A man's relationship to his government

“Power on an ancient consecrated throne,

Strong in possession, founded in old custom;

Power by a thousand tough and stringy roots,

Fixed to the people’s pious nursery-faith.”

                                                            Schiller

I have not found a better description of our relationship to our government.  I have no idea who Schiller was but he wrote a play and this was in it. 

Power has been placed on a throne here in America.  It is more than a tool, it is the goal for many who “serve” in government.

That power is strong in it’s possession of our land.  It will not willingly surrender it’s grip on us or our children.

The mere fact of it’s existence is founded in custom: there has always been government, there must always be government.

Since it’s inception, it has driven it’s roots into every aspect of our lives: home, faith, business, recreation, procreation, education, health, death, land, air, space, water, etc…  These roots are proof against any one man’s efforts to dislodge.  The entire nation has been unable to dislodge a single one once set in place.

And the last line is the kicker.  The very power that has ensnared us is fixed in our collective and childlike faith.  Faith in someone watching over us?  Someone who will save us?  Someone who will pick us up when we fall and set us back on the right path?  Hardly.

We will have to come to grips with our own “nursery-faith” and our personal choice to trust in those in power.  We are raised to do so but in our best interest we need to re-examine that relationship...

A totally new approach to gun control

For at least eight decades we have been trying to control crime through the use of police power.  Every year or so some evil or crazy individual takes it upon himself to go out and kill as many of his neighbors as he can.  Immediately there is an outcry for “something to be done!”  The general theme of the actions sought is “getting rid of the guns” through the passage of yet another law.

We have now restricted the Right to Carry in every state in the Union to one degree or another, some to the point of making the carry of a firearm nearly impossible.  For whatever reasons, these efforts have been a miserable failure.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

--Einstein

So without going into huge efforts to prove the above point since other have and will continue to argue that until the end of time, I would like to propose a completely different approach to the issue of crazy and evil people here in America who seem to think it’s ok to kill and main at their whim.

Solution: Cancel the restrictions on carry for all law abiding Americans and actually mandate that each able bodied American carry a firearm whenever they leave their home.  With low cost firearms available such as the High Point line where you can purchase a .40 caliber handgun for under $150 and holsters going for less than $30 a person can easily have a functional firearm for the cost of the average cell phone bill.

DHS has several hundred MILLION .40 rounds available so perhaps they can make them available and also arrange for training at local ranges for all comers.

Needless to say, it will be a very busy first year at emergency rooms and morgues as the law abiding citizens in America deal with those stupid, crazy or evil enough to act out on their impulses. 

I believe that within a year, the available pool of crazy and evil people will be thinned to a completely tolerable level and our society will have become a far nicer place to live.  Bad neighborhoods in Chicago, DC or LA?  Well, if the people who actually desire peace and safety are enabled to functionally defend themselves, these gangs and thugs will disappear.  This will also work on robbery, home invasions, rape, kidnapping, assault, mass shootings and terrorist attacks.

In nearly all of the mass shootings in the past decade there was no one there to defend the people from the actions of the crazy or evil.  When there was an armed American, the shooters were stopped far short of their intended goal. 

This solution would mandate an immediate response by the people themselves.  Yes, people will be hurt and some will die.  We are dying today.  We are not safe.  Our police are merely there to catch the bad guy AFTER the act is complete.  Too little, too late.  Yes, there will be abuse.  Fact of life.  But at least everyone will be on an even playing field.