Common Sense

Posted on the www.appleseedinfo.org site by a fellow Appleseeder as a Christmas greeting:

Date, December 24th, 1776.

General Washington, having had a year of defeats and distress, facing the end of his soldiers’ enlistments, desperate for a victory and to retain his army, was kept from sleep in preparation of his daring, upcoming action.

Unlike General Washington, we have had no defeats, have had success beyond our imaginations, and are growing in numbers. Like General Washington, our upcoming actions are quite monumental, and indeed will keep many of us awake when slumber would be the norm.

As we celebrate His birth, I can’t help but to reflect upon those who spent that icy Christmas Eve 233 years ago, preparing for a daunting task, willing to sacrifice for our Liberties…….as a matter of fact, those that have done so for over 230 more Christmas Eves, for this nation.

While Appleseed is but 3 years old, Appleseeders have been with us since 1775. We now stand at the van of a very noble, impressive line of Americans that love their nation, wish to preserve the gift of our Founders, to pass on to our Children…..

I am humbled by the thought of those that have tread this path before me….honored by those that tread it along side of me today.

MERRY CHRISTMAS.

This is a post by Fred on the Appleseed Forum site. I go back and read it often because of how relevant it is to America today. You can find the original post at
http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=518.0

The Rock Squirrels at Crater Lake
by Fred

The locals call them “rock squirrels”. To Fred they looked like regular chipmunks.

On a recent Appleseed trip to the Northwest, he ran into them at both Mount St. Helens and Crater Lake; in each case, the poor things being pummeled with food by park visitors, despite the “$100 fine for feeding wildlife” signs.

There were even some ‘cutesy’ signs, telling the animals not the accept the food, that it might harm their digestive systems. Guess someone in the Park Service doesn’t like Doritos?

In fact, more pictures (it seemed to Fred) were being taken of the ‘cute little critters’ than of six-mile wide crystal-blue Crater Lake, stretching to the horizon, or gigantic Mt. St. Helens, looming six miles away, whisps of steam drifting up.

And it was at Crater Lake that a fellow tourist said the following to a group of fellow ‘feeders’:

“The park rangers told me not to feed them.

“They said, give them too much food, and they get lazy, and forget how to survive on their own.

“Then they simply lay around on the rocks, sunning themselves.

“And when winter comes, they die.”

So, naturally, everyone was feeding them.

In fact, it looked like more people were taking pictures of the cute squirrels than the magnificent lake spread out before them, 1000 or more feet below…

Now, there’s a lesson here, for you.

A parable, if you will.

These squirrels are Americans. As American as you.

After all, they were born here, in this country, on this soil - just like you.

And that’s your major claim to being an American, right?

Certainly, the squirrels know and care nothing about liberty or freedom, nor are they aware of their heritage (if they have any).

Again, like you. [Remember, this is addressed to SGN readers - I understand that being on this site, you may(!) not quite fit the parable, unlike 99.99% of your fellow Americans.]

And the cause?

Too much food.

That’s the cause.

There’s so much food in this country now that obesity is being gradually medicalized into a “number 1″ problem.

Too much food, and you grow fat and lazy.

Too much food, and you forget what is important.

Like how to survive.

Like, how to think.

You know, use that lumber room you have upstairs…

When you don’t use your brain, it atrophies.

Goes to sleep on you.

Becomes worthless.

What is the survival value of “being stupid”?

Sorry. This being a certified “kinder-and-gentler” site, I meant to say “slow thinking”.

Now, the park rangers did not say anything about predators.

But I bet, if there were any, that fat, lazy, sleeping rock squirrels who can’t move very fast and are asleep would be pretty tempting to them, huh?

Now, ask yourself: are there any predators loose on this planet?

Does the phrase “axis of evil” come to mind?

Or does the word “Chinese” come to mind?

Say the word “Chinese” and what comes to mind - I don’t know about you, but it does to me - are words like “smart”, “clever”, “hard-working” - and “hungry” - not physical hunger, but a cultural “hunger” to be dominant, to make up for the past centuries of shameful submission to the West.

Remember, these are the guys that 56 years ago pushed a US Army to near defeat (yep, the Joint Chiefs were dusting off plans to evacuate the Korean peninsula) - with captured Japanese rifles and machine guns, and a few mortars - and a lot of Chinese.

In a preview of Vietnam, it seemed that firepower - air, arty, or anything else - could not stop the Chinese, if they wanted to pay the price.

You know, it’s amazing what little things come from too much food.

As it goes with rock squirrels, so it goes with humans, seemingly.

Bet you never thought you’d be compared to a rock squirrel at Crater Lake, right?

Yet, it’s a pretty good comparison.

A lot of points that are simlilar.

Which is why it is a parable.

Now, the big question: If you as an American can’t be differentiated from a squirrel, I submit you have a problem…

Parables are supposed to make you think, to clarify things in your mind.

Maybe this one will accomplish its purpose.

But only you can make it do so.

Recently I happend to watch a show on social interaction among people around the world and one segment dealt with New Yorkers. The general perception of people not from New York being that with New Yorkers crammed into contact with one another, it had caused them to develope introspective personalities, shutting themselves off from one another. Because of this, they were thought to be less likely to be willing to interact with others in the form of answering queries or pleas for directions, help, etc. from strangers on the street.

This tuns out to be a general mis-conseption. They are in practice all too willing to give strangers advice, answer questions, point out directions. Alert you if you are doing something incorrectly (even when you didn’t ask), help pick up a sheaf of papers dropped by a passeby, all things which socially groomed humans are known to do in their interactions with each other on a daily basis. They want to be helpfull, and they wnt to share their part of the human knowledge they posses and ad it to the common whole.

When you posess knowledge, that knowledge is only worthwhile if you share it in some fashion. Knowledge that just rattles around in your scull and ferments is not going to produce anything for you but vinegar. And there is much satisfaction to be gained from sharing your knowledge and skills.

Say you have the ability to take some milk from a cow, and through your knowledge and skill, you can transform that milk into rich creamy butter, which could then be spread on top of a nice piece of fresh warm bread, (that someone else’s knowedge let them make). That would be very usefull information, but not if it remains inside you, unused. If it does not get passed on and handed down, it is a dead end .

When you share your knowledge and skills you derive an immense amount of satisfaction from passing it along, sometimes completely out of proportion with the tidbit you shared. The sensation of satisfaction is not unlike hearing that you have won something. Some free gift or some competition. The same type of pleasurable feeling.

When you supply that missing piece of information, it is like you are standing in the same room with the bomb squad guys when they are trying to diffuse the nuke that is about to go off and snuff out hummnaity. But fortunatly for humanity, you were there to tell them, “The green wire guys, not the red wire, the GREEN wire”. And by sharing your piece of the pie that makes up human knowledge, you have become a hero for your species.

Appleseed understands this because Applesed instructors come to the program, first, to serve their sacred obligation to their country by teaching at events. But they remain because of the intense satisfaction they derive from instructing. That same wonderful feeling they receivefrom being able to help their nation and pass along their knowledge of rifle marksmanshipand safety, and, the knowledge they pass on about the men and women involved in the birth of our nation on April 19th, 1775.

We do not pay our instructors in the Appleseed program, they are all volunteers. So why do they do it? Because it satisfies that genetic obligation to their fellow human beings of sharing information that will help ensure our survival. It satisfies that obligation to pass along information that will ensure the survival of our nation also.

Wow! That is some excitng news. The Appleseed program is providing Americans from all walks of life the opportunity to become heros. The opportunity to do something, to become a mentor and help someone along their path to becoming a Rifleman.

At some point in your life you had a teacher or good friend that really moved your life difection in some way. You know what I am talking about, or if you don’t, you missed one of the high points of your life. When you met someone and ther teaching or friendship and kind words had a great deal of impact in your life,

As an Appleseed instructor, you have a chance to be that person and make a change in someone’s life. Let me tell you that I have not been to an Appleseed event where a life was not changed, not a single event, And that is one of the things that keeps me coming back week after week and pushing the program as hard as I can, Because I know that I am making a difference, I am doing something to add my little piece of the puzzle to the pool of human knowledge and to help insure the survival of my fellow Americans and of the country I love.

Become an Appleseed instructor and help pass on the skills heritage and knowledge of those who came before you to your posterity.

You will hear it said, in the Appleseed program, that “Appleseed is HOPE”.

By that, we don’t mean some pollyannish schoolgirl hope, no sir.

By “Hope” we mean a belief that Americans can - if they want - turn this country around.

That Americans don’t have to run, and they don’t have to hide - not in their own country.

No sir, if you are in Appleseed, you believe Americans are free to save their country.

To wake up their fellow Americans, to their history and their heritage.

We Americans don’t have to ask anyone’s permission to do it. No way.

Plus, we believe that if enough Americans decide they want to save their country, nothing - nothing! - can stop them.

We don’t have to continue to live on a sinking ship.

None of us likes the idea.

That the sacrifices of the founders in lives, liberty and fortunes, should die, unremembered, on our watch?

Most of us would say a resounding “NO!”

So, if you are one of those Americans, unhappy at what you see happening to your country, it’s the easiest thing in the world to get off the couch, rise up out of that deck chair, and join us as we bail - with all the determination we have to make sure that *&^% ship is NOT gonna sink!

And maybe, just maybe, we can be successful - there are no guarantees - nor were there any on April 19, 1775 - maybe we can be successful, and return this country to what it once was.

OK! All you people that have a lot of hard bark. You can cease fire on Indianapolis Mayor Ballard’s office. Based on just the e-mails and phone calls we got from all of you, they got drenched in phone calls.

The talking points you guys made to his office were beyond impressive. I got a call a few minutes ago from the Mayor’s office from a Jen Pittman, Deputy Director of Communications. She was very cordial and stated from the beginning that she was 100% on our side of this.

She explained that the Mayor, as many of you and I heard in our phone calls, supports the Second Amendment and claims he has no intention of pushing for more new gun laws.

She told me that TV Channel 8 edited that interview and added suggestions and references to “New York Gun laws” to imply that Indianapolis needs something like that.

Well, regardless of whomever implied or misspoke up there, it seems there’s been some scrambling to set the record straight. I wonder what could have caused that?

Innocent or intentional, we want folks to be careful when they talk about guns and crime. After hearing Ms. Pittman’s explanation I’ll take her word. Perhaps the Mayor really meant no harm and is just wanting to do something out of desperation.

However, I would like to re-channel the thinking that’s been going on in this country since the dinosaurs died about keeping guns out of felons’ hands.

The popular belief that more laws or enhancing existing laws is the answer. I’m afraid it’s not. Generally this attempt requires snaring good people into yet another web that the bad boyz always slip through.

If they really want to keep really bad guys from desiring to have a gun, then we need to do some precision work. A blanket law that reads all felons who are caught with a gun gets twice the prison time is all wrong.

How does that affect felons whose methods are to use a knife or a tire iron when they want to kill someone? Or what about the knot head who likes to set a building with people in it on fire?

Here’s another thing. What about the young, foolish young person who does a real dumb non violent act when they’re 18 or 19 years old, but gets classified as a felon because a state legislature upgraded a misdemeanor crime to a felony because it generates more money for the legal system?

What does putting someone like that, who when they grow up becomes a respectable citizen, husband and father, and is now 35 years old and wants to take his two young sons hunting is caught in the possession of a gun in the same boat as the gangster who kills a family of five accomplish?

No! No! No! Let’s be real careful and specific on how we control crime and not guns.

I asked Ms. Pittman if at some point Mayor Ballard would be willing to meet with some of our good pro gun legislators and some of you and maybe get our compasses pointing in the same direction. She told me she’s going to go to work on that. She explained the Mayor’s schedule to me. He books things 6 weeks out.

If someone, somewhere in this whole wide country could break out of this endless circle of the same old tactics of stopping crime and really throw the brakes on, wouldn’t it be nice if it happened here in Indiana?

Anyway, you guys sprayed the weed killer on this before it got too far. Someday we hope that liberals in this country will be afraid to close their eyes at night for fear of being overheard talking in their sleep about gun control.

Margie and I want to thank all of you “old timers” who’ve been with us for a long time and all the new friends who have saddled up with us since this Indy flap who described your phone calls to us. GREAT JOB. That’s how we do it. That’s called a joint effort.

Lastly, I want to post a letter we received which is a sample we get from so many of you good Patriots.

Jim,

Thanks for what you do. My wife and I really appreciate it. We live in Northern IN and am friends with Mike Lycenski.

I regret that in the past I always let things go by. It was someone else’s responsibility. What could I do? I am too busy. Last summer when Mishawaka was going to pass the law about no guns on city grounds. I received multiple emails from you and a few phone calls from friends who had already been alerted by you. I went to that meeting.

I have called the mayor and left a message with Mr. Vane. I will call again tomorrow. Let me know when your next get together is and my wife and I will try to come. I need a group of good men I can stand with. Because by myself I am easily overlooked. Thanks for giving me this opportunity.

From all the Patriots down here, thanks John and many thanks to all of you who have decided to STAY UNITED.

Indiana James
2ndamendmentpatriots.org

This was posted on the appleseedinfo.org/smf forum. As you can tell, it was not written by Fred, but Fred found the comments worthy of reading, so posts it here for your reading (and thinking) pleasure:

Ignorance, Apathy, Laziness
The Three Keys To Freedom’s Failure
By Dan Hendrickson

Anyone who has ever been properly instructed in the safe use of firearms knows there are really only 3 Firearms Safety Rules, rules that will protect life and limb. Some organizations add a 4th and even sometimes a fifth rule, but it still boils down to the first three. The fourth, regardless of which of the many versions you decide to use, doesn’t prevent YOU from accidentally killing someone.

Why were these three rules chosen? Because, as long as you observe one of the three rules, no one will get hurt. It doesn’t matter which one it is, just as long as it is one of the first 3 Gun Safety Rules. Before I lose anybody who doesn’t safely use firearms, allow me to go over them real quick.

#1 Always Keep The Muzzle Pointed In A Safe Direction

#2 Always Keep Your Finger Off The Trigger Until Ready To Shoot

#3 Always Keep The Gun Unloaded Until Ready To Use

The spirit of these three basic Firearm Safety Rules are the basis for all other Firearm Safety Rules. If you observe rule #1, but ignore #2 & #3, no one gets hurt. If you ignore #1 & #3 but observe #2, no one gets hurt. If you ignore #1 & #2, but observe #3, again, no one gets hurt.

Ok, ok, I hear you mumbling, “What does this have to do with Freedoms Failure??”

EVERYTHING!!!!

Just as you can take every single Firearm Safety Rule ever conceived, throw them into a pot and distill them down to only three significant safety rules that will positively protect you and those around you, you can also throw every conceivable threat that this Nation’s Freedom has ever had, throw them into the pot and distill it down to only three significant threats, threats that will positively destroy Freedom: Ignorance, Apathy, and Laziness.

Yep, it’s true, two nouns and an adjective hold the key to the destruction of American Freedom. And just like the 3 Firearms Safety Rules, though in complete opposite, as long as one of them is present, Freedom is doomed. They all have the same value in this equation, and the order is of no importance whatsoever.

Thomas Paine once wrote, “Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.” Boy do those words ring true today. The populace just stares into the boob tube and submits to whatever totally biased pre-chewed pablum the commentator provides. They soak up revisionist history like a sponge, and because they are too lazy to seek true knowledge, they remain ignorant.

Then you have a small percentage of non-lazy ignorance. The folks who soak up all sorts of misinformation in their quest for “knowledge”, and bust their tails repeating the nonsense. You know, the “9/11 Truthers” and other “Conspiracy Theorists” that are convinced that there is some grand scheme to steal their Freedom. Come to think of it they are a perfect example. They have Apathy and Laziness beat, yet they are still ignorant, hence they do nothing to save America, in fact (you can argue) they cause more harm than good.

Then you have the person who knows his Nation’s true history from day one and is even passionate about saving his Country. He tells everyone he meets at the bar how we need to shape up quick or the end of this Nation is certain, and our freedoms will be forever lost, if we don’t wake up! But alas, he was too lazy to follow through, too lazy to vote, too lazy to contact his representatives when his freedom was on the line, too lazy to preserve his own God given Rights.

Then you have apathy, what a sad state that is. I personally couldn’t fathom being apathetic, but I see it everyday. While I’m sure there are other reasons, two constantly present themselves to me.

First you have the hard core conspiracy theorist/secret squirrel, who after years and years of soaking up misinformation and preparing for the “end” several different times, only to be disappointed when the “end” never came, finally has their brain blow up and leak out their ears. As the primordial goop oozes out of their ears, many truths are revealed to them, but it is too late, they just don’t care anymore. They deem themselves as insignificant.

And in truth, at this point they are. Like their extreme opposite, the hippie who moved to the desert to grow peyote and pot and live their lives in a chemically altered state so they could “fight the man”, they are totally insignificant.

Then there is the second type, which happens to be the most common. The poor sap that has some knowledge, and is diligent, yet feels insignificant to the point that his little voice just couldn’t matter. How could his actions really save Freedom? Gee I don’t know, how did Paul Revere and William Dawes save Freedom one fateful night?

To them, my first suggestion is Disney/Pixar’s movie A Bugs Life. Ok, ok, stop laughing. Combating individual insignificance is what the movie is about, not fighting the mean ole’ grasshoppers. Plus your kids will watch it with you without falling asleep, a true twofer! Next of course, is attending an Appleseed Shoot with your Family.

What the heck will an Appleseed do to fight Ignorance, Apathy, and Laziness?

Something you will learn at your first Appleseed is the “Six Steps in Firing A Shot”. At first, you may be a bit overwhelmed; the learning process at an Appleseed is often described as trying to get a drink of water from a fire hose. Initially the “Six Steps” seem to only apply to the Marksmanship skills that you are trying to develop. Then you get to a point when the fire hose isn’t gushing (very rare, but on occasion), you start looking around trying to figure out how to soak up some of that water, i.e. knowledge, that you missed.

Once you start to soak up the “Six Steps”, the Rifleman’s trait of perseverance, and that History regarding April 19th, 1775, a day when seemingly insignificant, common men and women, made uncommon sacrifice, and a new Nation was forged, all of a sudden it hits you. For some it is subtle, for others it hits you like a hammer, at that point, it is no longer about Marksmanship. It’s about being an American.

An American who possesses the knowledge of the sacrifice made by the Founders of this Great Nation.

An American, who possesses passionate concern about his Country and the path it follows.

An American who possesses energetic diligence, and perseverance while preserving the memory of costly sacrifices made for Freedom. An American, willing to get off the couch and make a difference!

It’s about being a good American and passing on the experience to others, like I am doing right now, hopefully touching the hearts and souls of Americans, and doing my part to save America.

Ah yes, the “Seventh Step” - once you’re in the “know” you will realize it’s really just the “Sixth Step”, Follow Through!

Don’t believe me? Try it, you will be surprised how fun it is to become a Rifleman (and save the Country).

Hope I see you on the trail soon.
www.appleseedinfo.org

Fred says: Pretty interesting summary of 21st-century America, don’t you think. I’ve seen - and you’ve seen - plenty of Americans for whom that couch in front of the tube is a Sacred Throne - and not just any ST, either - it’s their ST, and they aren’t gonna be budged off it, if they can help it.

A case of laziness being more important than liberty.

Sad, and you have to think the founders in heaven are weeping…

Imagine you’ve just picked up a history book - the history of a country. It flips open to “Chapter 18″, where you read:

“And now we come to the years when the people, having overcome all the challenges in providing for material wants, slipped into lethargy, happy with full bellies, and all the entertainments satisfaction of material wants provides.

“Now, in the comforts of the present, knowledge of the struggles of the past recede into the forgotten distance.

“Unnoticed, a thick heavy blanket of ignorance, apathy, and laziness slowly drifts down to blanket the land.

“Soon the message gets to the politicians: people don’t care any more about past glories and traditions. Now all they care about is material comforts.

“So the politicians, always eager to gain and retain the perks of office, promise their voters more of what they want, more material wealth, more bread and more circuses. And they are quick to capitalize on the growing lethargy of the population. They find people don’t remember those promises after the election - and that, the next election, those promises can be trotted back out and reused all over again, with the same politician-friendly results. Yes sir, P.T. Barnum was right!”

Now, having read that, you idly wonder to yourself - “I wonder what Chapter 19 is titled.”

Is it titled “Country’s Past Glories Eclipsed by Further Achievements”?

Is it titled “Bright Future Becomes Even Brighter”?

Or is the next chapter to be a darker one?

A tale of the continued smothering by that thick blanket of a once-great nation, now sounding sleeping on its laurels.

If you want to know the answer to the next chapter’s title, rent the movie “Idiocracy” starring Luke Wilson. It’s all there, no secret about it, ready for you to watch in full glory - but I don’t think you will, at the end of the film, find that the words “glory” and “hope” are the first words you think of.

Those two words, my friends, are reserved for your first Appleseed experience, when you get in touch with your country’s heritage, its past, and its traditions. When you submerge yourself in the stream that flows from April 19th, 1775, and become part of something you’ve been missing, without knowing it, all your life.

So, come to an Appleseed. There’ll be 300 of them next year, all over the country.

Including 50 on the weekend of April 18-19 alone, from coast-to-coast, California to Maine, Wisconsin to Florida to Texas.

Be part of it. Be part of history.

Make sure your kids are there. Your grandkids. Your brothers and sisters. Your neighbors. Your co-workers. Your friends.

The Titanic is slowly sinking. The faster we get more people bailing, the faster we save the ship.

How can you argue with that?

The title of Chapter 19 is yet to be written - but you can, if you want to, write that title the way it should be written - by coming to an Appleseed.

Man, is life tough, or what?

It is late at night, in a dark hotel room in El Paso, Texas. Completely exhausted and listening to my roomate snoring in the bed beside the tiny hotel desk I am typing at. He is worn out also. We have spent the last 48 hours at breakneck speed traveling to, preparing for, and running an Appleseed Project shooting event here on seven hours of sleep in these last 48 hours.

So tired, and so much to do. But I keep hearing that tiny, insistent voice in my head, whispering in my ear, “hurry..hurry…there is no time to waste, no time to sleep. You can sleep when you die”. And so you can, but right now, there is no time for sleep.

Tomorrow is promised to no man.

What? What is that supposed to mean? What’s the big hurry? Come on, get a grip for crying out loud. Why can’t this be done tomorrow? Or even the next day, or next week for Pete’s sake? Geeze, it’s not like the country is burning down around us as we deliberate on when this can be done, right?

But what if it is ? Every time any group of people hand over the reins of their care to someone else and expect them to act on their behalf within the best interests of those people, and do nothing to make sure that their guardian is in fact acting in their best interests, it has failed in some way. And it always will, without the people’s constant vigilance of the individuals who are supposed to be acting on their behalf. But we have not been vigilant, and time is running out.

America’s system of representation is no longer a trusted working system. The representatives no longer listen willingly to their constituents. They now have to be pressured and leveraged to do the right thing and like fluids under the influence of gravity, they are constantly seeking the path of least resistance. More interested in continuing to protect and feather their nests than in doing the right thing.

No more standards of the highest caliber or unimpeachable ethics. Now unethical and immoral behavior is the norm, with established government regulation spin stories already in place for whatever they are caught doing. Wheeling and dealing with complete disregard of the “peasants” in their care.

The “government” is not the President of The United States, or a group of men making laws in Washington, and it is not an agency that attempts to regulate the people. It is the people themselves. Those very same folks who were written about in the document that formed our nation.

“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

That is the government, the people. And somewhere along the way they have forgotten what their duties are. They have abdicated their power and handed the reins to a group of faceless ne’er-do-wells who are running amok like drunken Kung-Fu masters on a Saturday morning matinee. Some one has to remind the people about what the Founding Fathers intent was in giving the power of the government to the people and how the people were supposed to safeguard it. The need reminding before something goes terribly wrong.

That is why I am hurrying, working through the night, and pushing myself. I do this because “the people” have to remember, and the job of Appleseed is to make sure they are reminded. To make sure foks understand who is supposed to in charge in government. We are not sheep and cattle to be herded and penned up, kept out of the way and made to behave. We are meant to be the actual active participants in our governing and to let those who represent us know that they govern at our leisure. They are our servants and not the other way around.

These days have much in them to cause confusion and anxiety, despair and denial. How did we get here? What can we do to extricate ourselves from the morass of apathy, of financial, ethical and moral downfalll and doom we now face daily in America? The answers you often receive to these questions are as varied as the answers to the quesion of “what is your favorite color?”, or what is the best remedy for the common cold? And given just about as much forethought.

Members of The Appleseed Project have asked such questions of themselves and their friends quite often also, but mainly as an aside and in a peripheral way. That is because the current manisfestation of The Appleseed Project might be compared to an early New England volunteer firemans “Bucket Brigade”. The Appleseed Project project has at it’s core the belief that America is currently “on fire”, and while knowing the reasons and causes of the fire are questions that truely need to be answered, the most dire concern facing us at this very moment is getting Americans involved in putting out the fire. And how to do that?

During the course of the last few years there have been many comments made about the the Appleseed Project by members and outsiders alike, some good and some bad, some saying that is it heavily concerned with numbers. Some that it is not this, or not really that. Not enough “extra” stuff, doesn’t scratch this back, doesn’t paint that kitchen, etc., etc.

I am here to tell you that while we have as many irons in the fire as we can possibly manage, the Program is concerned with numbers. We have found that we have to sift through hundreds of attendees to get even a few good instructors and volunteers who are dedicated to keeping the program moving forward, at the pace we are determined to maintain. And since the reason we are doing this is not to make money, or to build a social network club for our members, but to put out the fire raging in the heart of America right now, we feel numbers should be the main goal of the program at this point.

This will not always be the goal. When fires are put out Firemen do other chores. They do inspections to make sure wiring and electrical appliances are up to code. They inspect houses and commercial buildings for fire dangers. They educate the public on fire safety and they have BBQs to raise money for finding cures for diseases. And many, many other things besides fighting fires. But when the fire alarm sounds, they drop everything else they are doing and go and fight the fire. That is what APpleseed is doing. We are dropping everything else and making sure we have enough people to fight the fire.

When a fire starts somewhere, anyone who sees it feels some kind of innate responsibility to do something about it. A person driving by a fire will stop and make sure that the fire department has been called, passerbys will try to ascertain if anyone is still inside and others will alert neighbors going house to house making sure people have gotten out of endangered homes.

Some people will even overcome their fear of the the flames and fire ravaging the structure and listen to the voice inside them telling them they have to go inside the burning building and find that person who may be trapped in there and bring them out to safety.

Nowdays these people are called “Heros”. In the days past they were called “Members of the Community”. People who saw something was wrong and took it upon themselves to make it right. You do not need any special training or any permission from anyone to do what is right. When you see a fire starting, you don’t need anyone’s permission to start doing what you can to put it out. In fact, it is your sacred duty to make sure the fire gets put out and the community remains safe from any future fires. That is just common sense.

At Appleseed, we do not feel we have to ask anyone’s permission to save our country. We feel it is the right and duty of every American to do everything within their power to make sure this country does not “burn to the ground”. Attend an Appleseed event, find out what being an American really means.