Common Sense

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! )

Yes it can happen.

You can turn Mogadishu into any typical American suburb.

And easily.

Simply take the guns away.

Take the guns away, and you achieve “stability” - which is what every American suburb is about, in spades.

And you can do it anywhere. Even Mogadishu. Maybe, especially, Mogadishu.

You don’t have to believe me.

‘Cause I found it on the net - so you know it has to be true!

Tune in to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MB3kJQoxzA&NR=1&feature=fvwp

And see for yourself.

Note: At the end, it’s not the guns he’s afraid of. It’s not the guns that “turned”.

It’s the people.

Which undermines his entire thesis. It’s not guns that kill people. It’s crazy people who kill people.

But that’s not the PC position.

So let’s not let reality disturb it in any way.

Yes sir, if you have a PC-monkey on your back, controlling your thoughts, the answer is clear.

Want to turn Mogadishu into the ‘burbs?

Simply take the guns away…

(Those who have a subtler twist of mind will want to speculate on whether taking the guns out of the ‘burbs may ultimately lead to turning the ‘burbs into Mogadishu…)

“Outtasight, outta mind!”

Heard that before?

Things we don’t see, hear, smell, or touch in front of us, are easily dismissed as not relevant, not worth thinking about, not worth remembering, even. Thereby, unimportant. (Even as those more thoughtful among us understand, “it’s not about us…”)

They certainly don’t have the impact on us which things which are happening NOW, in front of us, do.

And in the truth of those statements lies a lot of otherwise-avoidable human pain and suffering.

We should never forget - but we will - and we do, everyday - that morality is permanent.

Facts are permanent, as well.

So a murder a hundred years ago, or a thousand years ago, is morally the same as a murder today.

The murder is a fact, so it always exists, even if we forget it.

The murder is a moral crime, and the immorality of it always exists, even if we forget it.

Sure, if you’re there, when the murder takes place, and blood flies, and the death rattle echoes in your ears, you sure are shocked by it.

Far better and easier to read about a murder far away from you in time (a hundred years) or space (a thousand miles).

Because then, it’s easily read about - and forgot.

Yet, the facts and the morality are the same.

The same as if it took place right there, in front of you.

Not the same in the impact on you, ’cause of that evolutionary wiring which makes things close in time and space to us the things we look out for.

So despite the PC-weeping every year at the atom bombing of Japan three generations ago, the dastardliness of the Dec 7, 1941 attack on unprepared US sailors, soldiers and airmen at Pearl Harbor stinks morally now just as much as it did then.

Even if most Americans don’t think so. (Can you dispute the notion “a people gets the government it deserves?” [See if you can figure out why I added that seemingly off-topic comment...])

Likewise, the courage, bravery, commitment and anger shown by Americans (or soon-to-be) along a country lane between Concord and Boston back on April 19th, 1775 is just as bright a beacon for us today as it was for the founding generation.

It’s up to us to see it, is all.

We can shut our eyes tight enough not to.

The Jews say “Never forget!” about the Holocaust.

They are correct.

In fact, none of us should ever forget the Holocaust.

And it makes no difference if the Holocaust happened 50 years ago, 500 years ago, or 50 days ago.

It should never be forgot. Never outta sight, never outta mind.

About April 19th, 1775, we should also say, “Never forget!”

Because it’s the part of your heritage you should never forget.

The pain, the suffering, the courage, the blood shed, the lives lost, the houses burned - those are all moral facts which should never be forgot.

Maybe they represent a debt few of us will ever be able to pay off.

But we can try. Appleseed, you can argue, is a “debt-payment plan”.

There are other ways to pay the debt.

Recently, Appleseed instructors were tasked to give rifle marksmanship training to a unit prior to deployment overseas into a combat role. (The Army has asked us not to give the unit’s designation, destination - or even marksmanship scores!)

Over a lengthy period, at an unnamed Army post, our instructors taught two platoons (approx 80 men) a day basic Appleseed.

Each man therefore received the first day’s training of the typical two-day weekend Appleseed…

While I can’t mention specific marksmanship scores, I can say those men’s rifle skills increased, according to their officers after comparing prior scores to this (Appleseed) training, between 250% - and 300%!

Not bad, for a one-day training event, where the qualification course was fired at the end of a long, tiring day of shooting hundreds of rounds, in full military gear.

As we like to say, “Appleseed works. Every time it’s tried.”

You can view this action as something Good.

Teaching our troops the skills they need to come back alive. Improving those skills way over 100%.

And our instructors did it voluntarily, for a length of time equal to several Appleseeds.

Some of those men and women may come back because of the training they received.

Some of them who use their new marksmanship skills will now live to see their grandkids, and hopefully, tell them about Appleseed - and maybe make sure they get to one.

We don’t know, and prob won’t know.

But what we (Appleseed) did was Good, on the moral scale.

The fact of it, exists. The morality of it, exists. And will exist, for all time.

Our instructors ranged in age from young enough to be on active duty (a few were on active duty!) to those past retirement age.

One was the famous Reluctant Housewife and Grandmother who was drug by her husband to an Appleseed, protesting all the way - and wound up as an RWVA Appleseed Instructor, teaching boys bound for overseas how to make their enemies “pay the price.”

Grandmothers, able to outshoot trained military personnel? Yep. Grandmothers, teaching that skill to young men and women of the armed forces? Yep.

Did our Grandmother, filled with dread whilst en route to that first Appleseed, forsee she’d soon be making a concrete contribution to the nation’s security? Did she foresee that she’d be training our men and women in skills they’d soon be putting to use on a real battlefield?

I daresay she didn’t.

It’s a typical Appleseed story.

Life, it seems, does not have to be a rut.

Life can be unusual, interesting, challenging, fulfilling - if you Appleseed.

And so a lowly housewife, a civilian, a grandmother, becomes an instrument by which our enemies can count up their pain and loss…

Amazing!

At least one troop comment overheard was “I have a new-found appreciation for Americans in this country” - because some volunteer civilians gave up their time and traveled hundreds of miles, some of them thousands, to help out with this training.

Outtasight!

Come, join in this rapidly-expanding program.

Find out why it’s expanding so rapidly. Why so many of your fellow Americans are electing to become part of it.

It’s easy. Simply go to www.rwva.org, click on the “Appleseed” button in the top left, and click on “schedule” to find one near you (you may have to drive an hour or two, because even with a goal of 800 Appleseeds in 2010, there’ll be places you’ll have to drive several hours - but beats early in the program, when some people drove days…).

Then read “what to bring” and “how to prepare” without fail - people continually bemoan the fact they neglected to “do their homework” before coming to an Appleseed.

Next, click on the ‘register’ button next to the AS you want to sign up for. Women and kids 20 and under are free, as are military - active, reserve, and guard.

Next, write out a list of all your friends, family/relatives, neighbors, co-workers - everyone you know - and talk about the program with them. Your goal is to get one or more to come with you, so you can share the experience (and so, when you get home, you’re not the “only rifleman on the block” ).

You’ll meet rejection, so don’t get discouraged. Few want to get out of the deck chairs to bail out the sinking ship.

Instead, be smart. Sly, even.

Your neighbor an old guy, not too active? Does he have grandkids? They shoot free! (Duh!)

Don’t forget your spouse, your neighbor’s spouse - everyone’s spouse.

Some of the most effective people in this program are women (and some of us in the program despair if the men of this country will ever wake up - and put our faith in the women as our last, best hope… ). [The 'face' is not about the "last, best hope" being "women", but about the seeming worthlessness of lazy, ignorant-and-determined-to-stay-that-way men, even in face of what is rapidly becoming an obvious fact - that the USS America is in sinking condition.]

What you will be doing in all this is something important: “getting the word out” about Appleseed.

We NEED this program to succeed. YOU need it to succeed.

When there’s a program geared to “saving a country”, WE ALL need it to succeed.

Nice thing is, we can do it.

If we want to…

Outtasight!

Let’s start out on a point of agreement.

Even fervent agreement.

YOU are an important person.

Yet, important as you are, you could be MUCH MORE IMPORTANT.

Like, REALLY important.

No, you haven’t been to an Appleseed. Yet.

And that’s the rub.

How do I know you haven’t been to an Appleseed?

Simple, really…

There’s 300 million Americans, and only one in 50,000 approximately has been to an Appleseed.

Not too hard, to figure you are likely one of the no-shows.

Maybe - almost certainly - it’s because you don’t know what Appleseed is.

Likely, in fact, you haven’t even heard of it (we’re trying hard to “get the word out” - but it’s slow, slow without the kind of money you need for a nationwide media blitz).

Yet this little volunteer program not only has nation-changing potential, it has - from your point of view, what’s more important - personal-changing potential.

Yep, a volunteer program, one which takes a weekend, costs a mere 70 bucks (and for most - women, children, and military - is free), can make a new person of you.

Even, in some cases, give meaning to your life (that’s gotta be a big one) and, at the least, makes a more aware, a more serious, a more thoughtful - you!

For the price of twenty minutes on a shrink’s couch, you can become a new, better, more satisfied, more effective, more worthy person.

In fact, Appleseed can reach beyond you, to your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers, your family, your friends…even your relatives.

It’s true.

I’ve heard more stories than one about how a parent shows up with a child with whom the relationship is troubled - and in the course of working out the problems and challenges of Appleseed, a barrier is broken, and they leave, talking, communicating, even understanding each other.

Will the wonders of this unique program ever cease?

Seemingly not, as if you ask the people most involved in it, the hard-working volunteers, they’ll tell you right out - for them, Appleseed offers HOPE.

Hope, that things can be changed.

Hope, that the future is not yet written, and we can play a part, a good part, in the writing of it.

Appleseed sends another message, one which is determinative for some volunteers - and may be determinative for you, once you attend. It sends you a message, right then and there, before you leave: that YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

That message can be pretty important to you.

People who show up for an Appleseed are likely to be people you don’t run into everyday.

Americans who CARE. Care about what’s coming - for them, for their country, for their kids’ future.

Americans who are CONCERNED about the future. And Americans who aren’t gonna sit passively by, and let that dark future looming before all of us become a reality we may all have to live with - for years, if not decades; for decades, if not indefinitely - but possibly, indefinitely.

Yes, the ship may be sinking now (to use an analogy most Appleseeders use) - but it doesn’t have to sink. It can be stopped, saved, repaired, and made whole again.

But the point is, right now, it’s not being stopped, repaired - and certainly not being made whole, again.

No one is doing anything to fix it.

Yes, a few of us can protest publically - and we’re all better for it - but protest without further action is a fleeting phenomena.

And Appleseed is about permanent change in this country - for at least a generation or more. (Appleseed will try to make the change permanent, by continuing in future generations to teach those generations what they must know in order to meet the standards the founders held for every American.)

Which is why we don’t focus on elections, or getting out the vote, or anything like it.

We focus on the electorate, on making the long-term changes needed to make this country a safe place for Liberty, once again.

That’s why it’s so important for you to come to an Appleseed.

To find out for yourself. Then to, if the program so moves you, pitch in and help.

While you’re at it, ‘get the word out’ to all your family/relatives, friends, neighbors, co-workers - and anyone else - about this program.

The future belongs to each of us.

We have the power to change it.

But to do it, each of us has to get off the couch, and make it happen.

There’re way too few people doing that, now.

Don’t you be one of them.

Don’t you be unimportant.

When you can be important…

“We shall tax you, and we don’t care whether you want us to or not…”

Is that about how Congress is, these days?

Are we looking at the “new Parliament”?

People who don’t care what you say, what you want, what you think?

Because they want your money.

Like a long ago Parliament did.

Only back then, we fought a bloody 8-year war to establish the “no taxation without representation” principle.

And, two hundred years later, we see the result. (A Founder would be quick to point out the result is from the great American people falling asleep at the switch. No way they left us in this predicament.)

So, here we are, 230+ years after the fighting began over taxation without representation.

How’s it - “taxation WITH representation” - working out for us Americans, these days?

Well, let’s see, by looking at a little historical comparison of sorts.

Forty-five centuries ago, Egyptian society was already a thousand years old - and the government was anything but representative. In fact, Pharaoh was a living god.

Yet, when it came to building the pyramids, the ‘living god’ could only squeeze 3 months a year out of his more or less willing servants - that time period when the Nile flooded every year, and no one could work the fields…so archeologists tell us.

It’s estimated by these same archeologists that building the Great Pyramid took 10-20 years of hard, back-breaking work.

It stands to reason, the job could have been finished faster, if Egyptians were asked or forced to work more hours each year on it.

So, working four months each year, instead of three, would cut maybe 4-5 years off the task.

Working five months a year could have cut 8 or more years off the task - that’s a pretty big cut, if you ask me. Finishing in 12 years, instead of 20 - and all you have to do is work the slaves/peasants an extra two months each year? Good deal!

I doubt royalty back then was any more into delayed gratification than royalty in, say, the 18th-century.

So, why didn’t they work them harder?

Could it be possible, someone was worried you can only squeeze so much blood out of a turnip? And squeezing ‘more’ might not be a good idea, for social stability, and harmony?

Or could it be someone was smart enough, way back then (2500 BC), to understand you can only skim so much off the top, without wrecking the economy?

If so, what do you think of our new-fangled (only 200 years old) notion of “no taxation without representation”?

Let’s see - just to compare - we currently work 5 months a year for various levels of government - until May 29th, according to the “Tax Freedom Day” people.

And it’s not just ten or twenty or fifty thousand of us - like however many they used to build the pyramids. No sir, EVERYONE working in this country donates 5 months a year to government.

To the modern Pharaoh.

But, worse - at least when the Egyptians got thru building the pyramids, they seem to have been ‘let go’.

Ten or twenty years? “Thanks, you can go now”.

But, pity us. Ten or twenty years look good, compared to a life-time - which is what we are all obligated for.

Makes you want to long for the days of “taxation without representation”!

Work ten years, or twenty, and take the rest of your life off?

From 21st-century America, it doesn’t look so bad…

“Hello, welcome to ancient Egypt, a certified Vacationland!”

If time machines were possible, guess what? Congress would outlaw them.

Can’t have all those taxpayers fleeing to ancient Egypt to build pyramids. Too embarrassing!

And besides, no way do we the Congress want to give up all those man-years of labor represented by every living soul in this country. That’s pure gold, that is. Money. Lots of it.

At the same time, no way Congress will give up on the notion of taxing you more.

For that matter, of working BOTH sides of the street.

Of working both the “taxation with representation” (the present) AND “taxation without representation” (the future).

Digging, with BOTH ends of the stick.

Yes sir, borrow money from future unborn generations, none of whom, to my knowledge, have the right to vote (except in Chicago), and none of whom have any representation in present-day Congress.

No representation at all.

In fact, those future unborns rely on us to protect their rights, something the Founders knew and cared about.

Our new Parliament does not. Seemingly, for them, “money is money” - and they don’t really care whose pockets it comes out of - even the pockets of the unborn future (who technically don’t have any pockets yet, but that’s not a problem for our modern-day wizard politicians…).

I don’t know about this stuff.

No one seems to care.

Maybe it’s not an issue.

Maybe we should all simply stay home, and watch TV, like most of us are already doing.

What do you think?

Ready to leave the problem-solving to the unborn future/

You prob are.

Ah, but there’s a bit of a thorn in that rosy picture.

The ‘crunch’ may come when YOU’re still alive.

There’s no guarantee it won’t.

In fact, it’s quite likely it will.

Because our political elites seem to have no boundaries, and no restrictions, on ‘em, any more.

Every year, the process not only continues - but accelerates.

Yes sir, there may not be time to live out your life, die, and let your kids or grandkids “face the music”.

Beside, when you think about it, isn’t that just a little bit - just a touch - cowardly?

I hate to be the one to bring it up - but I believe there is a faint unpleasant odor steaming up from that couch you seem to be glued to…

But you don’t have to stay there.

Fortunately, there is an something you can do.

Because if you are concerned about this, you are not alone.

Other Americans are concerned about our nation’s “drift”.

You’ll find those Americans at your nearest Appleseed.

You’ll meet new friends and neighbors with whom you can pool your efforts to change this nation.

To reconnect it with its roots, its foundation, its heritage.

Yes, YOU can become part of the solution - the solution being to wake up your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers, your family and relatives.

Heck, make it easy - get ‘em to an Appleseed, and let us do the work!

You’ll be glad you did!

Life has gotta be easy, if you plan things right.

Take the barnacle, for example.

A lowly marine crustacean which early in life picks a spot, and anchors itself to it, and settles down for a long productive life, of doing - nothing!

Maybe it’s true, what the Buddhists say. That reincarnation is the pattern, and that you advance from one life to the next based on what you do in that last life (don’t hold me to this as truth, I am not an expert on Buddhism; simply assume I’m right…).

In that case, a lot of modern Americans are liable to see their next turn in life as being a barnacle, or something similar.

Do-nothings clinging to their ignorance, apathy, and laziness?

What other life-form would be more appropriate to come back as?

Ah, the quality of life of the barnacle. Never go anywhere. Never do nothing (ignore the double negative - it simply sounds right ). Never be anything, but what you are, a barnacle.

I’d have to say, looking at my modern fellow Americans, it’s about spot-on as a future career move.

What else can you say about a group of beings who, on the deck of a sinking ship, fanatically keep their eyes shut, and just as fanatically cling to their deck chairs?

Right about now, what are you thinking?

Shaking your head?

Muttering to yourself, “that’s not what America is about”?

Saying or thinking, “that’s not what being an American is all about”?

I feel your pain.

The world’s greatest tradition, a heritage of freedom unique on the planet, liberty won by the sweat and blood of a generation only two hundred years ago - and it’s all been turned into pearls - pearls thrown into the mud before unthinking, unappreciative, self-centered, TV-dominated, worthless pigs?

(”Com’on, Fred, don’t hold back - tell us what you really think!” )

If you’ve been to an Appleseed, you know what we are trying to with that program.

If you haven’t been to an Appleseed, all you know is the poor words I can use to describe it.

And learning directly, seeing for yourself, doing it yourself, is ALWAYS better than hearing about it, second-hand.

Appleseed is many things, to many people.

For some - or all - of them, it’s about HOPE. Of being able to think we do have control to shape the future, that we can stop the ship from sinking - not only stop it, but repair, put it back in good order, and hire a good captain and crew to keep it that way - and to steer around icebergs, in the future.

For others, it’s about NOT BEING ALONE, any more. It’s seeing and meeting fellow Americans you didn’t think existed any more, which leads to HOPE for the future - and an end to personal despair.

For still others, the ones longest associated with the program, Appleseed is a machine for taking barnacles and changing them into Americans - that’s gotta be a pretty powerful gadget - and a VERY worthy one, indeed. Right?

Let’s see, the choice is between being a barnacle, and an American.

Hmmmm…

Hold up a minute, I’m thinking…

Tough one…

You only have to look around you, to see just how tough the choice is.

Millions of barnacles; only a few Americans.

Shameful - in a century where “shame” no longer means anything.

And to think, some of the barnacles think they’re smarter than the rest.

They’ve figured out how to crawl or slither to a safe haven, under a rock.

Ask ‘em - they’ll tell you - they’re Americans.

I don’t think so.

But my opinion doesn’t count.

It’s the opinions of the Founders which should count.

They’re not around where we can ask ‘em, but we know what their opinions are, because actions speak louder than words, and the one thing they did not do, on April 19th, 1775, was run off and hide. Nor did they close their eyes, and cling to deck chairs.

So, I doubt they’d see any reason to allow their worthless progeny to run off and hide. Whether physically crawling into a cave, or mentally shutting out reality by closing your eyes and clinging to that deck chair.

Yes, it’s a shame there’s no time machine, so we could go back and bring the Founders to current-day America, where they soon would be picking up sticks, and trying to beat some sense into those walking barnacles who are willing to make eight years of bloody fighting for Liberty nothing but some words in a history book.

Maybe I should do it - invent a time machine. I’d call it “Fred’s Revenge” - it would be steam-powered, of course - and large enough to accommodate thousands of Revolutionary War veterans - we’ll need every one of ‘em.

How’d you like to look up, and see Thomas Jefferson, stick in hand, heading toward you, with that look on his face your father used to have, when you’d stepped in it, big-time?

That look of contempt, disgust, anger - maybe even, just a touch of despair…

Or Alexander Hamilton, who faced the enemy over the open sights of his cannon, who said at Monmouth Courthouse, “if we must die, let us die here” - think he’d be willing to listen to a bunch of your worthless excuses for being a barnacle in life?

Maybe you’ll be lucky enough to face John Paul Jones, he who, on the deck of his sinking ship, asked to surrender, said “I’ve just begun to fight!”

Maybe you can talk him out of the beating you so richly deserve. “Just begun to fight”? You don’t even know what the word “fight” means - and currently, have no intention of finding out.

But I’d be willing to bet, J P Jones will be happy to show you, while entering in the history books yet another magnificent saying, “I have not yet begun to beat!”

Ouch!

But hard lessons are good lessons, they say, and not easily forgot.

And, frankly speaking, it would be an honor to receive a ‘wakeup’ beating from a Founder.

It’s so unfortunate that it’s not liable to happen (unless I can get that *&#@ time machine to work!).

So, we have to do it ourselves.

Worthless, 21st-century Americans, quite a few of us with metal body jewelry - and somehow we have to figure a way to bootstrap ourselves up from useless - but good-looking (how could we not look good with all the tattoos and jewelry?) - barnacles to worthy Americans.

Sheesh, and we already have a way to do it. Appleseed.

In a way, the transformation will amount in quality and worthiness to the act of winning Liberty, two hundred years ago.

In a way, it will be another American Revolution - that change in the hearts and minds of Americans which took place two centuries ago would be replicated in a century and amongst a people hardly conceivable to the Founders.

And we will have done it all, ourselves.

Albeit with a tip of the hat to the original Americans, the Founders, who provided us with an example, a standard - one unmatched anywhere else on this planet.

Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

And all you have to do, is come to an Appleseed?

Which gets easier and easier, every year - as Appleseeds multiply across the landscape?

400 this year; 800, next.

There’ll be one within driving distance of ya.

And you owe it to yourself, to that sleeping inner American, to get to one.

To find out for yourself. No reason to listen and rely on Fred, when you can see for yourself…

And bring your friends, neighbors, relatives, family, co-workers - as many as you can. So they can be part of the transformation, too.

After all, when you go back home, an honest American, and no longer a barnacle, wouldn’t it be nice to have a few other such around you, amid all the barnacles?

[Comment] I’ve attended one Appleseed and I see how Appleseed could be part of solving our nation’s crises. Appleseed may even be the tipping point in the fight to halt, or even reverse, the ever growing infringements on our right to bear arms. However, I don’t see how Appleseed can change the values and minds of a significant number of citizens. Creating riflemen does change minds, but probably only slightly, in most cases. We need a complete overhaul of all major institutions in the nation (schools, media outlets, courts, legislatures, etc.) to teach and honor values that perpetuate liberty. Perhaps, in time, changing schools and families would be enough to begin to trickle the joy of liberty out to all the other institutions.

Nonetheless, you’ve motivated me to participate in your plan, but I’d like to hear more about how creating riflemen can significantly alter the values of the nation. I just don’t see a strong connection between creating riflemen and, essentially, creating libertarians (with a small “l” so I don’t necessarily mean the party, though that would help a great deal). [end of Comment]

Glad to hear from you, and glad you’ve decided to participate.

Sure, “changing schools and families” would prob do it - but how do you do that?

We’re doing it, by changing the people who underlie schools and families.

Here’s an expanded version of an article I recently put in Shotgun News as an explanation of the concept of how marksmanship can save a nation:

Can marksmanship ’save’ a nation?

It sure can!

Particularly, the way Appleseed teaches it.

Even if you piddle with the definition of ‘save’.

Certainly, in a physical sense, it can be the difference - witness numerous instances in this country’s history, right from the first, when a single well-aimed shot turned history around - and many well-aimed shots earned our freedom, and helped us keep it, down thru the centuries.

Japanese admiral Yamamoto supposedly explained the Japanese failure to invade this country by opining it wouldn’t be healthy, as behind every blade of grass would be a rifle.

That may not be the real reason for the absence of any intention by the Japanese to invade the continental US, but if the war had turned out differently at Midway, who knows how far Nippon was willing to go? “Victory disease” creates a fever of grandiose plans, and they may have tried it…

But we don’t face, at least at present, any serious threat from a traditional foreign invasion.

So what about the other dimension of ‘saving’ - of creating a moral change which would result in a stronger country?

In my mind there’s no question on that score: marksmanship can ‘save’ this nation.

Learn how to shoot, to become part of the American tradition of the Rifleman, and you will become a different person. An American. Not a couch-sitting, complaining, sleeping, worthless Doofus Americanus…

That alone would be worth it - all that personal improvement.

Yet reflect that a nation is only as strong as its people make it.

And you begin to understand: Anything which makes Americans better and stronger has the power to ‘save’ a nation - if it makes a stronger America, morally.

“Getting off the couch” to come to an Appleseed is the first step on the road to self-improvement. The skills you learn will be lifetime skills.

The stuff you learn about your heritage will be lifetime motivation not to let that heritage down - or let it die.

The people you meet at AS will become life-long friends.

Your current friends? You’ll feel the need to get THEM to an Appleseed, so they turn into worthy Americans, just like you. It’s tough to hang around unworthy Americans - bad for your karma, and leads to contempt, despising, and worse. So, yes, you’ll want your friend to be “Appleseeders”, too…

For some people, Appleseed is about HOPE.

In the face of the coming future, you can argue anything which gives you ‘hope’ is worthy for that reason alone - and deserves your support for that reason alone.

But for some Appleseed is a much-needed shot-in-the-arm with the message YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

Yes, there are other Americans out there. Honest, concerned, off-the-couch-bailing Americans.

Yes, it’s possible, by all working together, we can stop the ship from sinking.

Yes, there’s a plan, a program, a strategy to save this nation - and all we need to add to it is the efforts of all our shoulders.

Heck, we even have the gall to set a timetable for measuring our progress…

Do we require guarantees? Do we need to know, before we start to push the wagon, that we can get it out of the rut? Or save the sinking ship?

Only if we think we are better than the founders…

Who picked up muskets and went for the redcoats, with NO assurances, no guarantees, no promises of any kind - only the shining goal of liberty, and the dark image of a darker future lying before them.

So, we don’t need guarantees. We see the task, we step up, and, knowing the stakes, bend every effort, to get the job done.

Simple as that.

This is a program YOU want to make a success.

The founders (John Adams in particular) clearly pointed out the American Revolution was a revolution in thinking - a revolution in hearts and minds.

What is Appleseed about, but creating that revolution once more?

We (re)create it by exposing our fellow citizens to a history and heritage which the mere exposure to makes them quickly understand how precious that history and heritage is, and the value and need to make sure it doesn’t disappear on their (our) watch.

Sure, you better help us out!

It’s the only hope most of us have for changing the future.

The ONLY hope.

The only HOPE.

Here’s an easy thing you can do, to help make Appleseed the success it needs to be: Make a list of all your friends, relatives, co-workers, neighbors - everyone you know. Systematically go down the list, talking to each person about Appleseed, and the need to go to one of our 400+ locations this year (maybe you’ll show up at your first Appleseed with a carload - that’d be great). Time is short, and it’s not on our side. We have a nation to save…and a nation waiting, which needs saving…

Get off your stadium seat, and get down into the arena!

You are not winning anything, while part of the audience.

In fact, you CAN’T win anything, as part of the audience - unless someone else, down in the arena, wins it for you - and where is the glory in that?

And it’s just possible the few guys and gals down there, in the arena, could use some help.

Let’s look at our experience in the Appleseed program.

Let’s see, now that we have a track record, four years (nearly) of uninterrupted rapid growth, we can make some definitive statements:

First, let’s craft a non-profit, all-volunteer effort calculated to one thing supposedly near and dear to our hearts: Pass on a dying Tradition.

Second, let’s take a look at the response of all our people who want to see that happen.

Have they uniformly stepped forward to put their shoulder to the Appleseed wheel?

Of course they haven’t. After all, this is 21st-century America.

And why haven’t they? The answering mantra is “ignorance, apathy, and laziness” - but while a possible explanation, none of the three is an excuse.

As an observer in this process, it would be easy for me to speak an obvious truth and say, regardless of how fast this program has gone, it could have gone a LOT faster.

Sure, we met our goal, the first year, of 1000 participants - even if it turned out to be nearly twice as much work as originally planned (in other words, instead of a projected 10 Appleseeds to do the job, it took 18, IIRC).

Announce a 2A-saving program, and - the first YEAR - have only 1000 participants?

Man, the shame of it! We should have had 100,000 participants, minimum (no, we couldn’t have handled them, so maybe life is kind in allowing us to get off to a slow start). And I could argue, a million would not have been out-of-line…

Now, at the end of the first year, with an entire year of program exposure to people, two things should have been obvious, and a third partly so:

1. After a year on the Appleseed Trail, it should have been clear we were in this to stay - and it was time to “sign up” for this program.

2. There was nothing in this program to be afraid of - no, we are not militia, nor is Appleseed ‘militia-training’. Shameful you have to deal with issues of fear amongst such strong, two-fisted, freedom-loving Americans, but the fear was palpable - and still is, in the FOURTH year of the program, in more than a few faint-hearted quarters.

3. Not quite as clear, as it takes time for direct word to spread, but the hint should have been already apparent: This program has the power to do what it says is its mission - to wake up Americans to a much-needed acquaintanceship with their history and heritage. To get ‘em off the couch, and into being American, again. No longer just TV zombies…

Now, in the FOURTH year of the program, there should be no doubt remaining about that.

Yet, millions of our fellow Americans are still up there, seemingly glued to their stadium seats, watching the show (we hope they are at least rooting for us, but many seem more interested in hot dogs and twittering).

Leaving those struggling in the arena without the help they need.

Do you know why we ‘lost’ at Bunker Hill? Did you know we did not have to “lose” that fight? Did you know American reinforcements were on the scene, but held back from joining the fight because they had to cross a narrow neck of land swept by British cannon fire?

Now, take away the cannon fire - in 21st-century America, we do not have to “sweat” any fire from British cannons - and ask yourself, since you don’t have that excuse, why are YOU holding back?

To make it easy, simply nod at one or more of the following reasons:

1. Ignorance - I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to do to help my country, I don’t know my country needs ’saving’, I don’t know what to do to save my country, I don’t know what I SHOULD be doing - in short, I don’t know - I am Ignorant. (Please, be kind to the writer - DON’T say that last with any pride in your voice.)

2. Laziness - Being in touch and well-connected with all my fat cells, I simply don’t want to put any of them in danger by bestirring my lazy self. It’s a lack of motivation thing, what they used to call, in the military, Lack of Moral Fiber (LMF) - and it was grounds for dismissal, primarily on the basis of being worthless. I am Worthless. (Please, be kind to me as an author - DON’T let me hear you say that last with any pride in your voice.)

3. Apathy - I simply don’t care. I don’t care who wins; I don’t care who loses. While part of the reason may be ignorance, and part may be laziness, I simply don’t care. “Whatever” is the mantra of my generation, and “whatever” is fine with me. Hand me another hot dog.

4. Fear - Yes, this is a new addition to the lexicon, but covers many more people than any of us would like to believe. Fear, of consequences, of getting hurt, of getting on some List, of getting dirty, of getting sweaty, of losing (if you don’t fight, you don’t lose, right?), fear of this, fear of that. Even a fear of working hard! What a betrayal of trust this one represents! I doubt not there was plenty of fear to go ’round on April 19, 1775 - but enough of our forefathers failed to let that stop them to run the Brits back to Boston. And they had, unlike you, to pass over ground which had musket balls whizzing over it. Any fear they had was real fear, not a fear of commitment, a fear of being asked to step up and take a stand…

What does fear get you? Fear keeps you locked in your seat. Fear ensures the risk of failure of something you’d like to see win, except you are so fearful you won’t get out of that safe seat in the stadium.

5. Ego - now maybe we come to the Big One. ‘Fear’ after all, is simply one way of saying “I’m the one who has to be protected. Not the Cause - whatever that is.”

Yes, sir, be sure to put yourself and your personal safety above all else. In the old days, the result used to be called “cowardice” and you, when you did it, were called a “coward”.

Now, being a coward is not that rare in 21st-century America.

In fact, so far as eyewitness testimony allows, it’s pretty much the “law of the land”. Don’t make waves. Keep yourself safe. Don’t this. Don’t that.

Not a pretty sight, my friends.

Not something the founders would have looked forward to - and they were forward-lookers, being much concerned for future generations, and the challenge of keeping liberty.

No sir, the battle for liberty was not supposed to be a one-time thing. It was recognized back then, but not today, that liberty was something each generation was responsible for preserving - for itself, and for generations to come.

Yet the image of 300 million modern Americans mesmerized by TV and so dumbed-down they can hardly think should be the alarm bell that wakens you to action.

As in, if YOU don’t do something, nothing will get done. You don’t see anyone doing anything, do you? Only those pathetic few already down in the arena - and no way THEY can save the nation - not by themselves…

So, get out of the stadium seat - you weren’t born in it after all - and some of us would even go so far as to say you - as a proud American - weren’t born FOR it, but for something greater, something more glorious…

Get out of that stadium seat, and take sides…

Hope I don’t have to tell you, which side to take, in the battle for Liberty…

Appleseed is about winning in that arena. About waking up our fellow Americans by holding up to them a proud history and heritage, and letting it soak into their minds: they are destined for a better future than the one lurking in front of us.

We can have that better future, but we’ll have to fight for it, not “sit on our bottoms” for it.

Stadium seats: If there were some way to rip them right out, the guy who figures out how to do it will be savior of liberty in this country…

Having you ever been dissed by your friends?

Sure, you expect your enemies to be dismissive, but a dis from people you expect to be on your side has to be even more painful.

Likewise when you discover an instance of the US Army dissing its own heritage.

Dissing it thru ignorance, apathy, and laziness.

Ignorance, because no one could be bothered to take the effort to ascertain the facts (which is laziness) - and no one really cared, anyway (which is apathy).

Thus, you might - or might not - be surprised the military has dissed the boys at Lexington and Concord - in fact, all along Battle Road that April 19th.

It’s right there in the official “American Military History, 1607-1958″ - as you can tell, a history of some vintage, issued in July 1959, possibly at the early stages of the sinking ship we talk so much about. You can even argue the attitude of being willing to gratuitously diss the “boys of ‘75″ may have been a precursor to our current problems.

You never heard of this infamy, because no one cares, when the US Army disses its heritage. (And nowadays, might even approve!)

Here’s what Uncle Sam, in the form of the Department of the Army, had to say in 1959 about those founders - the men who started the ball rolling on creating a free nation:

“The fact that the [British] force was not wiped out was testimony to the poor marksmanship of farmers armed with muskets.” [33]

Now, coming from an Army fresh from the Korean War and WW2, where statistics showed it took 200,000 rounds to produce ONE enemy casualty, that’s a big one to swallow.

But it shows you how a historical fact can be viewed many ways: as an example of competence, and as the direct polar opposite - an example of incompetence.

The sloppy writer (and thinker - and American) author of “American Military History” could have taken time to fully acquaint himself with some military facts which, if he’d been there, on Battle Road, he would no doubt have taken into account readily - and willingly - as they are and were life-threatening.

Like the fact that in 1775 effective musket range and effective bayonet range were pretty much one and the same.

In the 15 seconds it takes to reload a shot fired at 65 yards - considered max effective range of a musket on an individual target - redcoats could be all over you with 16″ steel bayonets - not something you’d be likely to walk away from.

So you do the smart thing - not only take shelter from musket fire behind trees and stone walls - but hang out beyond max effective range, and rely (in what is to become the future policy of the Army) on volume of fire.

Not unaimed fire. Not wasted fire.

Yet not fire with 100% hit probability, but fire with possibly a 10% hit probability.

Because it’s better to fire ten shots to get one hit, and survive, than to fire one shot and get a hit, only to be bayonetted to death.

In the first case, you could wind up firing 30 rounds, and getting three hits; in the second, after that first hit, there are no more.

Failing to understand, to even care about understanding, to not even care about getting the story “right” must rank right up there with monumental incredible doofishness (can the Department of the Army be “doofish”? - I guess, in this case, maybe they can…).

Certainly you can say: Here is ignorance at work.

Here is laziness at work.

Here is apathy at work.

Worse, here is lack of respect for brave men at work.

Here is lack of respect for the heritage at work. Here is a willingness to think the worse, without the caring to make sure, at least, that you’re right.

Careless dismissal of guys whose shoes you are not fit to shine.

We’re told after careful historical research by other historians that about 4000 of our guys got close enough to the British to fire at least one shot that day.

I don’t know of any research which would tally up the round count of the number of shots we fired, but you can say a ballpark figure might be 20,000 (on the lower side) to 40,000 (on the higher side).

Yes, in absolute terms, firing 20-40,000 shots to get 273 British casualties would not be that impressive.

Yet for most of the day, it’s likely the redcoat column outnumbered the actual patriots who were attacking them.

And the proof of the value of that ‘hang back’ strategy would be the casualties of our side - less than one-third of the Brits.

Inflicting three times the casualties, when attacking a superior force? Pretty good performance, if you ask me. Pretty good performance, then. Pretty good performance, today.

Particularly since if we got out a time machine, and sent the US Army of today back to 1775, they’d expend 500-plus million rounds to accomplish the same - if current standard rates of ammo expenditure hold on the trip back. It would take a pretty big time machine to carry all that ammo back to 1775 - and how many men would it take to fire all that ammo to get those 273 British casualties?

Well, if you figure each man firing 1,000 rounds that day (a preposterous figure, way too high - but sure makes doing the math easier… ), then you’d have to send 500,000 men back to do the job that approximately 4000 of our founders did.

The fact is that our side could have “wiped out” the British force that day.

But it was not marksmanship which prevented it.

It was a failure to quickly understand the key to defeating the British column was to stop it, to halt it, to keep it from getting back to the safety of Boston.

To pin it down, then to hack it to death with well-aimed musket fire.

So, we do not read of any roadblocks, barriers, obstacles put in the British way (altho the planks were pulled up from the bridge along the direct route to Boston - but Percy avoided the issue with his surprise decision to head for Charleston - a decision made in anticipation of the bridge being disabled, and in the knowledge that to let his column be stopped was to see his column defeated).

Failure to stop the column meant we didn’t have the time to wear them down, and force them to surrender (altho the possibility of surrender was on Lord Percy’s mind - if they didn’t make it back to Boston before sunset, surrender was, in his mind, a distinct prospect).

However, I’d cut our guys just a bit of historical slack.

First, it was the first day of a sudden, unexpected war - the Pearl Harbor of its day.

For being suddenly thrust from peace to war, our guys (you can argue) did a better job that day than on any other day we’ve found ourselves in an unexpected war.

Second, our Gen Heath was working on limited data, with limited control - he was limited to horseback messengers, meaning fast decisions would have been hard to implement.

Third, while our guys had been training in companies, I’m not aware of any training in groupings above companies - I’m not aware of any training at regimental level.

In other words, actions taken in the fall of 1774 to ramp up defensive measures against the Crown had resulted in some very well-trained people (1700 Brits do NOT run back to Boston, without a very good reason!), in some well-trained companies - but any action taken at regimental level would have been ‘making it up on the run’ on April 19th. Not surprising things were not done ‘perfect’ that day.

Yet one wonders why road blocks were not considered.

I suggest the reason may have been our guys, as aggressive as they were, were still in a defensive peacetime mode of thinking. They wanted to throw the Brits out, to chase them back to Boston. They were not thinking of a grander strategy of capturing the entire British column.

Of course, none of those speculations affect the thrust of my complaint here.

Dissing the past is shameful.

Dissing people who can’t defend themselves, and their reputations, is shameful.

Dissing people unjustly is shameful.

It should not be done. Not without a careful examination of the facts carried out with energy (not laziness) and caring to get them straight (not apathy). The result would have been knowledge (not ignorance) - and with knowledge, comes understanding - which should be the prime rationale for studying the past - to understand, so you can repeat the good, and not repeat the mistakes.

Were the author of the passage around today, a good riding of the rails preceded by some tar and a few feathers might have a wonderful impact on driving that lesson home.

But this being an official “Headquarters, Department of the Army” publication, no author is mentioned, so he becomes a part of the annonymous past, and simply another American foolish enough to dis the past. His own past; his own heritage.

The preface to the history - again, annoymous - begins “the United States Army is an honored institution.” Yes, it is, but one sentence in this history of the US Army dishonors the past and besmirches the institution.

I wish it weren’t there. Maybe even you wish it weren’t there.

But it is there, and it will remain there.

A testimony to what is wrong with this country, rolled up in one sentence of casual dismissal of a proud heritage second to none.

Someone - the person who wrote that sentence - thought he was smarter than history - and superior to his ancestors - when neither is true.