Freedom

“Arm the teachers.”
National Rifle Association

December 24, 2012

America is always in crisis. Threats abound. A few people know this, and are poised to correct the perception the vast majority have that there is no threat. These alarm-sounders have been around since the early days when Sam Adams and Paul Revere poked outside Sam’s tavern onto the village green to see who might join the effort to assure no one could impose excessive taxation by virtue of the fact that these distant “landlords” – the British – had taken the first risks to settle this vast continent. Of course the Brits had competition, and a bundle was at stake defending whose continent this might be. Anyone happening to have arrived before them was likely not going to be consulted. The tides of commerce assured this premise.

Any summary lesson in American history would go through the litany of conflict among its citizens to recite the whiskey rebellion, the Mexican war, the Alamo and the Civil War. Isolationism, keeping us out of both WW I and WWII, was a natural phenomenon, given how many “Americans” came from places that fought to the death over every scrap of cultural and geographic space. While America had, and still has, plenty of both, there is no threat from abroad that can’t be seen in light of our superior military forces, built up as a response to those over seas nuts, who drew us into their madness despite our oceanic moats. Even with triumph after triumph internationally, there is always a crackpot or two around from far away to stir doubts by planting a sparkler in our front yard.

We needn’t concern ourselves with people who are a little wacked out within our borders, though, because they are Americans. They are citizens of a free society. They know that, and treasure it. They can defend it too, as has been proven.
For that reason, little kids’ parents can feel safe when they hustle them off to school in the morning.

Or can they?