Being a citizen is not a right, it's a duty

Vanity | 3.27.03 | Enemy Of the State

[Enemy Of The State]

Being a citizen is not a right, it's a duty.

 

I have given a lot of thought to the issues arising here within the borders of our great republic due to the current situation taking place in Iraq. While I realize that each and every one of us has the right and the freedom to express our views, there is also a responsibility to express those views in a peaceful and obedient manner that does not incur a monetary and psychological inconvenience to the rest of our society.

 

These so called "peace protestors" who haven't the slightest clue about this war or any other means of solving it, are doing so at the cost of the rest of us.  Our soldiers are paying with their lives and we are paying with our wallets. This so called "civil disobedience" that they are imposing on our societies each and every day since the beginning of this war are costing us dearly and at the same time lowering the morale of our soldiers abroad.

 

I have no problem with anyone who wants to object to this war and protest it in public. After all, this is America and each of us have the right to be heard but that right stops when it becomes an infringement on the rights of others to carry on with their normal daily lives. They are disrupting the flow of traffic within our cities without giving so much as a single thought to the endangerment they could be causing other citizens who may need the assistance of emergency care.

 

Furthermore, their "civil disobedience" and "peaceful protests" are costing the tax payers of our cities hundreds of thousands of dollars each day. In a sense, they have become a domestic enemy and the way I see it we owe it to our local law enforcement agencies to help in any way possible.

 

Many of us have served in the armed forces and we took an oath to protect and defend this country and the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and DOMESTIC.

Just because we may not be in the active military any longer does not release us from that oath.

 

Perhaps we need to find a way to work with our local law enforcement agencies to do what we can in order to save our societies from further expenses whether they be human life or financial.

 

I'm not the best at expressing my thoughts and I do attempt to do so often but these people are really starting to get under my skin!!

 

any comments are appreciated!

 

EOTS

[Enemy Of The State]

Correction: I do not attempt to express my views often!

[tall_tex]

Well chosen words, said well... Tom

[DoughtyOne]

You did a good job of getting your point across. I would like to see local municipal codes rewriten to allow only peaceful protest that comply with local laws, permits and on the spot instructions of police officers. Those running afowl of these laws would then be placed in prison from six months to two and one half years depending on the infraction.

If they assault an officer by direct contact or throwing an object, they should get the maximum penalty. If they assault other people, they should get up to a couple of years, depending on the seriousness of the infractions.

Those who initiate sit-ins and disrupt the lives of others should get six months in jail. Cameras should be used and protersters who perpetrate violence and damage on local property should have to make full restitution plus spent time in jail. If they can't pay, I'd add more time in order to keep them off the street, and from doing more damage.

Further I would suggest the following. When additional police officers are required to watch a protest, if that protest gets out of hand, the total cost of all officers and logistics should be assessed the parent organization.

I also think it should be possible to levy intense fines on organizations that like to play the bully. Unions, groups like A.N.S.W.E.R. and the likes of the people who protested in Seattle, should be fined so heavily that it might simply put them out of the civil disobedience business. And their leaders should personally subject to fines and prison.

If A.N.S.W.E.R. wants to organize these problematic protests, fine. Just assess them for the millions of dollars in municipal outlays due to their treachery.

[Enemy Of The State]

Welcome your opinions!

[Libertarianize the GOP]

I agree that those who block freeways should get 6 months. If they only delay a thousand people for about an hour that is the equivalent of stealing a month and a half form the lives of their fellow citizens. Blocking a Freeway will almost assuredly result in the delay of more than a thousand people for at least an hour.

[KrisKrinkle]

You trouble me.

For one thing, I find some discrepency between your screen name and the title and sentiments of your vanity.  That's not a criticism, it's an observation or maybe a plea for clarity.

And I tend to agree with your sentiments.

Personally, I am a "Duty, Honor, Country" kind of a guy, at least when I have to think about it.  And in my experience, following Duty and Honor pretty well takes care of Country, partly becausee of the way I see my duty but largely because of the kind of country we have (so far).

But I have trouble seeing being a citizen as being a duty.  I do acknowledge a duty to be a good citizen, but "learned minds" might disagree over what constitutes being a good citizen.  (My view of duty is similar to  Rober Heinlein's:  "Do not confuse "duty" with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect." (Emphasis added.))

Anyway, another reason you trouble me is that in looking for clarification on the discrepency noted above, I went to your homepage...and I read the quotes.  That made me think about it from the point of view of a protestor who, for the sake of this discussion,  might be following his duty as he sees it;  who might be a "true believer" (in quotes because I am not sure any of them really are).  And I remember reading earlier today about a female protestor who said they were acting out the way they are because peaceful activity did not get any attention.  (She has a part of the truth.  People resort to unpeacefull means when peacefull means fail.  That's why we are in Iraq now.  Peacefull means failed.).

Anyhow, given the discrepency between your screen name and your post, and given the quotes on your homepage  one might think you would have some sympathy for those who are in opposition to the State.  And yet you don't seem to, and I agree with you.

Like I said, you trouble me.

In regard to all this, three more quotes from Heinlein (Which is strange for me, I usually quote the Founders.):
 

Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes. Keep this in mind; it may offer a
way to make him your friend. If not, you can kill him without hate -- and quickly.

Those who refuse to support and defend a state have no claim to protection
by that state. Killing an anarchist or a pacifist should not be defined as
"murder" in a legalistic sense. The offense against the state, if any, should be
"Using a deadly weapon inside city limits," or "Creating a traffic hazard," or
"Endangering bystanders," or other misdemeanor. However, the state may
reasonably place a closed season on these exotic asocial animals whenever
they are in danger of becoming extinct.

Political tags -- such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist,
liberal, conservative, and so forth -- are never basic criteria. The human
race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those
who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives
for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors
than the other sort.
 

[PhilDragoo]

Fox News Channel had two police chiefs on saying they had less ability to respond to everyday crime.

One city spends roughly a million a day in police for demonstrations.

The responsibilities of citizenship are really quite simple and self-evident.

Those who block the normal and necessary movement of their fellow citizens must pay a price.

Albuquerque is cracking down--finally.

Demonstrations now require a permit and paying for police overtime.

New York arrested 150 today.

Let's see how Daley handles Chicago.

Here's how his father handled SDS Days of Rage October 8-11 1969:

Mark Rudd and the red armband mob assembled with a bullhorn in Lincoln Park and burned some police barricades.

Platoons of pigeon blue helmeted police ringed the park.

Knots of trench-coated Dick Tracys clustered around walkie talkies in the shadows.

Squads assembled on street corners with batons at the ready.

The black Tactical Police Squad bus unloaded thirty black leather gladiators.

Convoys of three cruisers packed with police were followed by a wagon, and these were everywhere.

Three dozen off-duty police arrived punching their palms with glee.

Rudd and company broke from the park and threw bricks through plate glass, sought refuge in churches, were arrested and jailed.

Chicagoans remarked that that was where they belonged.

The French have a saying for the historical repeat, but they have a saying for everything.

Americans are pretty tolerant but they have their limit.

The current demonstrations have a certain odor which becomes noticeable to all save Katie Couric who sours milk by her mere countenance.

[Enemy Of The State]

Well Kris, you either read too much into my name or not enough. (Enemy of the State was a movie)

I am an enemy of the state when the state becomes big government. I am an enemy of the state when the state fails to recognize the rights of the people who give the state it's power to exist.

I am a supporter of the people and I pledge my allegiance to the people and the country, not my President.

I trouble you why?

I stand for what is right, not what is popular!

If the government comes for my guns, they better not come alone!

When the government is right, I will stand in it's defense.

When the government is wrong, I will fight it to my death.

The same with you!

[Enemy Of The State]

gee, Id hate to think of all the good books you have missed if you always judge by ones name, fat guy who lives off the slave labor of little midgets

[KrisKrinkle]

"I trouble you why? "

Perhaps because you're right, and I either read too much into your name or not enough. (I remember the movie. It was on TV again recently)

"gee, Id hate to think of all the good books you have missed if you always judge by ones name,"

But in this case the "name" was what made me look further (at your home page and the quotes on it) and to do a little thinking about Duty and the rest of your post.

" fat guy who lives off the slave labor of little midgets"

I believe that's Kris Kringle. And unlike from him, you won't get much for free from me or mine except advice that's worth the price.

Sometimes it's hard to get the correct tone or intent in these posts, so I'm going to take a long shot here: If I have offended you I did not mean to. Our thoughts seem to head in the same direction.

[Enemy Of The State]

No offense at all. I was just poking a little but I guess it's on me since I actually read your name wrong. :)

[batter]

I agree. I think DoughtyOne summed it up well.

[Enemy Of The State]

Very well stated. Thank You!

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks to both of you.

[Ben Bolt]

Sir ,

You are absolutely correct and the title is perfect .

[KrisKrinkle]

"No offense at all."

Glad to see that.

[Enemy Of The State]

I respect your opinion, and I respect your caution.

[Rasputin_TheMadMonk]

R.A. Heinlein is one of those rare men who is able to take a complicated concept and distill it to it's essence. He then presents it in a way that is impossible to misunderstand.

Had he been around when Madison was tooling up the second amendment, he would have snapped him across the nose with a rolled up paper and straightened him out on the whole militia thing. A simple statement of "No body, elected or appointed, shall have the authority to infringe upon the right of free citizens to keep and bear arms."

I wonder what other constitutional snarls the old man could have ironed out? A little foresight into the corruptability of any government would have saved us all a lot of headaches.