Common Sense

Subject: American History - Inspirational and Relevant Today

Please allow me to share this inspirational post from the Project Appleseed forum.

Should you be touched by this, please share it with others and go to RWVA.org for more information…

Isaac Davis

AKA “Am I Doing Enough”.

April 19th, 1775, approximately 6:00 am, there was a knock at the home of Isaac Davis, located in Acton. Isaac Davis was a gunsmith, and also the captain of the Acton Militia. His unit not only drilled but practiced marksmanship twice a week behind Davis’s gunshop. Davis also equipped the troops under his command as any “gun guy” would do, with the best equipment he could get. Cartridge boxes and bayonets, equivalent of the British regulars. The best equipped militia in New England at the time. Other units may have had scattered better equipment, however, Davis’s men were uniformly setup.

Upon awakening, Davis took up his Minuteman equipment, ready, of course, in a minute’s time. Dressed, and walking out the door, he turned to his wife. She wrote in her journal that he stopped in the doorway, as if to say something, but he hesitated. After a moment, he only turned and said “Take care of the children”.

And then he walked off into the dawn.

She was at that time sure Isaac would never return alive.

The exact morning activities are lost to me, but he and his unit made it to Punkatasset Hill, where the militia of Concord and elsewhere gathered. Part of the morning was spent in discussion over what to do with the British in Concord. Until the plume of smoke arose from the accidental fire set to the town hall that is. Then, someone, finally, asked the correct question.

“Will we sit here as the Regulars burn our town?”

Finally, the slow to motion, but furious in their action New Englanders began to form up to “run the Regulars out”. Davis was asked if his Acton Militia would lead the way.

He replied in words for History. “I have not a man who is afraid to go.”

At the North Bridge the Militia approached the 3 companies of Regulars. The Regulars took a shot into the water first, as a warning. When the Militia didn’t stop, they fired a second volley, this one going high. For the most part. However, while the center was high, the cone stretched both higher and lower, the lower shots causing wounds to the head and chest. Isaac Davis was among the first to fall, with a ball to the heart.

After several volleys, the Regulars broke and ran. The Militia, having practiced Marksmanship, shot the officers first. However, the war, and the future, was over for Isaac Davis.

Of his children, as many as 4 had a fever rash, that was known a being fatal in those times. His wife was left alone, sure of his not returning. I believe he knew he wasn’t coming home, or at least the possibility was heavy on his mind.

But he went anyway.

There was no country then. The United States was but a far away fantasy for most, to only be dreamed of in the deepest of sleep. Not until Thomas Paine’s pamphlet, Common Sense, did the dream begin to take shape at a Colonial-wide scope. And that wasn’t until late 1775, and over a year later until the Declaration of Independence. In fact, the months after Davis died, reconciliation with the Crown was on the minds of most of the colonists.

Had that happened, Davis, along with all the others dead on that first day, would have died for nothing.

Still, he went, for no other reason than it had to be done.

We are now a Nation, with over 200 years invested in its body. We have a History that is our own, starting with that first shot on Lexington Green, 19 April, 1775.

Our future though: it is just as cloudy now as it was when Isaac Davis bled out at the North Bridge. Our Nation, and its people, have grown weak in spirit and body, from Letting Things Go. Letting Someone Else Take Care Of It. From practicing Not Getting Involved. From thinking My Vote Won’t Count Anyway.

Instead, we complain. We gripe. We spend time discussing the evils of the “gooberment”. And then we go to work the next day, get our little bit, stretch it out to the next little bit, sometimes taking the family out to dinner and a movie.

Fat and happy, doing it again.

Davis could have done what we do now. Sat in the tavern, propping his feet up by the fire, complaining about Parliament, and a distant government ruling him with no input from him. No representation, as it were.

He could have lived out his life, to the ripe old age, and watched his surviving children grow. All the benefits of living.

Instead, he took his action.

We do not ask you to die. We don’t even ask you to take up arms, or fight.

We simply ask you for your time.

Now.

Before.

We win now, or we fight later. And then someone else will become the next Isaac Davis.

I’m sure he would advise against it.

I will leave you with this. We are all Isaac Davis’s children. Sons and Daughters of Paul Revere, John Adams, George Washington, Thomas Paine, Jefferson, Hancock, Adams, Franklin, Greene. The Parkers, the Harringtons, and all those who died on April 19th, 1775.

Will we do as well for our children, our Posterity, as they did for us?

Will you work for it?

Here are the words on the monument in Lexington;

…Ensign Robert Munroe, Messrs Jonas Parker, Samuel Hadley, Jonathan Harrington, Junr, Isaac Muzzy, Caleb Harrington, and John Brown of Lexington, and Ashahel Porter of Woburn, who fell on this field
The first victims to the sword of British Tyranny & Oppression, on the morning of the ever memorable Nineteenth of April An. Dom. 1775
The Die was cast!!!
The Blood of these Martyrs,
In the cause of God & their Country was the cement of the Union of these States, then Colonies & gave the Spring to the spirit, Firmness & resolution of their fellow Citizens. They rose as one man to revenge their Brethren’s Blood, and at the point of a sword, to assert and defend their native rights.
They nobly dar’d to be free!!
The contest was long, bloody, & affecting; Righteous Heaven approved the solemn appeal; victory crowned their arms; and the Peace, Liberty, and Independence of the United States of America, was their glorious reward. 1799

“I have not a man who is afraid to go.”

“Take care of the children.”

The Guy
RWVA Staff
Appleseedinfo.org

Fred’s been thinking, lately (gotta quit that - it’s better not to be thinking…)

Fast or slow?

It makes a difference.

“Slow” is not survival-enhancing.

“Fast” is.

Whether it’s in the speed of reaction, or in the physical reaction to a threat, “fast” will usually trump “slow”.

Now, you can be “fast”, or you can be “slow”.

In 21st-century America, it seemingly doesn’t matter much.

Until the S hits the fan.

Then it will matter a whole lot.

Then being smart will be far better, in survival terms, than being dumb.

Being smart is not a simple function of biological processor speed - how fast you think in the biological equivalent of gigahertz.

Heck, a coyote is prob not a genius, but coyotes seem to survive pretty well.

You could easily argue that alertness to danger, and speed in reacting to it, trump simple intelligence.

A college-educated fool is worse off than a practical man who’s learned a few lessons in life.

The point of this being to take away another excuse for you to be dumb - or act dumb.

To advise you that you have a choice. That you don’t have to be a toadstool in the face of danger.

In fact, to advise you that as an American you have a certain obligation not to be a fool to live up to.

Until recently, few of your ancestors were fools. Only since WW2 has intelligence seemingly dropped to the low levels of current American society, where being dumb is “cool”, and a backwards ball cap is something you flaunt, where hanging a sign saying “dunce” around your neck is something to be proud of.

All fine and dandy - “it’s a free country - do what you want” - right?

Until survival becomes an issue.

Then, dumbness takes a second place seat to being alert, and the smart and alert man will survive, and the backwards-baseball-cap-wearing-guy will either wake up quick, or not survive.

Now, you prob don’t wear a baseball cap backwards, so none of this applies to you, right?

Wrong.

If you are not alert, if you are not off the couch, and doing something while your country sinks, if you are fiddlin while Rome burns, then you are part of the problem. The part that is destined not to survive.

Some years back, two female students were accosted at night in a local college parking lot by a man. One reacted quickly, dropping to the ground, and rolling under a parked car.

The other didn’t, and wound up going with the guy, and ended up naked, dead, and stuffed in a water-filled drum at a construction site.

One alive. One dead.

One reacted fast. One went to her doom passively.

Which one will you be?

Which one do you wanna be?

And if you wanna be the live one, you’ll have to wake up, so that your actions will save you, your family, even your country.

There’s an important lesson life offers: never put yourself under the control of people who will harm you.

In April 1943, the Germans issued orders to the remaining Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto to pack up for transportation.

By that time word had filtered back from the death camps, and the Jewish community knew what “transportation” was about. There were no “labor camps in the East”. There was no future for them, no future but death in a gas chamber.

Yet, in the face of certain death, of the 56,000 remaining Jews, what went down in the history books as the heroic resistance of the Jews to the Germans is based on the fact that 300 of them resisted.

In the face of certain death, out of 56,000 people, 300 chose to resist.

Think about it.

Then look around you, at all the sleeping Americans.

The ones who don’t seem to care (apathy) and the ones who don’t seem to be aware of their heritage (ignorance) and the ones who don’t bestir themselves to do anything (laziness).

Is it going to be a source of pride to you that the liberty Americans once were willing to fight and die for is gonna be pissed away by ignorance, laziness, and apathy?

What is your tombstone going to say?

Is it going to have one or more of those three words on it?

Do you need someone to fire a gun next to your ear to wake you up?

That, my friend, is a bad - not survival-friendly - posture of alertness, for sure.

Do you need to feel the water about your ankles, before you wake up that the ship is sinking?

That, my friend, is a bad - not survival-friendly - posture of alertness, for sure.

Being dumb is never the solution.

Putting yourself, or allowing yourself to be put, in the power of those who may not have your best interests at heart may be a foolish strategy.

Yet your next kid to be born will be assigned a number at birth.

Or maybe it will be your grandkid.

Do you know why he will be assigned a number at birth?

So that government can keep track of him.

Do you know why government would want to keep track of him?

No, I don’t know either, but I don’t like the smell of it.

Like gun registration, human registration is but the first step to things that later you will decide are not good things to be happening.

Yet, you let it happen. You elected those people in congress. And if they are sorry, then you are the one who can (and should) take the credit.

In fact, if you want to evaluate a nation’s liberty, look at two things: first, the number willing to turn out to defend their liberty - oops, that lets us out of the ’smart, survival-friendly’ picture - and second, look at their elected leaders - oops, again!

You can be smart, and survive.

You can be dumb, and survive, for a while, maybe, but your long-term prognosis is dark, indeed.

You can also do something unexpected, and wake up and smell the coffee. Fortunately, you can still do that, without asking permission of anyone.

And, if you can do it, you should do it.

Not just for survival’s sake, not just for liberty’s sake, but as a matter of simple self-pride.

Actually, there’s yet another reason. Look like a victim, act like a victim - and life will make sure you are a victim.

Laze around in the sun as a rock squirrel (“The Rock Squirrels of Crater Lake” at http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=518.0), stuffed with food, sleeping, and what hungry predator with any self-respect can ignore the treat life is offering him?

So it comes down to this? You are a treat for a predator?

Was the girl who went with the guy and wound up dead, was she a ‘treat’ for him?

Did Himmler enjoy reading the final report on the clearing of the Warsaw Ghetto? Was it a treat for him?

No sir, I have to say “this is America”, and America, the America I know and want to see be saved, is not a ‘treat’ for any predator.

Attack us, and we swarm like hornets all over you.

At least, we did.

But most of the American people today are appeasers, hoping to understand their enemies, not so they can kill them better, but in hopes the enemies will respond to us, and turn out to like us.

Maybe we should be honest, and change the name of the United States to The Land of the Simple Simons.

The pain is almost too much to bear, sometimes.

To think it’s all self-inflicted.

We’re not dumb appeasers because someone forced us to be.

We’re not dumb because someone forced us to be.

We’re not lazy because someone forced us to be.
We’re not ignorant because someone forced us to be.

We are all of those things, because we don’t want to get off the couch and take possession of our country.

The new national pastime, once you get pass the snorers, is whining and complaining.

This from the nation that brought us “The Spirit of ‘76” - do you know what that spirit was? Do you actually know?

Do you know why you don’t have it now?

Did you know you can get it back, get The Spirit of ‘76 back, and become an energetic, smart, survival-oriented, liberty-loving American?

Well, now you do.

(PS: Best way to jump-start the process? Come to an Appleseed.)

Let me introduce myself, my screen name is Atticus. I am a sign designer/manufacturer, small business owner and RWVA Instructor. I would like to list RWVA Instructor first, but until I win the lottery (which I don’t play) or retire, I will continue to do the daily grind. I point this out to let everyone know this is an all Volunteer organization; made from a diverse group of individuals.

However, that’s one of the great advantages of Appleseed. We have a very large and diverse cross-section of the American population. I have met factory workers, lawyers, carpenters, retired college professors, law enforcement officers, airline pilots and flight attendants. Even a couple of farmers. That’s just the instructors. Men and Women that are concerned enough about the direction of this Country to sacrifice time, money and heart to help save it.

That’s what Appleseed is; Volunteer Americans working to Save This Great Nation by Preserving Our Heritage and Tradition. Working to once again become a Nation of Riflemen/Riflewomen.

At an Appleseed event we teach basic rifle marksmanship. But we also talk about the American Revolution. One of the things I talk about is the diverse group of like minded individuals that fought to build this country. A group that believed in Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Sure, there were a few that came from privileged backgrounds. But most were just average people. Tradesmen, silversmiths, blacksmiths, shop keepers, printers, at least one brewer; and, of course a few farmers.

Remind you of anything? How about the Appleseed Project? A group of like minded individuals working on a just cause. A group of people that believe in Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. A group of people that believe in the Constitution. Volunteering to help preserve the heritage and tradition that formed this great nation.

Wouldn’t you like to be a part of something this big? Join us now! Attend an Appleseed Shoot. Just sign up for one day; but keep your schedule clear for the next day. I’m sure you will want to come back. I guarantee you will have fun. You will also learn something about your fellow Americans. Log on to rwva.org, check the schedule for an Appleseed Shoot near you, then register. You will not regret it!

If you see me, Atticus, introduce yourself. I’m always proud to meet a fellow American that believes in the Constitution.

If you can agree that Appleseed - teaching a heritage skill and remembering and honoring the founders for their worth and sacrifice - is a Good Cause, then it seems to me you have to have a really good excuse - not a regular excuse but a really good excuse - to not participate. To not get involved in teaching your fellow Americans the skill of shooting a firearm, a skill that has many times in the past been a crucial one to have in times of dire need.

Definitely, absence from Appleseed requires a good excuse. Otherwise, how will you ever explain and justify that you were a good man who sat around idly, while evil triumphed?

If you were applying for a job, that “sitting around while evil triumphed” would not seem to me to be a resume-enhancing item.

In other words, you’d be smart to conceal that little fact - that you were a do-nothing when men willing to “do something” were called for.

It says too much about you.

About your ability to prioritize. Yes, we run across people who put “family before Appleseed” - or think they do - when the reality is, if you love your family, if you care for their future, then you spend as much time as you can saving that future - and the way you do that is to Appleseed (note “Appleseed” can be a verb).

It’s an old story, and a mistake made time after time down thru history. Ben Franklin was aware of this human tendency in 1754 when he justified his proposal for a Philadelphia militia with the comment that, were the city to find itself under sudden attack (remember, communications were so spotty back then that the Spanish fleet could appear at the docks before you had a clue that Spain had declared war), men would naturally react as individuals and each seek out his family in order to see them to safety. Individuals, running helter-skelter, each looking to his own family - that’s not the way to defend them, and Franklin pointed this out. Franklin said a town militia could organize and train men so that when the threat appeared each would know the proper place to be, and the proper role to play, and the invader would find himself facing an organized, determined, trained force.

Yes sir, sometimes, to put your family first, you have to ignore them, and focus on defeating the threat.

Which is why you should leave your family (how can you do that - bring them!) for a weekend, to Appleseed. To teach your fellow Americans to wake up - and with every one you do, the threat becomes lessened.

But back to that resume, the one you don’t want to add “fiddled, while Rome burned”, as you correctly understand it’s not a positive thing - and you want to be positive, right?

Cause it would show you defective in a basic survival/intelligence skill - being able to prioritize what’s important, and what’s not as important.

But it also would say something about your worth as a human being. A failure to rise to a challenge. A lack of what the military used to call “moral fiber”. When the alarm bells ring, the good men respond. When the alarm bells rung, you did not.

Ouch! That’s gotta be bad. That’s gotta be a message to others: don’t hire this worthless dope, he can’t be counted on when the stakes are down.

Ouch, again!

You don’t do something, evil triumphs.

That’s kinda bad, right?

But there’s something worse, even worse than death (I would think).

That’s the diminishment of your worth as a person, as you’ll have all the essential unworthiness of a person who sleeps on guard duty. (What, you didn’t know the founders put you are guard duty? What, never heard “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty”? Of course you have - there goes that excuse!)

The difference between you and some ill-educated country bumpkins on the night of April 19, 1775 is that when the alarm bells rung, they turned out. Got up from their warm beds, picked up useless firearms good for no more than 60 to 100 yards, and moved with purpose to an assembly area, ready to face any foe.

They turned out.

But you don’t.

At least, not so far.

Make no mistake about it. We are in a war, right now. We are facing as great a threat as this country ever faced. A threat that is going to kill liberty. Kill it, even as you sit by on the couch.

Ignorance, apathy, laziness. Which is going to be the first to kill our liberty?

And, sitting on the couch, you could say not only that you are not resisting - far from it, you are helping the enemy.

“Helping the enemy.” Let that sink in for a moment.
I don’t see how you can look in a mirror. (Guess the only thing that protects you is your friend and ally, ignorance - right?)
“Helping the enemy”? Whoa, isn’t that what Benedict Arnold did?
Do you like Benedict Arnold for it?
Do you think what he did - help the enemy - was a good thing - or a bad thing? (I have to ask, because your history and behavior indicate you may not know the answer to that question.)
Yet you can argue Benedict Arnold was (and is) better than you.
Sure, the two of you are alike in the sense that both of you are helping the enemy - you, simply by being a “good man”, who does “nothing.”
But Benedict Arnold fought and bled for his country, and for liberty - before he became like you.
Benedict rallied the troops and charged into British steel and lead at Saratoga, and seized victory that may have saved the Revolution. And suffered grievous wounds in the process.
Does that look good on his resume?
Makes it look not quite so bad, right?
Yet it’s something you don’t have on your resume - right?
So, are we down to this? Currently, your resume doesn’t look near as good as that of Benedict Arnold’s?
Man, that’s gotta be tough to live with.
But there is good news.
Benedict Arnold’s resume is over, done with.
Yours isn’t.
Yours is still being written. And what is written in the present and future can change from a steady “does nothing” and “fiddles while Rome burns” to “seizes the intiative, gets in touch with his inner American, and rallies himself and others to the fight for liberty”.
Now, that sounds better, doesn’t it?
Appleseed: it’s a resume-enhancer.
Big time!
And when we’re done with you, at Appleseed, you’ll be a man of worth. A skilled rifleman, yes - but also a teacher of your fellow man, a person who’s stranger to a couch, an active person out waking up his fellow Americans and helping save his country.

Like Benedict Arnold - only, instead of charging into British steel and lead, you’re charging into a bunch of your fellow Americans, firing them up for Liberty, teaching them a heritage they didn’t know they had, rescuing them, saving them.

And when you save liberty for them, you save liberty for yourself.

And for your family.

Say, why don’t you at least think about it. Think about becoming part of Appleseed.

We’ll teach you to shoot like a Rifleman, and then teach you to teach others - the essence of Appleseed - get ‘em out of the deck chairs, and get ‘em bailing, to save the ship.

The shame - the eternal shame - is that Appleseed is fun.

Yep, there’s no suffering, no deprivation - you’ll always sleep on clean sheets in a warm bed.

The people you meet, and associate with, will be the finest Americans you’ll ever know.

True friends, every one of them.

And your life will have a purpose, and a Mission.

Yet you’ll be saving your nation.

Is this a deal you can afford to turn down?

So, a new thing for me, a blog.

So, an introduction is in order. I am Nickle, yup, the same Nickle that’s on the Project Appleseed forum, and many other forums. I live in Vermont, that’s in northern New England for those of you that didn’t know. I actually live on the side of a mountain, and that’s no bull. So far out in the sticks that across the road is the Green Mountain National Forest.

Fred asked to me to join in here, and give some perspective from my point of view.

I’ll be adding to this blog about weekly, so keep watch, come back and check it out.

Those of you that really know me, well, you know I’ll be telling some stories (all true, I swear), and giving you some history and information that hopefully will motivate you to do better as a shooter and a citizen of this fine country.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the USA is slowly sinking. So, grab a bucket and while you’re bailing, I’ll try to enlighten and entertain you. Just remember, I’m not Fred, so my style is going to be different.

I guess where to start is to tell my story and how I got to be involved with Project Appleseed.

My shooting “career” started as a youth, and I was lucky enough to grow up in a gun shop (and ammo manufacturer). I did the usual kid stuff, started out with an air rifle (Dad hated BB guns, said they taught bad habits, I agree).

Dad was a Bench Rest competitor and Highpower competitor. He dragged me along to many Bench Rest matches, where I met some nice people, and made lots of friends. Yes, I actually knew Mike Walker, Harvey Donaldson, Bob and Paul (and Wally) Hart and many others. Eventually, he got me competing myself (at 12-13 years old). Started out in the Heavy Varmint class (NBRSA), and after the IBS was formed, well, Dad and I were Charter Members. Along the way I met more nice people, Myles Hollister and Dave Brennan (when he was starting out shooting), among others.

Then I graduated from high school, and joined the Army (not much choice, it was enlist or get drafted, yeah, it shows my age). Uncle Sam taught me the fine points of “position shooting” that my father hadn’t (Dad did teach me plenty). Truth be known, the Army didn’t teach us all that much, though I did qualify (M16A1). Remember, I was used to a “Top Fuel Dragster”, and then got stuck with a “Stock Car”. Yeah, there’s that much difference.

After 10+ years, I had enough. I knew I could continue my military career through the Army Guard, and still collect a pension. Of course, had I stayed, I would’ve retired 16 years ago. I don’t regret it, though.

I went back to Bench Rest shooting, though I got into the muzzle loader thing for a bit (it wasn’t me). Met more nice people, like Seeley Masker and the Euber brothers. I mention all of these names, because each one of them has had an impact on my life and my shooting (including my Dad). Seeley was undoubtedly the BEST bolt action gunsmith in the country. Lots of records fell to his work.

After a while, I figured out getting competitive and staying there was a LOT of time and money to invest. Being a responsible father, I realized I lacked both, having other priorities (the kids). I did make a short foray into Skeet Shooting, and found again, too much time to invest, though this time, my son got interested (daughter didn’t). I also dabbled some in Smallbore (now there’s a challenge).

Things tapered down for a while, though I did some work all this time, helping my father with his business. He became quite ill during this time (he also recovered), and I ended up helping still more. My then wife even helped, and by now, the kids were adults, and they even helped sometimes, too. Ten came the ‘94 AWB, and I figured if I was ever going to own some of the rifles I had wanted for years, I’d better start buying them NOW. The wife got somewhat shocked and worried, until I told her how long I had wanted some of this stuff. Somewhere in here, Fred started up his famous Shotgun News (SGN) column, and I became an avid reader. I did a modest amount of business with Fred, started with books, bandolier repack kits and targets, and after buying the M14 I had always wanted (and figured I’d never see reasonably priced), started buying a few stocks as well. Sold most of them at gun shows, and ordered more.

Things snowballed, and I got more and more into Battle Rifles. Now, here was something that was still a challenge, but money and time were more flexible, and I found I enjoyed them more. Besides, they’re more practical than most target rifles (though I still have 2 of them). I got on a few forums, started with AK Files (SKS owner) and FAL Files (L1A1 owner, substitute for the M14 for a while). At FAL Files, I bumped into GMB74, a local, and we became friends. Now, GMB74 has been doing a local “Rifleman” program for about 5 years now, before Fred branched the program out from Ramseur. I also got onto a regional forum, Northeastshooters. Met a couple of gentlemen there (crak and Dwarven1), and also became friends with them. Crak was a rifle shooter at the time, and Dwarven1 was only into handguns. We corrupted Dwarven1 in short order. First we got him into Battle Rifles, then into Appleseed. He’s an IIT now, soon to be an Instructor.

Along the way, I had been noticing Fred branching the program out, and joined the new RWVA forum, back in 2005. I saw there wasn’t an Appleseed anywhere remotely close to me, so, lo and behold, I figured I’d better find a range near me. Fool that I was, I held out to get what is now the premier range in the Northeast, Jericho. 600 yards, beautiful range, and about a year and a half to get it locked in, after the 6 month wait to even start the process. During all this, I started building my skills, rolled up my sleeves and got involved in Project Appleseed. I had found EXACTLY what I was looking for. The relationship with the wife got strained during this time ( a son and brother being deployed one right after the other has a way of doing that) and she and I separated. (The good news is that we are back to at least friends again.)

So, I got “reborn”, so to say, restarted my life with a new lady I met along the way, and got even more involved in the program (yeah, Fred roped me in HARD). Did an Appleseed at Hartford, CT, and was helping, and Fred saw something in me, and let me become an IIT (he waivered the 2nd Appleseed, based on my background). Things started happening in a rapid manner (and I started working Appleseeds), and next thing you know, I was running my own events as a Shoot Boss, the only one for over 500 miles.

And, seeing that the program means so much to me, I got even more involved, and am now helping run it on the upper level.

See, the moral of the story here, is to tell you that Nickle isn’t really anything special. I’m just a “hick from the sticks”, and got around some.

Any of you could do the same, if you really wanted to.

And, there’s plenty of buckets to start bailing with.

Somebody has got to do it, why not YOU?

In theory, it’s a simple program.

Teach your fellow Americans how to shoot a rifle.

Add a little history of April 19th 1775, the very beginnings of our nation’s liberty, to put learning to shoot into a historical context - after all, you can argue with good reason that marksmanship played a major role in the unfolding of the events on that day.

Simple, yes.

But for some Americans, it has a power and an impact like they seldom experience.

Let’s take the recent story of the housewife from Wisconsin who was forced (more or less) to come to the Illinois Appleseed this July.

It was a first for Appleseed - a three-day Appleseed, starting on Friday, July 4.

We call people who come to an Appleseed, “Appleseeders” (duh!).

Our reluctant (and no doubt unhappy) female Appleseeder left with her husband (who had been to an Appleseed in California on April 19th, and then another in Wisconsin on his return - see, Appleseed is spreading everywhere!) only after she made clear to him that they’d both have to be back home for a B-Day party for “the kids” on Sunday. But let’s let her tell it:

Always listen to your mother-in-law, especially if she has been happily married to the same man for 62 years. ”Go, and be with your husband”, she said. She knows how to keep a marriage good; so I went to my first AS with my husband. Laying prone on the ground, in the hot sun (or rain), with mosquitoes, wearing earmuffs and squinting at far away targets for two days was something I was not looking forward to. Thought I had a valid excuse to skip the third day because it was my son’s and daughter-in-law’s birthday and the party was at our house that day. Off we go, mentioning a couple of times at least we were “doing something” together on a holiday weekend.

We headed south from Wisc to Illinois on Independence Day weekend; not the usual traffic pattern. Glad, at least, to be going against the flow. I read the AS web page on how to prepare and knew I was in trouble with the first point, a teachable attitude. Gathered up the sunscreen, bug spray, cooler, chairs, gun cases, bags, more bags, carpet roll, and an improving attitude. By the way, the “what to bring” and “how to prepare” lists were helpful.

Upon arrival at the range things started looking up. You’ve already heard it all; perfect weather, nice tents set up for shade, no bugs, dry place to roll out the carpet. Even more encouraging was to see all of you, and get to know everyone; The Guy, Stites’, John, Garand, Wetfoot, Victor, Bryan, and all the young men and scouts. Gives a middle aged lady lots of hope for the future. Everyone was well mannered and well disciplined, happy, and seemed to really enjoy the days. Gun nuts really aren’t a bunch of crazy people after all. haha!

The format was easy to follow and not too intimidating, except the standing position sling adjustments….ouch! And the sitting position elbows on the FRONT of the knees?! When I whined about burning brass under my elbow, The Guy reminded me I shouldn’t be moving my elbow. Add to that turkey-aching-necking and chin plant bruise; all things I had no idea I SHOULD have been dreading.

Someone once said, “you have to go THROUGH something to get TO something”. With a lot of good instruction, helpful target analysis, drills, encouragement this “cook” was forged into a marksman with one QDAQT at 150 and one at 151. If only I hadn’t given the shooter to my right all those good shots on the 3rd stage after the reload. It didn’t seem like he minded too much…sorry.

For a split second on Saturday night on the way home, I thought of calling and canceling the birthday party, and going back for the third day, and now a big part of me wishes I could have been there to see all the action on Sunday, and be able to congratulate you all in person on your achievements. next time…..

Thanks to everyone for all the fun! Loved the history! Moooooocho thanks to Guy for all your work, Fabulous! …..and for the use of your yellow lenses. It was the edge I needed for focusing on the front sight.

Range fees: $40 Hotel fees: $120 Gas to get there: $60 hearing [my husband, an Instructor-in-Training] “call the line”: priceless!

Here’s the husband’s version:

After we left… [and on the road back home to Wisconsin], my wife said ”I wish we were staying for tomorrow.”

An October, 2009 Update: The lady in question is now an RWVA Appleseed instructor who has just returned to Wisconsin from a week in Georgia at a military base, training troops soon to be deployed overseas to a combat zone in how to make hits with their primary weapon - their rifles. Life is funny sometimes. Come to an Appleseed on a hot July day, and wind up teaching our troops the skills which may help some of them come back alive…

Fred’s come a long way from ten years ago, when he first started publishing some ‘thoughts’ in Shotgun News (a good publication to subscribe to, by the way).

Back then, he was young and foolish - and, maybe better, still finding his way in life.

Like Ben Franklin, always trying to learn, to better ones self.

Unlike Ben Franklin, in that Ben had to make his way in the world from teenage-hood, whereas Fred was able to soak in the cocoon of the educational system until he was nearly middle-age. While you can still be a ‘learner’, it’s far better, faster, harsher, and more efficient to do it in the real world.

At any rate, starting out in the pages of SGN, Fred found the experience of writing down your thoughts for as many as 100,000 readers concentrates the mind wonderfully.

In less than a year, he was writing about the Rifleman and the role he plays in this country, and has played - and the need to get as many people reacquainted with those skills as possible.

Like a saumurai in Japan, there’s something about being a rifleman that brings out things in you that not only should be brought out, but you kinda wish had been brought out sooner rather than later.

So as he continued reading and learning, especially when he got hooked on the question of “Why April 19, 1775?” things keep becoming clearer and clearer (note that present tense).

After considering the issue of how riflemen could defend their country in the way the founders intended, using UN invaders as an example (which generated a still-interesting story/scenario illustrating how it could and can be done, Fred’s only literary work - which he imaginatively called “Battlin’ the UN”), Fred was soon maturing courtesy of the founders of this country and the words they left behind them as guidance for future generations.

To his astonishment, they put the burden of protecting liberty, not on the Constitution or the Bill of Rights contained therein, but on an educated, informed, alert American people. Wow!

Leave it to life to spring the irony of it: that freedom and liberty rests on the shoulders of an alert, informed, educated people - and there’s hardly anything educated, informed, or alert about the American people today.

If you doubt that statement, look at the people they continue to elect. Look at two presidential impeachments (one still-born) in the last generation (what, did you forget Bill Clinton was impeached?). Reckon there’s a reason for what seems to be increasing failures of character in the highest office of the land?

And that’s not all, of course. A congress with a current approval rating of nine percent - yep, you read that right - single digit approval rating for the supreme governing body in the land (via the “commerce clause” of the Constitution).

And a final stab in the heart: People who vote for Democrats when they should know that Dems are for high gas prices, higher taxes, more control, etc.

Like this election cycle, at the presidential level - is there a dime’s worth of difference between the two running for office? Both are anti-gun, both favor restrictions on free speech, both favor illegal immigration, neither has a clue about how to manage the economy - boys, we’re in for 4 to 8 years of Jimmy Carter, all over again. Better pay off your debts, and get some money in the bank, maybe even stock up some food, in case it gets real bad (you have maybe 12-24 months to get ready), cause the misery-index is coming back!

Çarter almost single-handedly cranked up the survivalist movement in this country. Bill Clinton sold more semi-auto military-style rifles than prob any other president.

The saddest thing of all? We do this to ourselves. We vote for these people. We elect these people.

All wounds hurt, but the self-inflicted ones, because they are so unnecessary, have to hurt just a little more.

OK, all this is the standard “world’s coming to an end” talk. What a friend would say is counting the icebergs from the deck of the Titanic, when a better strategy would be to get a bucket in the hands of each passenger, and get them bailing like H. There are no guarantees, but what else can you do? (In 21st-century America, there’s an easy answer: sit in the deck-chairs, complaining about the service, hoping someone will come and save the ship for ya!)

At any rate, during the transition from a newbie writing in SGN to an older, more polished, more thoughtful individual, Fred learned a very important fact: most of us (gun-owners) have it wrong. The 2A exists as a deterrent to tyranny, but if you don’t have the people on your side, it’s a pretty unrewarding strategy to reach for your gun when you think tyranny is nigh.

I don’t know if the founders realized this - maybe some did, Jefferson surely didn’t - but they made revolution obsolete when they won the American Revolution - and the Revolutionary War that followed it.

You wanna save this country? The last thing you do is pick up a gun. The first thing you do is talk to your friends and neighbors and try to get them to understand the peril we live in today. The easiest, maybe the best way to convert ‘em, is to get them to an Appleseed - that combination of marksmanship and heritage and history that connects them to the Founders and makes them understand that they are not helpless in the face of modern times and troubles. That they can make a difference.

That the country can be saved.

That the country is worth saving.

And Appleseed can be the solution. Turning this country back to a Nation of Riflemen (no, we don’t have to do 100% - I’d say about 5% would do it) can revolutionize the American people - educate them, inform them, raise them to a higher level of alertness.

Look on the next four years - or eight - not as a dark and uncertain and sure-to-be-painful future, but as an opportunity to focus on what is important: waking up your fellow Americans.

And you wake them by getting them to Appleseeds.

Appleseed is in fact really the solution to the American crisis.

Take it from Fred. He’s been around the block. Check the sched at www.rwva.org, and get your family to the next Appleseed, so you can see for yourself what this program can do for YOU.

PS: With our new “women shoot free at Appleseed” - at least, thru the end of this year - Appleseed has taken on a new family-friendly approach - Dad pays, and the whole family shoots free! (Technically, Mother can come without Dad - by herself with the kids - and everyone will still shoot free!)