Letters to SAR: January 2000
By Dan Shea
Dear Dan,
I have been watching the news, and watching the election preparations. I keep wondering if you or anyone is going to activate the Committee of 1776 this year, and to try and repeat the successes of the elections of 1994. We could get the rallies going again, and maybe do the march on Washington again. Do you think it is possible?
Bill H.
Bill,
As I write this, the New Millennium is a few weeks away. Odds are that you are reading this after the Y2K computer glitch has either fizzled out, caused some problems, or entered us into a new age. Without a crystal ball, I have no way of knowing what is coming, but I suspect that when it is all said and done, it will be business as usual. Babies being born, wars being fought, billions of people with hopes and dreams that they work hard for every day, and others drifting in directionless limbo. Above all else, the fight to stay free will be an ongoing thing.
I sometimes take a private space to put a couple of thoughts down, and I am presently across the puddle and far from home, thinking about the future. The land I am in today has fought bitter battles for survival, and yet, they have meekly laid down their arms to “Fight crime” and “Save the children”. Only crime has not gone down, and the children are still at risk. The only thing the people here have lost is their ability to defend themselves against predators. Their television shows are filled with helpless people who must turn to the authorities for self-defense, and unrealistically, the police can always help.
It is sadly not like that in the real world. The lessons of history show that the predators always show up eventually, and if you can not defend yourself and your loved ones, then you and your way of life die off.
As a student of history and the martial world, I have a somewhat unique perspective among the people in my community. Most of the readers of SAR share that perspective. We know that the America of today’s world exists in a small bubble in time, that the average American feels pretty “Good” about the future prospects of peace, safety, etc. Yet, it has not been that long since our streets ran in blood- about thirty years. The streets of fire have made brief appearances in the past three decades, from the Boston riots to the LA riots, from Waco to Oklahoma City. Overall, it has been a fairly peaceful time compared to what other countries have gone through. We haven’t had a declared war here since the 1860’s, and the memory of what it is like to really have to defend your home in a military style fight is buried almost that long ago, with some few exceptions.
The elections of the year 2000 are almost upon us. The real players have been positioning themselves for several years. It is incumbent upon those of us who are defenders of the Constitution to be prepared. We must stick together, and not be divided. We must fight this good fight, and we must win the battle at the polls. The whole of our future is riding on this coming election. To view it any other way, is to continue on the long slide of the last 30+ years. Giving away yards to save inches must stop.
We must work together. We must be effective. We can not get stopped and trapped in the details that our enemies throw at us, to get us turned on each other. We must demand to know where our elected officials stand on positions that matter to us, and then get the word out.
Above all else, we must be active in getting our side to the polls on voting day. This should be a year of rallies, a year of voting drives. Every time you see your political enemies riding through areas to “Get the vote out” or “Rock the vote”, remember that they are only looking for those so inclined to vote the Liberal line. Those with a vested interest in continuing a welfare state, a limited police state, a nanny state, are those who would foolishly disarm the population in the name of “Safety”. They do not understand what they give up, for they have not had to earn their freedom. It’s much like “Easy money” that comes and goes so quickly- freedom that is taken for granted is freedom that is quickly lost.
To your question on the Committee of 1776; I don’t think that would be a useful vehicle anymore. What started at a kitchen table in Maine, and caught fire at kitchen table discussions across the country, served its stated purpose and is gone. The steam was effectively let out of C1776 in 1995. In 1994, the Committee had between 80,000 and 100,000 people in 26 states out for the Rally for Firearms Rights, and a solid 15,000 at the memorial in Washington DC for our National Rally. Considering that Handgun Control, Inc had a Rally in DC around the same time, with 80 people there after weeks of national exposure in the media, tells the lie about who has the most support.
We need new vehicles to carry the message this year. We should stick together, and support the existing organizations that fight for the Second Amendment, but somewhere, somehow, we have to get out in front again. We have to do so now, as we move into the year 2000. We need to have momentum before the polls, and we need to get our people out to vote.
If you have ideas, SAR will be glad to publish some, to help engage a forum for the discussion. However, time is short, and we need to get active now- make that Pro-active. Above all else, remember that if we don’t get the voters out next November, we and our descendants are the ones who lose. See you at the ballot box!
- Dan Shea
This article first appeared in Small Arms Review V3N4 (January 2000) |
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