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We're informed that an organization referring to itself as the
"National Commission on Civic Renewal" -- swilling down a million
samoleans from some gullible charitable trust -- has been created to
find out what's wrong with America: why don't we trust each other
(meaning the media) any more, or trust "our" government? And why did
fewer than half of us even bother to vote this November?
Perhaps because we all knew how much good it would do?
It may give you an idea of how anxious they are to get real
answers when I tell you that the only commission members I heard
mentioned were retiring Georgia Senator Sam Nunn, and that paragon of
virtues, William Bennett. More than anything, I'm reminded of that
Greek Council "trial" in Animal House, where the protagonists were
being blatantly railroaded, and their partisans kept pretending to
cough, while continuously muttering "blowjob" behind their hands.
The difference is that experience warns us that a "National
Commission on Civic Renewal" isn't going to turn out to be anything
at all as nice as a blowjob; what it's inevitably going to develop
into is the government's means of manufacturing what Ayn Rand
frequently referred to as "the consent of the victim".
Nevertheless, on the microscopic chance that anybody's really
interested in knowing what's gone wrong -- and so dribblingly stupid
that they need to be told -- I'm going to offer Sam and William a few
obvious pointers to get them started. On the basis of past
performance, they'll shrug it off and dismiss me as a malcontent --
despite the fact that I'm the author of 20 books, I've been
politically active for 34 years, I predicted the collapse of the
Soviet Empire fully a decade before it happened, and, most
importantly of all, that my state of being malcontented is exactly
what they claim to be interested in investigating.
Nothing will change; what else is new?
But for the sake of going through the motions, let's begin by
considering the fact that the average dweller in the land of the free
and the home of the brave is forced to turn over more than half of
his income to one government or another, and nothing we can do at the
polls seems to stop this all-devouring process. A medieval serf was
compelled to surrender no more than 10 percent, and Woodrow Wilson
promised that we'd never have to fork over more than five.
Hey, Sam and William, you said you wanted to know.
Or how about the fact that, wherever the public teat has been
pinched shut even a little bit, governments from the federal to the
municipal have simply begun stealing whatever they want -- money,
rolling stock, real estate -- at the louvered point of automatic
weapons (which have been denied to us mere civilians), brandished by
infantile Ninja wannabes in black nylon pajamas and facemasks? I
recall that this was William's idea and that Sam kinda liked it, too.
Hey, Sam and William, you said you wanted to know.
Which brings us to the fact that, no matter what the Constitution
seems to say in plain, unambiguous language, somehow, once they fall
into the hands of the very lawyers and judges they were meant to
protect us from, our individual rights always turn out just a trifle
more alienable than we believed. Talk about your classic "long
train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object,
evincing a design to reduce them [meaning us] under absolute
despotism".
Hey, Sam and William, you said you wanted to know.
Or let's make it real concrete: how about the fact that, at the
behest of both a Republican Bush Administration and a Democratic
Clinton Administration, 81 innocent individuals near Waco, Texas --
22 of them little children -- were coldbloodedly terrorized,
tortured, and murdered in broad daylight on national television, and
the murderers not only got away with this unbelieveable crime, but
were allowed to subject their surviving victims to trial, and when a
jury refused to convict them, managed somehow to throw them in prison
for 40 years, anyway.
Hey, Sam and William, you said you wanted to know.
You said you wanted to know what's gone wrong? No justice,
gentlemen, no peace. Not a threat, just an objective description of
what's happening right now. No justice, no peace. And what's
likeliest to happen to us all will make the 60s (or Beirut or
Bosnia, for that matter) look like the Teddy Bears' Picnic. This
isn't brain surgery, gentlemen; it isn't rocket science. But then
you two ain't exactly brain surgeons or rocket scientists, are you?
What you are is politicians, which means we have to talk to you
very, very, very slowly.
Okay, I pretend to hear Sam and William inquiring, you're quick
with the complaints, how about offering some solutions? Well, as a
preliminary act of good faith, why not a committment to stringently
enforce the highest law of the land -- the first 10 amendments to the
Constitution -- commonly known as the Bill (not William) of Rights?
Once people know that their individual rights are absolutely secure,
you'll be flabbergasted at how they'll settle down.
To provide you with a single edifying example, there isn't a gun
law at any level of government that's constitutional. Despite the
maundering of a Supreme Court that's been putrescently corrupt since
Marbury versus Madison, you know what I know: what the Founding
Fathers meant by the Second Amendment was for individuals to be armed
as efficiently as the uniformed minions of the State.
You just don't like it.
I shouldn't have to tell you -- and any more I'm going to charge
for at confiscatory rates -- but if you want to repair America (not
just sit around flapping your yaps about it until the million is used
up), repair the damage you and yours have done. Repeal or nullify
the 20 thousand weapons laws that have been passed illegally. Make
restitution to those you've hurt with them. Do the same with each of
the other nine amendments. If you want to impress us, make it
unlawful to tax or regulate anything protected by the Bill of
Rights.
None of the usual alibis and excuses, now.
No justice, gentlemen, no peace.
My home on the web, The Webley Page: www.webleyweb.com/lneil/
My e-zine The Libertarian Enterprise: www.webleyweb.com/tle/
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