Common Sense

Appleseed was originally intended to be a “do it yourself” effort to improve marksmanship.

People were supposed to have a burning desire to learn to shoot better (in other words, to be able to see the reality of their current skills) and want to do better.

So Fred came up with the “quick and easy” – or, as we call it, “the quick and dirty” path to good rifle marksmanship, in the form of the 25m AQT targets combined with “Fred’s Guide to Becoming a Rifleman”.

And so the program was announced as such, way back in April 2005.

Maybe it would have worked, had this been the 18th-century, when people were motivated by the idea of also improving themselves.

In 21st-century America, full of souls raised to have a high opinion of themselves – the so-called “high self-esteem” PC-dictatorship of the public educational system – well-meaning people who don’t have a clue, but no inhibitions about making everyone and everything jump to their confused thoughts – I mean, when did “humility” get banned as a positive human virtue? In the 21st century, I say, it didn’t have a chance.

Every gunowner knows he can shoot well – and if he can’t, his major concern is not to learn, but to stick his head in the sand. (It helps to shoot well, if you’ll find a bench to sit at, and a sandbag…)

In other words, today’s Americans have been bamboozled into thinking they’re the greatest – whether they are, or not (and they generally aren’t).

So, no way a do-it-yourself program has a chance of success.

With those facts quickly ascertained, the notion of “kick-starting” things came to fore.

What if we were to travel the country, teaching rifle marksmanship? And, since it was clear dumbed-down Americans aren’t worth much, wakening them up to their history and heritage?

Waking up that “inner American” each of us has sleeping inside him or her…

The result is now history: the fantastic growth of Appleseed, in every direction you look.

You’d think there was a great thirst out there, thousands, and ultimately millions, of Americans who don’t know how bad they thirst for a heritage that’s second to none on this planet.

Appleseed could not be the success it’s been, without that hidden thirst unleashed by something as simple as hearing the Story.

It couldn’t be successful without Americans willing to step up and not only learn to shoot, but willing to learn to teach their fellow Americans how to shoot a rifle.

A major disappointment is America’s gun owners. Not only could the program grow much faster if they’d step up as they should, but it’s unbelievably tough to make them understand that the tradition is near on the rocks in this country, and there’s a real need for rekindling it to make sure it passing on to the next generation.

Appleseed is bottom-line, a partnership.

Appleseed has no ranges all around this country (altho we’re working through our Designated Appleseed Range program to change that). Localities, usually gun clubs, are the places Appleseed conducts Appleseeds.

Yet you’d be surprised how many gun clubs have tin ears when it comes to the 2A, to patriotism, to liberty. Sure, they may open their club meetings with the Pledge of Allegiance; sure, some or most of them may send in dues to the NRA. Heck, over 10% of gun owners have the extreme public spirit to send in their $35 annual dues! Which means 90% do nothing.

For every club which “gets it” there’s at least five, and prob ten, which don’t have a clue. For them, AS is nothing more than another commercial event which hopefully generates range fees for the club.

Is this a shame?

Thirty pieces of silver, is that’s what it’s all about?

Do you feel good, saying “yes, that’s what it’s all about”?

Or do you feel bad?

Let me tell you, if only Sarah Brady knew how easy it would be…courtesy of grocery clerks.

Back 200 years ago, King George laughed (prob until tears) when his military adjutant saluted him with the toast, at a drinking party, that, with a regiment of regulars, he’d march from one end of the North American continent to the other, gelding all the males – some with force – most with a little persuasion.

Funny, right?

Maybe you can understand the contempt expressed in that boast (one reason, by the way, you never want your enemies contemptuous of you).

But, back then, King George was not dealing with 20th-century Americans.

He may have been dealing with grocery clerks – along with farmers, lawyers, ministers, teachers, laborers, craftsmen – but each and every one of them was skilled with firearms – and much more important, had a burning desire for liberty burning in their hearts.

Sigh, t’is no more.

Today, we really are grocery clerks, making change and counting our pennies, unable to hit a target and not caring – and liberty? What does that have to do with making money?

A people who cares not for liberty is likely to lose it.

A people who doesn’t care about their heritage doesn’t deserve it.

Life on this planet has a tendency to take advantage of weakness – and hopeless, helpless, hapless people are weak.

You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs — victory in spite of all terrors — victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival. - Winston Churchill, May 13, 1940

Pretty tough words, maybe you will agree.

Hard, on 21st-century ears.

It’s not supposed to be like that.

We’re supposed to be all people of high self-esteem who are liked – maybe worshiped – by the rest of the world.

What is wrong with them?

If you care for liberty, if you care for your country, get yourself to an Appleseed.

Experience The Story. Give yourself the chance to Hear The Story.

Every person we get to an Appleseed is more brick in building a solid foundation for the future…

Can there be any question that life is full of ironies and humor?

Some of it breaks your heart, even as you see the humor and smile through your tears.

Most – if not all – of the laughs come from your fellow humans. Since we’re here in America, we may as well say, “our fellow Americans”.

No longer seemingly the creatures of old, the two-fisted ancients who met the Brits along Battle Road so long ago, and sent ‘em packing back to Boston.

No sir, we deal today with the modern 21st-century American, and sometimes this product of the new “build their self-esteem” educational system is not too impressive.

But if looking to the past to compare with the present, we don’t need to go that far back, all the way to Battle Road.

Let’s travel back to 1927, a time before PC (so we can trust the author’s judgments and comments to be unbiased). If you’re in “the gun world”, you’ve no doubt heard of a fellow name Crossman (even if his memory is fading) who wrote several good books.

I will quote from his “Military and Sporting Rifle Shooting”, from a chapter titled “Gun Clubs”:

Under construction – stay tuned!

There seems a growing consensus that piling up debt by government is really “taxation without representation” – after all, the people who will be paying the debt back, most of them, are unborn – no way – being unborn – they have any say in our spending their tax dollars.

Yet, the notion of “taxation with representation” is or should be pretty discredited by now, also.

If you look at historical comparisons, you find the ancient Egyptians were forced to work for the Pharaoh for three months out of each year, building those pyramids.

For us modern, up-to-date, tax-paying, voting Americans, Tax Freedom Day, the day we have paid all our taxes, the day we celebrate keeping the money we earn, for ourselves to spend, was May 29th last year (according to the Tax Freedom Foundation – I’ve been told they undercount actual taxes…).

Just so we understand the difference, that’s five months of the year we work for the state.

4500 years ago, it was only three.

That’s progress…

But it suggests to me, if time machines are ever built, no way will the gov allow its citizens to escape into the more lightly-taxed world of ancient Egypt. (Of course, if time machines are ever built, you can rest assured they will be taxed along with everything else.)

But can you hear the hype if it was allowed?

“Visit Ancient Egypt, Land of Enchantment – and Land of Low Taxes!”

I bet retired people would be flocking to experience the lower taxes…and the warmth of the sunny clime.

Arizona, with pyramids.

Fred, are you saying taxation without representation is better than taxation with representation?

How can that be?

Yet the facts are there: 3 months in ancient Egypt; 5 months in modern America. (OK, I understand there were prob other taxes collected in ancient Egypt which might even change the balance – but isn’t the point made? That in Pharaoh-dominated ancient Egypt, land of priests and slavery, we have to add up all the taxes to see if we can offset the apparent imbalance with the freedom-loving Land of Taxation that is modern America?)

Taxation with representation? It’s what the Founders fought a bloody 8-yr war over.

Because we want to be able to have our say in how we are taxed.

How about it? Do you feel you have a say in how you are taxed?

Vote for the guy who promises “less taxes” and, inevitably, once in office the first thing he does is vote for higher taxes?

And how about that Bill Clinton, who to my knowledge was the first to impose taxes retroactively? Sure, only for a month or so – but the point has been made, the barrier broken, the Rubicon crossed. Politicians in the future at some future date can assess taxes on you, now! Right now.

That’s correct: right now, in today’s America, you have no idea of what your taxes are – right now. Of course, you think you know what they are. But we no longer live in a present with any certainty, as some politician a month or 12 months from now may get a tax bill passed which retroactively increases our taxes – right back to NOW.

What – you don’t like the idea?

Don’t like high taxes, either?

No problem. Except when you vote, you can’t rely on the candidate to keep his word. Right?

So, essentially, you are without a voice.

The ruling class, the politicians, has had generations to not only dumb down the populace thru the educational system (have you figured that one out yet – the more we spend, the dumber people get?) but to constantly ‘test’ the electorate to see how much they will swallow.

And to our disgrace, and our misfortune, they’ve found we’ll swallow about anything.

Let’s see: three months or five?

Starting to get the travel brochures out?

There are choice building spots, right near the pyramids. I hear there’s already at least one retirement community development in the works!

 This is what happens when a great people goes to sleep, and forgets, to its ultimate cost, a history and heritage deserving of not being forgot.

It’s what happens, when you forget the past, and ‘drift’ sets in.

Appleseed – waking up the American people to their history and heritage – will solve this problem – which is why we need your shoulder to help us in this ever-growing program.

What a question!

Of course, it’s for everybody!

EVERYONE is welcome to come to Appleseed.

We don’t care who you are, what you are, what you think – we simply ask you to bring a teachable attitude with you (and of course, we ask you to ‘be legal’ – we don’t need any criminals there).

But is Appleseed for everybody?

Sadly, no.

It’s not possible in a “mass” program, designed to mass-produce rifleman, designed to introduce people to their history and heritage on a mass basis – no, it’s simply not for everyone. No “mass” program can truly be “mass”. No “mass” program can succeed in “being all things to all people”.

Plus, there really is no “mass” American.

Even back at the founding of the country, there was no “mass” American. No uniformity, much less unanimity, about ways of thinking, beliefs – any of the things that are important.

Sam Adams told us, as did his cousin John: During the Revolution, they told us, about one-third of Americans were pro-Liberty and independence; one-third were against, and wanted to remain subjects of the Crown – and one-third simply didn’t care – their main goal in life was to be “left alone”.

So a “mass program” – a mass program for the “masses” – back then would have been doomed to failure – as, regardless of whom it was designed for, at least two-thirds of the “masses” would have been critical of it.

In other words, the highest popularity/approval rating could have been little better than 33% – not what we would in this day call a success!

Fast-forward to today, and let’s make an unreasonable assumption: that things have changed so much that a “mass” program like Appleseed reaches the unbelievable height of “90% approval”. Wow!

Those of us in the program would be ecstatic!

But it means, on the flip side, ten per cent of people coming to Appleseed would not be approving of the program. That’s a lot of people (even using our unrealistic “90% approval” assumption – in reality, we should prob be happy if 75-80% of attendees approve of their experience).

Last year, 10,000 people went thru the program. This year, 20,000 is the goal.

Meaning last year, there were a minimum of 1000 people more or less disappointed or unhappy or less than enthusiastic about their Appleseed experience – and likely, a lot more (if the true approval level is 75-80%).

And this year, that figure will double to 2000.

Ouch!

Sure, no program is perfect. You don’t and can’t design a program which will get 100% approval.

Heck, even Elton John doesn’t have 100% of music fans liking his style of music.

So, when you see some scathing critique on the ‘net of Appleseed try and remember, we can’t satisfy everyone – and that you need to keep the “big picture” in mind.

We’re trying to save a nation, with this program.

To stop a sinking ship. One which has all of us on its decks as passengers.

We don’t need 100% to do that.

Some would say, we don’t even need 50%.

Whatever the number we need is, if we accomplish the Mission of ship-saving, we’ll have done our job, and the critics and nay-sayers can have fun, while we take a well-earned rest.

We could sure use your help. Sign up at www.rwva.org.

You may find Appleseed is spot-on – for YOU!

“Houston, this is Fred, in orbit, looking down on 21st-century America.

“Nice looking place!

“But I need to know something.

“Is there life, there?

“Is there life, among Americans?

“Houston, how you answer that question will help me answer another: Is there hope?

“Houston, sorry to tie up the circuit, but help me out – if there’s no life, maybe there’s no hope?

“Houston, I understand your last – you say evidence of life is not proof of anything greater; that more important than life, you are saying, are things like freedom, courage, commitment, persistence – even intelligence?

“Yes, Houston, I copy. And thank you for not sugar-coating it.

“In 21st-century America, there is little love of liberty, much apathy, and universal laziness. Ouch! That hurts, even to the ear – and it’s worse to the heart.

“What about teamwork, Houston?

“No that’s not a joke, so why are you laughing?

Now, back to earth. There are those of you who are wrapped up in yourselves, traveling life’s path, looking for deals you can make or save some money on.

I know. I used to do it, too…

But I was never all that one-dimensional about it.

I also understood there’s more to it – more to life – than making or saving money.

I don’t know why I’m different from you, that way.

Maybe a life-time of growing up in a tradition, and hearing how it was dying, how it was not being passed on to the next generation.

Offer me a chance way back then, to “do something”, and I would have been willing.

But there was no Appleseed. Not “way back then”.

So, things got worse each year.

They are still getting worse.

Only now, there is hope.

Appleseed is about the end of the excuse that “someone will do it” (in the face of all the evidence – decades of it – that no one will) and a recognition that, if it is to be done, we are the ones who will have to do it.

Appleseed is about a recognition that complaining is worthless, that only doing something counts.

So, why are you not signing on to Appleseed?

What is there about you that, when offered a chance to contribute to passing the tradition on, to saving a nation, you are willing to let others – to wait and see if others – can make it happen, while you continue to do nothing?

What is it that keeps you from stepping up to a task every American should want to step up to? And would take pride in stepping up to?

Who needs to appear in front of you with a sword, and draw a line in the dirt with it, and invite all brave Americans who love liberty to “take one step forward”?

Is it that you don’t like being “told what to do”?

Sure, Fred understands. You are a 21st-century American – no way anyone is gonna tell you what to do…

Is it that you don’t want to get off the couch?

Sure, Fred understands: 21st-century Americans are wedded to their couches – why should you be any different?

21st Century Americans wallow in ignorance of their heritage.

What? You say, you don’t?

OK, can you prove it?

Can you tell me why the colonists fought on April 19th?

Can you tell me what a founder meant when he said “The American Revolution was won before the first shot was fired”?

Can you tell me where the Revolutionary War started? (It’s an exact spot in a road.)

If you don’t know the answers, if you don’t know what happened on April 19, 1775, you need to take a good look at yourself

And while you are taking that look, go to your local library, and ask the librarian to find you a book on April 19th, 1775, so you can find out about your heritage.

There’s more to liberty than TV. Or a sofa. Or even, I shudder to tell you, a new car.

There used to be a concept called “shame” in this country.

Thank heaven that concept is no longer around.

Else, you’d be feeling it.

Hold back, while fellow Americans are out there, working in the real world – Appleseeding! – to make sure the tradition passes to the next generation?

How can you do that, and hold your head up high?

Which brings us back to the basic question: Are you alive?

The do-do bird is no longer alive – couldn’t be troubled to survive. The do-do valued (to the extent a bird can) laziness over freedom, apathy over caring, ignorance over being smart.

Say, does that sound like the typical 21st-century American?

Hey! That sounds just like you!

Maybe that is you?

Now, the tough question: Do you wanna be like the do-do bird?

Now, don’t answer quickly, cause I really need an honest answer, here.

And you’ll admit, maybe, that “why would you ever want to emulate the do-do bird?” can be a tough question for some of you.

Do your standards actually let you value laziness over liberty?

Sorry, the answer to that question is pretty obvious.

Guess it’s not that hard a question to answer, after all.

Still, no reason why you can’t help out – even a little bit.

To make Appleseed a success, we need your help, in a surprisingly low-tech way: We need you to “help get the word out” about this great program – by making a list of your friends, neighbors, co-workers, family/relatives – and talk with each of them about the need to come to Appleseed – in a kind-and-gentle, but somewhat persistent, manner.

If you can get them to come to Appleseed (naturally, you are invited, too), if you will simply get everyone you can to an Appleseed, it’ll be easy to let the program do its work on them…

To educate them in the history and heritage they, as Americans, need to know. And to feel a part of.

Last year, we met our goal of bringing history, the tradition of rifle marksmanship, and heritage to 10,000 of our fellow Americans. (After bumping the 2009 goal UP from the 8,000 we set four years ago!)

This year our goal once again doubles, to 20,000. Definitely, we need your help – no more do you want sit back on the couch, and let others do it.

You want Appleseed to work

Time is short, and we have a country to save.

“In the end, more than they wanted freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all — security, comfort, and freedom. When…the freedom they wished for was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free.” – Sir Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)

Some of us think it’s great to be ‘average’, whatever it is.

After all, you can say “the average American” is a law-abiding citizen who pays his taxes.

In fact, you can argue, t’would be the ideal citizen: “stay out of trouble”, and “pay your taxes”.

Certainly, any government worth its salt would delight in having a citizenry which knows to “shut up and obey all laws we tell you to obey” and “pay your taxes”…

Used to be, you could say “hard-working” but don’t know just how true that is, any more (of course, YOU are hard-working, without a doubt – even as you read this, at work).

Yet “the average American” hasn’t a clue as to what’s happening in his country today.

Nor has a clue as to how to evaluate any of it – you need standards for that. Those standards come from history, from the founders – and a recent survey showed “[m]ore than a third of adults could not place the American Revolution in the correct century.”

That’s pretty sorry, isn’t it?

Arguably the defining event in the modern world, and a large segment of Americans cannot place it within a hundred years…

Makes my point…

I can tell you something else – and this you probably don’t want to hear – the average American will not lift a finger to save this nation. Not a finger.

First, because he doesn’t even know it needs saving (even if another recent survey showed 60+% think this nation is “going down the wrong road”).

Second, because he may be uneasy about the future, but he can’t quite put his finger on what the problem is (even if he sees the problem, every day – every time he looks in the mirror).

Third, because he has forgotten “how to do something” – a few years, a generation or two in front of the telly – and you lose the ability. Thinking’s not like riding a bike, you know…nor is analyzing.

Fourth, he no longer can work with his fellow Americans.

That requires subordinating himself to others as everyone works toward a common goal.

And few of our personalities in the current Land of the Big Self-Esteem can any longer bring themselves to do that.

It requires too much – putting up with people you don’t like, having others dis your “brilliant” ideas (what nerve they have – anyone can see they’re brilliant, right?)

Plus it requires something else people have lost.

Let’s call it “Fifth” on our list – no one has any notion of “commitment” any more. Commitment implies a steadfastness alien to the modern American, who’s steadfast only in being in front of the tube at the right times to see his “shows”.

Commitment implies grit, backbone, iron determination to meeting a goal – even spirit, as in “The Spirit of ‘76”.

Commitment is something that separates “summer soldiers and sunshine patriots” from the other kind – the “other kind” being about extinct – and from the rest of us do-nothings, as the ‘sunshines’ are at least doing something when the weather is good and the sun is out – and we’ve already seen the “average American will do nothing” – in fact, can’t do anything…

A sad image indeed.

Like the young army lad at the RWVA range so long ago, who, when handed a loaded 30-round mag for his M16, and told by his sarge to “hit the 300 yd popup”, fires a shot which splashes in the dirt six inches below the popup – and proceeds to put the next 29 rounds in the same spot – a heart-swelling, pride-building example of what it means to be a modern American – totally hapless, totally helpless, and pretty much hopeless. Sad, sad to see.

But there’s worse.

Quit thinking for a year, and your mind turns rusty on ya.

Quit thinking for years, and it turns to mush.

So, after a few generations of TV & Couch, what is the American popular mentally like?

“Gullible” is a polite way to put it. Simple-minded, naive, easily-led – man, the media must be in heaven, along with the politicians.

Simply promise ‘em anything, and you’ll get their vote.

All the proof you need is to look at our current elected officials, and the scope of the promises they seem unafraid to make.

Attention spans are too short for voters to remember, after you’re elected. Besides, who are they gonna replace you with? Someone exactly like you, right?

You could argue that America was once a land about people who were above average – or, at least, wanted and worked to be.

You may agree being “better than average” is a plus not only to financial prospects but to all other life prospects, from marriage to happiness. To survival.

You may even agree it took above average people to found this country. To write the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution.

All of which might suggest to you that you (try to) become above average, yourself.

In a sense, Appleseed is about making Americans into those above average Americans who founded the country.

To wake ‘em up, and get ‘em thinking, again.

But one thing is for sure: Do not be satisfied with “being average”. It’s not smart. It’s not even safe. It brings joy to our enemies on this planet.

No way should you be average.

Not as an American…

Made your resolutions?

It’s not too late.

To resolve this year to do something different.

To become a better American.

To understand what being an American means – or should mean.

To become aware of a proud and nearly-forgotten heritage.

One which deserves remembering, preserving.

One worthy of dying for, if needed.

One which needs saving…

New Year’s resolutions, that is.

Do you bother with ‘em?

Do you make ‘em?

Resolutions are what you make, traditionally, at the beginning of each year.

Fred, foreshadowing 21st-century America, never made any, until one year, he had to.

And he kept the resolutions he made that year.

Which led to serious consideration on his part about making them for other years.

What caused this remarkable first-ever event, you ask?

George Bush, the first one, after promising to protect the 2A, signed as soon as he got in office his executive order banning the further import of “assault rifles”. Here was a man who had all the opportunities in life – war hero, ambassador to China, CIA head, two terms under Ronald Regan (what? did nothing rub off?) – and when it comes down to it, a man of no priniciples, no core beliefs, a hollow man, just another politician lying to get your vote. (And destined, showing there is justice, to lose to someone like Clinton…)

Yep, that motivated me to resolve to go to the National Matches at Camp Perry – and so I did in the summer of 1989, turning up at the gates a total newbie, having participated in five highpower matches in the months before but still without much of a clue as to what I was doing…

So, resolutions work.

If you make ‘em – and if you keep ‘em.

Now, how about you?

Gonna do something different this year, and make some resolutions?

Gonna buck that 21st-century tide, and do something different?

(Can I suggest, if that’s what it takes to get you off the couch, that you make them? Time is not on our side, my friend…)

And then are you gonna do something even more non-21st-century, and actually keep ‘em?

Is so, can I suggest a few?

They work better if you make ‘em specific, not just the “I promise to be better” variety.

So, here’s my list:

(The first, like on all such serious lists, is the hardest…)

1. Get up off the couch.

2. Turn off the TV – in fact, get rid of it.

3. Get to an Appleseed. You have nothing to work for that’s much bigger than you and your problems – so Appleseed will be your answer.

4. At the Appleseed, do everything you’re told - you want to learn to shoot, right? – but listen, watch, observe, analyze what is going on around you, what you are participating in. Later, think about it, and what the program is about, and what it means for it to be succesful.

5. Help the program right now in the most low-tech – and free! – way possible. Make a list of your friends, co-workers, neighbors, family/relatives – everyone you know – and gently and persistently urge them to come to Appleseed, to see for themselves.

6. Sign up for the program as a volunteer - you could be an instructor or you can volunteer to help in other ways, usually right at home, on your comuter, an hour or two a night.

21st-century America is a tough place to be. A country slowly settling into the muck of ignorance, apathy, and laziness.

That’s your country, I’m talking about. And your future.

21st-century Americans are hard people to be. Shiftless, characterless, aimless, hollow, worthless – you name it.

Should you take pride in that – or should you feel something akin to fear for the future?

Life does not treat such people and such nations with kindness.

So maybe we can agree the future is not rosy. In fact, it’s pretty dark…

Unless we change it.

So, resolution #7: Resolve to pick up a bucket and start bailing the sinking ship. Resolve to do whatever it takes to stop the ship from sinking.

First thing, you quickly realize, is this is NOT a one-man job. You need some help!

That’s why we have Appleseed.

So wake up your friends, neighbors, relatives, co-workers to the looming threat.

Sure, they don’t want to wake up.

They’re 21st-century Americans, for God’s sake!

Why should they wake up?

So, right out the gate, you have an up-hill battle.

But, what’s your options? What’s your choices?

Fact is, in a throwback to 200 years ago, it’s again “Liberty or Death!” time.

There are differences.

For one thing, you don’t need to reach for your firearm to defend against the tyranny of a faraway Parliament.

And you know, from the founders, that the American Revolution was a revolution in hearts and minds of Americans.

Win their hearts and minds, wake ‘em up, and the second American Revolution is won.

Simple as that.

Simple, yes, but a tall order, indeed.

How are you gonna bail out that ship?

Once you wake up your neighbors, your friends, your relatives, your co-workers, what do you tell ‘em to do?

Again, simple.

Appleseed is the answer.

Appleseed is a program which offers not only the answer, we’ll do the work for you. (Check it out at rwva.org…)

If you will simply get your friends, neighbors, etc to come to the next AS, we’ll wake them up for you.

You heard me. We’ll take the work out of waking them up.

All you have to do, is get them there. That’s a tough enough job, in and of itself.

Tough, yes. But you can do it.

If you resolve to…

Yep, why worry?

It’s a bright new year in America, a year you can look forward to lots of wonderful and good things happening – right?

Yes, you can laugh at that.

Most of us may have a feeling that waiting for us is something dark, looming larger and larger: a future I doubt many of us is looking forward to.

Some of you, reading this, may think Fred loves being a Jeremiah.

Unfortunately for Fred, he does not.

Few people “look up” to a Jeremiah – and few listen.

In fact, you could see being a Jeremiah as a prescription for being the most unpopular person in the room.

Yet, it’s not about popularity, or what Fred wants.

Out there, in reality, are some things we have to deal with.

Ignore them, and they don’t go away. They get worse.

Little things, ignored, become big things which can kill you, or your way of life.

The biggest thing we have to deal with, now, is drift.

Drift away from the roots of this country, and from our heritage.

No, I don’t know when it started. Drift in the early stages is so imperceptible it would be hard to date when it really began.

We can know when it started, if not in temporal terms, in actual terms.

It started when the American Revolution began to drain from the hearts/minds of Americans.

When other things became more important.

When the American Revolution, as a presence in our hearts and minds, began to fade.

When did that happen?

When did references to the Revolution in July 4 speeches become a mere formality, part of the repertoire of uncaring politicians, heard by uncaring and uncomprehending populations?

As far back as pre-Civil War?

But a drift over time slowly accelerates. Until, in time, you can begin to see it. It’s no longer imperceptible.

What allows drift is an uncaring population.

A population become ignorant of its history and heritage.

A population apathetic about its revolutionary roots.

Which means, as the drift accelerates, they will be the last to notice – or care!

I guess you can say it’s part of human nature.

Heck, Moses wasn’t up the mountain but a few days when the Israelites decided to make and worship a golden calf.

Guess if the spirit of the Revolution lasted more than a few generations, we should, as a people, be proud of even that accomplishment.

However, that’s not much help, in our present dire circumstance. Reality has to be dealt with, and it’s about where it cannot be ignored any longer.

“Those who fail to prepare are preparing to fail” is something I saw on the rwva.org site recently.

“Preparation” can mean many things.

For most gun buff types, it no doubt means preparing for survival, generally in a practical “do I have enough to carry me thru in the way of supplies” manner.

Some of them are even looking forward to it, to being on their own, surviving.

Others are looking forward, in their fantasies, to gunning down the enemies we face today.

Fred used to be like that: how simple and elegant it would be.

Right in the American spirit.

See a problem? Roll up your sleeves, wade in, and get it fixed.

Friends, it ain’t gonna happen.

And, if it happens, it ain’t gonna work out for you.

Reach for a firearm, and, unless it’s for immediate self-defense, you’ve just “done it”.

Screwed the pooch.

Stepped on your private parts.

Become the coyote in the Road Runner cartoons.

Repeat after me: “If you don’t have the hearts and minds of Americans, you lose.”

Again: “If you don’t have the hearts and minds of Americans, you lose.”

Being an American, you’re really not into “losing”.

Hopefully, you’re into winning.

If you are, you’ll be glad to know there’s other, more important, dimensions to “preparing”.

Like preparations which involve not personal survival, but preparing – and trying – to ensure your country, your heritage, even freedom itself, survives.

Let’s see, which is more important: Your survival? Or the survival of the American Revolution, usually summarized in one word – Liberty?

This being the 21st-century, there’s no question what the answer is: YOUR survival.

However, if you look about you, you should be reluctant to adopt anything which is 21st-century America.

For good reason: Two hundred years back, the answer would be the opposite – the survival of liberty would come first – before life itself.

Once, the American Revolution was treasured.

Once, the blood and sacrifice of the Founders was valued, respected, remembered.

And in the remembering, kept alive. Even honored…

A time when people were not ignorant, not apathetic, not lazy.

Maybe, thinking on it, you’d like to have those times back.

A time when Americans knew what they were about, knew what was important, and what was not.

A time when liberty was strong, respect for private property was rock solid, personal sovereignty was alive and well.

If you think you’d like to see those times come back, you have to do something – cause you’re one of the few who does.

Like, you have to make others aware of what we are missing, and what we are losing, so we don’t completely lose it.

Why you?

Well, who else?

Do you see anyone else doing it?

Do you see politicians doing it? (No sir, they are part of the problem.)

Do you see educators doing it? (No sir, they are part of the problem.)

Do you see the White House doing it? (No sir, it’s part of the problem.)

Do you see the media doing it? (No sir, the media is part of the problem.)

Do you see your neighbor doing it? (No sir, he is part of the problem.)

By a process of elimination, it comes down to you.

And your fellow Appleseed Americans.

Up to us? No problem. “Fixing things” is what Americans are good at.

In some ways, it’s easy to get started.

The New Year is here. A time to make resolutions. You can sit down, take a deep breath, and take the most important “first step” you’ll ever take: make a personal resolution to attend the first Appleseed you can get to in 2010 and a second resolution to bring at least one fellow American – and more if you can – with you.

As you sit there, thinking about the future you have to face, the future none of us wants to see come to pass, write out a list of your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers – everyone you know – including family and relatives – and talk to them about Appleseed.

Do it “kinder and gentler” and be prepared: Most are gonna wanna cling to their couches.

Here, gentle persistence is the answer. Plus getting all their kids you can to come with you…

We have a country to save… and time is short.

Yes, you should worry.

But resolve, to do something!

I tried to leave this as a comment to Fred’s Somali story, but could not so I will post it as a reply here.

Fred, I think you have hit this right on the head. When I read this my knee started to jerk immediatly.

I knew if we could just get those firearms out of the hands of those nomadic, warring tribesmen, who are now cooped up in cities without any kind of jobs or economy, we could get them started on their journey towards pacification.

An easy fix.

I put out of my mind the fact that in this population of almost 100% armed male adults, there was an amazingly low number of actual gun crimes. There were deaths dues to the ongoing war and tribal fueds, but no real murders or accidental shootings.

That being said, and just as quickly ignored, I am sure that just somehow consficatiing the hundreds of thousands of rifles, we can pacify and calm the population and get them involved in the real day to day function of world government and taxes.

They can trade in their rifles for landscaping equipment and garage door openers, chain link fences etc. And becoome productive, relaxed suburbanites.

However, just as my itchey fingers were about to close around the barrrels of those hundreds of thousands of evil firearms, I recalled similiar events which had occurred just a few years ago and on this same continent.

It seems that the inhabitants of Rawanda had decided to become embroiled in a genocidal civil war in which over 500,000 Rawandans had been killed.

And the most revealing thing about this was that the Rawandans had few to no firearms, but these enterprising Africans did not let this stop them.

It seems that almost every Rawandan had a machete, and were more than willing to use these machetes to kill their fellow tribesman. And in the cases where no machete was readily available, they used axes, shovels, hoes, pickaxes, kitchen knives, screwdrivers, chainsaws, burning tires, rocks etc.

And when none of these implements were available they were only too ready to use their bare hands to strangle or beat the victims to death.

Let me say that this easily dispells the myth of “lazy Africans” perpetuated by Belgian colonial forces. To kill 500,000 of your fellow countrymen in such a short time period, you need to work very hard every day. You have to keep on a schedule and treat this as a real job.

This certainly puts a new light on things. Now I have a slight worry that simply consficating firearms might not solve the problem, but I am sure I can easily just be persuaded to be in denial of that and continue on with this plan.

PS- The person narrating the YouTube video is supposed to be an ex Navy SEAL.

No problem there except when they come to one of the AK-stands, the character who has been following them picks up an empty RPG launcher and points it at the SEAL who quickly ducks out of the line of sight of the barrel (which you can see daylight through, thereby insuring it is indeed an empty RPG) and when the goober pointing the RPG sees this he get tickled and points it at the cameraman who also tries to hide and cower from the empty launcher. Ducking and shrinking in fear.

This produces even more attempts by the goober at scaring the crew. Soon, even the crowd begins to laugh and point at the silly scared Americans.

You see, even the backwards, uneducated Somalians know when an RPG launcher is empty and presents no threat to anyone. Even the women and children know this, everyone knows this, except the scared AMericans.

So it is with no surprise that soon the crowd begins to think they should perhaps capture and beat these silly people. Why should they have any respect for anyone who ducks and shows fear when someone points an empty launcher at them? That would be no different than someone getting scared at a plain wooden stick being pointed at them, and even I would have to lose some respect for someone who ducked down and cowered when I pointed a stick at them.

I think I might have played it differently, especially if I had been a Navy SEAL,( I was only a RANGER) I think I might have picked up an AK from the stand and with a big friendly grin on my face, racked the bolt and pointed it at his head and waited to see if he would duck.

When he did, I would have laughed and pointed to him and the crowd would have started laughing at him too. Then, I would have swept the crowd with the AK that had the racked bolt, safety off, and seen if they would duck too. Then laughed and pointed at them.

The point being, when in Africa, a continent filled with predators, try not to look like prey.

[WARNING: Unless you are an Appleseed volunteer, some of this may be incomprehensible to you.]

Surely, you know already, being an Appleseed volunteer is about doing things.

About working.

Not the typical internet “who can be the biggest talker” or “who can win the post count contest.”

“Getting the job done, safetly and effectively” should be a mantra for all Appleseed volunteers.

Becoming an instructor is only the first step.

Sure, being an instructor is a Big Deal.

For starters, it means you know how to shoot a rifle – since you are rifleman-qualified.

500 yards, which would be nearly incomprehensible for most shooters and rifle owners, and absolutely miraculous to non-gunowners, is for you the mere routine – even if it will always remain challenging. (Why? Because firing the shot is the least of the three challenges facing a rifleman. But you know the other two, right?)

But that’s for starters.

Under the “learn to shoot today; teach to shoot tomorrow” Appleseed imperative, you are doing the most important task in this country today: waking up your fellow Americans into becoming what Americans should be about.

But, being an instructor is not a full time job.

In fact, it takes up, for most instructors, no more than one weekend a month.

And there’s 27 other days in that month.

And a nation to save.

Uh-oh, what do we do with all that free time?

Most of us volunteers will be so concerned about our Mission we will want to put in some hours during those 27 other days, doing the things we need to do to handle the rapid expansion of our program and see that we are being effective as we can in attaining our Mission.

Now, I wish I could say being an Appleseed volunteer was all wine and roses.

But, in truth, it is not.

There are aggravations, there are frictions, there are many things to make you unhappy – discouragements being a major one.

Trying to ‘get the word out’ is both discouraging and frustrating, as you find the vast majority of your fellow Americans are not into being woken up – in fact, are resistant to waking up. They simply don’t want to.

You find you quickly have to ratchet your expectations down, not a notch, but a couple of orders of magnitude.

From getting all or most in your family to an AS, you find you’re lucky to get one – and that, after ‘working’ on him or her for a while.

From imagining a neighborhood caravan headed for the next AS, courtesy of your efforts, you quickly lower your hopes to getting one or two to come – and like as not, they won’t be coming to the same AS!

Co-workers? Gotta be careful and low-key – can’t be TOO persistent – or your reputation will turn to that of a “kook” or “fanatical”. Slow and easy, steady as she goes, is the answer.

And you’ll learn to be sly about it. You’ll learn a direct approach may not be as good as an indirect approach. So you don’t ask a guy to come directly. You may first find out if he has kids and grandkids, and stress the educational (in terms of firearms safety and the history which Appleseed teaches) aspect of getting them to come – and getting him to come, in the process.

Sometimes, to get into the yard, you don’t go thru the front gate, as it’s easier to go around back, and climb over the fence…

Indeed, from visualizing dozens of friends, neighbors, co-workers, family and relatives coming to an Appleseed from your efforts, you may have to rachet down to getting ONE PERSON A YEAR into Appleseed. Yes, it’s that bad in modern America!

But do not discourage over that: ONE a year means every year you double this program, and if every person you get into AS will also recruit “one a year”, this program will expand with phenomenal speed.

In addition, as an AS volunteer, in the face of these discouragements, you are fortunate to have certain Appleseed precepts to fall back on, and to strengthen you in your tasks.

One is “Persist!” But you learned that, on the road to becoming a Rifleman.

It’s possible, at your first Appleseed, you heard this:

“I want to congratulate you on your decision to learn to shoot rifle.

“But I also want you to understand that you’ve grabbed something of a tarbaby.

“That is, something you can’t let go of.

“In other words, once you start on the journey to becoming a rifleman, once you take that first step, you can’t quit. You have to continue – thru the aggravation, the pain, the discouragement – everything!

“Because if you stop, if you quit, what does that say about you?

“That you are a quitter – right?

“Now, where in the definition of ‘American’ do you find the word, ‘quitter’?

Ouch! That’s a tough approach to take, even if the same speaker will take some of the sting out by telling you that, if you persist until you become a Rifleman, you’ll later come to realize that the process which seems so daunting at present will not only seem not so daunting in retrospect, but actually – fun!!!

Another set-in-stone saying you’ll be able to rely on is ‘Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome’ – the motto of the RWVA Engineers, whose mission is to travel to strange places and put on a good AS, despite any and all obstacles, whether weather-related or range-related.

You’ll find some of the legends relating to that ethos echoing down thru the program. Evansville in ‘06, where because of threatening weather, the night before the AS the RWVA Engineers put up 90 feet of firing line shelter out of metal pipes and tarps.

Or Phoenix in ‘07, where the wind was exploding target frames and hurling the bits at the shooters on the firing lines – where a 6″ X 6″ 2-foot long piece of wood was seen rolling down the concrete firing line – courtesy of that same wind. All other events on the range were cancelled; the public part of the range was closed – but we secured permission to cut the frames down, remount them with bracing ropes, and continue the AS.

“Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome!”

Now, why do you do all this?

Why go thru all the pain, all the aggravation, all the discouragement?

Because there’s a Mission involved.

Something as simple as survival.

For some of us, it’s personal survival.

For most of us, it’s more likely aimed at the survival of our kids and grandkids.

For many of us, it’s a feeling we should never let this country drift from its founding principles which relate to liberty and equality.

For more of us, it’s a steel determination to pay back some of the debt we owe the founders by not letting their sacrifices end up in vain.

The Mission.

It comes first.

It should be more important than any of us.

More important than temporary discouragements, temporary aggravations, temporary pain.

In fact, none of us faces the level of suffering the founders voluntarily undertook in order to create what all of us should see as the most valuable things in our lives – not flat-screen TVs, not music, not the greenest yard in the neighborhood, or the newest car – but liberty and equality before the law, pure and simple.

For some of us in Appleseed, when the going gets tough, comparing what we face today to what they faced puts a calming perspective on us before we start to weep and wail over the frustration, etc.

The historic fact about Americans, we soon come to conclude, is that they don’t weep and wail – they get things done. They persist.

When enemy planes sink our fleet at Pearl Harbor, we not only build a new and mightier fleet, we build a weapon which will make the enemy surrender, unconditionally.

You don’t mess with Americans.

At least, you didn’t used to.

Now, with our politicians adopting the failed policies of Neville Chamberlain, the likelihood of “messing with Americans” is prob increased a bit.

But that’s talking about politics, which in Appleseed is like complaining about the weather – not much you can do about it – it may be good today, but will be bad tomorrow – like election outcomes.

Appleseed, you soon come to learn, is about changing the climate. We do that by waking up the American people to their history and heritage, so they understand what they need to understand, so they once again have standards to serve as anchors, and prevent drift away from our founding principles.

It’s a big Mission.

One that prob has never been undertaken, before, in this country.

Not with such a precise focus on the founders, and the founding principles.

Not stripped of conspiracy theories (there are none, in Appleseed – what you see, is what you get – a simple education of Americans to the first principles behind the founding of their country).

Yet we can do it.

We don’t have to ask anyone’s permission, to do it.

Not as Americans, we don’t.

And if enough of decide we want to do, it shall be done.

If enough of us continue – persist! – despite the obstacles of apathy, laziness, and ignorance which lie before us, each a mountain piled up by preceding generations – we can do it.

Being an Appleseed volunteer is not easy.

It flies in the face of what it is, to be, in 21st-century America.

Because it takes intelligence, to realize the importance of the Mission. Intelligence, in fact, to even be able to see and understand the necessity of the Mission.

And it takes commitment. The determination to persist thru both thick and thin. To stay the course.

To understand the Mission is more important than our personal ego, or our personal comfort.

Intelligence? Commitment?

They’re becoming increasingly rare birds in modern America.

In fact, they are one aspect of the need for Appleseed, and the Mission.

Ignorant people who put themselves and their comfort before everything else are doomed not to last long on this planet. Too many thin and hungry humans out there…

We have a saying in Appleseed, one instructors hear very early in their training: Check your ego at the door!

Sure, everyone nods – but us AS veterans know nodding is not the same as “checking”.

People have to learn the hard way what “checking your ego at the door” means. Some don’t make the cut, prefering to leave the program.

Those who make the grade are the better for it (in fact, us AS vets will tell you right up front: AS is a program about many things – and one of the important ones is that it’s about self-improvement – about making you a better, more effective, more mature person).

Go thru the Appleseed smelter, and you emerge, on the other side, solid steel. Something much better than when you went in, as pot-metal.

Appleseed is clearly not for everyone in America.

Just as the founders believed, that people back in 1775 were not unanimously for liberty – in fact, according to Sam Adams, not even a majority was for liberty! – modern 21st-century Americans, many of them, are prob never going to wake up to AS and its message.

But we don’t have to have every American, shameful as it seems, to sign on to our country’s foundational principles.

We don’t even need a majority.

We need a strong, dedicated, awake, steely-eyed, committed, liberty-loving, founder-appreciating energetic minority which will send the message that what the founders fought so hard for will never, as in NEVER, be allowed to die in this country.

That’s all it takes.

That, and you coming to an Appleseed, and seeing if this program is for you.

While you’re at it, see if you can bring a friend, relative, co-worker, neighbor…

See if you can bring more than one…

(Pssst! I haven’t mentioned, have I, that participation in Appleseed – in saving a country deserving of salvation – is deeply satisfying in and of itself. But you have to persist, thru all the BS, all the discouragement – freedom ain’t free! )