"Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon. But, if they want to have a war, let it begin here." Capt. John Parker, Lexington Company of the Middlesex County Brigade, Massachusetts Militia, April 19, 1775.I saw Buckman's Tavern in Lexington for the first time in my life yesterday. Today I will be at the Oath Keepers ceremony.
We stand at the brink, understanding that the world we have known cannot stand unchanged in the face of the ominous forces of societal, economic and moral collapse, expanding government appetites and natural push-back on the part of people who always thought they were free and have awakened to the prospect that other people are doing their dead-level best to enslave them and their children.
If history has taught us anything, it is that there is no negotiating with collectivist slave-masters. Like the Borg, collectivism in all its forms demands your assimilation or your death.
As my good friend Pete of Western Rifle shooter's Association says: "We're screwed. We'll have to fight. Let's win."
By retaking the Oath today, soldiers past and present of the American constitutional republic pledge once more their faithful service to the eternal principles of the Declaration and the Constitution and opposition to tyrants foreign and domestic.
In proportion to the task that faces them, they are pitifully few in number at the point of contact, much like Captain Parker's company 234 years ago.
Men and women representing all of our country's service branches will be here. And what they will do is incredibly simple, fantastically powerful, and a direct threat to the collectivist tyrant-wannabes of who seek to bend us to their purpose.
By reaffirming the Oath, and reminding everyone who ever took it that it is for life, that it never expires until the death of the man or woman who swore it, they are well within the law as even our would-be oppressors define it. Yet it is absolutely subversive to THEIR intentions. Yet anything they do to retaliate against the Oath Keepers will only remind the rest of the people that it is THEY who are the subversives, THEY who are the seditionists, THEY who are the "extremists," THEY who are the law-breakers, and they who are illegitimate in their exercise of power far beyond anything the Founders would have tolerated.
It is this question of legitimacy that strikes fear into their hearts. If the people finally perceive them as illegitimate, they will be swept away. For if they cannot count on the military to wield the unconstitutional fist for them, they know they will lose.
I know not what today brings, whether the event will be viewed by others as successful or not. But I do know that somewhere, Captain Parker and the rest of the Founders will be smiling.
Mike Vanderboegh
III
13 comments:
Great writing, Mike!
Thanks for the inspiration. I'm going to print this one out and stick it on my fridge!
Back when I was a child, I lived in Framingham, a short drive from Concord.
This was back in the days when Teddy Kennedy was the junior Senator and nobody had heard of Barney Frank.
We went to Concord every spring; I can still remember how the grapes that grew there tasted. One year, 1968 IIRC, I went there twice: once on a school trip and the second with my Boy Scout troop. You see, my Scoutmaster was an O-3 who landed at Normandy, and he thought this trip was important...
QUOTE But I do know that somewhere, Captain Parker and the rest of the Founders will be smiling. QUOTE
Yes indeed they are! They sacrificed so much in creating the only true nation based on freedom and liberty, in a world that was swirling with monarchies, pogroms, Inquisitions, and tyranny. Their efforts and their sacrifice WILL NOT BE IN VAIN!
Let us take a moment to salute the heroes of Lexington, Concord, Bunker Hill*, Saratoga, Cowpens, and other places where bravery and courage has been witnessed. Without this day, exactly 234 years ago, there would have been no United States of America.
*Note that I placed great emphasis on Bunker Hill. Despite what many books say about that battle, Bunker Hill was a CLEAR and DECISIVE VICTORY for the Patriots. Why? Because Bunker Hill was fought with the pure motive of taking the war to the enemy themselves, rather than securing land. The Patriots behind that stone redoubt inflicted whopping casualties against the Redcoats, more than 7,000 of the King's soldiers were killed. When the Patriots ran out of ammo, they retreated and basically melted back into the very shadows that the Redcoats and their high command are terrified of. Bunker Hill was a staggering blow to the tyrant's arrogance and pride, and it showed the rest of the world that the tyrant was not invincible, just like how the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in 1942 showed the entire world that the Japanese were not invincible.
Hi Mike,
I did not get to meet you today but I was on Lexington Common today with my right hand raised.
Thank you for all you do to rescue liberty in our United States. Thanks also to Oath-Keepers and the Western Rifle Shooters.
B.M
I am reaffirming the Oath as I sit here before my pc...and in my heart I am with you all who are true to the Oath and a sworn enemy to all those who oppose it...!
Hansen, Andrew (rooster)
SSG MP
U.S. Army (ret)
Even though work causes me not to be there in body. I am there in spirit. I took that oath in 1981, it didn't expire when I left the service.
I re-took my oath today in Lexington, & my wife took the oath for the first time.
It was a very moving moment; I admit I needed to take a dab at the eyes after it was done.
I tried to locate you to say hi, but I only had your blog pic to go on- obviously no luck.
Be well...
Dutchman and the others,
I was unable to attend Sunday, but still reaffirmed the oath I once swore as a young man at Ft. Jackson, SC twenty years ago.
-DOL
Qi Ji Guang,
7,000 killed? There were only about 6,000 British thugs in the whole of Boston at the time. Of those, only about 3,000 attacked. Of those who attacked, only 226 died, with a few hundred more wounded. Where are you getting your numbers?
On a side note: the whole "Tea Party" movement is laughable. These guys are offering to clean up after themselves, and some of them didn't even have rallies because they couldn't obtain the proper permits! If that isn't pathetic, I don't know what is.
The politicians are unimpressed. Never mind that the first "Tea Party" was a criminal act. Most people reading this would have a fit if a group of people dressed up like indians and ransacked a General Motors factory, and rightly so. But tell me, how is a company receiving government subsidies and protectionist tariffs, resulting in artificially high prices and an inferior product, any different from attacking a Dutch East Indies ship?
Yeah.
I did not know much more about CPT Parker than his famous quotation until I looked into his history recently. On the morning of April 19, 1775 CPT Parker, a veteran of the French and Indian War, was quite ill from "consumption", which we know today as tuberculosis. Yet later that day he also lead one of the counterattacks against the retreating Brits. His illness prevented his further participation in our revolution, and he died of his illness the following September.
Qi Ji Guang said that "7000 of the King's soldiers were killed". That is not correct. There were only about 2500 British Infantry in the attack - of that number, 1150 were killed - nearly HALF - this was in the days when 15% casualties were a major slaughter. The British took the hill, but at a shocking cost. If the Patriots had not run out of powder and ball, they probably would have held the hill and been able to counterattack.
Lesson...you can NEVER have 'too much ammo"!
Mike you are 100% correct, the oath I swore in 1979 and again in 1982 did not expire with my separation from the USAF. Thank you for the great work.
Glenn Murphey
Sorry guys, I may have confused the numbers here.
You are correct, there were 200-300 dead thugs and a few hundred more wounded. That brings it about 700 casualties for the thugs.
Mike, feel free to correct my comment if it is possible.
Nevertheless, Bunker Hill was a full-powered uppercut straight to the jaw against British arrogance and "invincibility"
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