Posted on 01/21/2020 3:48:53 PM PST by Kaslin
On the holiday set aside in 2020 to honor Martin Luther King, the premier advocate of nonviolent Gandhian civil disobedience, thousands of gun owners gathered in Richmond to petition peacefully for their rights.
King had preached that there was a higher law that justified breaking existing laws that mandated racial segregation.
When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in the front of the bus in Montgomery, when Freedom Riders integrated bus terminals, when black students sat at segregated lunch counters in North Carolina, they challenged state law in the name of what they said was a higher law.
And Virginia gun owners believe their moral obligation to protect families, friends and themselves in a violent society justifies their right to keep and carry firearms, no matter what the Virginia legislature says.
Americans have a long history of breaching laws in the name of a higher law or God-given rights.
The patriots of Boston gathered an arsenal at Concord in defiance of the British. To protest a tea tax imposed by parliament, they dressed as American Indians and threw shiploads of imported tea into Boston Harbor.
Shays' Rebellion in Massachusetts, to protest debt collections in 1786-87, and the 1794 Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania, to protest a tax, both had to be crushed with force.
Abolitionists supported the violation of fugitive slave laws, the enforcement of which Lincoln endorsed in his first inaugural as a national necessity to restore and preserve the Union.
A constitutional prohibition of the sale of beer, wine and liquor in the U.S., following the enactment of the 18th Amendment, led to massive civil disobedience in the Roaring '20s, before it was repealed in 1933 by the 21st Amendment.
During Vietnam, burning draft cards was a regular feature of anti-war rallies.
Historians may describe the racial riots of the 1960s -- Harlem, Watts, Newark, Detroit, and 100 U.S. cities including Washington, D.C., after King's assassination -- as popular uprisings, but many required National Guard and federal troops to stop the looting, shooting and arson.
By the late 1960s, LBJ, who had passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, could not visit a college campus without a violent demonstration.
This week, Washington hosts the 46th annual March for Life to commemorate the 60 million unborn killed in the abortion mills of America since Roe v. Wade in 1973.
In conservative states, restrictions imposed on abortion facilities have put some out of business. The legislators and governors who have done so believe the right to life trumps the Warren Court ruling in Roe v. Wade.
Perhaps the greatest manifestation of civil disobedience today is the illegal presence of between 12 million and 20 million immigrants who broke into our country or are breaking the law by being here after their visas expired.
Their collaborators are the business owners who hire them and the public officials who refuse to treat them as lawbreakers.
"Sanctuary cities" have been created where local and state authorities refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement.
Now, towns, cities and counties are creating "Second Amendment sanctuaries," where laws restricting gun rights will not be enforced.
If state and local police, themselves gun owners, stand with those who defy the new state laws on guns, who enforces the new laws?
The Virginia Senate has begun to move bills requiring background checks for gun purchasers including red flag laws to disarm individuals deemed at risk to themselves or others, and bills granting permission for locales to restrict the carrying of arms in government buildings and confining the purchases of handguns to one a month.
There are other restrictions the Democratic legislature in Richmond and governor are ready to move, including restricting the number of bullets in clips and magazines and halting sales of rifles like the AR-15.
Gun owners see these as the onset of an all-out assault on gun rights.
For a republic to endure, there has to be a common consent on the rule of law and what constitutes a good society. But these seem to be at issue again in America.
Is abortion the killing of an innocent human being? Do Americans have a constitutional and human right to keep and carry firearms to protect themselves and their loved ones?
Who is and who is not a rightful resident of our national home?
Do illegal migrants have a right to come here and stay here? Or do their numbers imperil our national identity and existence as "one nation and one people"?
Violent crime was greater in America in the early 1990s. Urban riots were far more common in the 1960s. And there is nothing today comparable to the bloodletting of the 1861-65 War Between the States.
Still, Americans seem to disagree with each other more and to dislike each other more than they have in the lifetime of most of us.
One wonders: How does it all stay together? And for how long?
Violence is the handmaiden of ignorance, and I foresee only an increase in the latter.
No question Nonviolent Civil Disobedience is effective, but only if you are willing to go to Jail by the thousands, and be willing to stay there for awhile.
In Operation Rescue we did so in the 80s and 90s. Mills were closed and many lives were saved. I would do it again in a heart beat, but first several things need to be considered.
First,consider the cost.
1.Are you able to remain non-violent when provoked? Only by doing so can you keep the moral high ground. We used passive resistance by going limp and accepted the pain compliance holds used by police when arresting us. Can you remain non-violent in speech and action? Remember you have the honor of defending the Constitution many have died for.
2. Are you willing to risk your job? Can your family support this action after carefully explained to them. Are you at peace with the decision of conscience that you alone must make?
3. Can you network with other like-minded organizations, appoint informal local leadership,and establish goals and action you can personally follow? Unity is imperative. Don’t reinvent the wheel, reach out to other existing units and incorporate.
Second,understand and commit to the mission and those you act with. Non-violent Civil Disobedience will only work if done with large numbers and total commitment to your cause and your Brothers and Sisters in the action.
Finally, Successful social action has always proceeded political victory. Ultimately we must win at the ballot box, the legislature, and the courts. It is this that will send our America hating adversaries to the dust bin of history.
Nonviolent Civil disobedience is an important and successful alternative to isolated dead-end violence and personal tragedy. All action should be corporate. This is not to deny individual acts of conscience when no corporate alternative exists.
Finally,we have the great advantage of acting Constitutionally according to our God given rights.This is our generations’ field of battle for this day. Americas’ enemies may never understand this, but we must never forget it.
Then there’s a home for them at the bottom of a nice, ripe manure pit.
So yer gonna mak’em “feel at home” in their natural habitat? Hehehe. d;^)
In the 1950s Ike ordered the 101 airborne into Little Rock Arkansas to enforce school desegregation.No shots fired.
In Detroit riots 1968 Fed troops shot several rioters attacking them.
In 1970 Nation Guard shot to death several rock throwing anti war students at Kent State in Ohio. Their parents were voters.
No federal regular Army shots fired since. State National Guard units have.
Non-violent Civil Disobedience works when you can find a valid target, i.e. Abortion Mill, Governor’s House,Congressman’s office.
The action is the reaction!
Non violence only works when the media is on your side.
It does help to have a sympathetic media.
That will never happen for us until Civil Disobedience becomes so disruptive that their wall of silence is cracked. Then the rest will follow for fear of being left behind on a continuing story. The media must be convinced you are in it for the long haul.
In the meantime we use the inside media; local news sources,institutional communications, shortwave and talk radio to your advantage reaching out to our own,networking, organizing,recruiting and growing our numbers. There are tens of thousands of decent persons who would act but don’t know what to do or where to go to join. it is our job to reach and inform them.
In this early stage the purpose is to build a core of truly dedicated believers who will sacrifice their time and energy in their communities. Women should be included in your planning always, both in organizing and in your front line action. I found them to be dedicated and effective soldiers. There is no question of their courage, and they will be looking to you as men to show that example. After your first baptism of action you will be family.
As you grow in numbers and operational effectiveness the national media will realize you are somehow doing this without them and land on you in full hate mode. This is exactly what you want and will grow your numbers geometrically. Soon the Lame Stream Media will want you far more than you need them.
During five years of pro-life non-violent Direct Action in the 80’s and 90’s there were over 60,000 arrests and well over 100,000 participants. Yes, these were in great part dedicated Christian people who also passionately embrace our Constitution. Considering what I saw on media coverage of the Virginia Rallies last week I believe this movement has gone to the very heart of our defense of the Constitution and what it means to be an American.
The potential for the involvement of millions in non-violent Direct Action is undeniably here. It must start in our own communities where all successful movement must.
If we are doing it others are too. It is up to us!
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