Monday, February 11, 2013

Ron Paul: “6,000 Years of History, Gold Is Always Money, Paper Money Fails”

Via NC Renegade


Ron Paul spoke with Bloomberg television and said that we are in a currency war and we have been for decades. He noted that governments have always competed against each other’s currencies even under Bretton Woods. It has always been a form or protectionism and will make people want to export more.

Dr. Paul said don’t blame countries like China and Japan just look at the debt the U.S. is buying. There will always be currency wars. The Bank of Japan claims it has to defend itself against deflation and decades of slow growth.

Ron Paul noted that the Bank of Japan’s yen devaluations will eventually lead to further price inflations that are to come. Investors and citizens will eventually reject the yen and switch to other currencies like dollars or Swiss francs.  Then eventually people will move to hard assets altogether as they are losing confidence in paper assets.

Dr. Paul was asked, “Do you think protectionism will lead to a crash in the international monetary system? He replied, “Nothing good can come of it. Even short run trade benefits leads to a weaker economy and higher prices. It doesn't solve the problem they won't face the truth. That is that all governments spend too much money, there is too much debt and they get away with it by taxing people”.

“It seems that all we have is more debt, more printing money, and more government interventions. Governments won’t even talk cutting things. They only want to make slight decreases of proposed increases in their budgets!”

More @ Zero Hedge

Dorner

Via Daily Timewaster

If The Target Fits, Wear It

http://www.flyingtigerssurplus.com/product-images/lg/P183_lg.jpg

The Christopher Dorner saga exposes the weakness of the law enforcement community. It gives law enforcement something to think about when threatening Second Amendment advocates. The idea that they can descend upon us with flashbangs and SWAT raids day after day, house after house is a farce. Something they should seriously consider before engaging in war on the patriotic and law-abiding people of this nation is this: what if we decide to fight back?

It is easy for the politicians to sit up in their offices and issue dictates down to the police to enforce, but ultimately the battle comes between the people who refuse to obey those laws and the police required to enforce them. It is for this reason that I have always expected the police to be on the front lines of defending the rights of the people. If for no other reason than to avoid being put into the unenviable position of having to defend themselves against the people.

At worst, this is the scenario set up by our founders.

More @ TL In Exile

How to kill UAVs

Via WRSA


The UAVs have two alternative systems for communication.
Line of sight radio :
In the military C-Band  500 - 1000 MHz that can be jammed with simple spark-gap radio
Satellite communication :
In the Ku-Band between 10.95 - 14.5 GHz, and  the satellite can be jammed.
The Uplink-Band to the satellite is 13.75 - 14.5 GHz
The Downlink-Band from the satellite is 10.95 - 12.75 GHz
And you should jam the Uplink frequencies with a jammer directed at the satellite.

uavcom.jpg (29230 bytes) 

A few goodies from Ol' Remus

 https://gs1.wac.edgecastcdn.net/8019B6/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lb6tajuunR1qa2rjoo1_400.png

Every generation has its Pee-wee Herman. This one has Obama, for instance.
Ol' Remus at woodpilereport.com

 art-link-symbol-small-rev01.jpg England shipped huge numbers of Irish slaves to the New World - If a planter whipped or branded or beat an Irish slave to death, it was never a crime. The English masters quickly began breeding the Irish women for both their own personal pleasure and for greater profit. The settlers began to breed Irish women and girls with African men. These new "mulatto" slaves brought a higher price than Irish livestock, says John Martin in this review, The Irish Slave Trade – The Forgotten "White" Slaves, at Global Research.

In 1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt was set to eliminate all of the 48 states in order to implement nine regional governments that would operate as extensions of the federal government. All local law enforcement would be eliminated. The plan failed.
Anthony Martin at examiner.com

The Police State Railway that Americans are riding to hell - the drug war, with its massive arrests, prosecution, and imprisonment of people charged only with victimless crimes and its militarization of the state and local police all over the country... This massive bloating of police power and legalized oppression and the corresponding suppression of individual rights have brought down to the lowest level the threats to life, liberty, and happiness that the war on terrorism has created.
Robert Higgs at albanytribune.com (Hat tip: urbansurvival.com) 

Operation Wetback of the 1950s - President Eisenhower made self deportation work. 3 Million self deported. But to make self deportation work, or so we are told in the press, he had to do a very divisive, hateful, nativist, xenophobic, bigoted, white supremacist, racist, angry old white man thing, which was to enforce our immigration laws.
Laddie, comment 3216415 at zerohedge.com 

The Independent Institute: Firearms, Violence, and the Second Amendment



More Articles »

The Citadel / BBC & National Geographic

 
Hello!
My name is Erin, and I am reaching out in regards to the Citadel project that you are involved in.  Tim Pastore (the guy who made Deadliest Catch, Dirty Jobs, Gold Rush: Alaska, etc) and I recently read about the Citadel, and we'd love to have a conversation with you to learn more about it, your involvement, etc.  What you guys are doing is truly incredible, and your goal of an independent, free community is something we want to know more about.  We are not reporters - we create raw, honest, american television shows, and we are very interested in this huge project.

I'd like to connect with you as soon as possible,  so please feel free to email me back anytime or call me on my cellphone at ----------  or ----------.

I look forward to speaking with you, and I hope all is well.

Best Regards,
Erin
  
Erin,

Thanks for your interest in and support of the Citadel Project. However, my involvement is in a supporting role. We (as a group) appreciate the words of encouragement but I am not a spokesman for the Citadel, nor would I attempt to explain the myriad details involved in such an awe inspiring endeavor.

My associates and I are Militiamen, in the old sense of the word.

And as such we see this project as a chance to pass freedom on to the next generation in the form of a secure, self supporting bastion of Liberty. Our group here is a small part of a much larger whole. The majority of whom are decidedly NOT Militia oriented. The project includes Constitutional scholars, 2nd Amendment Advocates, Homesteaders & Homeschoolers, Libertarians, Traditionalists, Patriots and generally old fashioned down home Americans.

It is my understanding that the Founders and Elders of the project are not currently engaging with media or "entertainment" assets. You may contact them directly at the website linked below. As for me and mine here, we have no interest or desire to be involved with ANY TV production. We have turned down multiple requests for interviews and film projects. Without complete contracted editorial and content control I see no reason to change that policy.
III Citadel Home

For the Republic,

CPT David
Commanding Officer
Ohio Valley Minutemen

http://ovmcpg.blogspot.com/

aka: Sandman

Liberty & Lead, Wordpress & DOD

 

Brock, 
this is 55six from Liberty and Lead. I have been locked out of my blog by Wordpress after being unable to access it for a while last week. DOD was all over my stat counter during that time. My email has been tampered with too. Please post about this in case I go missing or something. This is not a joke.

==================

He warned me about this possibly happening last week and I recommended to him that it would be better to post this information now. 

Liberty and Lead 

libertyandlead.wordpress.com/

23 hours ago – My Liberty is too important for an evil and corrupt system to smother it. Sacred cows become putrid corpses when we allow our vision to be ...


 libertyandlead.wordpress.com is no longer available.
This blog has been archived or suspended for a violation of our Terms of Service.

Ted Nugent to be guest at State of the Union

**FILE** Musician and gun rights activist Ted Nugent addresses a seminar at the National Rifle Association's convention in Pittsburgh on May 1, 2011. (Associated Press)

HEH!:)  Just love it.

While other members of Congress are hosting gun-control advocates for Tuesday's State of the Union address, Rep. Steve Stockman has given one of his visitor's gallery tickets to Ted Nugent, the conservative gun-rights supporter.

"I am excited to have a patriot like Ted Nugent joining me in the House Chamber to hear from President Obama," Mr. Stockman said in a statement announcing the choice. "After the address I'm sure Ted will have plenty to say."

Go Scotland! Be Free!

 

I’ve written before about independence movements in Europe. Not only are we going to see the European Union crack up and fall apart in the near future (thought timing this kind of thing is virtually impossible) but we find that regions within European nations are themselves ready to secede from the “mother country.” Probably the most well known of these is Catalonia, which is the economic power house for Spain, but has its own language and is tired of being drained by the rest. In Italy, we have the growing Venetian independence party wanting to re-establish the Republic of Venice. This is an exciting time to watch the news and possibly see more manageable and prosperous countries emerge!

Closer to home, we also have Scotland seriously considering separating from Britain and no longer being part of the United Kingdom. How likely is such secession? Likely enough that the government of Great Britain has begun making threats.

“The pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) that runs Scotland’s devolved government plans to hold a referendum on the politically sensitive and emotionally charged subject next year, and has played down the impact of a ‘Yes’ vote on Scotland’s international status. But the 57-page legal opinion – drafted for the British government by two leading independent experts on international law – said the implications could be far-reaching. The overwhelming weight of international precedent suggested Scotland would be legally deemed a ‘new state,’ it said – a scenario that would force it to re-apply to join international bodies such as the EU, the United Nations and NATO. ‘If Scotland became independent, only the “remainder of the UK” would automatically continue to exercise the same rights, obligations and powers under international law as the UK currently does, and would not have to re-negotiate existing treaties or re-apply for membership of international organizations,’ the government said.”

I can only hope that the Scottish people reply, “You promise?”

Why would Scotland want to be part of NATO? Do the Scottish people feel left out and deprived at the thought of not having a role in supporting Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists in Libya, Syria, and elsewhere? I can’t imagine how it could be considered attractive to support troops all over North Africa and the Middle East. Why on earth would anyone feel threatened by the possibility of losing NATO membership? Why would they even bother to re-apply?

Adhering to the Enemy – Lincoln’s Proconsul Edward Stanly

North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission

 Edward Stanly
 

Most of eastern North Carolina lay open to the Union troops from early 1862, and by degrees they stripped the entire region of everything of value that was moveable and whole shiploads of booty were sent north. New Bern-native Edward Stanly was appointed military governor by Lincoln in late May 1862 and sent to occupied Morehead City to govern his subjects, but even he lost hope of restoring the Tarheel State to the Union after watching shiploads of loot heading northward.  He resigned his appointment a year later.   

Stanly wrote: "Had the war in North Carolina been conducted by soldiers who were Christians and gentlemen, the State would have long ago rebelled against rebellion. But instead of that, what was done? Thousands and thousands of dollars worth of property were conveyed North. Libraries, pianos, carpets, mirrors, family portraits, everything in short, that could be removed, was stolen by men abusing flagitious slave holders and preaching liberty, justice and civilisation.

I was informed that one regiment of abolitionists had conveyed North more than $40,000 worth of property. They literally robbed the cradle and the grave. Family burial vaults were broken open for robbery; and in one instance (the fact was published in a Boston newspaper and admitted to me by an officer of high position in the army) a vault was entered, a metallic coffin removed, and the remains cast out that those of a dead [northern] soldier might be put in the place.” (Hamilton, pp. 94-95)

Colonel William Lamb wrote from Wilmington in mid-1862:
“Northern emissaries had kindled the flames of disloyalty in the East, and 18 November 1861, a convention of delegates claiming to represent forty-five counties met at [enemy-occupied] Hatteras, repudiated secession, announced their loyalty to the [Northern] Union, and named one Marble Nash Taylor, Provisional Governor of North Carolina. The conduct of these Tories, or Buffaloes as they were called, was a source of annoyance to the patriots, but only served to strengthen their loyalty to their country.” (Clark’s regiments, pp. 629-631)

North Carolina Governor Zeb Vance wrote to Stanly in late October 1862:
“Your proposition [of discussing surrender] is based on the supposition that there is baseness in North Carolina sufficient to induce her people to abandon their confederates and leave them to suffer alone all the horrors of this unnatural war, for the sake of securing for themselves, a mistake which I could scarcely have supposed anyone so well acquainted with the character of our people as your self could have committed.”  In a second letter, Vance “told Stanly how his name was execrated and cursed and that “damnable atrocities” were committed daily almost under his eyes.” (Champion of Personal Freedom, p. 200)   

Sources:
Col. William Lamb, Thirty-sixth Regiment, Clark’s Regiments
Reconstruction in North Carolina, J.G. deR. Hamilton, Books for Libraries Press, 1971
Zeb Vance, Champion of Personal Freedom, Glenn Tucker, Bobbs-Merrill, 1965
Read more at:  http://www.ncwbts150.com/ActsofTreasonAgainstNorthCarolina.php

=================

Pillaging and Robbing North Carolina:

June 12, 1862:

"Stanly, the renegade, the traitor governor, appointed by Mr. Lincoln to rule his native State, finds the way of the transgressor hard. He has stopped the Negro schools as being contrary to the Statute Law of North Carolina, by which he has offended his Northern masters, but with a strange inconsistency he ignores the fact (of which Mr. [George Edmund] Badger has reminded him however) that his being here, as Gov, is as much an infringement on our rights, for the Laws of N.C. provide for an election of the Gov by the people. He said that if there was one man in N.C. whom he regarded more than another, one man whom he loved, that man was Richard S. Donnell, & yet the first sight which greeted him on stepping ashore at New Berne was the coffin of Mr. Donnell's mother with her name & the date of her birth & death cut on it, waiting shipment to NY, her remains having been thrown out to give place to the body of a Yankee officer! Such is our foe.

Statement to Committee Meeting on Forrest Park - Memphis, TN

Via SHNV

                                                           


by HK Edgerton
President Southern Heritage 411
hk.edgerton@gmail.com

Mr. Chairman, Honored members of this Committee, and those present. I have placed before you to peruse; a copy of the Historic March Across Dixie Pictorial Journal. It is a very important vehicle that is at the forefront of breaking down the Wall of persona non grata (being personally unacceptable or unwelcome) of the Confederate Battle Flag. And that of the Honorable Beings who stitched it together, carried it into battle, shrouded the bodies of their loved, and who placed it atop the buildings that governed those who deeply believed in giving love to their fellow man, as was proven when one of the Almighty Gods' ultimate test was thrust upon them; " The Economic Institution of Southern Slavery".

General Nathan Bedford Forrest was one of those Honorable Beings, and unquestionably by his actions; a friend to the African of his time, be they freed or indentured. There are many Black folks here in Memphis who owe their very existence to the kind General who answered a knock at his door from a plea of African whose wife had just been sold to cover his masters debts, and the General found himself in the saddle, buying back a slave that he would never use, just to bring peace to a kindly soul.

A man that had his horse shot from under him many times in battle, with never a fret because he knew that one of those forty plus Black men who went off to war with him; had his back when he hit the ground. And as the shirt before you reads in his own words: These boys stayed with me... and better Confederates did not live."

There are those like Commercial Appeal Reporter Wendi C. Thomas who write calumny (false and malicious accusation) about the General, with the intent of exciting from the public a level of hate that is a danger to public safety. The United States Congress exonerated General Nathan Bedford Forrest at their Klan Tribunal, of any crimes associated with the Klan or Fort Pillow. And I never heard her mention one time the terror heaped upon the citizens of Tennessee and the South by the Union League, be they Red, Yellow, Brown, Black or White. Or that it was the Klan during the time of Forrest that broke the back of reconstruction in the South; 12 years of terror for all Southerners, with the exception of the scalawags who climbed into bed with the Carpetbaggers, and Northern appointed military Governors and their tribunals that stole and raped and murdered all the way to the bank.

And never to forget in closing the North plan to divide Southern Whites and Southern Blacks from each other, starting first with the teaching of the Almighty God by Southern Ministers like the Honorable R.L. Dabney of Prince Edward County Virginia who spelled out in his famous letter to the head of the so called Freedman Bureau in September of 1865, all the things that the South had done to try and do right by the African people held in bondage, and all the things that the Yankees should do, and stop doing to a hapless people( vagrancy laws and entrapment of the company store to name a few) now that they had all the money and national resources fully in their command.

Even Dr. Martin Luther King could not be persuaded to attack the Southern Cross or those who fought and served under it;" sons of former slaves, sons of former slave owners, and far too many that were neither". I am the immediate Past President of the Asheville Branch of the NAACP, and at no time do I recall that David Duke or any leader of the KU Klux Klan, invited by that organization, or for that matter the Commander In Chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, or the President of the United Daughters of the Confederacy invited to give the Keynote Speech at their National Convention. However, here was the Pole Bearers of Memphis, Tennessee, a forefront of organizations like the NAACP, inviting the General to do just that. The first and only White man to be given that high Honor. If it makes any difference to a woman that hates as Ms. White does, have her read that accounting that sums up who General Forrest truly was.

A monument is defined as a lasting reminder in remembrance of a person or event, and it is the duty of those who follow to see that this mandate is protected. Political correctness and the lies and distortions of those who hate it are no excuse to do otherwise. As much as I deplore the likes of Lincoln and his son having a monument of their likeness at the Tredegar Iron Works in Virginia, or on the Capitol Mall in Washington, I cannot dig the war criminal up, or that of President Grant who owned slaves as he entered the White House as the lies ran forward to the world that his Commander In Chief Lincoln had him fight a war to end the economic institution of slavery. Good help was hard to find was his excuse.

We here in the South need to embrace our history and heroes of the past while searching out truths not told by those who took a criminal road of Total Warfare upon defenseless men, women, and children. Thank you for having me, and I hope that you will take a path that can lead to a better community and will earn the respect of many across this land who call themselves Southern, and the many of the North who believe in a sense of fair play.

In Defense of General Forrest

Via SHNV
 
Gen. Forrest is the subject of a very old hoax that has been around since the 1860s. There is no truth to the rumor that he was ever a 'leader of the kkk' or that he was a racist.  

When he was called to appear at the 1871 US Congressional Committee that investigated the charges of his rumored involvement with that group, he was building a railroad with most of his workers being blacks, whom he paid better wages than other companies were paying whites.  He worked to promote civil rights for blacks, and for all men; his speech to the Pole Bearers is proof of that. 
 
 In 1871, Gen. Forrest was called before a congressional Committee.  Forrest testified before Congress personally over four hours .

Here's part of the transcript of Forrest's testimony to that 1871 hearing: 

"The reports of Committees, House of Representatives, second session, forty-second congress," P. 7-449.  (see link
here )

"The primary accusation before this board is that Gen. Forrest was a founder of The Klan, and its first Grand Wizard, So it shall address those accusations first."

Forrest took the witness stand June 27th,1871. Building a railroad in Tennessee at the time, Gen Forrest stated he 'had done more , probably than any other man, to suppress these violence and difficulties and keep them down, had been vilified and abused in the (news) papers, and accused of things I never did while in the army and since.  He had nothing to hide, wanted to see this matter settled, our country quiet once more, and our people united and working together harmoniously.'

Asked if he knew of any men or combination of men violating the law or preventing the execution of the law: Gen Forest answered emphatically, 'No.' (A Committee member brought up a 'document' suggesting otherwise, the 1868 newspaper article from the "Cincinnati Commercial". That was their "evidence", a news article.)

Forrest stated ...any information he had on the Klan was information given to him by others.

Sen. Scott asked, 'Did you take any steps in organizing an association or society under that prescript (Klan constitution)?'

Forrest: 'I DID NOT'  Forrest further stated that '..he thought the Organization (Klan) started in middle Tennessee, although he did not know where. It is said I started it.'

Asked by Sen. Scott, 'Did you start it, Is that true?'

Forrest: 'No Sir, it is not.'

Asked if he had heard of the Knights of the white Camellia, a Klan-like organization in Louisiana,

Forrest: 'Yes, they were reported to be there.'

Senator: 'Were you a member of the order of the white Camellia?'

Forrest: 'No Sir, I never was a member of the Knights of the white Camellia.'

Asked about the Klan :

Forrest: 'It was a matter I knew very little about. All my efforts were addressed to stop it, disband it, and prevent it....I was trying to keep it down as much as possible.'

Forrest: 'I talked with different people that I believed were connected to it, and urged the disbandment of it, that it should be broken up.'"

The following article appeared in the New York times June 27th, "Washington, 1871. Gen Forrest was before the Klu Klux Committee today, and his examination lasted four hours.  After the examination, he remarked than the committee treated him with much courtesy and respect."

Gen. Forrest was NOT the 'first Grand Wizard of the KKK'. For the correct information on that, here are the actual documented facts : 

Actually, the "kuklos" was started in Pulaski, Tennessee, just before Christmas 1865, by six ex-Confederate officers, and was a sort of social club for Confederate officers. 

Nathan Bedford Forrest had absolutely nothing to do with the founding of the Ku Klux Klan. 

And even within the history of the Klan, differences must be noted between the Klan of the 1860s and the Klan of today. 

The KKK that was reorganized in 1915 had a  reputation as a bigoted and sometimes violent organization, fueled by hate and ignorance and thriving on fear and intimidation.  But that wasn't always the case. The original KKK of the 1860s was organized as a fun club, or social club, for Confederate veterans.  Many historians agree that if a YMCA had been available in the town of Pulaski, Tenn., the KKK might never have existed.

On Dec. 24, 1865, six young Confederate veterans met in the law office of Judge Thomas M. Jones, near the courthouse square in Pulaski.  Their names were James R. Crowe, Calvin E. Jones, John B. Kennedy, John C. Lester, Frank O. McCord, and Richard B. Reed.  All had been CSA officers and were lawyers, except Kennedy and McCord, who had each served as a private in the Confederate army.  The meeting resulted in the idea of forming a social club, an 1860s version of the VFW or American Legion. 

Notice, Gen. Forrest was not present at the founding meeting.

Their number quickly grew, and in meetings that followed, the men selected a name based on the Greek word "kuklos" meaning circle, from which they derived the name Ku Klux.  

Perhaps bowing to their Scotch-Irish ancestry, and to add alliteration to the name, they included "clan," spelled with a K.  And so, quite innocently, a new social club called the Ku Klux Klan was created to provide recreation for Confederate veterans.

McCord, whose family owned the town's weekly newspaper, the Pulaski Citizen, printed mysterious-sounding notices of meetings and club activities.  As other newspapers picked up his stories about the Klan, word spread and the organization grew.

When the war ended, Forrest was virtually broke, having spent most of his estimated pre-war fortune of $1.5 million outfitting his troops.  He was spending his time between business ventures in Memphis and his farm in Mississippi. Organizations such as the Klan were farthest from his mind.   
 
After the War, General Forrest made a speech to the Memphis City Council (then called the Board of Aldermen). In this speech he said that there was no reason that the black man could not be doctors, store clerks, bankers, or any other job equal to whites. They were part of our community and should be involved and employed as such just like anyone else. In another speech to Federal authorities, Forrest said that many of the ex-slaves were skilled artisans and needed to be employed and that those skills needed to be taught to the younger workers. If not, then the next generation of blacks would have no skills and could not succeed and would become dependent on the welfare of society.

Forrest's words went unheeded. The Memphis & Selma Railroad was organized by Forrest after the war to help rebuild the South's transportation and to build the 'new South'. Forrest took it upon himself to hire blacks as architects, construction engineers and foremen, train engineers and conductors, and other high level jobs. In the North, blacks were prohibited from holding such jobs.


When Forrest was 'elected' Grand Wizard of the Klan in mid-1867 at the Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville, he wasn't even in town.  He was 'elected' in absentia.   The best scholarly research shows that Forrest never "led the Klan," he never "rode with" the Klan, nor did he ever own any Klan paraphernalia. It has been speculated by many that the reason for his name being submitted for the election was partly a prank, and mostly to discredit him for his work toward black equality such as his hiring practices for his railroad company.  Forrest was a civil rights pioneer.

The only known order that Forrest issued using his famous name and perceived authority was for the KKK to disband in 1869, which it finally did in 1871.  And even that order was written by his longtime friend and former chief artillery officer, Capt. John Watson Morton.

So there you have it.  There is no reason to think of Gen. Forrest with anything but admiration and respect.  If anyone still thinks badly of Gen. Forrest, that is a reflection of their own bad character, and does not take away from Gen. Forrest's outstanding contributions to humanity. 

Always remember, the "kuklos" of the late 1860s wasn't even remotely like the US-flag-waving racist mob of the early 20th century.

Forrest's Speech to the Pole Bearers

Forrest (1821-1877) was a famous Southern military leader, a brilliant strategist and a gentleman who made his mark in what Southerners call the War of Northern Aggression.
To paint every general on the losing side as a racist simply because you don't like the South is a travesty that the facts of history will knock down time and time again. 
 
Yes, Forrest was a great general in an unpopular war, but when the war ended, Forrest accepted the outcome and then sought reconciliation with those around him. 
 
He worked diligently to rebuild the New South and earnestly to generate employment for black Southerners.
His leadership and character did not fade because the South had been defeated. Instead he used who he was, accepted the outcome, and used his fame and talents for others' good.
At an early convention of the Pole-Bearers, whose beginnings prefaced the NAACP, it was Forrest who was invited to speak.  History records no disrespect at the meeting; instead both the Pole-Bearers and Forrest behaved with mutual respect and decorum.  

He was the guest speaker, and historically the first white invited to be the keynote speaker.
Forrest was asked because the group was said to have wanted to extend union and peace to others, but what happened in further actions was even more important. 
 
On July 4, 1875 the event began with a young black woman, the daughter of a leader of the Pole-Bearers, offering him a small bouquet of flowers signifying the peace intended.
Forrest received the flowers and then spoke from his heart to the gathering. His actions and recorded words testify that this gentleman was in truth a civil rights advocate, a believer in the rights of all people. 
 
Among the statements he made that day:  "I came here with jeers of some white people who think what I am doing is wrong.  We were born on the same soil, breathe the same air, live in the same land, and why should we not be brothers and sisters.  I believe I can exert some influence ... and shall do all in my power to elevate every man and to depress none. I want to elevate you to take positions in law offices, in stores, on farms and wherever you are capable of going." 
 
He apologized for having no formal speech, but continued, " Many things have been said about me that are wrong, and which black and white persons here who stood by me through the war can contradict." 
 

"I feel that you are free men, I am a free man, and we can do as we please. I came here as a friend and whenever I can serve any of you I will do so.  We have one union, one flag, one country; therefore, let us stand together. Although we differ in color, we should not differ in sentiment."

"Do your duty as citizens, and if any are oppressed, I will be your friend.  I thank you for the flowers, and assure you that I am with you in heart and hand."
It should be noted that both black and white soldiers fought under Forrest against the North.  Many were in attendance at this Memphis address.  When Forrest's cavalry abdicated in May of 1865, the muster included 65 black soldiers.  Forrest described those gentlemen as soldiers amid his finest. 
 
Yes, Forrest was a Southern general whose war strategies were unmatched.  Yes, the war that began over states rights brought forth a welcome transition to the civil rights we are so thankful for today.
For more info on Gen. Forrest, see  Memphis' first White Civil Rights Advocate
The transcript of the 1871 Congressional Committee can be found here.
Pages 3 to 41 contain Gen. Forrest's testimony.



This link connects to the record of Gen. Forrest's testimony concerning the 'ku klux' and the state of affairs in portions of Georgia and Tennessee in which Gen. Forrest had traveled.  There are only two mentions of Fort Pillow in this link, each time it is mentioned only in passing, not in depth.  

We are still looking for the rumored transcript of the committee in which Gen. Sherman supposedly questions Gen. Forrest; it is probably an urban legend.  Sherman was not a member of congress in 1871.

Many thanks to the Library of Congress for providing this link.



As for Fort Pillow, Gen. Forrest received many requests from residents around the fort asking him to come stop the Union soldiers from looting and pillaging the area and from committing atrocities (murders, rapes, random shootings, etc.) upon the people.  When the battle started, many of the Union troops were drunk and refused to surrender when the battle was clearly lost.  Afterward, Gen. Forrest had the most severely wounded Union soldiers transferred to a Union gunboat.

 The Yankee newspapers created all sorts of lies to cover up the atrocities committed by the Union troops and their refusal to abide by the terms of surrender, so they invented tales of butchery by Forrest's troops.  After learning all the facts of the battle and the Union atrocities committed in the weeks before the battle, one has to admire the restraint of the Confederates.  The Union Congressional "investigation" of 1864 was a smear job.

  For a full accounting of the Fort Pillow battle, read "Confederate Victories At Fort Pillow" by Edward F. Williams III, published 1973 by Historic Trails, Inc., Memphis, TN and "The Campaigns of General Nathan Bedford Forrest and of Forrest's Cavalry", originally published in 1868 and reprinted in 1996.  Both books can probably be found at Abes Books.



Another interesting read:  "Truth Of The War Conspiracy"

NC: Hoke businessman kills suspected robber; others sought

Via Cousin John

 Hoke County robbery suspects

Hoke County authorities said Monday that they are searching for two people in connection with the attempted robbery of a Raeford business in which one of the suspected robbers was killed.

Several people entered All American Mattress and Furniture, at 9734 Aberdeen Road, at about 8:30 p.m. Friday, armed with a rifle and brass knuckles, authorities said.

The business owner, whose name wasn't released, was able to disarm the robber with the rifle, and during the struggle over the gun, 16-year-old David Frame was shot and killed, authorities said.

Three other robbers fled the business and left in a waiting vehicle.

More @ WRAL

SEAL who killed bin Laden: Jobless, no medical insurance, no pension, no help transitioning to civilian life, and no security.

Photo -

The Navy SEAL Team Six "shooter" who put two rounds into Osama bin Laden's forehead May 2, 2011, is jobless, struggling to pay basic bills and has been offered no protection from the retaliation he anticipates from al Qaeda, according to his first interview.
 
Only described as "the shooter" by Esquire, he also charges that the SEAL who recently wrote a book about the raid, celebrated in the new movie Zero Dark Thirty, glossed over the shooter's role in promoting his own shot at the corpse of bin Laden.

The long article in the upcoming magazine said that the shooter came forward to talk about the raid to bring attention to the lack of support offered by the Pentagon or administration for troops once they come home.

More @ The Examiner

Texas College Students Could Soon Pack Heat

 

Students with concealed handgun licenses could soon carry guns on Texas college campuses.

More than a dozen state senators have signed on to Senate Bill 182, also known as the  “Campus Personal Protection Act.”

The bill’s primary author, Senator Brian Birdwell,said the bill is about preserving the 2nd Amendment.

“This affords CHL holders, one of the most lawful group of citizens in our state, to be able exercise that 2nd amendment right to go on to the campus of higher learning to be able defend themselves and protect their right to self-preservation, God forbid, some act of evil be perpetrated,” Birdwell said.

Amnesty’s $2.5 Trillion plus Price Tag: Should Republicans Drink the Poisoned Chalice?


 

 Mike Scruggs

According to the Heritage Foundation’s top policy expert, Robert Rector, either one of the two amnesties being proposed by the U.S. Senate “Gang-of-Eight” and President Obama would cost U.S. taxpayers trillions of dollars over the next decade.  Based on Rector’s previous cost estimate of the defeated 2007 McCain-Kennedy Amnesty, either new amnesty proposal will cost taxpayers more than $2.5 trillion in increased Medicare and Social Security costs ALONE. This is after accounting for any increases in tax revenues paid in by amnestied workers. There are also other formidable costs associated with amnesty.

Are our annual fiscal deficits and the national debt not already high enough? Are we a ship of fools?  We risk enormous catastrophe by keeping politically correct silence on the costs of amnesty.

McCain admits that the Gang-of-Eight Amnesty Proposal is almost identical with his 2007 amnesty proposal, and the Washington Times has confirmed this by laying out the two plans page by page. Rector is now researching the likely cost of a 2013 amnesty and believes either amnesty proposal will far exceed the 2007 estimate due to larger illegal immigrant numbers and inflation since 2007. Obama’s amnesty is the more sweeping and costly of the two potentially nation-destroying proposals.

I cannot find anywhere that the sponsors of the 2007 Amnesty made any realistic estimate of its costs that were released to the media or public. The degree of stealth in hiding the cost of the 2007 Amnesty has only recently been surpassed by Obamacare. Don’t expect things to change in 2013. Expect emotional, not factual, emphasis. The public will be in serious need of a horse manure detector. 

I am sure the proponents of these amnesties will not mention that amnesties always cause more illegal immigration. As Senator Sessions (R, AL) has pointed out, the record of the 1987 Amnesty indicates that over a 20-year period we can expect two to three additional illegal immigrants for each amnesty given. Amnesties beget more illegal immigrants and more amnesties. The annual net fiscal drain from the estimated 11.5 million illegal immigrants now here is over $100 billion per year. Are we willing to see another $200 to $300 billion annual fiscal drain? And that does not count the huge negative impact of displaced American workers, downward pressure on American wages, and difficult-to-quantify factors such as increased costs of educating bilingual students and higher crime rates associated with illegal immigrants.

Rector estimates that 75 to 80 percent of illegal immigrants have no more than a high school education. They are considerably less skilled than the average American worker.  In past generations, immigrants were actually more skilled than the average American worker. Workers with low skills and less than a high school education draw more welfare expenses than taxes paid. Rector’s 2007 analysis showed that non-high school graduates used about $20,000 more in government benefits than the $10,000 in taxes paid during their working life. Rector expects that this gap has increased and will make amnesty costs even higher.

Should Republicans drink the amnesty chalice?  Many are saying that they must favor amnesty or continue to alienate Hispanic voters, who were 10 percent of the total electorate in 2012. From 1980 to 2012, Hispanic voters gave an average of only 31 percent support for Republican presidential candidates. The high mark was 40 percent for George W. Bush in 2004. McCain, a primary sponsor of the 2007 amnesty attempt, got only 31 percent of their vote in 2008. The 1987 Amnesty signed by Reagan performed no miracles for George H. W. Bush in 1988. The elder Bush got only 30 percent of the Hispanic vote, down from Reagan’s 37 percent in 1984.

Reagan, by the way, was reluctant to sign the 1987 Amnesty. He was persuaded by more liberal Republicans that it was a trade for the stronger border security and workplace enforcement necessary to shut down most illegal immigration. But these promises were broken, and illegal immigration raged out of control thereafter. Asked what was the biggest mistake in his presidency, Reagan told his close friend and Attorney General, Ed Meese, that it was signing the 1987 Amnesty. 

Border security is necessary but not sufficient for immigration control. Workplace enforcement is absolutely necessary and more effective.

Will agreeing to amnesty turn many Hispanics to the Republican Party? No! Hispanic voters place social-welfare legislation in far higher priority than amnesty. As many academic studies have shown, what they vote for is generous government paid healthcare and social benefits. Amnesty means more Democrats and bigger social spending.

A Pew poll in May 2012 of over 1,503 potential voters indicated that 49 percent of Hispanic voters wanted to expand Obamacare—the highest support of any ethnic group. Only 26 percent of whites wanted to expand it. A total of 69 percent of Hispanics wanted to expand it or leave it as is.  This was revealingly close to the 71 percent who voted for Obama in the November election.  A Fox News exit poll revealed that Obamacare was the most telling issue motivating Obama voters. Ninety-two percent of those wanting to expand Obamacare voted for Obama. Obama ran ads in both English and Spanish. His Spanish ads emphasized Obamacare, not immigration issues. His English language ads did not mention Obamcare or amnesty directly.

Voting for amnesty will not gain Hispanic votes for Republicans. It will only make conservative voters who normally vote Republican stay at home. Republicans cannot out-liberal the Democrats on immigration, healthcare, or anything else. Time Magazine, indisputably one of the most powerful liberal political influences in America, has Gang-of-Eight member, Senator Marco Rubio (R, FL) on its prestigious cover this week, calling him the Republican Party’s “savior.” Are we a ship of fools? Amnesty is Republican suicide, and the Democrats and liberal media hope enough wobbly and clueless Republicans can be found to stampede their party into drinking a deadly potion from which they could never recover.

NJ Shotgun Ban! Ammo Ban! Magazine Grabs! – Gun Owners Mobilize Now!

Via avordvet

 Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs

 UPCOMING ASSEMBLY BILLS, BAN POPULAR SHOTGUNS, MOST RIFLE AMMUNITION, REDUCE MAGAZINE, CAPACITY TO TEN ROUNDS, AND MORE…

 Keep flooding legislators with calls, faxes, and emails And then come pack the Committee hearing room on Wednesday!

This is the worst threat to NJ gun rights in history Your efforts matter most right now!

Buses to Trenton on Wednesday are being planned, But you must register immediately so Arrangements can be finalized.

As reported in our last alert, the New Jersey Assembly Law & Public Safety Committee is scheduled to hold hearings on a package of 24 gun bills on Wednesday, February 13 beginning at 10 a.m. in the State House Annex, Committee Room 11, 4th Floor, Trenton, NJ (directions here).

The worst of these bills have the effect of banning all rifle-barreled shotguns, numerous rifles and handguns, most rifle ammunition, and magazines that hold over 10 rounds.Ammunition sales would be severely restricted, logged and reported to the State Police, and internet and catalog sales would be banned.

Unaccountable health practitioners (including nurses, social workers, and marriage counselors!) would be turned into spies with the power to effectively suspend Second Amendment rights and have firearms seized. And the exercise of the Constitutional right to own firearms would be conditioned on proof of having firearms safety training. And that’s just the beginning (see detailed bill analysis here).

More @ AmmoLand

Accused Gunman Christopher Dorner Issues Statement… “It’s Not Me!”

Via Cow Town Prepper

 1 1

 Christopher Dorner, the former LAPD officer who is accused of murdering three people and threatening to continue his vengeful killings, has issued a statement that claims he has no connection to the Southern California murders, and he is falsely accused.

The statement was received by a local news organization via fax from a Cabo San Lucas hotel early Saturday.

“It’s not me!,” Dorner says in the statement. “I have been out of town on vacation and just heard the news that I am blamed for killings I did not and never would commit. This “manifesto” the police are using against me is just a few ideas for a screenplay I am working on with my former colleague Mark Fuhrman. Tell my mom I’m OK. Once again… the cops have it all wrong…. I will soon be in touch.”

With that news the massive dragnet laid out for the fugitive ex-cop, more than 10,000 officers, abandoned their fruitless search in the snowy, densely forested mountains around Big Bear Lake and moved across the Mexican border, and are headed to Cabo San Lucas at the tip of Baja, California.

“This could be another one of the crazy gunman’s tricks,” said an off duty security guard. “More than likely he is holed up in a bunker and just sitting in front of a television watching the cops chase their tails. If he believes the cops embarrassed him…. I’l bet he wants to pay them back. He wants them to look like fools.”



Stop the Confirmation of Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense


On January 7, 2013, President Obama announced his nomination of Republican former senator of Nebraska Chuck Hagel to replace outgoing Leon Panetta as Secretary of Defense. 
 
The Secretary of Defense is second (only to the President) in the military chain of command and directly oversees the Department of Defense and the nation’s armed forces. This makes the selection of this cabinet-level position of the utmost importance concerning national security, thus requiring a scrupulous vetting of the nominee. 
 
A careful examination of Chuck Hagel and his record in the Senate reveals that he is more than just unfit for the position but is also likely to severely debilitate or compromise United States national security.  
 
As a member of the Senate, Hagel voted in the following manner on Defense issues:
  • NAY on separate barracks for males and females in basic training
  • YES to kill an amendment that called for sanctions on commercial fronts of the Communist Chinese military  
  • YES in support of China’s membership in the World Trade Organization
  • YES on the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty to reduce U.S. nuclear stockpiles in parity with Russia
On May 14, 1998, Sen. Hagel voted to table (kill) the Hutchinson Amendment (S.Amdt.2387) to the National Defense Authorization Act of 1999. This amendment would have required the President of the United States to “compile a list of persons who are Communist Chinese military companies and who are operative directly or indirectly in the United States or any of its territories and possessions,” and to “publish the list of such persons in the Federal Register.”
 
The amendment would have also given the President the authority to invoke sanctions against front corporations of China’s People’s Liberation Army, which is the military arm of Communist Party of China. Although the amendment and bill passed the Senate, it was subsequently referred to the House Committee on National Security, where no action was taken on it, and thus it failed to pass Congress. 
 
In addition to his voting record above, in 2000 Senator Hagel endorsed President Bill Clinton’s decision to “not deploy a limited national missile defense system.” Hagel explained that missile defense “must move forward on four parallel tracks – technology, Congress, our allies, and the Russians.” 
 
While Hagel believes that a U.S. missile defense system should only be deployed with the cooperation of Russia, he does not consider such cooperation from Russia as important when it comes to reducing nuclear weapons. He has called for “sharply reducing the number of U.S. nuclear weapons, possibly without equivalent cuts by Russia,” according to the Associated Press.
 
Hagel is also an advocate of the complete elimination of all nuclear weapons from the face the planet and has worked with Global Zero, an organization dedicated to the same goal. If confirmed, Hagel would be the first incoming Secretary of Defense to be on record calling for the reduction and eventual abolition of the U.S. nuclear stockpile. 
 
Hagel’s soft stance on Communist China and Russia and advocacy for total nuclear disarmament has earned him recent words of praise from the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). The CPUSA’s official newspaper People’s World described Hagel as one who does “represent the more sober elements who have called in our national discourse for rejection of the old cold war tactics, the unilateralism and the continual push for wars all over the world.”  
 
Joe Wendlend, the editor of the CPUSA’s theoretical journal Political Affairs, described Hagel as a “real Republican maverick,” in an article published on June 2, 2008. Past issues of Political Affairs have touted Hagel, along with some Democratic senators, for opposing the Iraq War and supporting immigration reform, or amnesty. 
 
Phyllis Bennis, of the Washington D.C. based Institute for Policy Studies, wrote an article for The Nation magazine, published online on January 8, 2013, entitled “Will Chuck Hagel’s Appointment Actually Help the Anti-War Left?”     
 
While acknowledging Hagel as a “conservative Republican,” Bennis wrote, “At the end of the day, this isn’t about Hagel versus anybody. This is about what President Obama is signaling by his nomination of Hagel as Secretary of Defense....” She further explained, “Obama is not prepared to allow either the pro-Israeli lobbies or the hard-core neoconservatives, in and outside of Washington, to determine whom he could and could not choose as Secretary of Defense….”
 
Bennis went on to applaud Hagel for his past remarks about the Defense budget. “And then there’s the Pentagon budget. Hagel has called it 'bloated,' pretty amazing for a future Secretary of Defense.… [A] Pentagon chief who actually believes his agency’s budget should be cut — that’s new.” Her endorsement of Hagel concluded: 
 
Standing to the left of President Obama’s center-right military policy is not a very high bar. But again — standing up to AIPAC, the defense industry (and members of Congress accountable to them) and the still-powerful neocons makes the Hagel appointment a good move for Obama. And it gives the rest of us a basis to push much farther to end the wars, to close the bases, to cut the Pentagon funding, to tax the military profiteers.
 
This Institute for Policy Studies’ endorsement of Hagel is significant considering that Secretary Panetta also had ties with the IPS during his early years in Congress. It should be noted that during the Cold War era, both the IPS and the Communist Party USA acted as front organizations for the KGB and the Soviet Union. Even today, the IPS continues to work with Marxists within the United States to bring about their desired brand of social changes.
 
Phyllis Bennis also carries communist affiliations of her own. She was a former member of the pro-Soviet Line of March, which was an “Oakland based Maoist organization founded in 1970,” according to KeyWiki’s online database of communists, socialists, and Marxist subversives. In 2008, Bennis was voted to the steering committee of United for Peace and Justice, where she worked alongside CPUSA leaders Judith LeBlanc and Libero Della Piana. 
 
United for Peace and Justice is also listed on the IPS website as one of its “Partner Organizations.” Another IPS “Partner Organization” of note is the George Soros-funded Ploughshares Fund, which has Chuck Hagel as a board member. Hagel shares membership on the Ploughshares board with:
  • John Hoyt, who also serves on Organizers’ Forum Board of the Democratic Socialists of America-run magazine Social Policy
  • Cynthia Ryan, who has also served on the board of Van Jones’ Green For All.
  • Kennette Benedict, the Executive Director & Publisher of the leftist anti-military Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
  • David Holloway, former member of the Board of Editors for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
On January 9, 2013, the Ploughshares Fund applauded and congratulated President Obama’s decision to nominate Hagel as Defense Secretary. The Ploughshares Fund, like Global Zero and the IPS, also advocates vast cuts to military defense spending and the reduction of U.S. nuclear weapons, without an adequate missile defense system in place to defend the country from potential ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) attack.  
 
Considering his voting record, affiliations, and key endorsements, Hagel is unfit for the responsibilities expected of a Secretary of Defense and his nomination may have grave implications with regards to the defense of our country and the very policies that affect the brave men and women of our nation’s armed forces.
 
Click here to email your senators and urge them to vote NO on the appointment of Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense.
 
Phone calls can also be very effective, and of course, the most effective way to influence your senators and their staffs is by making personal visits to their offices. Click here for contact information.

Click here to view this email alert as an online article.

Thanks.

Your Friends at The John Birch Society

Congressional Hearings Show Obama Treading Dangerous Global Path

 

There were two extraordinary disclosures in Thursday's testimony of Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

One is that there was no communication between them and Barack Obama or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the seven hours of Sept. 11, 2012, when Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were attacked and murdered in Benghazi.

This is a vivid contrast with those photos we've seen of the president and his leading advisers watching the video of the attack on Osama bin Laden.

At a 5 p.m. meeting, when it was first known that Stevens was under attack, Obama did issue Panetta and Dempsey a directive to do whatever they could to protect him. And then left the matter, in Panetta's words, "up to us."

After the meeting, according to White House records, Obama did have a one-hour phone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a phone call The Weekly Standard editor William Kristol has called "non-urgent, politically useful."

But he apparently wasn't curious about what was happening in Benghazi. He wasn't too concerned either the next morning, when after the first murder of a U.S. ambassador in 33 years he jetted off on a four-hour ride to a campaign event in Las Vegas. I don't think you have to be a Republican partisan to consider that unseemly.

More @ Rasmussen

Dorner’s Manifesto - The GULAG Archepelago - Meriam’s Corner

Via Daily Timewaster and the comment at Belmont Club

 

"I have not yet read Dorner’s Manifesto in detail, but if he is in fact threatening the Nomenklatura [political, police, media, and celebrity]; he has indeed found the Achilles heel of the entire systemic falsehood that our society has become. All of them are used to and dependent upon there being no Consequences for any actions they take. Deserved or not in this particular case; Consequences that cannot be lied away, bought off, or blocked by fellow members of the Nomenklaturameans that they are as lost as the citizens who have found out that they have been and are being lied to.

The maintenance of control in a less than free society is absolutely dependent on the active cooperation of those being controlled. In the main, it is because they cannot conceive that the powers-that-be would do something THAT outrageous, so they do what they are told. It is a rehash, but here is what Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote in the first chapter of his history of the Soviet slave labor/death camps, “The GULAG Archepelago”

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?… The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If…if…We didn’t love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation…. We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”

Once people lose, if not faith and belief in those who would oppress them, then fear of the consequences of resisting -v- the consequences of submission; then there are not enough guards, police, or State Security personnel in the world to protect every member of the Nomenklatura. And they know it, and they will turn on each other seeking either the resources to try to protect themselves or trying to flee. And their “Newspeak” system will crumble before the realization of truth.

Dorner may well be, and almost surely is, as mentally f-ed up as a football bat. But the panic he is sowing is because for a limited set of the Nomenklatura, he is the personified reappearance of “Consequences”. And of a judgment that they fear to face.

Above I repeated a citation of Solzhenitsyn. I will repeat myself again, and mention something I have contended here before.

We did not become a country on July 4, 1776. It was earlier, and the time and place can be pinned down with the uttermost exactitude. The Continental Congress ratified with words, what had been made manifest with deeds.

On April 19, 1775 about 700 British regulars, about half Grenadiers [the elite of line units of the time] and Light Infantry marched to Concord, Massachusetts, by way of Lexington with the goal of seizing the firearms and powder of the militia and arresting the political leaders of the Patriot movement. At Lexington there was an exchange of fire with the local militia under Captain John Parker. The losses were almost all on the militia side, and the British marched on. And no, we were not “Americans” at that point.

Later that day, the British column arrived at the village of Concord, and began to search for the items and persons that they were after. The local militia had withdrawn from the village proper knowing that they could not stand against the British force. In the course of the search, the village meeting house was accidentally set afire, and the militia believed that the British were burning their homes and moved back towards the village. The way was blocked by troops from the British 4th and 10th Regiments of Foot at Old North Bridge. The militia, believing their homes and families were under attack, broke the British position, and began the rout of the British. But no, we were not “Americans” yet.

The British column began its withdrawal to Boston, marching down the road they had advanced up. About a mile from Concord there was a road intersection, and a house known as Meriam House, and the crossroads there was known as Meriam’s Corner.

At that exact point, at that exact time; we changed. We were no longer British subjects. We were a “we”. We were Americans.

For as the column reached the crossroads, from the north the Militia companies of the villages of Reading and Billerica arrived. From the south, the Militia companies of the villages of Framingham and Sudbury arrived. And they engaged the British and bled them all the way back to Charlestown. And they were joined by the Militia companies of Woburn, and Lexington, and Danvers, and Brookline, and Salem and uncounted numbers of free farmers who instinctively knew who “we” were and were willing to defend us all.

The actions at Concord and Lexington themselves, while historic and praiseworthy, were actions of self-defense. They were directly attacked and they fought back. Just as you defend your homes, wives, and children from armed intruders in the night; they protected their own.

But at Meriam’s Corner …. The villages who sent their Militia companies were not attacked or threatened. They would have lost nothing if they would have stayed home. But they came. And they fought. They killed and they died. Because those troops were not “their” troops anymore and they were attacking “their” people. The government and King which had sent those troops was no longer “their” government and King, but was an enemy come to attack their homes, wives, and families. WE were Americans. THEY were British. And THEY no longer had any legitimate right to rule or to threaten US.

Will we go quietly in submission to orders, in service of statements we know to be lies? Will we “burn later” regretting our submission? Will we prove to be Americans or will we cower, listening for the footsteps of the coercive organs of the State?

It is a decision only we can make, and only at the time and place it presents itself to us. Are the consequences of resistance worse than the consequences of submission? What will we do, not when they come for us; but when they come for our neighbor, for the guy a dozen blocks over, for the guy across town?

On who will the consequences fall?"

Subotai Bahadur