A war cannot be won without support

My letter to the editor published in the Staunton News Leader:

Recently, questions have been raised in the local paper, citing the growing amount of Win the War! signs that have gained a foothold in the Valley —implying that they do not help, impress, nor lift the hearts of our men and women overseas.

I would offer up this opinion: that an army needs something to fight for back at home in order to win — a cause, a sign, a purpose, a flag of its own. And we as a nation will compensate any shortage with spirit. The soldiers, who originally fought for our freedoms against the British during our Revolution, went through a time when they were but a handful of drunk and disorderly recruits that stood up against the entire British army. The finest musketmen on earth. The Continental Army had no army, no navy, no arms, no ammunition, no treasury and hardly any friends. But they had one thing that the British had not prepared for. They had spirit.

And a handful of Congressmen, in the face of all of this, threw their very lives on the line — and being unable to offer up at once any of the above amenities, offered the only thing they could offer up to spur on the troops — a sign. Where once they had nothing, the citizens of America and the Continental soldier could now brave the storm in a skiff made of paper — that sign was the Declaration of Independence. Ours is the declaration of a victory.