What's Next?

The Spirit of '76 by Archibald MacNeal Willard (Source)

"Captain Preston, what made you go to the Concord Fight [on 19 April 1775]?"

"What did I go for?"

"...Were you oppressed by the Stamp Act?"

"I never saw any stamps, and I always understood that none were ever sold."

"Well, what about the tea tax?"

"Tea tax, I never drank a drop of the stuff, the boys threw it all overboard."

"But I suppose you have been reading Harrington, Sidney, and Locke about the eternal principle of liberty?"

"I never heard of these men. The only books we had were the Bible, the Catechism, Watts' psalms and hymns and the almanacs."

"Well, then, what was the matter?"

"Young man, what we meant in going for those Redcoats was this: we always had governed ourselves and we always meant to. They didn't mean we should."

- Captain Levi Preston of Danvers, Massachusetts, interviewed about his participation in the first battle of the American Revolution many years later, at the age of 91, around 1843. (Source)

It seems that we have gotten out of the habit of governing ourselves. The idea of studying in school, listening to, respecting, and obeying one's parents while still under their roof seems out of fashion.

Parents don't want to be parents. I don't know what some of them are trying to do, their kids don't understand it either. Children crave guidance and discipline. And by discipline I don't mean "spare the rod, spoil the child." Though I survived the occasional (and well deserved) smack on the butt. So did my kids, so will my grandkids. We do things the old fashioned way in my tribe. Obey the rules or accept the consequences.

We seem to have a nation composed of special snowflakes, if you believe the media. My experience is different. As with many generations, there are flakes, there are ne'er-do-wells, and there are the go along to get along types. But this generation, like those that went before, have a rock solid core who still know what it means to be American.

They serve in the hills of Afghanistan.

They maintain aircraft in the subzero temperatures of a North Dakota winter and in the humid heat of a Mississippi summer.

They fly off the decks of aircraft carriers far from home.

They serve in the combat centers, engineering spaces, above and below decks on destroyers, cruisers, and carriers for days, weeks, and months at a time.

They are Marine riflemen afloat in the Med.

They are the Coast Guard, rescuing folk in all weathers, at all hours.

They are the cops patrolling the mean streets, protecting us from the barbarians at home.

They are the firefighters running into a burning building.

They get it.

The so-called elites in this country, the perfumed and over-privileged fools in the capitals of the states and the nation want to rig the system to present the appearance of the original concept of America but in reality they desire privileges which might make an 18th Century French nobleman blush at the ostentation of it all. It's all form, no substance. Many of the populace seem absolutely fine with that.

Some of us are not.

Had a lot of commentary, both here and over at the Book of Face, over my endorsement of the Libertarian candidate for the Presidency. Some of you made some good arguments for the need to get The Donald into the White House as opposed to Shrillary. Yes, there is a danger, a very real danger, of the next President getting to put three new faces onto the Supreme Court. As if it's one or the other makes any real difference. They still need to be approved by the Senate and guess what? That pack of charlatans aren't doing their job either.

The folks who get appointed to the Supremes will be approved by the elites, not by the people. The Donald, Shrillary? There is a lesser of two evils there. I am tired of choosing evil. I will vote my conscience. If everyone did so, we might, maybe, have a better nation.

But don't fool yourselves, the decision has been made, all we're seeing now is the circus. Bread is abundant. For now. The difference between the two major parties has faded so much that it is imperceptible, Republican, Democrat, it's all about the power. The real power is behind the scenes, we just get to see the puppet show. It's a Potemkin Village, you only see what "they" want you to see.

The Fourth of July in Chicago, 82 people shot, 14 of them fatally. But what leads the news? The officer involved shooting of a single man in Minnesota. Perhaps unjustified, perhaps not. I've already heard enough rumors of that shooting to leave me wondering just what is the truth. The Black Lives Matter crowd is out in force on that event. Where is the outrage regarding the violence in Chicago? What, black lives only matter when the police are involved?

Again, what is truth? Is it what we perceive? Is it what the media tells us?

Things are going downhill fast. Don't fret though, it's what the elites want. First distract us, then disarm us. The foe is marching to Concord. Will we stop them this time? Where are you going to make your stand?

“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth a war, is much worse. When a people are used as mere human instruments for firing cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the service and for the selfish purposes of a master, such war degrades a people. A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their free choice, — is often the means of their regeneration. A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever-renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other.” ― John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy

Sketch for the Fall of Alamo by Robert Jenkins Onderdonk (Source)

Portrait of Thomas Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale (Source)

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

Thomas Jefferson