August 13, 2007

There is a fairly well-known story about a father with three sons. The father is reaching a point in his life where he wants to pass on his successful business to one of his sons. In many cultures, the first-born would get the job. But the father wanted to make sure that the business that he sweated blood and tears and slaved over for years and built up into a thriving enterprise, would survive his replacement. So the father devised a simple little test for each one of his sons to take, separately, without the other two sons being present.

He wrapped a bundle of kindling with a stout string to hold the bundle together. He then presented the bound bundle to the first son and told the son to break it. No matter how hard the first son tried, he could not break the bundle. The father then gave the bundle to his second son and asked that son to do the same, break the bundle. Again, the results were the same. The second son could not break the bundle either. So finally, feeling a little disappointed with his first two sons, the father gave the bundle to the third son, and said, "break the bundle." The third son contemplated the bundle for a short while and then with great deliberation, took out a knife, cut the string and then commenced to break each kindling stick, one at a time. The third son got the job.

My father told of a similar story as young pattern-maker during World War II. Because of his skill as a pattern-maker, he was exempt from military service, but was ordered to the Bremerton Shipyards in Bremerton, Washington, to build the patterns for large valves, fittings, and propellers for war ships. He told me that when he was presented with a blueprint for his first job, it was so complex that he could not make head nor tail out of it. As he sat there with his chin resting on his two palms, he was feeling helpless and lost in an impenetrable fog. He was stumped. Just then, an old-timer walked by and saw that my father was in a serious dilemma and made a simple suggestion. He told my father to look for something in the blueprint that he recognized, and then build on that. Sure enough, a piece of the blueprint sprang out at him as something he knew, and my father went on to complete the pattern. It was a life-changing moment for him, and he passed that wisdom on to me.

So much of life presents itself as a bundle of sticks, or a complicated blueprint. If we try to take on the whole bundle of sticks, or understand the entire blueprint all at once, we find the task too daunting, get frustrated, and turn away or give up. Thus it is with our struggle to preserve, protect and defend freedom and liberty. The bundle we must break appears to be overwhelming, unless we take the bundle apart and start fixing (breaking) the "sticks," one-by-one. Even armed with this knowledge, so many of us lament, "but there are so many "sticks," how can we possibly break them all?" And indeed there are many "sticks". But if we don't start breaking the "sticks" right now, more will be added to the bundle - until no matter how we try to take the bundle apart, no matter how many "sticks" we break, many more will be added to the bundle, and the law of diminishing returns becomes too powerful to overcome.

In our quest to return to freedom and liberty, each "stick" we break in the bundle must be a win for freedom and liberty, no matter how small. It must be a win that can survive in spite of all the other "sticks" that would tend to tear down that win. With one win (a broken stick) it will give us the motivation and the incentive to break another stick, and then another, and another.

To give us any incentive at all to break the bundle, we must pick a "stick" that we can win, and pounce on it with all the combined force of freedom lovers everywhere. We must break that "stick," once and for all. That first win will provide the incentive to take on the next "stick" and then the next, and then the next after that.

In each community, each county, each state, and finally all of America, we must find the "sticks" we can break that will give us a win, starting with one of the simpler "sticks." Start with a restriction, a law, or an ordinance, and work collectively to break (repeal) it. They (the government) won't be expecting you to fight - and we have found that govenment backs up when vehemently confronted. Staircase off of that "win" to the next restriction, law or ordinance, and repeal it. The strategy here is that people will join winners, but they will shy away from, or ignore losers. Once engaged, you will find that freedom is infectious.

If you want to win, you have to want to win with every fiber of your body because the task is hard, dirty, sweaty and tedious; and only a full-press fight will secure a win. If you are comfortable and do not care about freedom and liberty, then there is no incentive or motivation to get your lips bloody in order to secure that win.

In the end, you either choose freedom and are willing to defend it, at whatever cost, or you choose enslavement. Hopefully, there will be enough of us who will choose freedom. But time is of the essence, and "sticks" are continuously being added to the bundle, while we sleep.

Be sure to visit our first YOUTUBE video. It features the song we wrote about 9/11 and the sixth anniversary of 9/11 is rapidly approaching.

Originally published at eco•logic Powerhouse on April 04, 2007. Republished with permission of the author.
Ron Ewart, President
National Association of Rural Landowners
© Copyright 2007 - All Rights Reserved

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