THE DANGER WE FACE

By JIM BEERS

Approximately 100 years ago GK Chesterton made three observations about the worsening political situation in Europe as it slid inexorably towards war.
Soon thereafter, a "War to End All Wars" wrought unimaginable carnage on millions thanks to the combination of armament "science", disregard for
non-combatants and the hubris of absolute rulers. These observations were truly prophetic twenty years later concerning the circumstances in the 1930's
that led to World War II and, I suggest, they are worth the consideration of all Americans today, 22 January 2009.
On the subject of standing up to bullies and for what is right, Chesterton looks to children and rightly says, "The child's hero is always the man or boy who defends himself suddenly and splendidly against aggression." "In all boys' books, in all boys' conversation, the hero is one person and the bully the other."
On the subject of racial categories and the "science" of racial characteristics that were prevalent before WWI and that soon led to the Eugenics practices of limiting the "poor" and "unfit" by Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger and then the race murders and enslavements by the Nazis twenty years later, Chesterton observed "Never once would it flash across the Aryan mind that all such race theories are rubbish; that political, religious, and commercial groups of men come together because
they agree about politics, religion, or commerce; and that there is no group which does not contain, within the range of local possibility, all shapes of
skull and all shades of complexion." "We do not need to know about the skulls; we need to know about the brains."
Finally, Chesterton tells us why we fight, "A real soldier does not fight because he has something he hates in front of him. He fights because he has something he loves behind his back." "For it is intensely important to grasp that combatants do not commonly disagree about things, but about the value of things."
On this 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade and the third day of the Obama Presidency a certain reality is evident. Undoing evil is far more difficult and problematic than preventing it before it becomes entrenched. Since the Supreme Court decision on this date in 1973, abortion has grown to become what everyone denied it would have become and what politicians all decry while protecting it and expanding it. That model is about to be duplicated In many ways by the new President and Congress in Washington.
It is with these things in mind that I find myself asking myself about my values, my willingness to confront racism, and what I am willing to do to defend what I know to be right on this pivotal day.
The more important things that I value highly include:
- The right of all humans to live free from the moment of conception until natural death.
- The US Constitution, The Bill of Rights, and The Declaration of Independence not as perfect but as the best guarantors of freedom and rights yet adopted by any society.
- The 2nd Amendment as a guarantor of my ability to protect myself and other innocents as well as being a "raison d'etre" for hunting, trapping, and fishing.
- Eating meat, wearing fur, and using animals as Public (wild) and Private (domestic) Property.
- Local governance and protection of community standards, traditions, and cultures.
- Parental sovereignty over children and the utter sanctity and importance of marriage and strong families to our future.
The more important things I strongly object to include:
Government classification of citizens by race and sex.
- Closure of public land to public use.
- Abandonment of the management of wild plants and animals for societal good.
- Central government power expansion and State government jurisdiction losses.
- Public encouragement of same sex activities in the military and schools.
- The diminishment of marriage, acceptance of out-of -wedlock births, and public schools as propaganda centers for social engineering.
- Recent transfers of public funds to private enterprises and the budget deficits they create.
- Environmental scams from Endangered Species and deadly predator protection to global warming; all of which call for more absolute government power over our property and our lives.
- Dominance of rural people by urban elites and urban politicians.
- Surrender of American sovereignty to foreign or international governing bodies.
It is patently clear that, despite duplicitous rhetoric and doing things like having a same sex advocate Bishop and a pastor opposed to same sex marriage pray at the Inauguration to assuage both sides of a controversial issue; the new President's record and his emerging appointee's records indicate abortion expansion and support domestically and internationally, gun control, central government power expansion over things like private property and children, same sex activity acceptance in schools and the military, animal "rights" expansion, discouragement of non-public education of the young, continued closure of public lands to public use and revenue
production, and the further abandonment of the concepts of the management and ownership of all animals and plants. From the Freedom of Choice Act (that will not only increase abortions but likely close Catholic hospitals and cause many doctors and nurses to leave the practice of medicine) that the President has vowed to sign to the current Congressional efforts to draft laws to allow the President to serve more than two terms and to have been born as a citizen of another country to the gun control extremism records of the President, his Chief of Staff and his Attorney General and the animal rights extremists in the White House; I am strongly opposed to
what they stand for and what they intend to do.
I look at what Chicago has done by their political dominance in recent decades over the State of Illinois that I left 50 years ago and I shudder because it is exactly what the President and his appointees intend to do with the United States by subjecting it to the absolute power of a Washington political "machine". Other such states dominated by corrupt and entrenched urban governments include New Jersey, Massachusetts, Washington and New York. Their respect for law was exemplified recently by the Mayor of New York's decision to run for a third term; he was not even slowed down by a legal prohibition against serving more than two terms; he simply had
"his" Council rescind the law: this is no different than Putin recently making Russian Governor's appointees rather than elected officials to silence any possible objections to his absolute power. The thought of such government from Washington is frightening.
So what is different? President Bush started the "bailouts" and his Secretary of the Treasury was a former head of The Nature Conservancy and no doubt pushed a lot of the public land closures and restrictions that took place under the Bush Administration. There are some very big differences that we all need to be aware of.
1. We are told we "must want the new President to succeed" and we "must support" him. Answer: He deserves and will get support when he does the right things and he will and should be opposed vigorously when he does bad things. Our responsibility in this regard was settled and defined in 1946 and 1947 in a court in Nuremberg, Germany.
2. We are cautioned that many of us do not support the President because he is "black". Answer: Racism accusations today are like the politics of yesterday, the last refuge of scoundrels. "Black ministers" preach hatred of "white people" from pulpits before the new President and even from the Inaugural platform while Washington "Rap Parties" for the new President's Inauguration feature vile profanity and threats directed at "white" people. We have the current anomaly of law wherein today black person after black person publicly admits to voting for the new President "because he is black" while at the same time a "white" male saying he voted for the "white" candidate because he is "white" would make him subject to all manner of litigation and reprisals. I strongly oppose most of what the new President stands for yet I voted for a now invisible, unmentioned, and evidently forgotten black man for President 8 years ago: Alan Keyes got my vote in the Republican primary in 2000 while the new President was learning to swim in the Chicago political sludge.
3. We are told he will "bring us together". Answer: This is most often stated in the same breath as the speaker is calling Bush vile names or booing President Bush or telling radio show hosts that those that don't support the new President should "jump off the ledge". The bitterness and hatred is extremely bad and it seems to have nowhere to go but down.
4. As I write this, the radicals arrested for everything from bomb-making and weapons violations to mayhem as they threatened and disrupted the Republican Convention here in Saint Paul last year grinds on as charges are dropped and downgraded. Answer: Any opposition to the policies and the oligarchy in both parties now ruling this nation is both discouraged and destroyed by the tactics of these bullies: like German Storm Troopers during the election of National Socialism their aim is to intimidate any opposition and destroy any individuals or media that runs counter to their desires. This must not be allowed to stand in a Republic if it is to be kept free.
5. The policies and tactics I have cited are now on steroids and are a far greater threat than any will admit. The US House of Representatives and the US Senate have majorities and leadership that are as committed to what I consider to be major threats to our Society and way of life as are the President and his appointees. The Congress can draft, pass and the President will sign the most extreme legislation unhindered almost overnight thanks to these majorities and their leadership. They have no meaningful opposition either in numbers or commitment. When John McCain can lead the roundup of Republican votes for Senator Clinton to be Secretary of State as
her husband collects million from Middle East tyrants and House Republicans are all but invisible today; the hope for public discussion, an effective opposition and the interests of rural America are nil. The Democrat Party interest groups from unions to urban environmental groups and animal rights groups are the ones scheming with Congressional and Administration staff people as I write this. At no time in my life have such radical agendas and the ability to pass them unopposed on such short notice existed.
6. Finally, there is a strong likelihood that in the next four years there will be several Supreme Court vacancies. Their replacements will be "litmus-tested" advocates (nominated by the President and coddled by the US Senate we have today) of the "living document" Constitution and all of the changes that the President and his majority in the Congress plan to pass to assure reelection and a secular-progressive society that many rural people and a growing number of others will find repugnant. Like the Roe v. Wade decision, these radical changes in American governance and society will be extremely hard to repeal or change once they are passed. They will grow and grow. Only if they can be stopped before they become law, is there hope for our future.
Chesterton said it all when he spoke of the "rubbish" of "race theories" and how children can be a model for the identification and importance of "heroes" and "bullies". When he capped it off with the reason a "real soldier" fights being not because what he "hates" is before him but because what he "loves" is behind him; he is telling me what I must do. I must fight to protect what I "love" and "value"; not out of hate or vindictiveness for those committed to taking away what I hold to be precious. Accusations of racism or bigotry or intimidation or feelings of isolation and hopelessness cannot stay any of us from the important work before us. The danger has never been greater and the need for a committed and effective opposition of "heroes" has likewise never been greater.
God help us all and God Bless America. bY Jim Beers 22 January 2009