Thoughts
I’m sitting here having just watched the new music video by 3 Doors Down titled Citizen Soldier. In it is a scene showing the national guardsmen at ground zero being one of the first to hit the scene after the Two Towers fell. I’m not normally a sentimental or sensitive man. Movies do not make me cry, especially when poor little timmy (or whatever his name was) had to take Old Yeller out back. Yet anytime I see old pictures or videos of the World Trade Center still standing, or pictures of the wreckage afterwards, I have a tough time controlling my emotions. This emotion ran true for the victims of Flight 93, but not the victims of the Pentagon attack. I knew I should feel sympathy, but I just didn’t. And I couldn’t figure out why til just recently.
This next part may seem like an odd tangent, but it’s really not. For many years of my life I have considered joining the Armed Forces, most notably either the Navy or the Marines. As high as I glorify that life, I could never push myself to do it. As much as I admire those who do, I just couldn’t do it. And I couldn’t figure out why til just recently. The reason I won’t join the armed forces is because America is not what I believe it should be. Don’t take this to be whine about the Republicans and the war on Iraq. I do believe that people have the moral right to change the wrong, often times only accomplishable by brute force.
From the immediate days following the Treaty of Paris, the America that was Promised was forsaken for a less harsh version Britain, but still not free none-the-less. The transfer of power happened between a Monarch and his Parliament, to a President and the Representatives. Through out history, Politicians, who are working as an agent of the “people,” have become some of the richest people in the world. Yet (as politicians) they haven’t put in an ounce of hard work. They haven’t earned a single Penny in their bank account. Politicians accomplish this by enabling a group of people to gain what is not theirs, while they themselves take what they haven’t earned. The problem is that if the enabled group of people actually does gain anything, either by moral or immoral means, then the Politicians would have no power over them anymore. So a Politician will do his best to promise, but never give. He will do his best to instill hope, but never let them succeed.
Even after the ratification of the Constitution, the United States Government again put down an armed rebellion like they had done under the Confederation. This wasn’t an armed rebellion about gaining power, but it was about oppression. After setting up both sets of government, each time the politicians levied crushing taxes on the Farmers who could take what little they had to convert into extra cash. This extra cash would be used to buy extra Farm Equipment, Clothing, or any other supplies they would need. The tax took all this money that the farmers could get at a rate much higher than the British had. The first time the rebellion was crushed by mercenaries because the local militia sympathized with the insurrection, not to mention legal issues about the government having the power to do anything. After the constitution was ratified the federal government did have the legal authority to do something, and did.
An analysis of the original government of the United States is quite interesting. The Confederacy failed twice in US history. Both times the crushing reality and unbridled chaos of Politicians showed its ugly head. While the Constitution set up a strong federal (central) government, it gave little power to the states. The Confederacy was just the opposite. Much like the quote from the movie “The Patriot,” we suddenly had 5,000 Tyrants 1 mile away. The politicians made a blatant power grab, literally taxing everything in sight. They would even tax each other just for shits and giggles. The all out melee tore apart the country. Like little children who burned their hands on the stove, they desired the opposite, and many wanted to create the Constitution. That is except for Rhode Island.
Rhode Island was the model state. While other states were clamoring to tax themselves into oblivion, Rhode Island gave itself true freedom to allow its people to work free from the burden of taxes and control. It was ultimately successful, to the point where it practically told the Constitutional Convention to go fuck itself. They had nearly achieved perfection, what was there to change? But the constitution was ratified, and the United States gained 100 Tyrants 50 miles away, so to speak.
With the promises of a great nation in the works, the actions of the Politicians quickly made their intent obvious. Even after the ratification, there were those who opposed the constitution called the Anti-Federalists. The Federalists, being in favor of the strong central government set up by the Constitution, enjoyed several years of riding the success of the Constitution. However, not too long after the Anti-Federalists gained power. Doing the only thing politicians really know how, they immediately expanded their own powers. In the process, the anti-federalists became the federalists considering that suddenly they had power over the government. The federalists followed suit and became the anti-federalists, somewhat shocked by what their own kind were capable of sinking to.
With the motives of the politicians established, the single greatest affront to freedom can easily be labeled. This is the 16th Amendment of the Constitution. Contrary to popular belief, the government could levy income taxes among the population. However, the government needed to, and had to be able to prove, that they would spend this tax money collected equally on all of the citizens. Given the immense difficulty of proving that it was spent equally, the government didn’t tax income for the most part. The biggest income tax from before the 16th Amendment was repealed by the Supreme Court for the Government’s failure to prove it being spent equally. So the government did the one thing that would give them power over so much money. They changed the constitution to read that they did not have to spend it equally. With no requirement to do so, they were free to collect as much as the population would tolerate, and practically do what they wanted with it. From this stemmed all the Socialist programs we absolutely love like Welfare, Universal Health Care and Social Security.
But getting back to the original topic… The World Trade Towers were symbols of all of what America should have been. We saw that some of the best most successful businesses in the world wanted to be recognized for such. So we took men, brains, might and steel, and engineered a marvelous building that stood over most of the world. And to establish how great we as Americans can be, we made 2 of them. The September 11th attacks hurt so much because this wasn’t an attack on America. It was an attack on success. A bunch of pederast Politicians from Al Qaeda and the Taliban couldn’t use simple brute force against us to bring it down (1993). They had to hijack our own feats of engineering to destroy it, which made it doubly painful.
I rail on about America not being what it was meant to be. Most people think it is. This is what drove the passengers of Flight 93 to un-hijack the plane. They rose out of their seats, leaving behind fear, cowardice and their loved ones, to tell the Muslim Hijackers that we will not be ruled by Tyranny. Don’t tread on me.
As great as America could be, it still is not what it should be. For this reason, I cannot bring myself in any capacity to serve the corruption that is. Be that in a civil role, or a military role. Once America attains true freedom, I will be the first person to sign up to protect her. Even if I have to rise out of the grave.
This next part may seem like an odd tangent, but it’s really not. For many years of my life I have considered joining the Armed Forces, most notably either the Navy or the Marines. As high as I glorify that life, I could never push myself to do it. As much as I admire those who do, I just couldn’t do it. And I couldn’t figure out why til just recently. The reason I won’t join the armed forces is because America is not what I believe it should be. Don’t take this to be whine about the Republicans and the war on Iraq. I do believe that people have the moral right to change the wrong, often times only accomplishable by brute force.
From the immediate days following the Treaty of Paris, the America that was Promised was forsaken for a less harsh version Britain, but still not free none-the-less. The transfer of power happened between a Monarch and his Parliament, to a President and the Representatives. Through out history, Politicians, who are working as an agent of the “people,” have become some of the richest people in the world. Yet (as politicians) they haven’t put in an ounce of hard work. They haven’t earned a single Penny in their bank account. Politicians accomplish this by enabling a group of people to gain what is not theirs, while they themselves take what they haven’t earned. The problem is that if the enabled group of people actually does gain anything, either by moral or immoral means, then the Politicians would have no power over them anymore. So a Politician will do his best to promise, but never give. He will do his best to instill hope, but never let them succeed.
Even after the ratification of the Constitution, the United States Government again put down an armed rebellion like they had done under the Confederation. This wasn’t an armed rebellion about gaining power, but it was about oppression. After setting up both sets of government, each time the politicians levied crushing taxes on the Farmers who could take what little they had to convert into extra cash. This extra cash would be used to buy extra Farm Equipment, Clothing, or any other supplies they would need. The tax took all this money that the farmers could get at a rate much higher than the British had. The first time the rebellion was crushed by mercenaries because the local militia sympathized with the insurrection, not to mention legal issues about the government having the power to do anything. After the constitution was ratified the federal government did have the legal authority to do something, and did.
An analysis of the original government of the United States is quite interesting. The Confederacy failed twice in US history. Both times the crushing reality and unbridled chaos of Politicians showed its ugly head. While the Constitution set up a strong federal (central) government, it gave little power to the states. The Confederacy was just the opposite. Much like the quote from the movie “The Patriot,” we suddenly had 5,000 Tyrants 1 mile away. The politicians made a blatant power grab, literally taxing everything in sight. They would even tax each other just for shits and giggles. The all out melee tore apart the country. Like little children who burned their hands on the stove, they desired the opposite, and many wanted to create the Constitution. That is except for Rhode Island.
Rhode Island was the model state. While other states were clamoring to tax themselves into oblivion, Rhode Island gave itself true freedom to allow its people to work free from the burden of taxes and control. It was ultimately successful, to the point where it practically told the Constitutional Convention to go fuck itself. They had nearly achieved perfection, what was there to change? But the constitution was ratified, and the United States gained 100 Tyrants 50 miles away, so to speak.
With the promises of a great nation in the works, the actions of the Politicians quickly made their intent obvious. Even after the ratification, there were those who opposed the constitution called the Anti-Federalists. The Federalists, being in favor of the strong central government set up by the Constitution, enjoyed several years of riding the success of the Constitution. However, not too long after the Anti-Federalists gained power. Doing the only thing politicians really know how, they immediately expanded their own powers. In the process, the anti-federalists became the federalists considering that suddenly they had power over the government. The federalists followed suit and became the anti-federalists, somewhat shocked by what their own kind were capable of sinking to.
With the motives of the politicians established, the single greatest affront to freedom can easily be labeled. This is the 16th Amendment of the Constitution. Contrary to popular belief, the government could levy income taxes among the population. However, the government needed to, and had to be able to prove, that they would spend this tax money collected equally on all of the citizens. Given the immense difficulty of proving that it was spent equally, the government didn’t tax income for the most part. The biggest income tax from before the 16th Amendment was repealed by the Supreme Court for the Government’s failure to prove it being spent equally. So the government did the one thing that would give them power over so much money. They changed the constitution to read that they did not have to spend it equally. With no requirement to do so, they were free to collect as much as the population would tolerate, and practically do what they wanted with it. From this stemmed all the Socialist programs we absolutely love like Welfare, Universal Health Care and Social Security.
But getting back to the original topic… The World Trade Towers were symbols of all of what America should have been. We saw that some of the best most successful businesses in the world wanted to be recognized for such. So we took men, brains, might and steel, and engineered a marvelous building that stood over most of the world. And to establish how great we as Americans can be, we made 2 of them. The September 11th attacks hurt so much because this wasn’t an attack on America. It was an attack on success. A bunch of pederast Politicians from Al Qaeda and the Taliban couldn’t use simple brute force against us to bring it down (1993). They had to hijack our own feats of engineering to destroy it, which made it doubly painful.
I rail on about America not being what it was meant to be. Most people think it is. This is what drove the passengers of Flight 93 to un-hijack the plane. They rose out of their seats, leaving behind fear, cowardice and their loved ones, to tell the Muslim Hijackers that we will not be ruled by Tyranny. Don’t tread on me.
As great as America could be, it still is not what it should be. For this reason, I cannot bring myself in any capacity to serve the corruption that is. Be that in a civil role, or a military role. Once America attains true freedom, I will be the first person to sign up to protect her. Even if I have to rise out of the grave.