“The most terrifying force of death comes from the hands of men who wanted to be left alone. They try, so very hard, to mind their own business and provide for themselves and those they love. They resist every impulse to fight back, knowing the forced and permanent change of life that will come from it. They know that the moment they fight back their lives as they have lived them are over.
“The moment the men who wanted to be left alone are forced to fight back, it is a form of suicide. They are literally killing off who they used to be. Which is why, when forced to take up violence, these men who wanted to be left alone, fight with unholy vengeance against those who murdered their former lives. They fight with raw hate, and a drive that cannot be fathomed by those who are merely play-acting at politics and terror, true terror will arrive at these people’s door, and they will cry, scream, and beg for mercy… but it will fall upon the deaf ears of the men who just wanted to be left alone.”
– Author Unknown (erroneously attributed to Solzhenitsyn.)
I will start this post by saying I planned on writing this or something like it for a few weeks. Maybe it was something in the weather or just the circumstances of my personal life. I write this today with a heavy heart. I do not want to be in the position I find myself in.
I will say first and foremost that I have two little kids, and only a fool would want war or violent action. I do not want this country to be at the point we find ourselves; we, however, are here.
Those among us who want to be left alone do not seek conflict; we avoid it. Often tolerating things that grate against our conscience. We tolerate the tyrannical moves of our governments while they are tolerable.
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.”
Declaration of Independence
Yesterday, Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts against him in New York.
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/trump-trial-verdict-jury
When talking with a lawyer friend, they were astonished that the right fails to see that this is not an extraordinary circumstance for Trump but the status quo for our justice system. An example of this is the Jury instructions given by Judge Merchan. They are not abnormal; similar instructions, called pattern jury instructions, are provided in trials every day in this country. That by no means makes them Constitutional! The instructions given are part of the systemic problem with our justice system.
Sadly, it has been a long time since the scales of justice tilted to leniency, as was intended. We as a nation used to uphold the principle of letting one hundred guilty men go free rather than imprison a single innocent man. That has not been the case for a long time. Today’s injustice system works from a place of fear and bullies people to plea bargain, regardless of their guilt. I, myself, have been guilty of letting the system drive me to accept a plea rather than fight for what I believed was right.
Many people on the right have condemned former Trump associates for accepting plea deals. This is not fair. They are facing a trial by a state with unlimited resources and a jury pool of people who are ill-informed, over-socialized, under-educated, and lacking a moral foundation and principled fortitude. We ALL are facing this. Our “justice” system is broken. Virtually no man in this nation will ever see a jury of his peers or can expect those picked to serve on a jury to be concerned with liberty and appropriately distrustful of the government. In fact, most people are not even interested in the job they are chosen to perform. Instead, we face a jury of people who do not want to be there but cannot avoid it. The system is broken.
I have served on juries; in each case, I was the lone voice skeptical of the state. I was the only one who held the state to its burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. This, while anecdotal, seems to be the norm in our nation. For this and other reasons, I DO NOT TRUST our judicial system.
I DO NOT TRUST the executive branch. It has overstepped and been the vanguard of the tyranny that we have tolerated for my entire life. Every President during my lifetime has enslaved not only my generation but untold generations with debts that can never be repaid. They, with only one exception, have engaged in unconstitutional wars. They have persecuted and killed Americans without even the semblance of due process.
For my entire life, the legislature has been feckless and complicit in the oppressive excesses of the other branches. They have abdicated their constitutional authority. They can be considered nothing less than treacherous collaborators committed to selling this nation down the river.
Our government is, and has been, BROKEN!
If you accept or agree that the system is now hopelessly broken, what is left to us?
It is no longer a question of whether or not our system of government will collapse, only when it will do so. I believe the only peaceful path left is the dissolution of the United States. Texas and other states should go their own way peacefully. Those states who find common ground to form new alliances should do so after reestablishing their rightful places among the world’s nations.
People have asked me what would come after a breakup of the nation. To that, I say: it doesn’t matter. We cannot, and ought not, continue on this path. I will trust God, providence, and the people to make the path forward. It is better to live in anarchy as a freeman than live in peace as a slave!
I understand that most of you are not ready for this. You are scared, as am I, but I implore you to understand you are a slave. You are a slave to a fickle master to whom you are nothing. You are beholden to their will, and WHEN they decide to come for you, you will have no recourse but to submit as so many others have.
A few times in my life, I was forced into a situation where I had no choice but to fight or relent. I will not relent now. This stops here; this stops now. My children will be more free than I am. To this, I pledge my life, fortune, and sacred honor!
There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.“
John Adams