by Mark West | Oct 17, 2016 | 2nd Amendment, Courage, Defense, Enemy, Evil, Freedom, Guns, Liberty, Personal Protection, Protect, Protection, Self Defense, Terrorism, Urgent
Do you know how to protect yourself in the event of an attack at your home or office?
Are your home and office hard or soft targets?
If an attacker grabbed you or your loved one, what is your fastest and most effective response?
If you were caught in a surprise attack at close range, are you confident that you can protect yourself and disable your attacker?
In the event of a natural disaster, how do you help yourself or those in need?
Earlier this year, my wife, Lori, and I, teamed up with Executive Operations Group, to build a private shooting range at Liberty Ridge Ranch, our 125 acre property just a few miles outside Chattanooga in Bradley County, TN (Cleveland).
Executive Operations Group (EOG) was founded by my friend Dr. Omar Hamada, a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Special Forces (Airborne) who is an accomplished physician and business executive living in middle Tennessee with his wife and four children.
The EOG instructors are world-class, combat-hardened ex-Special Forces, Delta, SEAL, and CIA veterans. They include martial artists and MMA coaches and champions. These are not your ordinary NRA-Certified Instructors or your average self-trained survival guys. These are the best in the world combat-experienced guys who have real world life and death experience. They have fought for our country and their passion continues to make our world a better and safer place. And that means getting you the training you need. Each trainer has an estimated $1 Million+ worth of training invested in them by the US government.
EOG will be holding the following two courses at Liberty Ridge Ranch in the next few weeks:
Pistol Training Program: October 28-29
Executive Operations Survival Training: November 16-20
To find out more about each program, including cost, visit EOG’s website at http://executiveoperationsgroup.com/
Each class is limited to 15 students so don’t delay. They are sure to fill up fast.
Come with a desire to learn and the passion to make your life and the lives of those around you better and safer.
If you want Hands-on personalized training from Special Operators — the most elite warriors in the world — experienced in real world military engagements, then EOG will give you the skills necessary to protect you and your family in the event of a terrorist or criminal attack, a natural disaster, or other real life emergencies.
Don’t delay. Be sure to check out their website and consider signing up today.
by Mark West | May 30, 2016 | Courage, Freedom, Jesus, Liberty, Love, Sacrifice, Service
On this Memorial Day, our collective thoughts as Americans turn to those men and women throughout the history of our nation who gave their all so that we might continue to enjoy the “blessings of liberty.” Whether those unselfish patriots laid down their lives in 1776 as a result of “the shot heard ’round the world” or perhaps more recently as our fellow citizens gave their lives half way around the world, or even here in Chattanooga last July, there is no greater act of love, sacrifice or commitment than the one they demonstrated.
Clearly on this Memorial Day, there is no more fitting act of honor or tribute than for each of us to take some quiet time to reflect on their lives, their heroism and their legacy.
As I’ve reflected about these gone but not forgotten patriots, their acts of sacrifice should cause us to feel a sense of great responsibility and accountability. Should we not then respond in some deliberate manner to acknowledge the worth of their lives and the value they placed on our country?
One life is of immeasurable worth. Exponentially though, over a million lives, sacrificed for our nation over these 240 years, demand our attention and our action. We must go beyond an annual recognition that honors our fallen heroes and make our own “sacrifices.”
While most of us will never be called to lay down our lives for our nation, surely we can lay down a TV remote, or a golf club and at least give back a few hours a month to the nation in which we have been so blessed to live. There are hundreds of ways that you and I can rise up to defend and protect our nation’s future on a daily basis but we must be intentional about doing so. As you do so though, I encourage you to share your commitment and your plans with a friend or family member and then together, step up and give back to this wonderful nation.
Finally, this day of reflection reminds me of another Truth expressed 2,000 years ago by a man whose life exemplifies love, sacrifice and commitment. This God-man we know as Jesus, left the blessings and comforts of heaven and declared this Truth:
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13)
But Jesus did not just speak this Truth. He too sacrificed His life for you and me, so that we could also enjoy the blessings of liberty by embracing Him and His message.
On this special day, as we remember and honor our fallen service men and women, let’s also honor the One to whom we ultimately owe the blessings of liberty: Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
by Mark West | Feb 23, 2016 | Action, Constitution, Courage, Freedom, Service
It was the summer of 1775, and the colonists in America were facing the growing threat of tyranny by their government. The new life they sought was in serious jeopardy by King George III, a man whom the colonists one year later described as having “a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object an absolute Tyranny.”
During that same summer, the New York Legislature sent a letter to General George Washington, who had just recently been appointed the Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. In the letter, Washington was commended for “taking up arms… in the glorious struggle for American Liberty.” The Legislature acknowledged the reality that Washington had the “character of our worthiest citizens” as he was answering the call of a people in trouble.
Washington’s response to the NY Legislature’s letter was a short 159 words, but the message he delivered is one, I believe, many Americans have forgotten but need to hear:
“When we assumed the Soldier, we did not lay aside the Citizen; and we shall most sincerely rejoice with you in that happy hour when the establishment of American Liberty, upon the firmest and most solid foundations, shall enable us to return to our Private Stations in the bosom of a free, peaceful and happy Country.”
In his letter, Washington was affirming that while he was indeed a citizen, he had also assumed the role of “soldier” given the reality that his homeland was threatened by a government that sought to squelch the liberties of its citizens via the unjust laws and tyranny it imposed. While Washington acknowledged that he looked forward to returning to his status as mere citizen, he clearly viewed it as his personal responsibility to defend liberty and combat tyranny.
Fast forward 241 years to 2016.
In our modern era of every imaginable convenience and comfort known to man, I fear our nation has produced too many “citizens” and too few “soldiers.” By soldiers, I do not mean the brave men and women who have been defending our nation from enemies abroad. These men and women of our military deserve, without question, our unwavering admiration, loyalty, and support.
But the soldier to which I speak are the men and women who understand the times in which we live, they see the threat posed to our individual and corporate liberties, and they realize that their status as citizen is only secure if they willingly rise up as soldiers to defend the foundations upon which their citizenship relies.
This soldier does not bear arms with actual bullets and bayonets. But he does arm himself with the truths of our founding. He is prepared to engage to inform and educate the youth of our nation, who sadly, in too many instances are being offered distorted lessons of our nation’s heritage. This soldier engages in the marketplace of ideas, confronting views that seek to malign our nation at every turn. This soldier will even step forward to answer the civic call of duty, whether in elected office or simply by engaging with other citizens to enlist them in this battle.
While we do find evidence of such soldiers still engaged in the battle for the soul of our nation, they are sorely lacking. Truthfully, I fear we have too many citizens and not enough soldiers in this seminal battle to push back those ideologies and institutions which seek to undermine our foundational liberties and principles.
Without Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Madison and so many more of our founding fathers, we would not be experiencing the blessings we enjoy in this 21st century. But the truth is that there were thousands of other unnamed soldiers who stood alongside our founding fathers. These nameless soldiers willingly set aside their status as mere citizens, and they picked up the mantle of soldier. And to these thousands of unknown soldiers we owe our very existence and the blessings of liberty that we still enjoy to this day.
But what about our offspring in 2116, one hundred years from now? Or what about our children and grandchildren just a decade or two from now? Will they continue to benefit from the liberty that we have so abundantly inherited? Or will the flame of liberty flicker and be extinguished on our watch?
The answer to these questions can be summed up in one question that only you can answer. Will you pick up the mantle of soldier and engage in the battle that is likely determining the very survival of our Republic? Or will we continue to suffer excruciating losses as too few citizens fail to answer the call to engage as a soldier in this battle?
There is a verse in the Bible that refers to a group of very astute men who also recognized the dire needs of their nation. In 1 Chronicles 12:32 we read this: “the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do…”
Are you such a person? Do you understand the times in which we live? If so, then I pray that you will step forward and enlist in this epic battle. There will be ample time in the future to return to our role as citizen. Today though, a soldier is desperately needed. Will you enlist?
by Mark West | Jan 5, 2016 | Action, Courage, Entrepreneurship, Freedom, Leadership, Success
In April 1967 one of my heroes, Ronald Reagan, gave a speech to the California Republican Assembly just a few months after being elected Governor of California. At the time, his state was facing significant challenges and he had sought to attract men and women from the private sector to help in turning the state around. In his speech he recognized the fact that in order to achieve the successes he envisioned he would need to find “men to match our mountains.”
As I paused to ponder that statement, it became apparent that this is not only the challenge of our day, but it also represents the solution to any problems you and I are facing, whether in business, in our personal lives or in government.
Mountains come in all shapes and sizes. Some are relatively low in elevation and simple to climb. It takes very little effort or special training or knowledge to scale Lookout Mountain, which overlooks my home town of Chattanooga. But travel out West to Colorado and attempt to climb some of the peaks in the Rocky Mountains, and the story is much different.
A few years back my son and I hiked up Buffalo Mountain to an elevation of 12,777, a picturesque peak that overlooked our home below in Silverthorne, CO. The hike, while certainly not the most difficult Colorado has to offer, was nonetheless more strenuous than climbing Lookout Mountain back in Tennessee and required a higher degree of fitness.
While I consider myself to be somewhat fit, there are other mountains I would love to climb, but they are mere dreams at this point. Consider our world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, at an elevation of 29,029 feet — nearly 2.5 times the height of Buffalo Mountain.
I have done some research about climbing our world’s highest peak and discovered that those who attempt to scale Everest prepare for several years prior to undertaking such a feat. One of the strategies deployed in preparing for the climb is not only to gain the counsel of experts but to also undertake a graduated program of scaling smaller mountains in the years leading up to Everest. This process of scaling smaller but increasingly larger mountains provides invaluable training, teaches critical skills, and offers the physical and mental strengthening that is required to ultimately scale the highest mountain in the world.
Just as mountains come in all sizes, so do problems and challenges. Whether in your marriage, business or our government, in order to tackle the mountains you are facing, it will require that the man is able to match the mountain.
While it’s likely most reading my thoughts here, have never scaled Mount Everest, I’m certain that many of us have faced our own Mount Everest in our personal, business or even spiritual lives. For many, their marital relationship may be their personal Everest. It may seem too difficult to scale or conquer. The very idea of beginning to solve the challenges one’s marriage poses seems as hopeless or overwhelming as confronting the real Mount Everest.
Or perhaps for you it’s the overwhelming challenges you are facing in your business, struggles that seem to hold no answer. No matter how hard you have tried, it seems that there is no way to scale and overcome the daunting task in front of you.
Given my passion for our nation, my mind also drifts to the challenges we are facing in America — difficulties that have been festering for decades and even growing to a point that scaling Mount Everest would seem to be a leisurely afternoon climb.
There’s a reason though that the struggles you and I are facing in our lives, whether interpersonal, business, spiritual or even our government, remain unsolved. I think Reagan had it right when he said we must find men to match our mountains. If there’s a mountain in your life, business or our nation that seems unscalable, I would assert that the problem is not the mountain but rather the man.
Find the right man, and you will scale the mountain. Or in your case and mine, develop the man within, and those seemingly insurmountable Everests in our lives will undoubtedly be conquered. Just as preparing to scale Everest involves an ongoing and rigorous strategy, likewise, if you want to overcome the mountains in your life, you must also develop a plan.
Find an “expert” to help you. Seek out someone who has what you want, whether it’s a successful marriage, business or spiritual life. If they’ve done it, they can help you to overcome the mountain in front of you. Call him a counselor, coach or mentor, but there’s no mistaking that the most successful people you know will credit others for their success.
Next, you must strengthen yourself mentally and spiritually. Someone who has never trained to climb a high mountain will find themselves woefully unprepared. Likewise, to tackle your struggles, begin to build yourself up. Read, read, and read some more. Find books that can help you strengthen yourself mentally. And be sure to get into God’s Word daily. There is no better discipline to strengthen oneself for whatever struggle you and I face than a daily regimen with God.
Finally, because we are broken people and we live in a broken world, setbacks are certain and will occur even as we progress in becoming the man to match the mountain. But as you and I remain committed to our growth plan and persevere regardless of the circumstances, we can be certain that the mountain you and I are facing today will be scaled tomorrow.
So, will you become the man to match the mountains in your life? Your marriage, your business and your nation are in dire need of such a man.
My prayer is that you and I will become such men.
by Mark West | Dec 16, 2015 | Freedom, Political
Growing up in Spain as a young child through the age of 15, I did not have the opportunity to engage directly in many of the things other American kids enjoyed. Whether it was a football game, hanging out at a burger joint, or just enjoying a pack of Juicy Fruit, my upbringing did not include any of these things. Truthfully, though, I do not feel slighted in any way given the extraordinary opportunity I had to grow up in a foreign land and experience its culture and people.
However, there is one other area in which I had no exposure to or involvement in while in Spain: the regular privilege that Americans have to engage in our republican form of government, one which allows us to freely participate in political campaigns and elections. Of course as a child and young teen, I could not vote. But had I been in the US, I no doubt would have assisted in some manner in campaigns, given my father’s interest in such.
Interestingly enough, though, while I could not be actively engaged in the process, I did follow political campaigns closely via my Dad’s US periodical subscriptions, even though I was nearly 4,000 miles away.
Once I moved back to the US as a teen and became eligible to vote, I never missed an opportunity to cast a ballot in our national elections, casting my first Presidential vote for Ronald Reagan in 1980. However, as many other Americans, life after college quickly filled with the demands of family and business, and while I remained concerned over the direction our nation was headed, my involvement was limited to voting once every 2-4 years. Over the next 25 years, while God certainly blessed my efforts in business and gave me a wonderful family, I look back now, and I ask myself the question:
Was voting enough?
There is no doubt that the condition of our nation, both economically and morally, directly impacts our lives, both personally and professionally. If you own or operate a business, you know the difficulty we have as business owners finding competent, hard working employees. This was not the case several decades ago.
As a business owner, you also know the difficulty you face as governmental demands continue to grow ever more restrictive, placing a noose around your enterprise and even your life. The liberties our forefathers enjoyed are gradually being diminished. But even more importantly, the values that were embodied in those same men are also under steady attack.
I think of the words at the end of our founding document, the Declaration of Independence, to which the 56 signers of the document affirmed: “we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”
Consider this truth about those 56 men. The vast majority of them were business owners. They were not much different than many of us with many of the same demands: family, business, church, etc. Yet, when they began to see the direction their nation was headed, did they ignore the obvious and simply bury their heads and recommit all of their energies to the demands and goals of their businesses?
Clearly they did not. And because of their historic and unselfish decision, all of us today likely owe our very existence and certainly the many blessings we now enjoy to their commitment. They chose the nobler, placing their own lives, fortunes and honor in the balance.
I think back to my post-college years through 2006 and I realize that while I was busy pursuing the American dream, there was an American nightmare gathering right before my very eyes. While I could see it, I ignored it in favor of my family and business (and not always in that order), while continuing to do my “civic duty” by showing up at the polls and casting my singular vote.
But looking back now, if I’m honest with myself, my focus was distorted or at the minimum incomplete. That is not to say that my duties as a father, husband and business owner should have been shunned. But it’s clear that our culture and nation were and are under attack, and I did little to counter that attack.
I was like the employee on the Titanic, who committed himself to the task of making sure the decks were clean and the chairs were aligned, even though the ship barreled towards its certain demise.
As business owners, I realize we must be accountable to our staff, our stockholders, our lenders and even to our government. But I would ask the question: Are we capable of addressing the clear and unambiguous attack on the values that we hold so dear? Is this not our solemn duty?
It’s unlikely that your values and mine mirror each other completely. But I would guess that many of our values are similar whether they relate to Free enterprise, Taxation, Life, Liberty, National Security, Immigration, Marriage, Education, Fiscal policy and so many more. Here’s where the rubber meets the road, though. Many business owners and other leaders are often hesitant to express their thoughts on issues that could be divisive, fearing potential repercussions from standing firm on their core values. Yet, that is precisely what has contributed to the crumbling of our nation’s foundation. Because this is one truth we all can take to the bank.
While good may slumber, evil never does.
If you are unsure about this truth, see if you can find a day or a week that passes when there aren’t ample examples of evil in your city or our nation. And if you shudder perhaps at the use of the term “evil” then use another. But the truth is that the values that led to the founding of our nation were good. And so if those values were good, then it stands to reason that those who attack those values today are promoting something less than good, or even evil.
Here’s another truth we can all see playing out everyday. Those who oppose the values you hold dear are seldom silent or idle in the affirmation of their competing values and beliefs. In fact, the sad fact is that those opposing your values are often the most outspoken and active individuals in advancing their values. And if we’re honest, many of those beliefs are contrary to those upon which our nation was founded, and have directly contributed to the erosion of our culture and the strength of our nation.
I have been heavily impacted by the verse that says, “To whom much is given, much is required.” You and I have been given much. Not only are we citizens of the greatest nation that ever graced this planet, but we’ve been abundantly blessed in so many other ways, including that business you might own. But with these great blessings come great responsibility to defend and promote the contributors to those blessings.
So, as I wrap this up, I have learned the hard way that voting in our great nation is not enough. Our founders knew this and willingly risked it all. Will we do less or will you and I “mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor?”
