Enough is Enough: What Are You Going to Do?

The police are being told to stand down so that people the mainstream media call mostly peaceful protesters can riot and loot.

The mostly peaceful people cheer on the minority, actively encouraging, condoning, and providing cover for their actions. The mob has taken away your right to have a say. They boldly claim they are speaking for you, the people, as they set fire to the court house or pull down a statue.

They do not speak for me.

But what do we do? Normally I would say elect new people, go out and vote, get involved in your local party. While those things are still important, this is not a normal time.

The police we have entrusted to keep the peace have been handcuffed and are now being beaten savagely as we look on. We now have a choice, do we stand by and watch as these guardians of peace who have stood between us and the most depraved manifestations of our nature are systematically taken apart or do we pick up the responsibility abandoned by those elected officials entrusted with authority and restore peace and order?

It seems like an easy choice, but it is not as easy as you’d think. You will not be cheered for picking up responsibility, in fact by lifting this cross you will be attacked. You will suffer.

You will be called violent when someone punches you in the face. You will be called an extremist as you call for unity. You will be branded racist for loving your country. You will also be tempted.

Tempted to claim the power being used against you and wield it for good. But good fruit cannot grow from a poison tree. Both the suffering and the temptation seek one thing, to strip away your responsibility, because it is in this responsibility that you find meaning.

It is in this responsibility that you make yourself worthy of the suffering of life.

The streets have never been so crowded yet so empty. People shouting empty phrases into the air, conjuring demons out of brothers and making saints out of lies.

Calling people out does not reach their heart, it only causes them to utter false apologies in a misguided attempt to please a monster that feeds on outrage and misery. The apology, instead of satisfying the monster, only sends it into a frenzy as it justifies the outrage (inherent in any apology is an admission of guilt) and means the fruit of misery is ripe.

Our elected officials drop everything to meet the demands of the rioters but you peacefully gather at the capital in the thousands only to be shooed away with a pat on the head. I am just as guilty of this as anyone else. I post things online, I write my blog, I talk with friends and coworkers and we are all full of ideas of what ‘they’ should do. Then we go back to work, go home, and carry on with our lives.

We say things like, oh it’s Portland, if they would ever come to my town they would never get away with that. Then they come to your town, destroy your statues and loot your businesses. 

You then say, yeah but if they tried that at my house they would never get away with it. Then they show up at your house and burn the American flag on your front porch. You weakly say, well if they break into my house they would never get away with it. 

But it’s too late, they have already gotten away with it. Your house is on fire, the police are not coming, the fire department is not coming, and your neighbors are not coming. You are alone in your burning house and you wonder, why didn’t someone do something? 

All the while you never realized that you were someone, that you could have done something, but each time you were called you hesitated. As your community, your state, and your country burned, you turned on Call of Duty and ignored Duty’s Call. Each hesitation, each ignored call, etched onto your very being until hesitation became habit and inaction became your virtue. 

So what can you do? I’ll admit honestly I have no clear answer for that question because I do not know you. I am not going to lie to you like a politician and say I have all the answers for you and if you support me all your worries will go away. That is a question you are going to have to answer for yourself.

First recognize four things. 

One, work within your circle of influence. This means understanding what you are actually capable of doing. You probably can’t get elected governor, but you can vote. You can always extend your circle of influence and work up to getting elected governor, but chances are for the majority of us, that is outside of our current abilities.

Two, understand there is not going to be one magic solution. Simply changing the school system or the tax code will not fix everything. Lots of things need to be done, do not focus too heavily on any one thing or believe that if only X would happen then everything would be better.

Three we are currently in a culture war not a political disagreement or violent revolution. You cannot win the battle if your army is on the wrong field.

Four, you as an individual are needed right now. Not you as a member of a group (gun owner, male or female, or Trump supporter) but you as the unique individual with your own talents, interests and abilities.

Lastly if you know of any of these events, statue destruction, flooding of a school board meeting to read scripted ‘comments’ trying to cancel someone, or occupations, please bring it to the attention of the rest of the community. Then get up and go use your voice. Don’t get into shouting matches, physical fights or call people names but stand up tall with courage and honor.

PS. I am starting to organize people in my local community here in Oregon to do something I think is pretty cool. Looking to organize mostly young people to become the leaders we need but also looking to build a community. If you are interested, everyone is welcome, reach out to me on Facebook or in the comments of this blog, thanks!

The Truth About Statue Destruction

It’s not about ending racism (a utopian idea that will end up murderous if I ever heard one) it is about far more than that.

It is about an exercise of power. These mobs can do whatever they want and those we’ve entrusted and empowered to maintain law and order will do nothing to stop them.

It is about destroying the fundamental ideals America was founded on. Life, Liberty, property, representative government of the people, and the pursuit of happiness. These mobs have killed people, beaten, bullied, and intimidated people into silence. They have destroyed property and stolen the ability for the people to have a voice in what happens in their community. They have extinguished the pursuit of happiness with every business they burn, every car they destroy and every life they mangle or destroy.

It is about division and chaos. Those directing the mobs want people divided and they know the media WILL cover for them. They will never be held to account by either elected officials, law enforcement, mainstream media, or social media. In fact elected officials, mainstream media and the heads of social media will actively silence, bully, blame, attack and arrest those who speak up.

After all these riots are mostly peaceful anyway, right? They are just ‘protesters’ who tore down that statue. But it is extremists who stand in front of their business with a gun to protect it when the cops have been ordered to allow looting to happen. The extremists are the ones who want to go back to work or church.

Normally I am not for government intervention but I do believe there is a proper role and place for government. This proper role is outlined in the Declaration of Independence “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”

It is not the duty of our government to solve our problems for us, it is not the duty of government to care for us, and government is not our Mother nor Father nor God. The chief duty of government is to protect the rights of the people.

A mob pulling down whatever statue offends them at the time is not a right that is protected. It is not a protest, it is not free speech.

It is vandalism.

It is the destruction of peace.

It is a rejection of the idea that you or I get to be part of making the decisions within our communities.

The mob simply decides for you.

If this statue, this house, this institution, this person, this group of people are bad in the eyes of the mob, then the mob will come and destroy it and if the elected official is sympathetic to them they simply refuse to apply the law.

It is illegal for elected officials to decide which laws to enforce and which to ignore, it is immoral for elected officials to decide who the laws apply to and whom they do not.

That is not the rule of law. That is a return to aristocracy. A return to legislation without representation. There was no law passed that said the statue of Thomas Jefferson in Portland was to be removed. Did the people in that community want the statue removed? Maybe they did, but that choice was stolen from them.

Even if you agree with the removal of that statue you must disagree with the method in which it was done. The ends do not justify the means, because once they do anything becomes acceptable. As the Roman historian Tacitus once said “Once killing starts, it is difficult to draw the line.”

If you allow the mob to decide for you this time, simply because you agree with their objective or are sympathetic to their cause, they will begin to make decisions for you all the time. You might be able to buy off the mob for a time, after all you have the right sign in your yard and you say all the things they tell you to say.

You hate all the right things and all the right people in order to signal your virtue as a ‘good person.’ But a moment will come when you slip. Maybe you misspeak, a total slip of the tongue. You figure, I’m a good person, people will understand it was an accident.

 

They don’t.

You apologize.

It is only taken as an admission of your guilt.

Next thing you know you have been fired from your job. The mob you once cheered shows up at your front door. They yell at and shove your children as they try to come home after school. The windows of your car are smashed in. Maybe a fire starts, who set it, after all the mob is mostly peaceful as they cheer the flames.

Where are the police you think, the fire department? I’m a good person, why are they doing this to me? Why won’t anyone help me?

It is then you realize those same questions must have gone through the mind of the good police officers who wanted to protect and serve their community with honor. You turn and see the person who set the fire only to recognize a second later that you are looking in a mirror.

These people taking over entire city blocks in Seattle are not there for a summer of love. The mob pulling down statues are not seeking to heal a divided country or help a hurt community. The media is not seeking the truth but providing cover.

They are not all part of some grand conspiracy. They are simply followers of an ideology of division. An ideology bent on pitting one group against another in their unrelenting quest for the only thing they believe that matters in the world.

Power.