Your Representatives in Washington

I have recently taken to burning up the e-mail airways with posts to my Representative Doug Lamborn and our senators Mark Udall and Michael Bennett. I know that they don't really read the posts but I just feel good about a good old fashioned rant directed toward my public servents every so often. I feel especially vindicated when I received a reply from the Honorable Mark Udall on senatorial letter headed stationary that says he is happy to hear from his constituents and then asked me if I'm having a hard time getting a flag or a tour of the White House. It makes me feel good to know that somebody on his staff has the time to set up a program that answers all of his e-mail queries with a computer-generated answer that basically covers all of his bases. But I digress.

I typically end my messages in these e-mails with sincerely William M. Rhea. Then the thought occurred to me that maybe, just maybe these three individuals might have been living in a cave and were not aware that organizations such as "we surround them" or "912" even existed. Yes I am a member of these organizations and proud of it.

So I took it upon myself to educate these three individuals as to our organizations and how we felt about the way things were going in Washington. First of all I called each of these individuals and of course spoke with their receptionists and then asked about the voting history on the stimulus package, the omnibus spending bill, et cetera. I found that, sure enough, Doug Lamborn, a Republican, voted against the assorted porkulus packages. As for the two Democratic senators, one of which was appointed, I received what can be only described as a dissertation from a 5 x 7 card spouting the party line. That the senators were overjoyed at the opportunity to vote for the Obama omnibus spending bill and the stimulus packages because it was going to bring jobs and federal monies to the state of Colorado. Before nausea set in and I would be unable to speak I asked the receptionist this question. Why do you think it is such a good deal for the citizens of Colorado to send billions of dollars to Washington and then we are supposed to feel that we are fortunate to recoup 124 million? I must admit the young lady didn't have any very good answer for me and so I closed with the same statement I had closed with Representative Doug Lamborn. I let her know that we surround them, and 912 are a bunch of citizens who are sick and tired of Washington spending our money just as fast as they can possibly take it from us. I was civil enough and left her with my full name, my address, and my telephone number here in Colorado Springs. Lets see what happens.

Political activism in the local pubs

I've been sitting around lately feeling sorry for myself. I was thinking, what could I possibly do that would help influence the state of affairs we find ourselves in today? I don't know where it came from but there was an e-mail that led me to a group of people who belong to an organization presumably started by the radio talk show host Glenn Beck. Is that what we call an epiphany?

It's called "we surround them," and it is a group of like-minded people who are beginning to get together, establish contacts, and become political activists. Well, I went online and joined the organization and found that the next meeting was unfortunately right in the middle of my shift so I won't be able to attend that particular meeting. However I did leave a comment that stated that their ambitions sounded interesting, their list of members and their bios were interesting to me. I was singularly impressed with the number of people with military experience. Now that doesn't mean they were a bunch of warmongers so don't go getting your panties in a twist, it simply means that while in the military you are expected to be responsible. You are given a task, basic instruction on the outcome requirements of the task, and then you are turned loose to perform the task to the best of your abilities and using all of your ingenuity. That's what we used to call responsibility. That's why I was drawn to the site in the first place.

Now I have been following Glenn Beck for many years. It is my opinion that he has progressed from being merely an entertainer to becoming a political voice. Before you scoff at his antics or his sentiments you really need to listen to the guy. I watch him on a daily basis and it is clear to me that the ideas he professes are not merely for entertainment purposes, I believe the guy really means what he says and he is anguishing over the direction the country is taking. Now I'm not really sure whether or not this "we surround them" movement is at Glenn Beck's direction, but that fact is irrelevant. It only takes a small idea, and a movement is born. I looked at some of the numbers on the organization's charts and there are literally thousands upon thousands of members. A tidal wave of opposition to the direction the country is taking is growing. According to one member, the midterm elections can't come too fast, we will take back our country. I offered this observation, during the first American Revolution the original patriots began to meet in local pubs to map out their opposition to the crown. We are now in the initial stages of the second American Revolution in our opposition to the self appointed Messiah who is usurping all of the states and individual powers of the people.

Has it all come down to this

I was sitting at my computer yesterday attempting to construct a PowerPoint presentation on sex offenders and how their recidivism rate is through the roof. I took a break from that dismal job and decided to check some e-mails. I got a particular e-mail from an unnamed party, I know who he is, who had sent me a video e-mail. Being the curious sort I decided to open the e-mail and see what it was all about. On this video e-mail there was a young male dressed in a Marine uniform with his face covered by a mask. I thought to myself this should be interesting. So I clicked the start button and listened to the rant offered by the "young Marine." The young man was articulate and he didn't sound like a whack job. However, what he was proposing scared the living daylights out of me.

The young Marine quoted Jefferson quite often, he quoted excerpts from the Constitution, and he quoted excerpts from the oath that we recited at our induction into the military and at subsequent times when we reenlisted or when we took our oaths of office when we became officers in the Armed Forces of the United States, in my case the Army of the United States. The young Marine was calling for revolution. The young Marine postulated that no one in the armed forces would lift their hands against their fellow patriots. As I said earlier this scared the living daylights out of me.

When Jefferson made his remark that "The tree of liberty needs to be watered by the blood of patriots and tyrants every so often" he wasn't referring to a democratically elected government, he was referring to a tyrant who would physically and militarily take control of our government. But now the cat is out of the bag. It is possible that thousands of people have viewed the video. It is also possible that hundreds if not thousands of young men and women who are feeling disenfranchised and fear for the rights and privileges of citizenship in this country, will take the young Marine's rant to heart. As we speak there are armed militias practicing and functioning all over this country. As law enforcement we have our eyes on the various arms of these militias who operate inside our own cities. In the eyes of most of the people in these militias; no matter who you are, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, state and county and municipal law enforcement, you are their enemy.

I end by saying this. There may some day come a time when we the people might have to rise up and take our country back. There may come a time when the blood of patriots must be shed to water our liberty tree. But for now we still have a republic with lawfully elected officials to handle our affairs as they see fit. Let's not forget that in a republic these elected officials act for us as they see fit. I reiterate our's is not a democracy, where 51% can vote to take everything from the 49%. So in order to "take back your country" we have the ballot box. If you are not intimately involved with your local state and federal government you are a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

You owe it to yourself to become educated in the Constitution. As I tell young offenders quite often (after all I am a cop) when I have them and we began to discuss the rights and wrongs prevalent in society today I'm astonished at their naïveté concerning the Constitution. At some point during our discussions I almost always tell them that they should become educated in government because if they are naïve and I know the Constitution and I know the law I will own them. I don't know what effect I've had on these young people but I certainly hope that at least a small percentage of them have become educated and have become strict constitutionalist.