Posted on 02/19/2003 11:50:26 PM PST by JohnHuang2
Nowhere in the American political landscape is the divide between left and right greater than in the realm of self defense. This is true on the individual level, as when one awakes with an intruder in the bedroom, and it is true in our collective experience as a nation.
While the criminal class raped, robbed, murdered and plundered its way to prosperity, the left's collective wisdom was to pry firearms from the cold, dead hands of victims and those next in line. While their friends and neighbors were being murdered on the street, the ivory-tower left was busy "cooking the books" on crime, punishment, and self defense -- as in the case of Michael Bellesiles, whose now thoroughly discredited book of lies about colonial gun ownership ("Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture") has been pulled by its publisher.
Victimhood seems to be the apex of human achievement for the left. Now they would like to impose it upon us as a nation in the war against terror. I say this because of the left's criticism of civil defense efforts. USA Today reported last Friday that over 200,000 citizen volunteers in 335 communities have been trained in first aid, fire suppression and search and rescue operations. Government plans call for another 400,000 volunteers to be trained by year end. Jackie Snelling, the volunteer leader of citizen-training efforts in Arlington, Va., says, "The basic message is: Who's responsible in an emergency? You are."
This is tough medicine for the left to swallow. Personal responsibility has always been the left's bogeyman -- whether it's armed victims confronting intruders in their bedrooms or civil-defense volunteers digging their neighbors out of terrorist rubble. The left's response has been predictable: The real problem is a lack of government funding for firefighters and other emergency workers.
The left, you see, has only one answer. It doesn't matter what the question is.
In the left's vision for America, everyone works for the government. Leftist politicians control the means of production, if not through financial ownership then by bureaucratic regulation. We do what people like Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy tell us, when they tell us. The moment we are confronted with anything outside of our job description as model citizens, the only acceptable response is to call another government bureaucrat for help. While we wait, we are encouraged to embrace the martyrdom of victimhood.
Private citizens doing anything on their own to help their friends and neighbors in time of emergency is anathema to the left. It is the beginning of the end of their reign, which explains their vitriol toward the G.W. Helping others is the job of government.
Doling out benefits is the job of leftist politicians; it's how they buy reelection. The left's job is to ensure that adequate numbers of government employees are available to respond in an appropriate manner to any and all emergencies. And it is the left's politicians alone who determine what level of response is appropriate. Our only real input as citizens is to nod our approval, pull the voting lever at election time, and, oh yes, hand over our wallets to pay for it all.
Someone needs to tell the American left that this system of government is called communism. In the now-defunct Soviet Union, where it was practiced, communism resulted in 20 million state murders of citizens who disagreed, and 70 years of misery for those who survived. It created the largest, most toxic waste dump in human history, and it polluted the entire world with its political fantasies of heaven on earth.
Those who worship communism despise God and look down their noses at humanity, for they believe themselves to be gods. They hate America, because we called their bluff. And they hate conservatives, because we tell the truth about God, man, and government.
These same folks who despise America have now united around the cause of "peace," by which they mean America is to endure a future of endless 9-11s as payback for killing their godless communist idol, promoting human freedom around the world, and standing against Israel's destruction by failed Arab dictators and tyrants. Their wrath is further kindled because we refuse to bow down and kiss the United Nation's ring finger and pledge allegiance to our own destruction.
Their world is coming apart at the seams, they have no answers, and they don't know what to do.
Not only that, but the left must have a "one size fits all" plan for situations. We can't have a teacher seeing a 2" plastic gun and simply ignoring it. No! The Official Government Reaction says that the police MUST be called, the child arrested and placed in an alternative school, and receive "counseling" (code for government indoctrination about the evils of guns).
It's really none of their fault, you see, it is just the policy of "zero tolerance".
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