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Why RWVA?

Started by auctoris, January 13, 2015, 05:04:17 PM

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auctoris

For some reason I don't have the option to create a new topic on the main forum so I'll ask this here. I sent this question to Appleseed a couple of weeks ago. It was passed around to several people who work on the Appleseed project. They finally replied and said no one knew the answer. Here it is:

QuoteI am just learning about Appleseed and I have a pretty basic question. Why is it called the Revolutionary War Veterans' Association?

Most veteran associations are comprised of veterans from the conflict they represent. So members of a Vietnam Veterans' Associations would be veterans of the Vietnam War.

Since there are no living veterans of the Revolutionary War, why was this name chosen? It sounds like an association made up of direct descendents of Revolutionary War veterans--similar to the Daughters of the American Revolution. What meaning is the name supposed to imply?

Thanks

Moylan

Perhaps I shouldn't reply, since I don't have an "official" answer to offer you.  But my supposition has always been this: it's a kind of tongue in cheek way of both giving honor to the men who fought for our liberty, and of signifying our interest in passing along their story. 

Since the war was so long ago, there's no chance that anyone will get confused, and think we're actually Revolutionary War vets.  So there's no worry about "stolen valor" or anything like that.  I just think it's kind of a funny way of hinting at who we are and what we do.  I hope that's not too far off the real truth of the matter.  I'd hate to be spreading errors. 
The chief mark of the Declaration of Independence is the theory of equality.  It is the pure classic conception that no man must aspire to be anything more than a citizen, and that no man should endure to be anything less. 

--GK Chesterton

I believe in liberty very much as Jefferson did, allowing for the fact that a hundred years of history and experience have taught me to believe a little more than he did in original sin.

--also GK Chesterton

auctoris

Thanks. I like your Chesterton quotes and avatar. :-)

jmdavis

Since there are people who chose that name still involved. I would think that they would have the answer.

"If a man does his best, what else is there?"  - General George S. Patton Jr

  ...We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
  For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
  Shall be my brother...-Shakespeare, Henry V
 

"There's a great deal of talk about loyalty from the bottom to the top. Loyalty from the top down is even more necessary and is much less prevalent. One of the most frequently noted characteristics of great men who have remained great is loyalty to their subordinates."
- General George S. Patton, Jr

"Your body can't go where your mind hasn't been."
- Alex Arrieta 1995 NTI Winner

auctoris

That's why I sent the question to the address provided on the RWVA Web site (rwvainfo@gmail.com). They forwarded the e-mail to at least three people in the organization and finally decided no one knew the answer.

brianheeter

Perhaps it's because we all should still be fighting for the Revolution to make sure that we don't lose the liberty that was won at such a cost.  If we continue to fight the "soft war" using the freedoms and tools that the founding generation didn't have then we are veterans of the Revolution, though not in the traditional sense.

I did have a cashier at a store read my shirt one time:

"Revolutionary War Veterans Association?"
"Yes, I'm remarkably well-preserved."

C ya,

brian
(refuse to) Kiss the Ring!

auctoris

That's one of the reasons I asked the question. Is it some veiled reference to members as future "revolutionary war veterans"?

hawkhavn

No it isn't veiled anything.

May I ask, who were the three people that were e-mailed?

HH
Criticism is the only known antidote to error.  David Brin

What a nation has done, a nation can aspire to.
Dr. Jerry Pournelle

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

This is known as "bad luck."
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Moylan

Quote from: auctoris on January 13, 2015, 10:06:16 PM
That's one of the reasons I asked the question. Is it some veiled reference to members as future "revolutionary war veterans"?
If you're taking brianheeter's comment as leaning that way, I think you've misunderstood him.  His point is that the revolution is (metaphorically speaking) ongoing, not that we're somehow looking forward to some new war.  Appleseed (or RWVA) is definitively and explicitly not a revolutionary organization, and we have no hidden agenda.  What you hear and see at an event really is what we're about.

Glad you're a Chesterton fan.  He and St. Thomas Aquinas are my heroes.
The chief mark of the Declaration of Independence is the theory of equality.  It is the pure classic conception that no man must aspire to be anything more than a citizen, and that no man should endure to be anything less. 

--GK Chesterton

I believe in liberty very much as Jefferson did, allowing for the fact that a hundred years of history and experience have taught me to believe a little more than he did in original sin.

--also GK Chesterton

auctoris

Aquinas and Augustine are tied for me. :-)

Rocket Man

I'm kind of surprised that this question didn't get immediately answered.

I got asked this question -- by a television crew, camera and everything -- when I was a strapping IIT 2.

My answer was simple:  The Revolution is a concept that was supposed to never die.  But it's not about fighting.  It's the revolutionary idea that a free people can and should govern themselves.

We are "Veterans" of the war in the sense that the war is thankfully long over, and will never return.  We do and always should remember it, but we are its survivors.  We are the caretakers of the Revolution.

As John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson:

QuoteAs to the history of the revolution, my ideas may be peculiar, perhaps singular. What do we mean by the Revolution? The war? That was no part of the revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected from 1760-1775, in the course of fifteen years, before a drop of blood was shed at Lexington.

They liked my answer.  They didn't even ask me for a second take.

I will submit that this is an ideal that all Americans, indeed all free peoples everywhere, should aspire to.
... if ever a mistaken complaisance leads them to sacrifice their privileges, or the well-meaning assertors of them, they will deserve bondage, and soon will find themselves in chains. -- Joseph Warren (anon)

scuzzy

I was one of the people emailed. Quite frankly after spending 45 minutes searching for the answer I gave up. Too much other stuff to work on.

One of the new volunteers spent much more time than that and finally asked me.
An Armed Society is a polite society. Heinlein.

Vinnie

I unofficially declare this to be the final answer... unless it isn't:

Quote from: Rocket Man on January 14, 2015, 03:10:57 AM
I'm kind of surprised that this question didn't get immediately answered.

I got asked this question -- by a television crew, camera and everything -- when I was a strapping IIT 2.

My answer was simple:  The Revolution is a concept that was supposed to never die.  But it's not about fighting.  It's the revolutionary idea that a free people can and should govern themselves.

We are "Veterans" of the war in the sense that the war is thankfully long over, and will never return.  We do and always should remember it, but we are its survivors.  We are the caretakers of the Revolution.

As John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson:

QuoteAs to the history of the revolution, my ideas may be peculiar, perhaps singular. What do we mean by the Revolution? The war? That was no part of the revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected from 1760-1775, in the course of fifteen years, before a drop of blood was shed at Lexington.

They liked my answer.  They didn't even ask me for a second take.

I will submit that this is an ideal that all Americans, indeed all free peoples everywhere, should aspire to.

~ so says Vinnie.

scuzzy

Added explanation to website:

https://appleseedinfo.org/rwva.html

Linked to on home page -  just to the right of the video on home page.

https://appleseedinfo.org/



An Armed Society is a polite society. Heinlein.

FiremanBob

Thank you, Scuzzy. It's a meaningful improvement to the website.
Author of "The 10/22 Companion: How to Operate, Troubleshoot, Maintain and Improve Your Ruger 10/22"

"Remember constantly that a nation cannot long remain strong when each man in it is individually weak, and that neither social forms nor political schemes have yet been found that can make a people energetic by composing it of pusillanimous and soft citizens." - de Tocqueville

Guntuckian

A much needed update to the website.  Thanks!
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