Sunday, August 15, 2010

I evade the cruel sentence of time constraints, and cause consternation among our assigned security contingent.

Thanks to EJR914, we have this video of the final moments of the official RTC rally, and my escape and evasion from the iron hand of Father Time. I will explain after the video.



The previous speakers having waxed rather more eloquent than had been expected (or in some cases merely waxed more than expected without the eloquence -- drone is not simply a male ant), as the end of the rally approached it was evident that we had far more speakers than time. Among these were Daniel Almond and Tom Baugh, both of whom did not deserve short shrift. Knowing that there was no way the Park Service would extend us, I let Daniel and Tom split my few minutes, asking only for a minute at the end.

A few things I knew for certain:

a. We would not get an extension.

b. I did not travel all the way to North Carolina to throw out 98% of my speech.

c. If we threw the Park Service a curve ball, it would take them at least 15 minutes to pass messages back and forth to the command post vehicle off property while they decided what to do. This was at least thirteen minutes more than I would have had. More, if I could stall them.

This is what I guessed:

They would probably not wish a confrontation over what was represented as an historical talk. If you've read my speech, you know that this made up the bulk of the presentation.

When we finally get the video of the speech posted, you will see that they ultimately decided to send our host/organizer up to the statue while I was speaking with a message telling me to end it. I demurred, and we went through to the finish without further interruption.

My point: free men and women act like free men and women.

Something that was pointed out to me later by an eyewitness: the presence of rifles, even empty, chamber-flagged, muzzle-down rifles slung out-of-the-way across the owners' backs, may have been an intimidation factor. If they were, so be it. It worked. As the Scottish warrior said just before the battle of Stirling in Braveheart, "Well, at least we dinna get dressed up fer nuthin'."

Mike
III

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Mike, for finishing out your talk. I would have been disappointed if you had interrupted it; aside from the principle involved, I was absolutely absorbed in your presentation. And demonstrating the results of polite but firm insistence on one's rights (backed up by the means to enforce them) was a valuable lesson as well.

Dave
III

Chris said...

The rangers were very much not amused by that little curve ball. I think by the time you had about 4 pages of speech left, they were damn near ready to come chase us off.

EJR914 said...

Thank you, Mike, for acting like a FREE MAN, and finding a way around the tyrants and their rules and laws. You truly know how to stick it to the man! We have a 1st amendment right of FREE SPEECH, we have the 1st amendment right to ASSEMBLE! We had a 2nd Amendment right to BEAR ARMS! We used every bit of it, and you showed us how a FREE MAN does it! Well done, Sir!

If you'd like to see my other three videos of the RTC Rally just put these links in your browser.

Daniel Almond: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgpPv6inVeo

Tom Baugh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtYnJ75Dp7o

Mike Vanderboegh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl3XScyvCrk

9 Minutes of Mike's Complete Speech.

Also, I wish I would have gotten Bubba's speech as well, cuz I liked it as well. I would have traded the rest of them to just hear Dan, Tom, and Mike speech for the entirety of the 4 hours. It was messed up that three speakers got cut so short on time! Next time they need to ration off time for each speaker.

Unknown said...

Mike here is your History Lesson


Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTwY6rQZoCQ

Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_IJMin974E

Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2UFI_x1w0w

Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs2XDg4Mpy8