From the April 2002 Idaho Observer:

I'm Not Laughing At You, I'm Laughing BECAUSE Of You!

The Gunrunner

I was raised in a unique fashion. My grandpa, one of the last real mountain men, was my mentor. He often taught by parables, and here comes one now.

My grandpa was the sheriff of Placerville in the mid 1930s. Placerville then, as it still does, had wooden sidewalks. Each day grandpa would do his rounds at dawn, checking the town for “things that shouldn't be.”

One fine Sunday morning, he turned a corner and smack in the middle of the sidewalk was a fresh, steaming pile of bear dung. “Smells purty bad, but it ain't my job to clean'er up!” he thought, and off he ambled to continue with his morning rounds.

All that Sunday the townsfolk, as they walked around this pile of dung, muttering things like, “That's awful” -- “somebody should clean that up!” -- “That smells bad!” -- “That's disgusting.”

Though there was a lot of complaining going on, not one person figured they ought to clean up the bear dung.

Monday morning, bright and early, the mayor was walking to his office when he tripped on a splinter in the walkway. SPLAT! The mayor fell face first into a now fully-packed-with-flies-and-smelling-worse-than-before lukewarm pile of bear dung!

“CLEAN THIS UP NOW!!!!” he shouted. He, and the dung, got cleaned up straightaway.

The American people are the same now as they were in the 30s. It takes a good “face rubbing” in the dung before anything get's done!

And oh, how our faces have been rubbed in it lately. Randy Weaver's wife and child were murdered by the federal government; former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, the FBI and the BATF burned to death over 80 men, woman and children in Waco, using criminally false testimony to secure a vague, and false “search” warrant.

Every night on the evening news we all hear of a new “law” our self-serving politicians are stuffing down our throats so they can “help” us; we hear daily how our president giving our hard earned money away to some third-world garbage dump or some kitty litter box in the Middle East.

If you own a business, government tells you how you MUST “do this - do that, don't do this - don't do or that” and the rules change almost by the hour; if you dare to argue with them, the appropriate enforcing agency will pull your license to operate, then call the IRS to audit your books and then attack you with the EPA, FDA, FBI, DHHS, DOD, DOA, DOT, FAA, DOJ, DOI, VA, DOE, DOS, HPS or 100 more of the federal governments infamous' “alphabet agencies.”

I have a saying:

WHERE THE GOVERNMENT FEARS THE PEOPLE - THERE'S FREEDOM!

WHERE THE PEOPLE FEAR THE GOVERNMENT - THERE'S TYRANNY!

Who wants to guess how the general citizenry feels about our government now? I dunno, maybe I'm just too cynical, but I (at least) “fought the fight” and put my money (and my life) where my mouth is. I have fought, both literally and figuratively, against corruption, perversion and abuse at all levels of government (city, county, state and federal). I was on the radio a dozen times a week, showing the insanity all government agents and agencies must condone, and use, to survive.

In the 90s I asked over 5,000 (so called) “Patriots” to come with me to the California State Capital to confront Senator Diane “I-know-what's-best-for-you-so-shut-the-hell-up” Feinstein.

Five went with me. I guess the rest of 'em hadn't yet had their faces rubbed in the dung long enough yet. I wonder how many of those 5,000 people would show up today?

Maybe a few more. Maybe not. It's unfortunate, but that's the way most Americans are. “If it isn't my face in the dung, its not my problem,” they shortsightedly reason.

“Why should I bother -- it's not my family!” “Well, he probably deserved it!” “Can't fight city hall!” “Ain't my job!” and thousands of other pathetic, cowardly, irresponsible excuses come out of most of our mouths whenever we see a governmental agency performing an astounding act of criminal insanity upon another innocent citizen or his legitimate business.

What is wrong with us?

Man is born with the ability to know the difference between wrong and right, and he spends the rest of his life trying to convince himself that he doesn't. When we see something wrong, we must right it! Wrong is wrong. There is no such thing as a “gray area.” Man is destroyed, inch by spiritual inch, each time he compromises on that which he KNOWS is wrong and allows it to continue unabated.

The foundation that this rare and valuable concept called “Freedom” was built on has been eroded and perverted by the self-serving and the complacent to such a degree that we no longer have the strength to stand and shout NO to the enemies of righteousness!

Rather than standing up to fight oppression, we change the channel, get another beer and fall to sleep in our easy chairs.

Even in the Soviet Union the people would riot if a church was burned to the ground -- with people in it! Yet all that happened here after Mt. Carmel burned to the ground was our shaking, tearful attorney general took, “full responsibility” for the murders of 86 innocent men, women and 17 little children and now she is running for governor of Florida.

In the Revolutionary War, less than five percent of the American population actually fought. Less than 100 men and women actually instigated the whole thing, pledging their honor, their fortunes and their very lives to the cause. And now a few of us revere them as our “Founding Fathers.”

It doesn't take many concerned Patriots to act as a catalyst, forcing the rest to get off their lazy, complacent butts and ACT!

“Evil triumphs, when good men do nothing,” is a very appropriate and pertinent quote from one of the Founding Fathers. STOP DOING NOTHING!

“At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow?

Never!

All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”

~Abraham Lincoln, 1838

How much more dung do we need our faces rubbed in?

I am...

The Gunrunner