My last article generated comments ranging from a simple BRAVO to a verbal kick to my backside. My dad used to say that everyone has an opinion, and like armpits they all stink. Well he didn’t actually use armpits as an example, but I have exchanged the actual part of your anatomy to keep this within a PG rating. Not to upset those who commented, because what my dad told me would include me as well, but it just goes to show that everyone is of a different mind-set when it comes to discussing issues of great importance. However, I would like to take a few moments to discuss how I feel about the comments I got in response to my last commentary.

One commenter said that I am sort of like Johnny Appleseed, [my analogy], in that I spread the seeds of knowledge and that some take root, and some don’t. I guess that could be true in some respects. I send out my e mails and I don’t know how far and how wide they are distributed, and read, once I click on SEND. So, unless I get some sort of FEEDBACK, I don’t know if I am really making any difference in the grand scheme of things. I suppose that is what frustrates me the most, not knowing if I am making a difference or not. You see, the only feedback I get is from the people I work with, the ones who comment on my blog, or the ones who e mail me regarding the things I write.

The only other way I have of judging how effective my articles are is by watching the actions of the people in this country. If I see them continuing to vote for the SOS, [same old shit], then I know that I haven’t been effective at all. From the lack of feedback, and the actions of the people in this country, I gather that my efforts have had little effect at all…and that gets frustrating after a while. It takes a lot of time and effort to come up with new ways of saying the same thing, over and over and over again. I don’t care if I ever receive a dime for my efforts, but I would like to see a change in people’s attitudes and actions. That would be reward enough for the time I put into theses tirades.

I was also told that the masses don’t count; it is just 3% of the people I need to reach. I can’t be sure, but I think that person is basing that statement upon the fact that in the first American Revolution it was only about 3% of the American people who actively fought the British and that it is only around 3% who would now need to become actively engaged in restoring our republic to the one our founders intended.

I can understand that perspective…although I don’t totally agree with it. Let me explain why. Mike Vanderboegh runs a blog entitled Sipsey Street Irregulars. He defines the Three Percenters as, “During the American Revolution, the active forces in the field against the King’s tyranny never amounted to more than 3% of the colonists. They were in turn actively supported by perhaps 10% of the population. In addition to these revolutionaries were perhaps another 20% who favored their cause but did little or nothing to support it. Another one-third of the population sided with the King (by the end of the war there were actually more Americans fighting FOR the King than there were in the field against him) and the final third took no side, blew with the wind and took what came.”

I suppose it is true that it would only take around 3% of the people, [if another American Revolution occurs], to restore our republic to one based upon a strict adherence to the Constitution, but what then? Our nation has changed drastically since 1776; we have far too many people in this country who rely almost completely upon government subsidies for their sustenance. We have far too many immigrants, both legal and illegal, who have brought with them their idea of what America should be like. What do you think would happen if we suddenly reverted to a government which adhered strictly to the Constitution, which means no more government handouts? There would be anarchy as people who have lost the ability, and desire, to provide for themselves suddenly found they no longer had a fee meal ticket.

Think about it, how do you think millions of people would react if they suddenly could no longer provide food for their families? Of course they would start robbing and pillaging whatever they could to feed their families. Our government would be forced to do something to provide for these people just to maintain the fabric of our society.

That is why I don’t see any real hope for our nation’s future. Our economy is in a shambles as our jobs have all but vanished. We used to be a manufacturing giant, now look at us, importing almost all we need to provide for our needs. Unless we rebuild our economy, and ensure that the people can find jobs that will pay them enough to pay the bills, then people are going to continue to look to their government for their means of sustenance. It’s that simple people!
Another commenter, [the one who gave me the verbal swift kick to my backside], told me that I do have a gift and it is my obligation to share it. I was reminded that since I can see through all the smoke and mirrors, [lies and bullshit], and that I can express things in a way that is easy for people to understand, that I DO have the responsibility to keep trying, no matter how frustrated I get.

I think my ability to see through the propaganda we hear comes from my nature; I was always one to fight back at authority figures. Pop Singer John Mellancamp once sang, “I fight authority, Authority always wins/I fight authority, Authority always wins/I been doing it since I was a young kid/I/ come out grinnin’/I fight authority, Authority always wins.” I guess that fits me to a T.
I remember when I was a kid my father would ground me for something I had done. I would take out the screen to my bedroom window and stay out all night anyway. Sometimes I’d come home, only to find I couldn’t get back inside…so I would sleep on the front porch until morning. During my 13 years in the Air Force my hair and mustache were always a bit too long for regulations, just because I didn’t want to conform to them. I guess it is just part of my nature to push the limits of authority just a bit, so that explains why I constantly disagree with the actions of my government.

But my beliefs are not only due to a lack of respect for authority figures, I also base my beliefs upon a firm belief that our founders knew what the hell they were doing when they drafted our Constitution. They set up our government the way they did for a reason. They limited its powers for a reason. They knew that a government left to decide which powers it would assume would lead to tyranny and oppression.

The Declaration of Independence clearly states that, “…when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

Now due to the inefficiency of our public education system, some may not understand the meaning of despotism. The dictionary defines despotism as a government of unlimited power. Is that not what we now have, a government that alone sets the limits to its powers?

James Madison once said, “If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their own hands; they may appoint teachers in every State, county and parish and pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume the provision of the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads; in short, everything, from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of Congress… Were the power of Congress to be established in the latitude contended for, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of the limited Government established by the people of America.”

Read that as many times as you must for it to sink in, because our government has done exactly what Madison said; employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and in so doing have subverted the very foundations, and transmuted the very nature of limited Government established by the people. Is that concept that difficult to understand? Are people so obtuse that they CANNOT see what is happening?

I was told that I need to explain how the actions of their government are affecting them, make it personal so to speak. What I have found is that people just don’t want to hear the truth. Even if our government were to collapse due to mismanagement, they would still look to the very people who caused the collapse to fix things. Instead of going to the instruction manual for our government, [the Constitution], and learning what it says, and why it says it, they would rather trust those responsible for all our nation’s problems to somehow fix those problems.

How am I supposed to get through to people like that? How am I supposed to jump start their brains so that they begin to think, instead of blindly trusting in a government that has long ago betrayed them? Bitch slapping them all is out of the question, there are just too many people in this country for that to be effective. Besides, I’d probably get my ass kicked in the process.

So now, just maybe, you can understand my frustration. I do not intend to give up, it just isn’t my nature. When I was a kid I took one day of swimming lessons. I was so proud that I had learned to float on my own. My dad asked me, “So, you think you know how to swim now?” He then proceeded to throw me in the deep end of the pool. When I had splashed my way back to the side, he tossed me back in saying, “That wasn’t swimming, do it again!” I could have drowned, but I didn’t. I was stubborn then, and I am stubborn now. I won’t give up. But you will have to forgive me when I get a bit frustrated AND angry at the people who read my articles and then DON’T think about what I said.

Now that I have explained myself better, I hope you’ll excuse me. I have clothes to go wash and 3 huge Rainbow Trout to cook for supper.

July 10, 2011

~ The Author ~
Neal Ross can be reached for comments at bonsai@syix.com.

If you wish to comment, please go to Neal’s blog so that others may partake of your wit and your wisdom as well… http://www.zombie-slayer.com/neal