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We all get emails about political
issues forwarded by well-intended friends. You know the type: long
quotes or whole articles written by someone I don't normally read and
little substance from the individual who forwards it. Most of the
time I read them and only occasionally do I reply to them directly.
Usually they have forwarded such political rhetoric only because they
want to share their own political positions and have already made up
their minds. If they've forwarded the email as a bad joke to see if
I'll react, I don't want to encourage that sort of behavior. Besides,
I've already served on active duty once to defend our freedom to
speak our own minds, such as we might have remaining.
I
received one of those “@#$& political emails” a few weeks
ago. After reading the quoted portion of the email about the recent
Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act I wasn't
sure if the
original author had complained because the law prevented protests and
disruptions by the "Occupy Everything" organizations on the
left or the Tea Party advocates on the right. Maybe it applies
equally to both groups so as to preserve the right of any assembled
audience to listen to the designated speaker without disruption. If
it does, I'm sympathetic if not quite convinced.
Rather
than repeat the article here, I'll summarize. The critical elements
seem to be that both the Senate and House passed a security measure
with no fanfare and little objection. It's not unusual for such bills
to be signed without ceremony. With malefactors and politicians on
radio and television every day using their free speech for fomenting
violence, I suspect the protected area around elected officials has
of necessity expanded. Would you want the job of opening envelopes or
packages for a congressman or senator in our present political
environment. I only need to look at Arizona where an elected member
of Congress, an unarmed woman, was shot in the head while openly
meeting with her constituents. Worse, several others – men, women
and innocent children – were murdered where they stood or as they
tried to hide. The shooter was tackled by several brave enough to act
decisively, arrested, and after a year, his fate has still not been
determined in a court of law.
In a day when some radicals
join known terrorists who publicly advocate “chopping off their
heads” and openly support and defend others who walk into federal
offices or county courthouses to shoot judges and other elected
officials, what would you do if you were an elected official and had
the opportunity to vote for improved security?
Let me get
even more personal. I personally think it's ridiculous that I can't
even take a small pen knife/fingernail cleaner into a county
courthouse in my own Crawford County, Arkansas. But also I don't want
to see another county court clerk shot because some mental case can
walk into local courthouse with a modified AR-15 and over a 100
rounds to spray into offices on two floors of the courthouse. He also
shot at responding deputies and local police as he left the
courthouse. That he got that far was from the lack of armed officers
on duty within the courthouse itself while no court was in session.
While responding officers of the law killed the assassin on the
courthouse lawn, county employees and courthouse visitors were
injured or endangered – some still have difficulties even months
after the attack.
Neither a pacifist nor a fool, if I were a
county judge or other elected official right now I'd also carry a
loaded Glock under my judicial robe or sports jacket after having
also spent sufficient time on the firing range to make sure I could
use it effectively.
I don't blame the county or court
administrators for the increased security. I blame the idiots who go
on the radio or appear on television or the Internet or speak at
political rallies for the purpose of fomenting violence and indeed,
encouraging murder and rebellion every day. They even preach hate and
intolerance from God's own pulpit. These people are not patriots.
These false prophets hide behind a veneer of patriotism while they
incite others with talk of war on this or a war on that and in those
moments betray the constitution and their forefathers who died for
the freedoms we used to enjoy..
There is a price to be paid
for everything in this world. As a people, we have not yet made the
final payment for our freedoms against those who would deny equal
rights to others because of their race, religion, sex, economic
status or any other category of freedom granted under a benevolent
God's grace and our constitution. I once swore an oath to defend
those rights against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and
while at my advanced age, I might not last beyond the first volley, I
would answer the call once again to defend my constitution and my
duly elected President and other elected officials without any
hesitation or thought of evasion. Furthermore, I expect nothing less
from any citizen than their obligation to defend the rights of any
individual as quickly as he or she would defend the rights of us all.
Should you ever ask, everyone has a right to be safe whether
they are an elected official or an ordinary citizen walking down a
neighborhood sidewalk. One is as important as the other. Either we
all have equal protection under the law or none of us are guaranteed
any rights at all.
Further, I believe our own American
revolution and U. S. Constitution eventually improved on the French
revolution. Both countries – indeed, all countries - evolve through
periods of extreme violence until the forces of reason and logic
again prevail. Just ask some of the descendants of the British
loyalists who fled to Canada for their very lives in the 1770's. Or
closer, ask about the family histories of descendants of the Grand
Army of the Republic or the Sons of Confederate Veterans who
participated in a most uncivil war. Ask the descendants of American
slaves or those newer arrivals whose families survived any number of
South American revolutions. They can all tell you about violence and
some have experienced violence more recently than most of us really
like to admit.
Most Americans who actually studied
history will easily remember the first three goals of the French
Revolution's rallying cry, “Liberty, equality, fraternity...” but
Charles Dickens. writing A Tale of Two Cities, from a much
closer point of view, explained a slightly different version,
“Liberty, equality, fraternity, or death; – the last, much the
easiest to bestow, O Guillotine!”
Working on the first three goals
together is difficult enough. Helping govern a country or a community
is hard work. France and the United States got the violence under
control after the dust settled. But thanks to our own Constitution
and the rule of law, we still have a chance to maintain the first
three without ever again falling into the terrible trap offered by
the fourth and most horrible alternative – if we reject all who
advocate violence and start thinking of ways to help each other.
"The American people deserve a
full investigation and public exposure of the conduct that got us
into the economic quagmire we face today. We must ensure that it
never happens again. And we must restore public confidence that ours
is a nation committed to the goal of equal justice for all." -
Eric Schneiderman, NY AG and Beau Biden, Del. AG, Joint Editorial,
Politico, 11/6/11
