Kenneth Gladney: 21st century Crispus Attucks

American, Thinker ^ | August 11, 2009 | Matthew May

[neverdem]

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) thugs beat Mr. Gladney during a recent St. Louis town hall meeting. His crime in the eyes of a "service" employee was selling paraphernalia celebrating and advocating freedom. For his transgression, Mr. Gladney won a two-day stay at the hospital and the indignation of a racial epithet delivered by the perpetrators of the beating. Mr. Gladney was beaten protesting for freedom from coercion at the hands of a powerful government.

Mr. Gladney is a black American. Crispus Attucks, a black American, was one of the first men killed by the British at the Boston Massacre. Attucks fell fighting for freedom from coercion at the hands of a powerful government.

President Barack Obama, a black American, is the hand of a powerful government attempting to coerce Americans into accepting health care legislation. He is fond of comparing himself favorably to predecessors like Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. Yet he combines the worst aspects of their successors: The ignorance of Andrew Johnson with the dictatorial instincts of Lyndon Johnson.

In the last few days, the Obama Administration publicly encouraged citizens to turn on one another and report opponents of health care legislation directly to the White House. The president himself damns his enumerated powers when saying of the legislative process he "doesn't want to hear any talking" about his intentions, and demands that citizens and legislators who differ with him to "get out of the way." President Obama is unable or unwilling to grasp that the United States is not a direct democracy, and that his election in November was not a unilateral grant of all-encompassing power.

Likewise, Members of Congress who have been greeted by raucous citizens hurl accusations against them or refuse to even attempt defending a government takeover of the health care industry on the merits. Protestors are accused of disseminating misinformation about the bill, though perhaps Members of Congress and the administration are simply astonished by a rapidly established trend that is just as quickly crystallizing into fact: The citizens know more about the contents of the bill than those who promote it and are to vote upon it. It is highly offensive.

These citizen activists have more respect and reverence for the founding documents and foundational law of the country than the officers of the government. We the Rubes still read a document like the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence and take it for what it is. We divine no magical penumbras or mystical nuances. If we need answers as to intent, we do not conjure them out of thin air. We consult Madison's notes on the Constitution or the Federalist Papers. As such, we utilize the First Amendments protections from government to assemble, speak, and petition that government. We now find ourselves under direct assault in word and, as Mr. Gladney learned the hard way, in deed for deigning to do so. Such actions against these citizens offend patriots' sensibilities:

"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

In 1888, the poet John Boyle O'Reilly took part in ceremonies honoring Crispus Attucks and the other men who took the first hits from the British on American soil. Of them he wrote:

And to honor Crispus Attucks, who was the leader and voice that day:

The first to defy, and the first to die,

With Maverick, Carr, and Gray

Call it a riot or revolution,

Or mob or crowd as you may

Such deaths have been seeds of nations

Such lives will be honored for aye

Thankfully Kenneth Gladney is still with us. Hopefully legal action against his attackers will result in jail time. With Eric Holder as Attorney General that may be an unlikely outcome.

Unlike the perpetrators of violence against him, Mr. Gladney is a man of the mind - his own. He suffered for his ability and willingness to think on his own. Like Attucks, he has taken the first hit for the resistance. Mr. Gladney peaceably warned - on behalf of himself and countless millions - those who would attempt to stifle the First Amendment and ensnare citizens with all-powerful government: Don't Tread on Me.

Mr. Gladney's beating and the subsequent outrage over it should remind patriots and oppressors alike not only of Crispus Attucks, but also George Washington's conclusions regarding the key factor behind the Continental Army's defeat of the most powerful force in the world: "The unconquerable resolution of our citizens." Call these contemporary citizen activists what you will. Those who feel justified in squelching the voice of the sovereign through brute violence or official intimidation do so at their peril.

Matthew May welcomes comments at matthewtmay@yahoo.com

[neverdem]

Guess who beat up Gladney?

You can't make this up.

[Talisker]

You can't make this up.

Nope, you can't. These people really, actually, knowingly support evil.

[xtinct]

Notice how Obambi said nothing about this man... like where's the outrage? Or, is it only certain Black men who are worthy of his attention? ... like the jerk professor in Cambridge, MA who took a hissy fit and got himself arrested. And, come to find out although the charges were dropped the arrest was his own fault. Gotta love it when one of Obambi's plans backfire. The cop who was called a racist is a profiling expert.

Whole incident can be attributed to a divert and deflect move to take the heat off Obambi and Congress.

And, the maggot thinks we don't know this... :o)

[rawcatslyentist]

Mr. Gladney is a black American. Crispus Attucks, a black American, was one of the first men killed by the British at the Boston Massacre. Attucks fell fighting for freedom from coercion at the hands of a powerful government.

You have to remember.

Stinky didn't grow up an AMERICAN CITIZEN!

He knows nothing of our history!

[2ndClassCitizen]

Gladney is one of the heroes of our movement.

The fascists are enemies of the people. Their creeds and beliefs must be exposed to be eliminated.

[Terry Mross]

Mr. Attucks died for an idea that was completely new at the time. Sadly Mr.Gladney is standing up for a principle that those who would kill him are all too familiar with.

This country and especially Washington, is over run by communists. Amazing that they can’t see that it didn’t work in the Soviet Union and even China knows it must change in order to survive.

[wastoute]

Well, we shall see what happens. Several men have been arrested for actions we have all born witness to on video. What will be the result. Ask Don Adams. I predict several years of meaningless judicial machinations in Rat infested St Louis courts followed by at most a slap on the wrist, if that. Probably after 18 to 36 months of judicial glaciation "charges dropped". That is my prediction. So far there is no justice for us in Rat infested courts. We shall see.

Μολὼν λάβε

[6SJ7]

In the eyes of the State controlled MSM, Kenneth Gladney is a non-person and there was no event. Using their calculus, if they don’t report it, it never happened.

[camle]

oh c’mon folks! a little perspective! Attucks was killed, Gladney wasn’t (thankfully), and the boston massacre was widely publicized whilst this has yet to be. the only commonality I see here is the race of both men.

isn’t it ironic that thugs working on behalf of teh first black president used racial slurs against the black guy they were beating? And why isn’t tha a hate crime?

[ripley]

It’s obvious that Mr. Gladney should have gotten permission from the SEIU before he had the temerity to sell signs that said, “Don’t Tread On Me”. Such sayings are obviously anti-American and radical. They do not belong in a public forum.

/S/

[AnAmericanMother]

Crispus Attucks in point of fact doesn't make a really good poster child for anybody.

The testimony at the trials (of the private soldiers and separately of their commander) was fairly clear that he was riotous and violent and attacked the soldiers at the Custom House, actually grabbing a musket and trying to wrench it away.

You have to read the sworn testimony rather than Sam Adams's rabble-rousing and the captions on Paul Revere's print.

And there's a good chance that he was a Natick Indian and not black at all . . . . But, so are legends made.

Maybe Prince Estabrook, a black man wounded at Lexington, would be a better candidate?