redefined the concept of heroism during that pivotal moment in history. God bless all of you. God bless America.

Independence did not come easy to America, and it has not been easy to keep.

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!

The French writer, François de la Rochefoucauld once said “True bravery is shown by performing without witness what one might be capable of doing before all the world.”  In the spirit of this thought, all of us at Ashbury International Group, Inc. and ICE PACK Emergency Sustainment Systems LLC wish to express our heartfelt appreciation to the truly brave men and women of the United States Armed Forces who are serving this country this very day; to those who have served in years gone by; and most certainly to the many hundreds of thousands who have sacrificed their very lives for ideals and freedoms greater than all of us.  We thank you.  We are forever indebted to you.  This day we pause to honor you.

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.

APO caught up with Uncle Ted Nugent this past weekend at the NRA Show in Pittsburgh, PA. The show was really well attended and it was great seeing old friends and meeting new ones.

Action Sport Games announced their new ASW338 at the IWA Exhibition in Nuremberg Germany last week. Here are a series of pictures from the event. Odd how that rifle design attracts beautiful women, isn’t it?