What to do

There is a book out there, whose title I have unfortunately forgotten, which book tries to explain the fundamental differences between the way the men and women see, react to, and understand the world. It is not a superficial, "touchy-feely" book, but an honest attempt to understand and explain the differences.

One of the basic premises of the author is that men are, by nature, fighters. He feels that men are actually in need of something to fight for, a belief or a cause, something that they can stand up for. As I get older and perhaps a bit wiser (though that is up for questioning!!) I think that he is correct. We need something to believe in, something that we can take hold of, around which we can "circle the wagons". Add to this the desire that many feel for freedom, and I begin to see why some of us are becoming more and more active in standing up against the constant expansion of the federal government and its ever more burdensome laws, rules, and demands.

Though it hurts me deeply to have to admit it, I also see that there are way more who are not only willing, but eager, to sacrifice their freedom and give everything up to the central government in return for the "security" offered them there, losing not only their freedom, but everyone else's as well. They point to us, snicker, and call us disillusioned wackos, throwbacks to a different era, right-wing dingbats, and a host of other unflattering names. They cannot know what is being lost because they have never experienced it, having been raised in a society that sees pleasure and gratification as the only worthwhile goals, and sacrifice and struggles and hardship are things to be avoided.

How do we show them what they are missing and what they are losing? We can't tell them, because words like freedom, work, sacrifice, challenge, patriotism, and liberty either mean nothing to them, or even worse, have been corrupted into something that is bad, evil and to be shunned. If we aren't speaking the same language, if words don't mean the same thing to the listener as they do to the speaker, then understanding is impossible. We have three choices that I see:
We can continue to talk to them, to try and get them to see what the words really mean rather that the corrupted meaning that has been taught them through the years. This is time consuming, and can be frustrating beyond belief when the words that we use are either innocently or maliciously misconstrued and spat back at us. It can be like trying to order from a menu in a foreign restaurant when you haven't a clue what anything on the menu means. You are talking but not conversing. An example that we all have heard...if you criticize the president, you are a racist.
We can try, instead of talking, try to educate by example. We can show by doing rather than talking. Unfortunately, what we do is all to often then presented as something completely different from what we actually did. Think about the recent spate of tea-parties around the country. Here was a group of people exercising their freedom of expression, most of it spontaneous and non-partisan, and much of it aimed at ALL of Washington who were going completely nuts with spending. But it was then presented to the general public as a "bunch of republicans" who were "out to get Obama". Again, this is a tough way to go.
The third choice is to ignore them completely. I don't mean to sound cruel or heartless, but if they can't / won't join, then there is little that we can do about it. Those of us who have tasted freedom, who know that liberty IS worth fighting for, must do what we must do to protect and expand that freedom throughout this country. The complacent hangers-on hopefully will see the errors of their way and join us, but if not, we have done what we could and must move on. There are many who don't join simply because they are ignorant of what they are missing, and these are the ones that I fervently hope will learn and join. Others, those who see themselves as the elite, who "know so much more than we do and are so much smarter than the rest of us", these must be shown as the demagogues that they really are. Those who sit in power and pass law after law, spend billions after billions, and completely ignore the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence, and the God-given rights that those documents uphold, these people must be shown as the power-hungry tyrants that they have become.

I will hasten to add that I am NOT pushing for an armed rebellion. God help us if it ever comes to that. The thought of Americans shooting other Americans, of our country laid waste by another civil war, is too horrible to contemplate. I hope for, I pray for, I dream of another type of revolution, a revolution of ideals, of the principals upon which this country was founded and under which it grew from 13 little colonies into the greatest and free-est country ever seen. That is what I yearn for.


There stands a man who has had enough.

He just needed about a million others to stand with him.

So do we.

(with thanks to The Smallest Majority)