Hey America, Did You Misplace Your Cojones?
The other day at work I mentioned to someone that there ought to be national holidays honoring John Wilkes Booth; the man who assassinated Abraham Lincoln, and Aaron Burr; the man who shot Alexander Hamilton in a duel. I was told that talk like that would get me put on a government watch list. As corrupt as our government is, I think it is the duty of every patriot to be on at least one watch list. I’m pretty sure I’m already on two of them; possibly more.
Some of you may know this, but I served in the military for 13 years; getting out when the Air Force offered incentive bonuses for E-5’s and E-6’s to separate or face possible RIF’s, (Reduction in Force), or mandatory cross training into another career field. When I was stationed at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida I met a guy and we became best buddies. After I got out we remained in contact for years…until 9/11 that is. Upon separating my friend went to work for the TSA, (Transportation Safety Administration), working at the airports in the D.C. area.
After 9/11 I began writing articles critical of the TSA’s blatant violations of the 4th Amendment. One day I got an angry e-mail from my friend, telling me to cease and desist contacting him with my, as he called them, unpatriotic rants; I guess he fell for the whole ‘Either you’re with us, or you are with the terrorists’ bullshit. Anyway, my friend basically ended our friendship because he believed my rants to be unpatriotic.
Oh, one other thing he said; he also mentioned that he had submitted my name to his superiors as a potential threat; meaning he turned me in as a possible domestic terrorist – all because I was defending the 4th Amendment. I suppose he forgot that at one point he had taken an oath to support and defend it also; I suppose a paycheck and a misguided sense of what it means to be a patriot is more important to him than the rights his employer is guilty of violating.
That’s one watchlist I’m probably on. Then there is the time I was returning from a vacation to the Philippines to visit my wife’s family in Cebu. One of my wife’s sisters is married to a guy who makes amazing belt buckles which are shaped like guns; everything from revolvers to semi-automatic with moving slides. These belt buckles are about the size of a can of dipping snuff; Copenhagen or Skoal. Well he gave me one that was a perfect replica of a snub nosed .357 magnum; complete with revolving cylinder.
I placed this item into my carry-on luggage because I wanted to make absolutely sure it did not get lost coming back to the States. I went through 5 screening stations at the International Airport in Manila; only having them ask to see it one time before allowing me to continue. Then, when I got to the final screening station some dickweed TSA agent confiscated it; saying that according to TSA Regulations, no images or replicas of firearms were allowed on international flights.
I told this dumbass that it was a belt buckle, and what was I going to do, hijack a plane with a belt buckle? Apparently common sense had no affect on this guy, because he took it anyway. So I rolled up my sleeve and showed him a tattoo on my left arm and said, “Are you going to amputate my arm too you stupid motherfucker?” Sorry for the language, but I was really angry. Anyway, the guy reaches into a drawer and pulls out a form with the official seal of the Department of Homeland Security on it and tells me I must fill it out before being allowed to board the plane. So I’m sure that little incident also landed me on a watchlist as well. And the tattoo I showed him?
After I made reference to my thoughts about national holidays for Booth and Burr on Facebook, someone posted the following:
I’m sure there are a few of those categories that I fall under; most likely justifying me being put onto the watch-lists of a couple other government entities as well. What does it say about the patriotism of people when they fear being placed on a watchlist which is being compiled by a bunch of criminals who violate the Constitution in almost everything they do?
Were our Founding Fathers concerned with whether or not what they said might be sufficient grounds to justify their government focusing its attention upon them, and their activities? Were our Founders fearful that what they said might be considered as treasonous? I don’t think so, in fact Patrick Henry once said, “If this be treason…make the most of it.”
I have often wondered how many people in this country fear speaking out simply because if they do they will lose friends, or lose their job because they have offended people. I remember a year or so ago the company I work for held a workplace violence seminar after the news had reported on someone bringing a gun to work and opening fire upon his co-workers. Since the plant I work for runs multiple shifts they had more than one of these seminars; and I was scheduled to attend the afternoon one.
When I showed up for work I was told that during the morning seminar someone had approached the speakers and mentioned that he was fearful for his life because of…you guessed it…me! Supposedly this guy felt that because I write so fervently about my right to keep and bear arms that I posed a threat to his safety; that I was going to bring a gun to work and start blasting away.
Anyway, after my seminar had ended I approached the speakers, (One was a cop or a sheriff and the other was some sort of specialist for the government whose area of expertise was terrorism and workplace threat assessment). I told them that I had heard that someone had mentioned that they feared for their life because there was some gun nut threatening to shoot the place up; to which they said, “Yes, and we’re taking the threat seriously. We will be working with your company to identify and minimize the threat.”
I then shocked them by saying, “Allow me to save you some effort, I’m that guy.” I explained that the things I write are not threats about my anger with my co-workers, or could they be construed in any way to pose a threat to my co-workers. I told them that I am a staunch supporter of the 2nd Amendment; to the extent that I think requiring a permit to exercise a constitutionally protected right is utter bullshit…but that I was NOT a threat to anyone at work; unless of course they punch me in the face, which would require that I pay them back in kind.
Both speakers thanked me for coming forward and said that apparently my pro-gun stance had offended this person, and that because he apparently is anti-gun, any discussion revolving around guns, and our right to keep and bear them was to be considered as a threat to him personally. And that was the end of that. The funny thing is, a couple months after this happened I ran into the guy who turned me in at a local Sam’s Club. He said hi, but I just kept going; I didn’t even acknowledge his presence. You know, when I was growing up we had a word for people like that; we called them pussies.
I’ve lost track of the times I’ve been told to tone down my rhetoric because people were complaining about what I say; saying that my words offended them. I suppose I’m going to offend a few more with what I’m about to say, but the British actor Stephen Fry once said something about how people these days are always complaining about being offended by the things other people do or say. Fry’s comments were, “It’s now very common to hear people say, ‘I’m rather offended by that.’ As if that gives them certain rights. It’s actually nothing more… than a whine. ‘I find that offensive.’ It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. ‘I am offended by that.’ Well, sofa king what.”
Our Founding Fathers valued liberty above all else; including whether or not what they said or wrote offended someone. In fact, it is said that John Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence with his big signature just so that jolly old King George could read it without having to put on his eyeglasses.
I’m sure that some of you were taught about the shootout at Lexington and Concord when the British Redcoats attempted to confiscate the arms the Colonists had stored there. I’m sure people remember the story of Paul Revere’s famous ride where he cried, “The British are coming, the British are coming!” But did you also know that, aside from being tasked with confiscating the weapons stored at Lexington and Concord the Redcoats were also tasked with serving arrest warrants for John Hancock and Samuel Adams for their subversive activities?
Do you think they were bothered by this – that they were frightened out of their wits because their names had come to the attention of a tyrant and those charged with enforcing his laws upon the people? Well, if they were anything like me, I think they probably took great pride in the fact that a tyrant was so afraid of them that he issued warrants for their arrest.
I have spoken many times about what might possibly happen were men like Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Jefferson alive today; right here in 2018. Do you think they would be hiding in their homes, quaking in their boots because they were afraid that what they did or said might land them on a watchlist maintained by Homeland Security? Do you think they would sit back and meekly obey whatever tyrannical laws their government forced upon them?
No, I think that if those men were alive today they would be just like me; blogging and offending those who bow down in obedience to tyrants. I don’t think Patrick Henry would be telling us we must make better choices at the voting booth, I think he would be saying, “What the hell are you people waiting for; we revolted for far less than what you submit to without a whimper of complaint?”
In 1788, when the constitution was merely a proposal for a system of government, Patrick Henry stood before his fellow Virginians at their State Ratifying Assembly, and declared, “Liberty, the greatest of all earthly blessings-give us that precious jewel, and you may take every thing else.” I wonder what he would say to the people of America today; people who are more concerned with choosing candidates who can provide for their comfort and security than they are with preserving the precious jewel of liberty.
But then again, I don’t have to wonder what he would say, because he said it himself immediately he said the above-mentioned quote, “But I am fearful I have lived long enough to become an fellow: Perhaps an invincible attachment to the dearest rights of man, may, in these refined, enlightened days, be deemed old fashioned: If so, I am contented to be so: I say, the time has been when every pore of my heart beat for American liberty, and which, I believe, had a counterpart in the breast of every true American.”
You see, the key word in those comments is HAD; Henry believed that at one point the pore of every heart in America beat for liberty; but that he no longer felt that way because they were considering adopting a system of government which was designed in such a manner so as to destroy that liberty.
If you were to be brutally honest with yourself you would see that Henry’s fears were well founded; for the spirit of liberty has, for the most part, died in America. People claim to love it, to cherish it, then they turn around and bow down at the altar of the very entity that has annihilated it. People claim to love liberty, then turn around and tell others that they support those who enforce tyranny upon the peasants…oops, I meant people.
Most people wouldn’t recognize liberty if it came up and introduced itself to them. In fact, most people would slam the door in liberty’s face if it came knocking on their doors. Most people don’t want liberty; they want to be taken care of, protected, have their government provide benefits and subsidies for them. The last thing they want is to have to accept complete and absolute responsibility for their lives, their safety and their security. Most people would rather give up their rights for the promise of these things, and if you ask me, that means most people prefer comfortable servitude over the animating cost of defending their liberty.
Well Sam Adams had a few words for people like you, “If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
Our Founders did not fear that what they said or did offended people, or whether it drew the attention of their oppressors; they cared about one thing…LIBERTY; and they were ready to die defending it; unlike the pussified patriots today who ask permission from their masters to exercise their fundamental rights, and who place their oppressors up on pedestals; screaming, “Let’s Make America Great Again.”
If you really want to make America great again you can begin by learning why your government was established; what purposes it was created to serve. Then, and only when you have done that, you can begin by speaking out against every infringement upon your liberty; without regard for whether it offended others or landed you on some government run watchlist.
But that requires balls; and in a country were transgenderism is considered normal, it comes as no surprise that balls are in short supply.
Oh, did I just offend you? Ever stop to ask yourself whether or not that just MIGHT be your conscience trying to tell you something?
~ The Author ~
Neal Ross, Student of history, politics, patriot and staunch supporter of the 2nd Amendment. Send all comments to: bonsai@syix.com.
If you liked Neal’s latest column, maybe you’ll like his latest booklet: The Civil War: (The Truth You Have Not Been Told). Life continues to expand for this prolific writer and guardian of TRUE American history.