Common Sense

We say at Appleseeds - those weekend heritage and rifle marksmanship events put on by the Revolutionary War Veterans Association - that our instructors have “a time monkey on their back.”

By that we mean there’s a lot to get accomplished in two short days, both marksmanship-wise and heritage- and history-wise.

“Too much to do, too little time” is another way to look at it.

So you quickly understand your biggest hurdle is time management.

There’s no room for “wasted” time or “slack” time.

And it falls on the shoulders of the SB (the “Shoot Boss”, the guy in charge of the Appleseed) to keep the pressure on, to keep things moving, to provide the kind of drive it will take to get all accomplished.

“Drive” is a fairly rare commodity, these days.

It’s not easy, not an easy task for modern Americans.

But definitely a critical task: the success of the Appleseed depends on it.

Which is why we say the “Shoot Boss” has a “monkey” - a “time monkey” - on his shoulders - or on his back.

In a larger sense, the entire Appleseed program has a “time monkey” on its back.

Time is not unlimited. Especially if you believe the future of the country is at risk. And there’s a need to ’save’ it.

To stop the train from going off the rails (or, as some of us would say - “too late for that - better focus on how we get it back on the rails…”).

Or, in another popular analogy, to save the sinking ship.

Life has a quality which endows things which go on longer with a tendency to continue going on longer. Call it “inertia”, call it the weight of the past, call it what you want - the longer things continue on a course or path, the harder it is to change that course, and the harder it is to recover lost ground.

Hence, the longer the ship continues to sink, the more difficult the task of first slowing, then stopping, the sinking - followed by the laborious process of pumping it out, fixing the damage, and then - finally - setting sail again.

Add to the mix the uncertainty of being able to do it, and you have a recipe for feeling “time’s a-wastin’!”

Because that uncertainty can only increase with time.

Early on, with only a few thousand gallons of water, not only is the task easier, but the certainty of being able to bail out the water before the ship sinks is almost a given.

Once the water has been inflowing for years, and becomes measured not in mere gallons, but in thousands of tons, not only is the task much harder, but the certainty much less.

If the ship is the only ship you have, that’s gotta be worrisome.

And motivational: Let’s get this ship fixed sooner, rather than later.

Why stand by idly, while the future darkens - even as we stand by?

Would that more Americans feel concerned about the future of the ship they’re on.

Would that more Americans feel compelled to get out of the deck chairs, and start to bail - to have the optimism, and the energy, and the grit, and the backbone, and the spirit, and the determination - to save the ship.

To not ask “Can it be done?”, with the odor that if it can’t, there’s no point in trying.

To ask for guarantees is the wrong road to travel.

Life doesn’t give you guarantees. Expect guarantees, and you’ll never do anything, or do anything much, or of worth.

Yet many Americans succumb to the notion of “it’s too late, too late to save the ship” - whether they really believe it - or whether it’s used as a convenient excuse to do nothing (I suspect more of the latter than the former).

“Many”? Too many!

Not understanding, or having forgotten, what being an American is all about.

It’s not about passively accepting something unpleasant (and treading water is definitely gonna be unpleasant). It’s not about tamely submitting - April 19th, 1775 showed us that.

It’s not about “requiring guarantees” - what a namby-pamby attitude that reflects (sorry for the harsh language, hope no kids are reading this!).

Being American is about NOT submitting.

About fighting on - like they did for 8 years during the Rev War - sometimes without hope. Certainly without guarantees.

What is it about the modern American that he requires guarantees before he’ll get off the couch?

Why is it he can’t wake up and see what the future is rapidly shaping up to be?

Why does the modern American prefer the “ostrich head in the sand” approach to life?

Whatever the answer, it’s not an answer which would cover anyone with glory.

Nor add an iota of respect to your opinion of him - in fact, way to the contrary…

The irony is that opinions held by British officers before and during the Rev War - that “Americans are useless, militarily, fit only to be beasts of burden” - were right - only it took two hundred years for it to become ‘right’.

Certainly, the Americans who ran the British out in 8 years of bloody war were not “useless, militarily”.

Yet modern Americans subscribe to notions Neville Chamberlain - once so thoroughly discredited that even I heard about it, in grammer school - would be perfectly comfortable with - even cheered by.

Can we use the word “shameful”?

A word which means not much to modern Americans.

Unfortunately.

Because shame is a great motivator.

As well as a searing description of failure.

Let’s listen in as John Adams expresses his feelings in April, 1777 at the failure of volunteer troops from his home state to show as expected:

I am wearied out, with Expectations that the Massachusetts Troops would have arrived, e’er now, at Head Quarters. — Do our People intend to leave the Continent in the Lurch? Do they mean to submit? or what Fatality attends them? With the noblest Prize in View, that ever Mortals contended for, and with the fairest Prospect of obtaining it upon easy Terms, The People of the Massachusetts Bay, are dead.
Does our State intend to send only half, or a third of their Quota? Do they wish to see another, crippled, disastrous and disgracefull Campaign for Want of an Army? — I am more sick and more ashamed of my own Countrymen, than ever I was before.

Not a pretty picture, for sure.

“With the noblest Prize in View, that ever Mortals contended for, and with the fairest Prospect of obtaining it upon easy Terms, The People of the Massachusetts Bay, are dead.”

Heck, what part of this sentence, if you delete the reference to Massachusetts, would not apply, today? To every American, to all of America.

“The noblest Prize in View” - isn’t that liberty? Freedom? Sovereignty of the citizen (another concept I learned in grammer school, but destined never to heard about in 21st-century America, seemingly).

“…with the fairest Prospect of obtaining it upon easy Terms…” Isn’t that something you could say about today’s America - that notion of “many hands make for light work” - but we don’t have too many hands that aren’t on the couch, sleeping.

“…The People of [of America], are dead.” Now, that’s got to be something sad to say, about your own people.

Are we to take heart, that we’ve been thru this before? And prevailed?

I think not.

Any time you are able to nod your head in agreement with statements like that, you have to recognize that things ‘are in the balance’ - and far from being comfortable about it, you have to understand, almost instinctively, the future is dark.

Why else the distress of John Adams?

Why else should we who are awake and alert not be distressed?

There was a Time Monkey back then, just as there is today. Let things drift, and the opportunity for losing everything increases.

Wish I had a dime for every time I heard an Appleseeder (someone who volunteers to help with the Appleseed program) send his regrets about volunteering for a specific Appleseed because he has “family to visit”, a “wedding to go to”, or his “better half demands he stay home” that weekend.

Can you imagine, if all these people were magically transported back to 4/19/’75 - what scathing remarks would greet those excuses?

Yes, we have to have some moderation - we can’t be fanatics about saving the ship, now, can we?

But sometimes I think there’s an excess of moderation, a little bit too much of “business as usual”.

Because there’s a Time Monkey on my back, urging me on, pestering me with the notion that things are not right, and they are not getting any righter.

Telling me “time is late”, and “time is not on our side”, and - “time’s a-wastin!”

“Drive” is what will save us.

If enough of us see the future, understand the need, and make the determination “it will not be allowed to happen on our watch”, think what would happen.

We just might be able to save the ship.

That “drive” is energy, and time. Energy and time we need to put into saving this country.

“Have to go” to a wedding, instead of an Appleseed? Simply decline, and tell them to invite you to the divorce (after all, aren’t the chances better than 50-50 the precious wedding will end in divorce - so why should you risk the future of the country for such a likely hollow and, ultimately, superficial event?)…

What’s more important: A weekend with the wife? Or saving a nation?

Or, put it another way: Is your wife more important than your country? (Yes, I can hear your laughing, joking remarks - laugh all you want. When you get done, you’re still living on a ship which is sinking.)

The Time Monkey waits for no man.

Ignore him at your peril.

You’re the only one who can save the ship.

Look around. See anyone else doing it?

Except at Appleseed…

Even if the ship is sinking, there’s nothing to say you can’t have fun while you’re saving it.

Heck, even the saving of it - the bailing - offers a satisfaction that’s close to joy.

But in this case, to make the irony of it more pointed, let’s change the analogy a bit.

From a sinking ship, to a train traveling down a track.

Sure, the train is hell-bound - need I say?

Only, you don’t know it. Nor, seemingly, does anyone else on the train.

All is frolicking and jollity.

The big-screen TV is bigger than anything you’ve seen before, bigger than any you can get for your home.

The chip bowl is always filled - and is that the super bowl in progress up on that big screen?

And, say, is that Elton John, playing?

Say, this is nice - Heaven, even (only it isn’t - it’s neither Heaven nor Hell).

So the train rockets along, swaying a bit, but none of the passengers, engaged in 24/7 fun and games, seems to mind - or care.

Party. Party. Party.

Each in his own way.

The gamblers.

The drunks.

The slackers.

The slothers. (Or should I say, “men of sloth”?)

The workaholics.

The avoid-any-commitment-at-any-cost crowd (lots of them, for sure!).

Now, to keep the analogy straight and true, you’ll have to assume there are some people on the train who know “what’s what” - know where the train is destined - and don’t want to see the train to go to Hell.

So, they’re out there, turning the brake wheels, trying to first slow it down, then stop it - then replace the crew who so negligently allowed the train on the wrong track, going in the wrong direction, in the first place - and trying to get at least some of the passengers to wake up, and understand that, just because it’s the largest plasma screen they’ve ever seen, and both the Superbowl and Elton John (by the way, he’s not playing too badly!) are on-screen, the train is NOT Heaven, nor Heaven-bound, nor certainly going anywhere near it.

Because stopping the train - thousands of tons of it - is a task for more than a few - and, so far, a few is all we have.

Hence, Appleseed.

But we have fun, whenever possible, doing it.

Yes, you can have fun, saving the train.

This is 21st-century America, no point in doing it any other way.

No pain, no real sacrifice (a weekend a month looks pretty good compared with months at Valley Forge, freezing and starving).

Yep, we should be ashamed.

But again, this is 21st-century America - no need for shame, these days…

How about you? Enjoying the big TV?

Or working to save the train?

Tough choice.

I know it.

Even as I tell you, saving the train is not work. It’s not even a bother. It’s a challenge. And it’s fun.

Come out on the Appleseed Trail, and see for yourself.

Just bring a few with you - friends, relatives, co-workers, neighbors, family - you name it - I don’t care who and how you pick - just bring some with you.

That way, you have people to talk to on the way home - about the Appleseed, about how YOU did, about how THEY did.

And when you get home, you’re not alone, anymore.

You have some Appleseed friends with you.

And, sure enough, you find one Appleseed friend is better than ALL the friends you had before…

Remember building the pyramids?

Either 20,000 or 100,000 - depending on which historian/archeologist you believe - sweating Egyptians, each hooked to a long rope, the other end of the rope attached to a giant, multi-ton block of stone, pulling with all their might, under a hot sun?

Sounds like fun, huh?

And only 2.5 million more multi-ton blocks to go! (That’s just for the largest of the three pyramids - the others are there, waiting, too!)

People laboring for the state. Without pay. However willingly or unwillingly (we don’t know the answer to that question).

500 feet high, covering 13 acres - that’s one big mama!

It’s possible dragging the stones there was the easy part. Lifting them in place, and ‘dressing’ them to fit so smoothly a knife blade won’t fit in the joint - that prob was the real work.

Here’s a take on how it was done:

“”[It's]…now believed that the labor force reached 100,000…when farm work was impossible due to the annual Nile floods [July to late October]. During the rest of the year these human beasts of burden would return to their tasks as serfs on the rest of the land.”

Right there you have it. At least one theoretical construct of it.

Yet, reading it, can you maybe relate it to something more modern? Something closer to home?

Anyone ever heard of something called “Tax Freedom Day”??

It’s the day of the year when you’ve worked and earned enough to pay all your taxes for the year - state, federal, local - and you are free to begin working for yourself, and keeping what you make.

This year the Tax Foundation says, after taking into account the 1.5 trillion federal budget deficit, you’ll have to work from Jan 1 to May 29 to pay your annual taxes.

Only after that do you begin keeping for yourself what money you’ve earned.

Let’s look at the box score:

Ancient Egyptians: 3+ months working for the state (but during a time when they could not work for themselves - I guess - because the fields are flooded), over ten or twenty years.

The strong, free, modern 21st-century American: five solid months working for the collective state - national, regional, and local - with every year generally seeing “Tax Freedom Day” delayed a day or two longer - for a lifetime.

Say, who had it better?

Or more properly, who had it worse?

Or in yet another way, you can ask “what’s the difference?” What’s the difference between involuntary labor 4500 years ago and even more [semi-]involuntary labor, today?

(I asked this question at an Appleseed, and a lady blurted out “Air conditioning!” Actually, I was thinking the answer would be “the Egyptians had it better, because they only labored three-plus months every year, whereas we have to labor five” - or maybe “the moral here is, don’t waste your time pitying the poor Egyptians - there’s plenty to pity us poor hard-working Americans about” - but she had a point. Maybe it explains why Americans are not rushing to build time machines to go back to “the Land of Vacation” so many centuries ago. )

Let’s add one more historical fact to the mix: 200+ years ago, 13 colonies revolted over a penny stamp tax. (OK, a slight exaggeration - it was the attempt to seize arms at Concord that really set things off.)

The Stamp Tax, like many of the acts of Parliament at the time, led to riots, tar-and-featherings, and a massive boycott of imported English goods. So massive, the Stamp Tax was quickly repealed.

All that, over a penny.

Actually, over the issue of “taxation without representation”.

However, recent experience suggest it looks like taxation WITH representation has been a little oversold, right?

We get to this point when we let our standards slip - the standards set by the Founders. And we slip into an “unholy trinity”.

1. Politicians become adept at one thing: saying anything to get re-elected.

2. The vote-counting procedure in modern American can’t seem to be made idiot-proof - or tamper-proof.

3. The voters are largely lazy, ignorant, and self-centered in their self-interest.

It’s a “deadly trinity” which has the power to easily sink this ship.

And, is sinking it.

The past has many uses. Inspiration, motivation, education, and, not least, as a standard by which to measure the present.

By that standard, I’m not sure how well we measure up - either to 2500 BC, or to the late 1700s…

Guess you’ll have to decide.

In the meantime, resolve to come to an Appleseed, learn your heritage, then join us to make America once again conscious of and respectful of those liberty-loving and -winning people who went before us so long ago.

PS: By a curious twist of history, back in Egypt, it was the poorer level of society that carried the burden; today, the poorer level can take a vacation, and watch and enjoy “their betters” as they bear all the burden…

I was lucky recently to be an instructor at the Project April 19th, 1775 Appleseed in Harvard, MA.

Lucky not only for the usual reasons (which are many) but because it put me a few miles from where it all begin - Lexington and Concord.

Coming into town Friday PM, I had just enough time to revisit the National Minuteman Center, and stop at the North Bridge.

Sat was Appleseed instructing, so I missed the renactments set for that day, but Sunday morning, April 19th, before dawn, some of us Appleseeders met at Lexington Green, to be there to mark the occasion, and to fill our minds with the “murky half-light” of pre-dawn described as Capt John Parker assembled his men that long-ago morning.

We were the only ones there.

If only Elton John had been there, or some other music star…

But it was only us.

To be honest, I can see how it would have been a very scary morning - drums beating, the alarm bell pealing, people running to and fro, papable tension humming in the air. Clearly, the immediate future, if the redcoats showed, could be fraught with grave consequences for everyone there.

After the sun was well up, we partook of another growing Appleseed tradition - to stop at the North Bridge and collect a sample of river water - AFTER it flowed under the bridge - it’s heavier, and more sparkly-like, then.

Yep, we’ll take that water all over the US, and sprinkle some of the magic everywhere there’s an Appleseed.

Then it was back to teaching Appleseeders for the rest of the day.

Monday, before dawn, I was back at Lex Green for the reenactment - and what a difference! Could hardly get next to the Green, as maybe a thousand people jammed to watch the redcoats arrive, Parker’s men forming up and answering the roll-call, and then the first shots of what turned out to be a fateful day in world history.

As interesting was to hang around afterwards, and listen to the redcoat reenactors answer questions. Seems if you want to be a Rev War reenactor, being a redcoat has it’s advantages. The guy who was talking was in real life a lawyer, but as a redcoat he’d been to England, paraded before the Queen, and traveled to Bermuda and other places, just to do his stuff.

He mentioned that when the redcoats formed on Lexington Green to do their “fix bayonets” advance, the script called for someone to fire a shot from Buckman Tavern on their third step of the advance as a cue to start firing. One year, no one fired the shot - so on the fifth step, he fired his musket and, as he said, “I started the War, that day - I fired the first shot!”

From there it was steps to the graveyard where Capt John Parker is buried under a modest headstone, and I was able to witness a wreath-laying ceremony at his grave, followed by a musket volley - and a subsequent wreath-laying at the grave of an unknown British soldier. A representative of the British consulate in Boston was the ceremonial wreath-layer.

From there, quickly over to the North Bridge, for a ceremony by a redcoat unit rendering honors to both the American memorial, and the British graves on the near side of the bridge. They have an impressive ceremony called “Mourn Arms” where, lined up at attention facing the memorial, they slowly reverse their muskets until the muzzle in on their toe, then slowly bow their heads.

Just prior to that, they marched down the road to the bridge, and I have to give credit to the “British officer” leading the unit, as he had the swagger down so well you kinda wanted to throw something at him - in fact, someone watching yelled, “You’ll get yours!” - prob another Appleseeder…

One amusing aspect: When the British unit marched down and crossed the North Bridge, fifes and drums going, there was a group of uniformed navy people clustered on the far side of the American monument. When it looked like the British were going to march into them, they scattered like chickens - or school kids. Of course, the British at the last second turned to march around the monument, but still…I doubt John Paul Jones would have approved.

Later came the Concord parade, heavy with reactment units marching with fife and drum, some very professional, others more home-spun. All of it colorful and entertaining.

Of interest was the number of females dressed as men in the units - maybe there’s not enough Mass men to fill out the units? T’wouldn’t be much of a surprise…

One women spectator had a UN flag - maybe she wanted to show where her real loyalties lie?

On a prior visit to Lexington, a banner was draped across the front of a house only steps off the Green: “UN Save US!”

Guess someone really needs to come to an Appleseed, bad, and find out how we save ourselves?

Lunch at the Colonial Inn, existent on 4/19/75, just across the street from the hasty grave of a British soldier shot at the North Bridge - prob a member of the 4th, 10th, or 43rd Light Infantry - now and forever lying between the curb and the sidewalk in Concord town.

From there to Harwell Tavern on the restored Battle Road, a place that will make you think you’ve gone back in time two hundred years. Shots were fired at the Redcoats by at least one militiaman from behind the Hartwell barn - exciting times, indeed!

There we ran into a ranger who was 100% Appleseed - maybe we’ll have a special “rangers” Appleseed in nearby Harvard, some time!

A trip to where it all began is a trip every American should make at least once in his life. It would be hard to see everything in one weekend; plan on a week if you can - and read up on April 19th before you go, so it has more meaning to you, to actually be there.

I doubt there’s any place in this country with more concentrated history - heck, just touring the sites relating to one day - April 19th - trying to understand and picture what it was like - seeing muskets which were present - and fired - on Lexington Green at sunrise on April 19th - it’s more than you can deal with, if you care about your history and your heritage.

Let’s assume, just for the moment, that recent events in this country have left you with the feeling things are spinning rapidly out of control.

Let’s go a bit further, and assume - just for the moment - that you feel you are on the deck of a ship - and the ship is sinking.

Now, for the big question: What are you gonna do about it?

Oops, bad question, jumping the gun.

The first question is, “are you going to do anything about it?” Never mind the “what”, yet - just “what are your intentions?”

If you chose to do nothing, under the momentary assumption we asked you to make, you are on the deck of the sinking ship, and are planning to do nothing about it.

Nothing to stop the sinking. Nothing to save yourself, or any family that may be important to you.

After all, if the ship goes under, you’re in the water - not a positive prognosis for your future, to be sure.

So, let’s assume “doing nothing” is out as an option.

And let’s assume you know what to do - something like grabbing a bucket and starting to bail - and maybe yelling at the others standing around on the deck to grab a bucket and get to bailing!

Now that image is great - it’s even noble. Noble, to refuse to go under without a fight.

Heroic, even.

But that’s in your imagination.

In real life, you’re not on the deck of a sinking ship. No sir, you’re at home, or at work, or en route between the two.

In real life, you’re probably not lifting a finger to help save the sinking ship.

Mainly because, the water not being in front of your nose, and hypothetical to boot, it’s easy to ignore doing anything about it.

It’s also easy to ignore because, having lived over a decade (or nearly) in 21st-century America, you don’t really know how to ‘do anything’, any more (more correctly, you never knew - not you forgot ‘how to’, or that you are ‘rusty’ - simply that you never learned).

Plus, you simply don’t have time to do anything (and may not have the energy, either!).

Between work and family, there doesn’t seem to be much spare time to bail any hypothetical ship.

Man, life’s a beach, ain’t it?

Just when you want get concerned about the future - really concerned - everything conspires to keep you from doing anything.

No time. No clue as to ‘how to’. No energy.

Yet the ship is sinking, and you know it.

Maybe even feel bad about it - and even worse (is that possible?) you aren’t lifting a finger.

At Appleseeds (www.rwva.org), when I tell the story of April 19th, 1775, and mention the fact 14,000 armed Americans turned out on six-hours’ notice to defend their liberty - and question whether we could repeat that in today’s America, I raise another question: “How do you measure the value of liberty to a society? Would you measure it by the number of people willing to turn out to defend it?

“In that case, what does it tell us if 14,000 of our ancestors were willing to turn out on a few hours’ notice a couple of hundred years ago - without cell phones, internet, fax, etc - and most of us doubt that could ever be repeated today?”

If you look on liberty as being one of the things under attack in current affairs - in other words, as one aspect leading to the “sinking ship” conclusion - then you have to also (it seems to me) look at what you are doing - or not doing - to defend it.

Let’s suppose you can donate two hours a week to defending liberty - whether it’s writing your congress people, talking to people to try and wake them up to the threat, or something else (we at Appleseed can show you how a couple of hours on your computer a week can have a measurable impact on the battle to save this country - or the ship, if you prefer) - are you doing it?

Are you spending two hours a week to help save the ship?

I’m willing to bet the answer is “No” - and I’m willing to bet it’s for one of the reasons mentioned earlier - you don’t know what to do, you don’t have the time, etc.

The average American, we are told, spends 40 hours a week in front of his TV.

Ouch! That’s about all the time you have, when you’re not at work, or sleeping.

Some family life - huh?

Now, I’m willing to bet your grass (should you have a yard) is nicely mown.

And it prob takes a couple of hours a week to keep it that way.

If you don’t have time for saving the ship, and yet your yard is nicely mown, what does that say?

Does it say you value a fresh-mown yard - over liberty?

You have a choice of what to do with two hours of your time each week. The choice is 1) mow the grass, or 2) work to save the ship.

You don’t have to answer what your choice is - I can see the fresh-cut yard.

Now, how does the fact that, when given the choice between cutting your grass and saving the ship, you choose to cut the grass - what does that say about you?

That you’re short-sighted, putting a fresh-cut lawn as more important than liberty?

That you’re too stupid (remember, I’m simply asking this, hypothetically) to know what’s more important, and what’s not?

That you’re ignorant, not being aware of what’s happening to our liberty, while you mow your yard?

So we can change the old saying, “fiddling while Rome burns”, to “mowing, while liberty fades…”?

Maybe it’s possible you can do both - have a fresh-cut lawn AND donate a couple of hours a week for liberty? Maybe by cutting - gasp! - a couple of hours of TV-time?

If you truly understand and believe how close the ship is to sinking, and believe that us Americans should do something about it because 1) it’s the only ship we have - there are no others, and 2) it’s a fine ship, built with old-world craftsmanship, and t’would be a shame to let it sink, then you must realize most of your fellow Americans treasure laziness (if we can be so bold as to say laying on the couch in front of the tube consitutes same) over liberty, and ignorance over all.

If you understand that, you understand what we few who are concerned for the future face.

So maybe the choice in life comes down to this, if you are really pinched for time: a fresh-cut lawn, or some time devoted to keeping the ship from sinking?

Ask yourself: “How would the founders of this country answer that question?”

Which option would they want you to take?

If Project Applesseed is successful, is it possible uncut scraggly lawns could become a new status symbol?

Or, if the future continues on its present course, would all those clean-cut lawns out there reflect, in a concrete fashion, the death of liberty?

There’s a choice to be made - and the choice is yours to make.

Choose wisely.

All of us - me, the founders, other patriotic Americans fighting the good fight - hope you will.

Picasso had his “Blue period”.

Fred has had his “macho period” - that time when he was young, ignorant (uninformed) and foolish, and interpreted the 2nd Amendment to be about using your rifles and other firearms to defend your freedom.

He’s since learned, through reading the Founders, that a prerequisite to do it is an educated, informed, alert, liberty-loving, American people.

Not only a desirable “prerequisite”, but mandatory “requirement”.

In fact, if you have the hearts and minds of the American people with you, you’ll never need the guns.

Likewise, if you don’t have their “hearts and minds”, all the guns in the world won’t help.

Let’s brifly review progress we’ve made as a country in the last 50 years - the last three generations:

Every new babe born in this country has a number assigned - this is so “deductions for children on tax records can be checked.”

Every citizen in this country has a file on those big gov computers - this is to “perform background checks for gun purchases.”

Soon there will be a DNA database, so that “missing children can be more easily found/identified.”

Soon every vehicle will be tracked thru GPS, so that stolen vehicles can be located, and people who run their vehicle off into a ravine will be easily located.

“Appeasement” - which after Neville Chamberlain was thoroughly discredited - is now the policy of the land, both in high councils and low.

Any notion of the “sovereignty of the citizen” (that is what libery is about, folks - in fact, that IS liberty) and “limited government” has simply disappeared from American public life. No one seemingly cares, anymore.

Gee, that’s real progress in America, right?

And not a one of those steps in our progress has ANY implications for our liberty and freedom, right? (Actually, there were a lot of liberal sqwakers back in the 60’s fussing about alleged concerns over big gov computers having files on everyone, but as soon as they understood “it’s for gun control” they quickly shut up - no longer are gov files on every man woman and child an issue - “it’s for the guns…”)

Understand clearly. If you don’t have the heart and souls of Americans into valuing liberty, all the guns in the world won’t help you.

That’s what Project Appleseed is about.

Teaching Americans their history and heritage of April 19th, 1775, and letting that wake them up to the debt we owe the Founders, plus the realization that the Rev War was “a close-run thing” - and that liberty is always “close run” in the sense that it can disappear on you.

Wasn’t the reason the Founders divided up the government into branches to prevent the gov from taking those freedoms?

And wasn’t one of the functions of the first amendment to protect the vital function of the Fourth Estate - the press - to do its watchdog function?

Anyone believe the media is “watching the government” - any more?

Anyone believe the gov “checks and balances” are working - any more?

Anyone believe the American people cares about either possibility - any more?

So, what do we do?

There’s an answer: wake up your fellow Americans. If you can’t figure a way to do it, get them to come to an Appleseed, and we’ll do the waking up.

Because that “waking up” is real important.

For a very good reason, a secret even some of the Founders may not have been aware of (but some assuredly were): if you have the hearts and souls of Americans swelling with the joy of Liberty, you won’t have the kind of media we have today, or the kind of government. Most important, if you have the hearts and souls, you won’t need the guns to protect liberty - at least, you won’t need to use them against an over-bearing, tyrannical government - as such a government cannot exist in an American where the people really value and love liberty. Trust me.

So, Fred, years ago, relatively young and unsophisticated, did not understand that basic fact, because he had not read the founders:

But YOU can come to an Appleseed, and learn that basic fact - along with a traditional American skill, along with hearing the unvarnished Story of April 19th, 1775, the one you never heard in school - and never will - unless we save this country.

Because that Story needs to be in the hearts and minds of every American…

Armed with that spirit of Liberty, you never need to worry about being ‘macho’…

AKA “fiddling while rome burns…”

When you work on promoting Appleseed, you quickly get an eyeful of what modern American gun owners and gun clubs are like.

Far from seeing Appleseed welcomed as a potential program that can get thousands of new people into shooting - and now, what’s more, with the track record to prove it - you run into a wall of hostile ignorance, hostile apathy, and hostile laziness. With the ‘hostile’ sometimes greater, sometimes less, but generally present as a persistent undercurrent.

Man, you lose your idealism fast!

Being an Appleseed missionary is a lonely, heart-breaking, frustrating, depressing activity, sometimes ‘made up for’ with a big break - you actually find an American who’s not pickled in his own ignorance, laziness, apathy - and arrogance. Sometimes you even find a gun club not run by people high on their own power…

Here’s an example for you of an email I recently received, about a potentially great AS location at a club which shall remained unnamed, in a state which shall remain unnamed:

“… I had a chance to talk extensively to the Club Safety guy and also the Rifle Chairman/VP. I think the Rifle Chairman is happy with our Procedures, and I think the Safety guy is happy with our attention to safety. The next step in the process of gaining access to the club is to send a formal request to brief the Board of Directors. This will need to be a somewhat formal stand up briefing, and one thing that we MUST address is “what is in it for them”. I am pretty sure the chairmen of other disciplines within the club will not be overwhelming supportive and I am sure that any effort to encourage them with a “good for membership” effort will fail. I was told very bluntly that, “this is a very exclusive club, the membership is expensive and we have always had a waiting list. We do not want new members!”

“I was also told equally bluntly that the various disciplines within the club already do not get along so “why should they help you?” On a somewhat brighter note I was also led to believe that after formal briefing to the Board of Directors we would most likely have their answer immediately.”

There you go: “What’s in it for them?”

Is there no room for the Cause to be “in it for them”? Guess not.

And what a spectacle: A bunch of boorish ignorant dopes infighting among themselves, so why would they want to help anyone else?

On the deck of a sinking ship?

Guess you could say, “real smart” - right?

Is this a classic definition of fiddling while Rome burns - or what?

Here I have to censor my response to my correspondant:

“My gut reaction is that we can locate a piece of land, buy it, and set up a range quicker than we can get thru to these limp-wristed, in-fighting, “what’s in it for me” arrogant [bleep]-heads.

“But you prob want a more reasoned, calm reaction, right?

“You are the guy on the ground. And I leave it to your judgement.

“These people have already sent [us] a message: they don’t want new members, they don’t like each other and/or any other new or different shooting discipline.

“Plus they love to have people come crawling on their knees, simply so they have the self-gratification ego-stroking of being able to say “No”. Oops, slipped up and got a little emotional again…

“Regardless, we don’t have the time or manpower to put on a dog-and-pony show for these [bleep]-heads, unless you have the energy and motivation to do it.

“Hope none of the above discourages you. I am simply trying, on the basis of the info you provided, to indicate what I believe is the most rational course, based on my experience, and my knowledge of the priorities and shortages of our program.

“XYZ, I am sending this directly to you, so as to pass on my unvarnished opinion.

“As you can tell, I’m full-up with conceited [bleep]-birds who don’t give a rat’s ass about the Cause.

“So [I hope you will] forgive the bluntness, but appreciate the honesty, of my remarks.”

Just in case you think Fred is impervious to this stuff, here’s something I wrote shortly thereafter to someone in the program in response to his suggestion that “Fred may be able to help with XYZ problem”:

“I don’t know if Fred will be of any help, or not. I think he’s in his cave, trying to pull the entrance inside with him, where it can’t be seen - or found.

“I don’t know how you continue, to be honest.

“Did I copy you on my response to [the above email]? If not, maybe I should send you a copy. These Americans are not worth saving. Appleseed is an example of casting pearls before worthless swine…

“In a way, I hope the ship sinks while I’m around, so I can squeeze joy out of hearing the wails of those who’ll be saying, ‘Why didn’t someone warn me?’”

Three things out of this:

1. You are important as an individual. What you do is important. Because you have effects on things you don’t understand or realize. I call ‘em ripples. If you take action, other people who care, see you take action, and are heartened and energized. If you don’t take action, or take stupid/foolish action, other people are disheartened - and the Cause you supposedly espouse to is harmed.

2. As the perceiver of all the ignorance, laziness, apathy, and general foolishness in this country today, it’s very tough to maintain the grit and fortitude that working for the Cause entails. Very tough. It’s probable that what keeps me going thru the valley of despair is the fear that one day I may meet up with the Founders. On that day, I want to be able to look ‘em in the eye, and say, ‘I did all I could…’

A second thing that keeps me going is seeing others who care enough to do something. I don’t want to let those people down, and I don’t want to discourage them by letting them see me do nothing. Seeing them working gives me hope that somehow, some day, we’ll be able to save this country…

3. People in this country will not only fiddle while Rome burns, they will party. In fact, will worship the Golden Calf - as long as it has plasma, and is in front of a couch. If judgement is ever passed on this nation, I don’t want to be around when it is.

4. Appleseed, in case you don’t know, is the answer. Go to rwva.org to find out why. Any one will tell you: the best answer to depression and discouragement is action - and Appleseed is action!

You have beem waking each day with a cloud over your head, not knowing what it is or why it is there. I can tell you what it is. It is your soul telling you that you are not doing what your heart is telling you that you should be doing.

How can you fix it? Listen to your heart, seek out the answer to what is missing in your life and start doing it. One way to get started is to attend an Appleseed Event. We will get you started on a path that will help you find the answer. Come to an event and learn to become the master of your rifle, learn the fundementals of shooting and master them, then you will be told about the history of Americans and how they let nothing stand between them and success, begginning on April 19th, 1775 and the events that occured at Lexington Green, the North Bridge in Concord and along Battle Road on the way east to Boston.

Every journey begins with the first step, there has to be a beginning and we will give you one at an Appleseed Event. Not all Americans care about their country and the ones that do often find themselves in despair about what impact they could possibly ever have on the perilous future awaiting our Nation. Let us show you how to get started on your journey as an American Patriot, and how to live the life of a Rifleman.
Scout

Welcome to the Appleseed Garage, where overhauling vehicles is our specialty.

Say, that’s quite a heap you’ve got there.

What? “Been a while since the oil’s been changed”, you say?

A bit of an understatement, I’d say.

Better let me take a look at it, first, so I can figure what we have, here.

Yes, I can see, at one time it was a top-of-the-line model.

Looks like the only one of its kind.

Yep, I see it’s an older model - let’s see, looks like, over 200 years old?

“234 years”? So I wasn’t too far off…

The outside looks a little better - someone cared a little about appearances - but man, oh-me-oh-my, look at what’s under that hood.

What a mess!

No wonder you’re concerned about taking it out on the road. I would be too. Wouldn’t do ya no good to be stranded someplace, without transportation.

And she’s not much good to you, if she won’t get you someplace, safely…

Hmmmm, looks like the ball joints are worn out - see the play in that wheel - bet the bearing’s gone, too.

I’d say you have a real overhaul, here.

Forget about the exterior. Waxing ain’t gonna fix this baby.

She needs a lot more’n that…

You’ve been working on the maintaining appearances, not fundamental care - tsk, tsk, tsk…

What you need is not only an oil change, but a changeout of all those worn-out parts.

Once we get that done, she’ll run like new.

And it’s worth it, cause they don’t make ‘em like this one any more. I’d say, it’s well worth the time and cost of an overhaul.

You‘ll have practically a new vehicle, afterward - good for another 200+ years - or as long as there are Americans who will take care of it, and take care to pass it on to their posterity.

Meantime, I’ll need your help, cause there’s so much that needs fixing on this baby, so let’s roll up our sleeves…

Yeah, I know you’ve been told it’s too worn out, too far gone. But don’t listen to the people telling you that.

They’ve never had to build a car from scratch before.

And when they try, I don’t want to be there to ride in it.

Let’s take this one - it’s really perfectly sound, just got a lot of miles on it, a lot of miles of neglect - and we’ll get it in good shape for ya, now sir!

That baby’s got a lot of service life left in her, if we can only take care of the basics.

I’m glad you brought her into the Appleseed Garage. Old girls like this one need to be overhauled once in a while. I hate to lose one this old…

Especially when we don’t have too…

Ready to get to work? Hand me that wrench over there…

[Project Appleseed is an all-volunteer effort to save this unique, one-of-a-kind country. Why don't you consider picking up a wrench and help us put her back, all nice and cleaned up, like she oughta be? www.rwva.org is the place to be...]

Reality is what it is - and what it is, is sometimes what you want it to be, and sometimes is not what you want it to be.

Reality is slippery as an eel, both in concept and definition.

It’s not what you think it is, and it’s not what you want it to be.

Guess you could say, reality is when you can’t change the channel. In other words, you’re stuck with the show you’re watching.

So if the Germans send armored vehicles crashing across your border (Poland, 1939; France, 1940; Yugoslavia and Greece, 1941; Russia, 1941), you can’t change the channel. You are stuck with the channel you are on.

Similarly, when Japanese dive bombers appear above Pearl Harbor in Dec ‘41, the only channel being changed was the mental one inside most American’s minds. And the new channel was quite a bit different from the old one. The peace movement in America had to go underground, “for the duration“ - and another generation.

No, it was not a peaceful world. Nor was America protected from the wolves on this planet by the wide Pacific and Atlantic oceans, like most believed - or wanted to believe.

Yep, there’s channel-changing going on, all the time - only it’s not out there, in reality. It’s in our heads, where the disconnect between what’s out there - and what’s really out there (as opposed to what we think is out there) occurs.

We still live on a planet where all the old rules apply. The aggressor aggresses; the victim defends. The predators prey, and the prey fights, flees, or gives up and gets eaten.

The goal being survival.

And the end result, survival of the fittest.

And the fittest, you can say, are the ones who master reality. Or come closest to mastering reality - to understand what the rules are, and determined to win by playing by them.

Pretty simple stuff.

Yet humans have a way of interposing their minds into that equation.

And changing it, they think.

But reality is billions of years old, and human minds think in terms of today, and tomorrow - and maybe next month.

So, in the end, reality wins out.

Thus we introduce our story of Mr and Mrs Wabbit, in a lush garden, eating their fill, and creating more little Wabbits to hop around and enjoy the overpowering richness of their environment.

The Wabbits don’t know who made the garden, and don’t really care. Filling their bellies, enjoying life - that’s enough for them.

Whoever built the garden for them has long passed from the scene. So who cares?

But meantime, the fox has discovered the Wabbits in their garden, and the fox is lean and hungry - or, in more contemporary terms, the tiger…

The Wabbits, of course, don’t know, and don’t care. Their little refuge of safety is and always has been - and therefore, in their complacent, placid minds - always will be.

Guess you could say, the Wabbits have a disconnect with reality, right?

How does it happen?

How does it turn out?

How does the end come?

The future is not written, so we don’t know.

But we do know the future will come, and it will be written, and Mr. and Mrs. Wabbit are not going to like reading what will be written.

Maybe the predators accumulate, and put pressure on the fence (a gift of the forgotten ones who built the garden, who also set up defenses to protect the inhabitants), and the fence suddenly gives way - and the predators have a field day, and all the Wabbits are eaten (in the real world, dispossessed, and enslaved).

For the predators, it’s a day of celebration, of feasting.

For the Wabbits, it’s an unmitigated, end-of-the-world disaster.

For reality, it’s just another day…

What would have happened if one of the Wabbits was alert, and spotted the danger, and sounded the alarm?

Probably no one would have paid the ‘crazy Wabbit” any attention - there’s too much to eat, too much to enjoy, too much personal entertainment to spare any attention for anything remote or outside the bounds of the Wabbit’s personal world.

What would have happened if the Wabbits were to remember their past?

It’s possible they would have discovered they benefited because someone in the past cared enough to seize ground, plant the garden, chase off the predators, and erect the fence.

It’s possible the Wabbits will wake up to the notion that the garden was not always there - nor is there any guarantee it will continue to be there…

It’s possible, as a result, the Wabbits come to understand and feel a debt of obligation to make sure the garden continues, the fence is kept in good repair, that it’s important to pass the garden along intact to all the little future Wabbits.

And in the process of remembering, maybe honor the unknown (to the Wabbits) founders of the garden.

When you get to honoring, when you understand the debt, you are likely to also feel something else new to you: determination.

Determination (sometimes, grim) to make sure what those founders did is not forgotten, and is not allowed to die.

“To remember, is to honor.”

Now, there is one more scenario to consider, one more alternative future: What if, instead of breaking down the fence, with the ensuing rush of predators into the midst of the Wabbit family, the predators are more clever? What if they sneak in, disguised as Wabbits?

Suppose they believe in the Golden Goose, and simply want to put the Wabbits to work for them, producing more Wabbits - and they arrange in some fashion to harvest a Wabbit or two or however many, whenever there’s hunger to satisfy?

What if, as a result, the predators multiply (natural, with all that food around) and the harvesting demand increases and increases, until the Golden Goose is killed, and eaten?

Gosh, by a roundabout way, we’ve come back to the same end: all the Wabbits gone, and the predators temporarily satiated.

In the endless cycle of predator-prey relationships, over-harvesting the prey results in a scarcity of prey, and the predator population collapses.

Reality. You can’t keep it out, even when you’re a predator.

Yet, we don’t view life in that global sense. As Wabbits, we are concerned solely with the fortunes of the Wabbits, and having the predator population collapse simply because all or most of us are killed and eaten is of little consolation. Right?

Far better to avoid this future in the first place, wouldn’t you agree?

And how do we do it?

By waking up our fellow Wabbits to the sacrifice of the founders, and the reality that the garden we are in is not ours to squander, but something to be improved upon, expanded, increased - and passed on, to the next generation of Wabbits - and to make sure that what is passed on is not simply the garden - no sir! - but the heritage of the garden, the knowledge of the true cost of that beautiful garden, and the need for the next generation to protect it, to preserve it, to increase it…

Thus, the parable of the Wabbits.

The end of the parable is not yet written, even if in gross outline you can guess the end, should things not be changed. Should the Wabbits not be woken to reality. Should the Wabbits continue to slumber on.

It’s up to us, is the essence of the parable.

Some of us Wabbits are awake, and it’s incumbent - an obligation so ancient as to extend right back to April 19th, 1775 - upon us to do it - to step up and save the garden - by waking up our fellow sleeping Wabbits.

Which is how and why this is an Appleseed parable.

Not a complete one, because we are still writing the future.

Because we can still write the future.

We have power to influence that future.

And if we have the power, we must use it.

Because the garden is in danger. The predators are gathering. The future of the Wabbits is doubtful…

So we must do what we can to change the channel.

Otherwise, there will come an end to “The Wabbit Supremacy”.

Mankind’s best hope, a shinning beacon to a dark world, the “city on the hill” - it will all disappear.

Because you knew, and did nothing.

Project Appleseed.

Why not help us save the garden?