Monday, May 23, 2016

Valediction of a Three Percenter by Mike Vanderboegh

"Valediction -- noun, An act of bidding farewell; a leave-taking; a speech or statement made as a farewell." -- Merriam Webster Dictionary

(Note from Mike: As time gets close, I wanted to get these words out while my mind is still clear.  Don't write my obituary just yet, but these words needed saying.)  
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. -- Ephesians, Chapter 4, 1-6.
"I love my country, my God and my kind. I have served them all and I want no praise of song or prose." -- C.C. Sheats, Alabama Unionist
Valediction of a Three Percenter
For many years I have introduced myself as a Christian libertarian who believed in God, free men, free markets, the rule of law under the Founders' Republic, and that the Constitution extended to everyone regardless of race, creed, color or religion. As I take my leave from this existence, I must admit that the Constitution, as the Founders crafted it, is now or soon will be dead -- killed by corruption and collectivism and mostly by our own sloth and moral cowardice in opposing its enemies.
Yet if the Constitution is dead as an organizing and unifying force in this nation, the principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights can never die as long as there remain free men and women who believe in the Founders' vision. This is the essence of the Three Percent, that no matter how small our numbers are -- if we remain armed and determined -- we may yet preserve the flickering flame of liberty.
However principled, you must still be clearheaded about the realities facing us. We are on the brink of chaos that will make the agonies of the former Yugoslavia look like child's play. Anyone who believes otherwise is whistling past the graveyard of history. There will be no deliverance from the rigged game of national politics. If any of our traditional liberties are to be saved it will be on a local basis of community, county and church, secured by your own efforts, your own organization, with your own friends and neighbors according to the principles enunciated by the Founders. I envisioned the Three Percent movement with that local focus in mind, as a philosophy, a discipline, of the armed citizenry. I enunciated some of these in the Three Percent Catechism. The growth of the concept has been startling. Yet many of those who claim to be "Three Percenters" haven't a clue about the principles upon which the movement was founded. While the concept of a determined minority of the armed citizenry has continued to grow, so has confusion about the mission of the Three Percent and how that mission should be carried out. I summed up the Catechism in this way:
"These four principles -- moral strength, physical readiness, no first use of force and no targeting of innocents -- are the hallmarks of the Three Percent ideal. Anyone who cannot accept them as a self-imposed discipline in the fight to restore the Founders' Republic should find something else to do and cease calling themselves a "Three Percenter."
As said in the Washington Post just this morning by B.J. Soper of the Central Oregon Constitutional Guard: "If we're going to effect change it has to be done at a local level." Anything that takes time and resources from such local efforts is a waste that we cannot afford. At its most basic and irreducible, what the Three Percent movement was designed to do was to REBUILD THE CONCEPT OF CITIZENSHIP, one citizen at a time. This begins with you, with each and every one of us. Citizenship is defined by the dictionary as "the state of being vested with the rights, privileges, and duties of a citizen." Three Percenters are insistent about all three of those components of citizenship, that is why our collectivist would-be masters are so hateful and afraid of us -- we actually take citizenship seriously, as a way of life, and not just a word. This attitude makes us scary even to folks who silently agree with what we say -- we LIVE what they CLAIM to believe. But that is the difference between a citizen and a subject, between free people and mere inhabitants of a place. If I am remembered at all, let me be known as a citizen of the Founders' Republic.
Not long after my doctor gave me the final prognosis, I was told by a reader that I would be recalled as someone "who taught us how to fight on every battlefield." It was humbling to me for him to say so, but that is what a citizen does -- he fights on every battlefield to best of his ability and resources. And if after I am gone the Three Percent movement should prove to be my living monument, it will be because it is made up of citizens of the Founders' Republic, faithful to their vision and to God's will and purpose.
God has blessed me throughout my life with many friends and supporters. I could not have accomplished anything without them. They are all truly citizens in all senses of the word. I am proud to have known you. It has been an honor. Now I leave you behind on this battlefield to carry on the fight. I wish I could stick around but God seems to have a different schedule in mind. Your futures and those of my family -- all our families, our friends -- indeed our country as envisioned by the Founders as well as our entire way of life are in your own hands, yourselves alone, subject to the will and infinite power of God. God does not promise us victory. He does command us to stand. The Founders bent their knees in prayerful supplication to the Almighty. I believe that the string of improbable events that comprised the miracle of the Revolution can be ascribed to nothing less than God's will. He may yet provide others.
But absent a miracle, your victory will be won by citizens rising to the duties and challenges of citizenship. It will be won one citizen, one locality, one community at a time -- according to the example of the Founders, organizing fellow citizens in the light of Three Percent principles.
As for me I have tried to live up to the epitaph of Chris Sheats, an Alabamian who I long ago admired as a member of my pantheon of American heroes:
"I love my country, my God and my kind. I have served them all and I want no praise of song or prose."

61 comments:

Anonymous said...

From that den of smugglers and pirates Baltimore I salute you !

Anonymous said...

God Bless you and Godspeed dude
MM

Anonymous said...

Thank you Mike. Unlike Cain, you have surely been our brother's keeper.
-Bibleater

Anonymous said...

It was a pleasure to have known you, I'll be seeing you one day again but in the time between be assured there will be many of us carrying on where you left off, don't ya know.

Comrade X

Anonymous said...

Oh, how I wept for Him, for out of the tears a deadly resolve.

doubletrouble said...

Godspeed, Mike.
Prayers continue.

Moshe (Zelman Partisans) said...

Chazak v.Amatz ! (Be Strong and Courageous)

You have fought a good fight !

Moshe, of the Zelman Partisans, Salutes you!

Anonymous said...

Mike,
Scripture tells us to "finish well", you are doing just that.
Thank you for this last read, it will be sent on many emails, letters, tweets and what have you. Good advice for the threeper's you leave behind. Many of us can't help but see you as a father figure, and we miss you already.
God Bless,
Michael
Horse-Tied Creek

Smokey Behr said...

From behind enemy lines in the People's Republic of California, may you have fair winds and following seas.

Anonymous said...

MV, Thanks for the blog and clear thinking along the way. These words and images will last as long as our civilization can keep the backups refreshed (redundant RAID5's in different regions connected by fiberoptics) and the paper dry. The most inspirational was seeing you on stage belting it out after crossing State lines with contraband: nothing to lose and a nation to save. Prayers from the inland Pacific NW. -pdxr13

skybill said...

Hi Mike,
'Not much I can say at this point in time. 'Don't know how many spins around the Sun I have left in this old carcass as the law of diminishing returns is taking its toll. For what time I have left I will "Carry on." I have my "AO" staked out and as part of the old "General Orders" we first had to learn in Boot Camp....I am,"Observing everything within sight and hearing."
Take care, Buddy,
Your man in Manchac,
Audentes, Fortuna, Juvat,
III%,
skybill-out

Unknown said...

Re-posted with commentary.
https://masondixontactical.wordpress.com/2016/05/23/vanderboegh-valediction-of-a-three-percenter/

Anonymous said...

2 Cor 5:4-8... "For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord."

Amen and amen.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for those words! We all surely need to be reminded exactly what it is that we stand for.
We love you, Mike and Rosey.
God bless you both.
sunny

Tom Skoch said...

God be with you and your family, Mike. Thanks for your vision and your courage.

Wirecutter said...

I've linked to it, although I don't have anything profound to say. Mike said it all too well.

Neil E. Wright said...

Mike,

Saying "goodbye" is always a hard thing to do. I'm grateful that I have the opportunity now, to tell you how much I've learned from reading your articles over the last many years. Indeed, I've converted many of your articles to .pdf files so I might continue to read them, and pass them around to my little circle.

Back in the 70s, I would have (and did) consider you my enemy, as I first went to Vietnam in 1970-71. But, by the grace of God, you saw the light, and I've come to consider you a friend I've never personally met, and a comrade-in-arms, in the struggle of FREEDOM over tyranny!

Godspeed to you, my friend. I'll look forward to meeting you on the other side.

Neil E. Wright

Anonymous said...

Mike,

I have enjoyed your posts, and company while in Connecticut and will miss your keen intellect and insight.

You will be missed but never forgotten and we will keep the movement alive and moving forward - one person at a time.

Behind the lines...

Chiu ChunLing said...

"Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep."

What is life? How shall we have it "more abundantly"?

Life is more than a particular arrangement of organic chemistry, for a corpse is not alive. Nor is it merely the continuation of biological processes, it is now a commonplace to keep a body alive after brain death. Life is the ability to act to bring about consequences according to our desires. It is, in a word, freedom.

Freedom is not mere liberty, the absence of restrictions on our ability to act. Freedom is the connection between our desires and our outcomes, the process by which our choices effect our destiny. To be free, we must have possibilities we desire, which we can bring about through our chosen actions. That means we must have different options of actions from which to choose, and the consequences of those various actions must be different in our estimation of their desirability. It also means we must have some knowledge of which consequences will result from any action we might take. Choices, knowledge, and consequences.

Jesus said, "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." He did not say anything about having choices or consequences because we always have both, even if we sometimes want to pretend we don't. The essential component of freedom which the circumstances of mortal life does not continuously provide at all times is knowledge of which consequences will follow our choices. It is that knowledge that Jesus offers as the truth in His word.

We call the act of considering this truth "repentance". The world does not like it, but we continue to preach it. And the consequence of this choice we are also taught. "Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."

Steve Miller said...

Words cannot express but I shall attempt nonetheless. I am so very very blessed beyond belief to have met you on multiple occasions, listened up close and personal (at one WA event I was perhaps 5 feet from you) to your speeches, attended your classes, even shared a meal or two. I wish you and your family every grace and comfort from God's hands during these days and certainly in the future. I too am honored to have shared your presence here on God's Earth my friend.

mobius said...

Thank you. I will endeavor to live up to your example. I'm sure many of us won't be far behind, so keep an eye out for us.

Fred
Maine Highlands

Anonymous said...

All Is Well

Death is nothing at all,
I have only slipped into the next room
I am I and you are you
Whatever we were to eachother, we are still.
Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no difference in your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household world that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect, without the trace of shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It's the same as it ever was, there is unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near,
Just around the corner.
All Is Well

Henry Scott Holland
1847-1918
Canon of St. Paul's Cathedral

God Bless Mike. Thank You

Respectfully and Sincerely,
Tom W.

Dakota said...

Take care old friend, you have been a great source of strength and guidance. I could never forget your speech in the tent, and all you have done.

Unknown said...

BRAVO ZULU, mate.

Terry Croup
Hinckley MN

Anonymous said...

Dear Mr. Vanderboegh,

You request no praise-therefore you shall have none.

You will accept the thanks of another former leftist.

Thank you for leaving your (and my) now former fellow travelers.

Thank you for fighting on behalf of the remains of civilization and humanity.

Thank you for holding the line for civilization and humanity long enough for me to have reached my limit with our former comrades. That limit was the Gun Free School Zone Act in my case-you know why that was the final straw as well as I.

G-dspeed.

Very respectfully,

NTS

Chris said...

Thank you. You will not be forgotten, your labors were not for naught.

tjbbpgobIII said...

Mike, yours was one of the first blogs l found when first l came to our little world. It has seen me come and go sometimes when l didn't agree with something you said. I came to realize that old saying about opinions and yours was as valid, if not more so than mine, since you put in all the daily work. So hoping we see each other somewhere down the road and over the hill.
Your comrade
Joe tjbbpgoblll

chris said...

Mike you are a true follower of God, a true Patriot, and a true American. When our time comes all we can do is pray we have lived a good life according to our Lord's words, serving our Fellow man and Country. Walk with God, and when the time comes, as it will for all of us, please tell Bill I love him. He died being all the things you mentioned above. With love for God and Nation. Chris

Mario V Albano said...

Thank you for your brilliant insights into the minds of the oligarchs. You are an honorable man; may God always keep you in His bosom.

Unknown said...

If I were allowed, I would trade places with you Mike. The only other person I ever felt that way about was my grandmother who raised me. She survived with cancer for decades (a tough road, no doubt) until a broken hip landed her in the hospital at the same time of the Waco siege. A nurse left her window open because of the smell from using the bed pan on a rainy February day. She died of pneumonia a couple days later. I would have given all I am to switch with her. And I truly feel this way about you as well. So I will offer the best I have to you by telling you some personal truths that probably mean nothing in the scheme of things but mean something to me and,I hope, God.
I sat at my dog's grave every morning and night saying prayers under the 3% flag and each time for months I have ended with, 'please help Mike Vanderboegh and his family through this hard time and please give Mike the strength, courage, faith and humility he needs to allow you into him so that you can cleanse him of his sins; so that you can cleanse him of the cancer; so that you can heal his heart, mind, body and soul.'
I tell you this because now I'm on the Appalachian trail and (as childishly hopeful as it may seem) I want every bit of pain I experience to be removed from you. It is by chance I saw this post because I got stuck in horrible rain and hiked about 21 miles over the last couple days in soaking wet boots and my feet couldn't carry me any longer. So I'm in a town healing my soles for a day or two. Enough time to hope in the spirit of 2 or more that everyone who reads this asks God to let my pain add to your life. I don't know what else to do other than to suplicate myself before God and hope I'm not blasphemous in asking that my actions become a living prayer for your well being and longevity.
I'm not now, nor have I ever been a particularly good man, but I would give what I have so that your family and the world could keep you in it.
I refuse to quit and I hope I can still see you're here the next time I'm able to get online.
God bless you Mike.

quaker said...

Thank you for continuing to think of us even in your late hour. You are an amazing, inspiring writer, thinker, leader, and Mensch.

As patriots, as Christians, we know what we are really up against: "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." [Ephesians 6:12 NIV]

You have blessed us with Matthew. I see clearly what a good father you have been. Thank you for lighting our way in this long fight. May your light always shine bright. May the Father prepare an honored place for you at his Table.

TheBohunk said...

Mike, know that you have changed countless lives for the better. I know mine has been.

Thank you for everything.

Unknown said...

God Bless you Mike,
you've been a great friend and watchtower.
cheers
Watt

Sean said...

At my back, I always hear, Times winged chariot, hurrying near. I wandered over here a while ago, recommended by Kim du Toit. You're the man. Love, Sean.

Unknown said...

Godspeed Mike. Thank you for what you have taught.

Jonas Parker said...

“I have seen flowers come in stony places,
And kind things done by men with ugly faces,
And the gold cup won by the worst horse at the races,
So I trust too.”
―John Masefield

Nancy said...

Thank you, Mike.

Anonymous said...

MV, Truely, the best history teacher I ever had!!
Your a National Treasure, IMHO.

God Bless to you, and yours

Abram said...

Here's to life, and living well;
here's to death, and dying well.

I consider it a privilege to have met you; you're good people.

Abram
WA

Anonymous said...

Thank you Mike.Behind enemy lines Ct.

Vengeance is Mine said...

May the Good Lord bless you and your house, Mike Vanderboegh. May you go to your reward with a clear conscience and a light heart for a job well done on earth.

In the same of the father and the son and the holy ghost, amen.

chris muir said...

Godspeed,Mike.

Anonymous said...

I will not mourn the death of Mike Vanderboegh, I thank God that men like him lived!

Anonymous said...

Fair Winds and Following Seas. I believe you will be Judged well.

michael said...

Godspeed and well run

the Plinker said...

Mike -- Fair winds and following seas, good and faithful servant.

Unknown said...

May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.
Fair winds and following seas.

Chuck Connors said...

"I love my country, my God and my kind. I have served them all and I want no praise of song or prose."
A fitting epitaph.
Yours is the edge that we've needed to begin to restore Freedom to America.
I can't wait for the 100 Heads Life & Casualty operation to begin to collect what is due all of us
As I've met you here on earth I look forward to meeting you again in Heaven.God Bless and Good Fortune to you and yours always.
Free America!
the Rifleman(somewhere in Southern Appalachian Redoubt)

T. Paine said...

From behind enemy lines in the communist stronghold of Maryland.....peace be on your heart brother. Until we meet again.
Steve

Pericles said...

To be able to say farewell is a luxury we are not always permitted to have. You have carried the burden well, and now it is our duty to carry on.

See you on the other side of the boundary from which no traveler returns.

Anonymous said...

Godspeed Mike. You will be missed.

Liberty4Ever said...

Thank you for introducing yourself at the April 2014 Machine Gun Shoot at Knob Creek. It was my great pleasure to have met you. I greatly enjoyed our conversation and you made quite an impression. I was there for the well meaning fool's errand of trying to retire Senator McConnell. I've now retired from kook liberty politics and am turning my remaining efforts to What Comes Next, and you have done yeoman's work to prepare us for this difficult task. You have consistently embodied the qualities of a leader, as different from the current crop of political buffoons as night is from day. May we be worthy of your legacy.

oughtsix said...



Mike... I ain't got the words.

I wish I could add something eloquent here but, having read all the remarks above, I have nothing to add that hasn't been said so well. I affirm them all as my own.

We all owe you a debt that we can only repay by holding firm to your teaching by carrying on that good fight.

Someday, Liberty will prevail and it will be in part your immeasurable doing.

I doubt not that you have been used of God for His Divine purpose and He will welcome you home, thou good and faithful servant.

I am grateful for and humbled by your insight and example.

Jon Tickner

2knives said...

"Everyone dies...not everyone lives." Go to death knowing you have done all you could and more than most. Our flag still stands because of people like you. Thank you. Amen.

Capitalist Eric said...

Sir, I found your website by accident during one of the many screeching commentaries of no less than the Southern Poverty Law Center. They were so shrill, I *had* to check out Sipsey Street... and I've never looked back.

In the last four years, I've learned a great deal from you, and have come to appreciate your perspective. I'd say we're about 95% in agreement on most things.

I think it was James Clavell who made the observation that the BEST a man can do, is leave behind a legacy. Since you don't want songs or praise, let me tell you what YOU leave behind:

Fast & Furious, a scandal which seems to never die (new info from Judicial Watch exposes more dirt). I believe this will haunt the Democrats for years to come... While the scandal itself is not nearly as big as more recent examples, it precisely demonstrates the disgusting depths that a tyrannical government will go to push a totalitarian agenda.

III%, which you can look at as either an awakening or putting into words what we already knew...

Smuggling; freedom-fighter and "politician-grade" magazines... That alone, was comedy gold!

And finally, on a more personal note, your historical perspectives have given me a lot to think about, and have made me dig deeper on many other subjects. In other words, you got my off my ass, made me question a lot more stuff I used to take as a given.

IF a man in today's age can have a meaningful legacy which reflects his desire for freedom and- as you stated- CITIZENSHIP - what man could possibly have a stronger legacy than what you already have? To come close, we'd have to go back some ***240 years,*** give or take...

You have- by word AND deed- lived a life of honor and integrity not witnessed since the days of our founding fathers. [I realize that it sounds like flattery, but in fact its a condemnation of American citizens since that time... myself included, unfortunately...]

Your past sins, indiscretions, whatever you want to call them, have been MORE than compensated for.

I had hoped to meet you at some point, shake your hand, perhaps share a cold beer together... but it was not meant to be. Instead, all I can offer now is a few words I almost never say to anyone:

GOD BLESS YOU, SIR.

Anonymous said...

GOD--GUNS---COUNTRY---FAMILY AND HONOR
SEMPER FIDELIS
from the son of a Marine Corps. WWll vet....carry on..

Anonymous said...

I regret not shaking your hand when I had the chance. God speed and God Bless you and your amazing family. You have fought the good fight against these collectivist scum, now let us take over.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Mike.
You've been a source of great information, wisdom, and inspiration.
I've passed on some links and so forth over the years,
and I know your words have reached many more than you may know.

Rest now brother, and see you on the other side.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your service to your country, Sir.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpf7HLAtRks

Anonymous said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GtwNJf3EK4

Anonymous said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFVk5xVK7vs