Battle Flag of the Three Percent
| |
Battle Flag of the Three Percent |
|
|||||||||||
|
|
April
20, 2009 I'll join
my voice to Tom Knapp's on both issues - it was a broad spectrum of people.
The one party I attended, in a county of 25,000, had about 200 people
present at some point during the three-hour event. It was organized by
a lot more than just GOP types, and attended by a large variety of people,
including some that (at least locally) are branded as liberals. There
were at least two or three self-proclaimed anarchists present (the free-enterprise
type, not the nihilist kind), and people from age two (with parents) to
at least 80. Clearly, the numbers were not "tens" but "hundreds" of thousands - and I've seen estimates of as many as 2500 cities. Given the numbers I've heard from various locations, I would say there is a very good chance that more than a million people participated: Durango 500, Cortez 200, Rapid City 1000, Spearfish 100, Casper 1000, Billings 500, Denver 5,000. And I suspect most were undercounted by the media. Indeed, there is strong evidence from more than one town that such is the case. The question now is, will people do this just once, or will they repeat it, and more important, back it up with more action? What kind? Refusal to cooperate with tax-agents, refusal to accept government contracts and money, demands for impeachment and resignation and constant pressure on politicians (and on the media) can be the next steps - but that will take more guts than showing up for a four-hour rally. Now, please note, from a realistic point of view and not the idealism of most of those participating, these tax parties are NOT about getting the First Citizen or the Congress to listen. They won't listen to a hundred, a hundred thousand, or a million protesters. They DON'T CARE - and they think that they have the power so that they don't HAVE to care. Five decades of mostly incumbent and hand-picked successors make them think so. The vast majority of the people with "Sen." and "Rep." and other versions of [dis-]"Honorable" in front of their names, and (D) or (R) or (S) after their names, won't listen and won't pay anything more than lip-service to the petitions, the letters, the calls, the tea-bags, or the demonstrations. This sort of thing does several things, though, which is why I think it is worth it and support it: (1) It builds community - especially at the local level. Working together, even when it is meaningless, draws people closer together, helps people realize that they are NOT alone, that there are others that think like them and want to survive, also. (What? You think that for most people, doing meaningless things together doesn't create this kind of community? You ever play any organized sports in school or the community? Think about it - what is more meaningless than playing softball or basketball or football? Yeah, it's "exercise." But if that was why you and millions of others did these sports, you'd be out running on your own - it is about the friendship and doing something - anything! - together with other people.) (2) As well as building community with those "small-mouthed pacifists" (Heinlein's description), lovers of liberty, churmurgeons and others who just want to be left alone and are sick of having to breath this tainted air every day, it reminds them (us!) that time is running out. Which is one reason, by some estimates, more than 300 MILLION rounds of 9mm, .45-cal, .40-cal, 5.56mm, 7.62mm, etc. ammo have flown off the shelves since November, and why gun sales are up by 25%, 35%, even 50% across the nation. (3) It encourages and helps those very few in government offices who DO care to keep going and trying, staving off that long, dark night for a bit longer while those people who know better, and have just learned, get that much more prepared. People who really are trying - even if not successfully - do keep things from getting bad quite as fast as they would otherwise and help recruit more people to the cause. (4) It discourages and scares the little cogs in the machine: the cops on the beat, the local district office workers, the GS-3 and GS-4 DHS employees (yeah, there are some that low), the poor suckers who handle those huge mailbags in that warehouse fifty miles out from DC who DO see all those envelopes with the tea-bag - who realize that if it WASN'T tea-bags but was instead a dozen grams of 2,4,8-nasty or potassium perchlorate, they would be in a body bag or missing a hand. Even the worst Nazi, Commie, or Tranzi petty goon has a very large streak of self-preservation in their body: they may not quit their job (yet), but they won't be nearly as enthusiastic about it. If a thug "patrolman" in the suburbs of Saint Louis or the streets of Philadelphia is frightened that the next person that they hassle - even with "justification" - might blow them away, they are going to find it harder and harder to flip that bubble-gum machine on, even if they are even more thuggish to the detained driver or walker when they do. As Frank Eric Russell pointed out, it is throwing grit into the machine. (5) It frightens the active collaborators - those liberals who not only voted for the First Citizen but campaigned for "change" and donated money to him and his ilk - the hoploclasts and nanny-tattle-tales and Mrs. Grundy's and "I don't trust myself so I don't trust you with [guns, liquor, drugs, scissors, all-of-the-above] types that drive by and realize that those signs and posters could be replaced by rifles and pistols and Fieser candles, and that the politicos and high-level tyrannical-bureaucrats and occupation-thugs aren't living next door to these people. And keep in mind that some of those people - not many, but a few - know someone who lived in South Central LA, or on 16th NW in DC, or even Londonderry or a city in Bosnia or Kosovo, or Biafra or Santiago - and know how thin the veneer of civilization can be. (6) It recruits more people to the cause of liberty. Even if only one out of a hundred in these protests had not ever thought about resisting the tyrants until now - and starts becoming part of the community of lovers of liberty as a result, that amounts to thousands of new recruits to the cause of human freedom. (7) It builds awareness - makes the bulk of the people at least aware that there is an alternative! When Joe Sixpack drives past a hundred or two hundred people on the side of the street as he heads home or makes his deliveries, then switches on NBC or CBS and hears nada about it, he wonders if maybe his nutcase neighbor doesn't have a bit of sense, after all. We've read a lot about the three percent, and a lot about the one-third Patriots, one-third Tories, one-third neutral during the War for American Independence. It didn't start out that way, though - it took more than a decade for that 3-way split to develop. When the balloon goes up - as it inevitably will - these tea parties and other activities will make the difference on which way a lot of people jump. The tea parties DO present some problems, too - I'd be blind not to recognize that: (1) We identify ourselves - and no, I don't mean people like Mama Liberty or me and my family - we are already on lists in multiple places. If someone identifies me or some of my friends at a rally or party, it just means another entry in my file. But there are now thousands more people who are in someone's data base. We have to accept that, and assume it, and plan for it. (2) These parties, fun and useful though they may be, can be a distraction and work to our disadvantage. If someone really (sincerely but wrongly) thinks that protests like this is all it takes - and all it took in the past - to change things, they'll not prepare properly for the climax - the ultimate denouement that is inevitable. We need to be alert to make sure that it does NOT distract us. (3) They act as an excuse for the thugs to crack down more. You really don't think that Ms. Napolitano's big official gang of thugs released that report on 7 April 2009 just as a matter of coincidence, do you? And you don't think that they couldn't figure out almost exactly what kind of response that would generate from people like us? They figure that they will gain more than they lose in the fuss. Whether that is just distraction from something else and worse, or a way of building community with their supporters (the little cogs and the collaborators), or something else, they chose to make that move at this time believing it will be to their advantage. It is up to us to counter their move - AND we need to get into a position where we are not reacting to them, but the are reacting to lovers of liberty. The original
Tea Party in Boston was held on 16 DEC 1773. It was not until 19 APR 1775
that the American War for Independence began, and it was not until 19
OCT 1781, almost eight years later, that Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown.
We do not dare hope that any actual struggle which began on 15 APR 2009
will become open rebellion by 18 AUG 2011, or victorious by 12 FEB 2017,
but we must pray that the milestones are reached more quickly, as at the
rate things are going, we don't have until 2017 or even 2011...
Nathan Barton is writing this from a wonderful place in the West, which might be in the Black Hills of South Dakota or Wyoming, or might be in one of the Four Corners States. Exactly where it is, the breezes blow with the scent of liberty, and the sound of the pines or the pinions is the sound of freedom. For thousands of years, people have fought and died for the liberty that Americans in the great spaces of the West enjoy, and he writes these commentaries in the hopes that continued generations will be able to do so, until the end of Time. Visit the blog: The Gospel Sower |
"Islamist Terrorism" and the US Role: a response to Ivan Eland Science and Economics Vs Green (And Other) Nonsense Bogus Cell Phone Fire Warning Email Armed and Ready To Defend - The Greater Love The Inherent Contradiction of Government The New Bogeyman: Worldwide Hunger and Biofuels A Baker's Dozen - Meditations On The Scripture and Our Right To Defend Ourselves The Russo-Georgian War of 2008 to date: a libertarian view Baker's Dozen Reasons To Defeat The Bailout "The First Hundred Days" - New Tyranny in a Once-Free Union The Scriptures and Self-Defense Complete Archives for Nathan Barton
|
|||||||||
 |
Your
comments and feedback are welcome!
Now PoL has its own forum at The Mental Militia! Check it out  |
|
