We are losing, and WHAT we’re losing is something that may doom the United States. Maybe not right away, but if we continue as we’re going, the collapse will be catastrophic. This is not a tease so that you have to read the column all the way to the bottom to find out what we’re losing…I’ll tell you right now. We’re losing what has been termed (and rightly so) The Greatest Generation. Those men and women, many in their 90’s now, did something that may never be done again…they defeated two of the most powerful nations on earth. America, which is basically a peace-loving nation, was not eager to take part in World War Two. No, we had to be dragged into it, but once we got in we decided to win it…and we did.
As nations go, America is young compared to the European and Asian countries, many of which have been around for almost a thousand years before we were born. Basing our Constitution on what we knew of the other countries, and having just fought a war for our independence, the founding fathers drew up documents that were unique in all the world. We are a constitutional republic, not a democracy as so many think, and as such we hold to certain truths…truths that cannot be found, I don’t think, in the makeup of any other free nation. Thomas Jefferson, probably one of the most brilliant men of his, or any other, time, said “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” He said that, I think, because history had shown that tyrants were overthrown by patriots from time to time…and it was hardly ever peacefully done.
We only have to look at some other countries to see a coup in the making, or actually happening. Russia was a prime example. The ruling family had everything and the people had nothing…something had to give and it did. The entire Romanoff family was shot to death by the rebels, and communism was born in Russia. Cuba has, and had, its Castros, lying only 90 miles off the coast of America, we can see the effect of communism there. Venezuela, which WAS one of the wealthiest countries in South America is, under a socialist government, dead-bang broke! In all of these examples, the people THOUGHT they were going to get something better, but they didn’t. A quote from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn tells the tale of a disarmed, helpless population at the mercy of a brutal communist dictator that had a vision for a better world. In the final days, after years of simply going along and not understanding the implications of what was happening in their country, the Russian peasants trembling in fear, finally understood. Their time was up, there was no better world, only death.
The Russian people had neglected their own responsibility to the society in which they lived. They lost any appreciation for what freedoms they may have had and believed the propaganda machine that fed them a continuous stream of lies about total equality and fairness. They believed their government when they were promised freedom from responsibility if they would just surrender their own free wills. In the end, the only equality there was the equality of dirt, squalor and the stench of rotting flesh. Of course we know that, eventually, the Soviet Union came into being and, it too was overthrown. The message, as I see it, is clear…capitalism works, and it’s the only system that does work consistently.
In 1918 the Bolsheviks, under Vladimir Lenin outlawed gun ownership and specifically targeted non-communist party members for confiscation. Members of the party were of course allowed to keep their guns. If you notice, here in America there is a major attempt to portray conservative groups as potential terrorists even though they commit virtually no violence. Leftist groups like Antifa however, who identify as Communist, routinely get away with violent protests against their political rivals which often result in destroyed property and injured people. After the communists declared victory the firearms restrictions were codified into Russian law. All those who were found to be in possession of firearms were sentenced to hard labor in the concentration camps, where millions were murdered incidentally. After Lenin died and Stalin took over, the communists, because of the existing gun laws, were easily able to implement a system of terror where all who were found to be in disagreement with communist ideals or were considered a threat, were rounded up for extermination.
Parting shot: You see, every time a “strong man” emerges from a crowd, the first thing that he wants to get done is to disarm the population. In the end, Stalin eliminated nearly twenty million people who had been made completely helpless through the passage of gun registration and confiscation laws by people who believed they could create a better world. What the Russians didn’t understand was the creation of a better world meant the complete surrendering of their own wills and the right to exist as they see fit. Many people live day to day with the belief that what happened in Soviet Russia can never happen here because we have the Second Amendment. Sadly, there are also many people here who want to repeal the Second Amendment, not realizing that it is what protects it all!
