The Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) federal shutdown edition of The Status Quo: An Electronic Newsletter is dedicated to the children of America who are growing into adulthood believing other Americans are their enemies. These impressionable young minds are not only inheriting a world changing by the season, they must also face the online world alone. They are overwhelmed like no generation before them and it is for this reason that those who read what is true about the world must act on behalf of those who trust others to tell them what is true about the world. Otherwise we will have to live with knowing that those who fought and died defending the U.S. Constitution will have done so in vain because we failed to act when it was clear no one else would or could.
The Sensible Majority
One-hundred and sixty (160) years ago the future of the Union, a.k.a. the United States of America, was in serious doubt. In the summer of 1863, the Confederate States of America’s most lethal force under the command of its most competent commander marched into the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania with the goal of achieving victory on the battlefield. General Lee did not expect to defeat Union forces in one battle or even in a long war. On the contrary, he hoped and prayed that a decisive victory in the north would force the Union President to succumb to the pressure by so many in his own party to end the war. Marse Robert’s plan to end the war almost succeeded.
This article poses a question every sensible American should be asking other sensible Americans as we watch the media circus commonly known as the countdown to shutdown. The question we need to be asking one another is whether the Union is in greater jeopardy today than it was 160 years ago? This sensible Veteran responds with an emphatic yes! Although our present day civil war between red and blue states does not involve armies engaging armies with tens of thousands killed in action, this self-imposed culture war is not only working to severely degrade our ability to defend our country against enemies who have been attacking us for years, it is also preventing any hope of solving the serious domestic problems destroying the quality of life for the overwhelming majority of Americans.
The reality of September 2023 is that our enemies continue to influence our elections, bribe our elected officials, infiltrate our corporations to steal valuable technology, hack utility companies, hospitals, and schools to secure ransoms, undermine our allies’ ability to respond to direct threats, and continue to turn our service members into traitors. Despite these constant attacks, the fringe elements of both parties offer nothing to stop Chinese aggression, Russia brutality, Iran’s continued development of its missile and drone programs, and North Korea’s commitment to develop the technology necessary to deliver a nuclear weapon to the US mainland. One fringe element knows how to ban books, harass the transgender community and obstruct the election process while the other fringe has successfully squashed free speech on all universities, made pro-choice a sin while maintaining a religious belief that government is the answer to all society’s problems. Addressing the myriad of problems degrading life for so many in America is not something fringe elements do. Compromise and intelligent debate are the antithesis of the movement to promote the former fake President of the United States. What confounds this Veteran is why so many sensible Americans do not see it!
As Americans celebrated Labor Day 2023 a few weeks ago, they did so hearing news of pending strikes by US autoworkers. What no one heard was talk about the tremendous progress made through political and social compromise in the auto industry over the past 100 years. For over a century, elected officials knew the value of political compromise because that is how things got done. Today, things do not get done. No laws are passed to address crises like illegal immigration because politicians and their donors know that compromises would be required to pass such legislation and most importantly that no one in Washington D.C. is willing to compromise.
As every sensible American contemplates his or her role in saving our Republic, this sensible America offers a novel idea. Why not create a new political movement that is not based on the tired old slogans of the left and right? Why not create an organization that builds its core constituency around Veterans, active and reserve members of the armed forces, the National Guard, their families and friends? Why not create an organization to recruit, educate and train other sensible Americans to join an effort to eradicate the career politician from American life? Why not create an organization that supports Independent candidates who understand law and order and protecting human rights are not mutually exclusive. Therefore, let these words be a call to action to the sensible majority in America that it is time to root out the cancer that is bankrupting our nation, paralyzing our government and dividing us for the sake of political expediency. Failure to do so is not an option.
With Extreme Prejudice
She goes by many names. Gaia, Terra Mater and to Hindus, Prithvi, the Vast One. To many in the English speaking world she is Earth. The giver of life and the one who nourishes our souls merely by being in her presence. Her waters heal our bodies and in return we desecrate her rivers, oceans and endanger all life upon her including our own.
The first message of this article is that our species’ horrific treatment of this planet will eventually be met with a response that is beyond Homo Sapien’s capacity to survive. Eventually, we will be added to the list of species that have gone extinct from this earth. What is really frightening is that we may have already done irreparable damage to Gaia with no hope for the future and we just don’t know it yet. The next few years may expose a truth that many fear. That truth being Homo Sapien is fast approaching the end of the line of a species that had long ago worn out its welcome.
The second message is that the above realization is motivating countless young minds around the world to contemplate a new approach to saving the planet. Many young and a few old minds are realizing that saving our planet cannot be trusted to the same career politicians who today are putting on a circus while our fiscal house burns. Moreover, many of these non-violent citizens of the world are discarding the twin notions that government is the path to saving our environment and that peaceful means to accomplish that end is the only solution. On the contrary, many are beginning to accept the idea that real change only comes through action that often involves great sacrifice. Once they conclude that sacrifices must be made, the question then becomes how great a sacrifice does Mother Earth deserve.
As these citizen warriors organize and plan to defend Gaia, they will look to men and women who changed the world. What they will find are examples of courage and sacrifice present whenever any meaningful change comes to society. What motivated Suffragettes sacrificed to secure the right to vote for half the population will provide them an idea of what awaits them in their campaign to defend earth. Even knowing what awaits them as they wage war in defense of this planet, the few who lead this movement will not shy away from what needs to be done just as America’s Suffragettes did not shy away from sacrificing themselves in their war to change the status quo.
Men and women who do take up the call to save Gaia, they will do so remembering that a man from Brooklyn did not shy away from a level of sacrifice he believed was necessary to call us to action. Many pacifists and one former soldier of Christ were so shaken by what this one man did in a park in April 2016 that they are today re-thinking their notions of what is right and what is wrong. If you are unaware of what happened that day do not worry. The next generation of environmental activists will know what happened. In fact, that day may become a day where motivated environmentals will come together to strike fear into the hearts of those who ravage Earth because they know it is the only hope for the future.
To those romantics and traditionalists who doubt that violence is often required to affect real and permanent change in our world, this article provides some food for thought. Following the murder of George Flyod in May 2020, men and women of all colors, faiths, creeds and political persuasions took to the streets with their children, many just teenagers, to demand change. They risked being abused, arrested and/or subjected to violence from the far-right in and out of uniform. In the initial months following that murder, Americans marched in protest arm-in-arm across the country demanding change while many other Americans vandalized private property, stole private property and burned or damaged public property to show their anger and frustration. Americans had had enough of law enforcement getting a pass on gratuitous violence and wanton killings. The result of those street protests and semi-organized violence/hooliganism was the criminal prosecution, conviction and imprisonment of the men who murdered George Flyod. Of course the video of his murder would have gotten plea deals and short prison sentences for the responding officers, but that would have been the extent of accountability if that police station had not been torched and countless businesses not ransacked. That violence is what made those criminal trials a reality and no amount of spin can change that fact.