Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.”
Concord Hymn, Ralph Waldo Emerson
No government has lasted “forever”. Many evolve, as has ours, and ultimately become very different. Some have gone away suddenly, usually by violent means, by force of arms, will power and economics.
We’ve got a long way to go to equal the longevity of the Roman Empire, but many will argue that was a series of governments, very different governments, not just one.
Our government has also evolved and I dare say the Founding Fathers would be aghast at some of the legislated policies and practices that we’ve developed over the intervening centuries.
But the question is, if you’re caught up in the midst of some change and you have a suspicion it’s not going to go your way, what can you do to ensure that your vision, not that of someone else, will prevail?
That’s where “the boxes” apply: the soap box, the ballot box and, ultimately, the ammo box.
To be blunt, the latter is what the Second Amendment is about, and for.
The farmers and shopkeepers of 1776 understood. Wars end when the “cost” becomes too high as it did when the farmers of Massachusettes, over several years, evolved into the Continental Army that ultimately drove the British to capitulate and abandon their efforts, … when that cost becomes too high, one side gives up and the other wins.
It is an expensive venture, true, and a terrible one. But that is how it has always worked.
When the government of France, in times of great civil unrest, quit and “temporarily” granted all power to Napoleon to save the country, they lost everything. Saying one thing but doing another, Napoleon betrayed them and seized all power for himself alone. Emporer Napoleon.
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Don’t forget it.
I’m assuming I’m here too early for your “Life” post. I started to read it in my e-mail, deleted it and navigated here to read it. “Insisting” is a good article too. Yes it does always change and power corrupts. In our case I wonder if the majority of people really do like this administration. The elections in any case make it appear that way. I’m waiting. I’m waiting to get older. I’m waiting for the next administration. I’m waiting to see what happens next. I voted and now I’m waiting.
“Life” snuck out a day early from the WordPress editor on my iPad. I sometimes “draft” articles there before putting on the final polish on a PC with Firefox, and the former’s settings apparently are not always recorded. (Too many computers, too much time.)
Sadly, it does truly appear that the majority of people really do “like” this administration. Unfortunately, that’s not the quality we *should* be looking for in leadership.
I don’t “like” some of the things my parents did but, on balance, they did a pretty good job.
“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
We do seem to be turning the country into a dictator’s lunch buffet, but until a truly hungry diner shows up we will be inclined to suffer. If the soap box, and the ballot box are gobbled up people will wonder where the ammo box went.