By David McElroy

May 17, 2011

Panic and fear have long been the tools of predators on the hunt. Wolf packs will size up a flock’s circumstances and then split off in different groups. One group of wolves will be howling and barking, lunging and nipping at the edge of the herd. They do this to drive the prey toward the other wolves hidden out of sight and silently waiting at the point they have determined to provide an easy ambush. They don’t eat all of the sheep, of course, but the whole flock is terrorized. The escaping sheep move on, contented they were not reduced to mutton, and soon forget their vanquished friends.

I see people are a lot like that these days, unwilling to take a stand and easily frightened, even willing to lose a friend or family member if it means they can escape the risks. The banksters are predators driving the sheeple, inciting financial fear and panic. The Federal Reserve Bank “lends” the US Treasury the authority to print up a certain amount of their “debt instruments”, or Federal Reserve Notes we mistake for dollars. But these central bankers expect to see interest on those notes, interest for which currency is Not Printed, and so there is never enough to go around. Like musical chairs, when the bills come due and the music stops, somebody loses their place. Foreclosures abound, businesses fail.

It is much the same with political activists and whistleblowers exposing corruption in the halls of government or corporate offices. A few go to prison, a few are killed, a few are simply disappearing. Others are simply ruined in lengthy court battles they win, but smear their reputations and destroy their employability, leave them destitute and isolated. And the sheeple just move on, thankful it wasn’t them. They believe if they just keep their heads down and don’t make waves, the wolves will not take them. Not today.

The Lutheran Pastor Martin Niemoeller, whom the Nazis sent to the Dachau prison camp in 1938, is famous for a memorable comment I quote often. He said, “In Germany, the Nazis first came for the communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, but I didn’t speak up because I was a protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak for me.”

Niemoeller was freed when the allied forces liberated the camp. But a great hero of the German Resistance, fellow Lutheran Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, died a martyr’s death. He was hanged from a tree for his part in the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, April 9, 1945, only 23 days before the Nazi surrender. He stood against Hitler seeking justice.

In early America, there were pastors who dared to speak to the oppressions of their day and rise to face the British tyranny. King George III referred to them as the “Black Regiment” due to the black robes the pastors commonly wore in the pulpits then. They preached to apply God’s Word to current events, to urge colonists to stand boldly for Truth, Justice, and Liberty in Christ’s love, even if it meant taking up arms in battle. Americans became known as defenders of freedom and virtue, stalwart in battle, charitable in victory, kindly with friends.

Defense was a duty, but offense was wrong begging to be righted. The Second Amendment enshrined that concept. Free people are armed against evil doers, both common criminals and tyrants in government offices. Free people need no permission to defend themselves or the innocent.

But the Indiana State Supreme Court has ruled that people have no right to defend themselves against government officers, police officers, even when it is obvious their intrusions in our homes are unlawful and plainly criminal. This flies against every bit of decent law since the Magna Carta in 1215 forced the King of England to recognize the principle that “A man‘s home is his castle.” Our Fourth Amendment in the Bill of Rights was to protect us from unreasonable, unwarranted, search and siezure. But now, the court ruled, that right is trumped by public policy and you have no right to defend your home even against clearly illegal actions of government officers‘ thuggery. The judges feel you should suffer the invasion and bring the complaints to court. Yes, by all means, do let the fox guard the henhouse. Look at his shiny red coat - he is bright eyed and bushy-tailed! Of course, seized property is seldom returned even when the police file no charges, and dead people never press charges anyway.

You might even recall how the Federal Food and Drug Administration recently ruled we have no right to choose the foods we eat. Or how the Environmental Protection Agency recommends a tax on rain falling on our property and having jurisdiction over every little puddle and muddy ditch, tiny creeks and ponds. They even are pushing to put meters on every well and control every spring. Government and their corporate friends in the fascist empire are taking lots of croplands out of production in “preservation“, even flooding the Missippi valley farms, while speaking of food shortages. They are polluting our waters and destroying fisheries as British Petroleum did in poisoning the Gulf of Mexico, or General Electric nuclear reactors did radiating the Pacific Ocean from Fukishima, Japan. Do you see hunger and thirst in your future? The air we breathe is not healthy, either, and yes, we let government guard the environment!

The truth of the matter is that the federal government sees us as prey, no more than the cattle on a thousand hills to be milked, butchered, and reduced to shoe leather for profit.

The black-hearted man in the “offal office” thumbs his nose at Congress and the federal courts, reserves the “right” to assassinate anybody anywhere on the planet just with his signature, the “right” to torture, to “indefinitely detain” even without an attorney or a trial, the “right” to invade other nations and disrespect their sovereign rights, even those of US allies. He has seized control of private corporations, praises Marxism, and intends to control our healthcare!

When is enough enough, sheeple? Is there anything worth standing for? Will you rise up for freedom from tyranny, or cower at the feet of jack-booted thugs dispatched from the District of Criminals? Do you not recognize the Skull & Bones flying from the mast of the US ship of state? Will you let pirates ravage your home and enslave or kill you? Do you not see the dangers everywhere, even in many a church? Even peaceful protests are being clubbed into submission, and our Bill of Rights is useless unless we are willing to back it up with God, Guns, & Guts. As Edmund Burke said, “All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

Burke, one of my favorite Irishmen, also wrote in 1750 that “I would rather sleep in the southern corner of a little country church-yard, than in the tomb of the Capulets. I should like, however, that my dust should mingle with kindred dust.” I highly recommend you read the quotations of Edmund Burke, who said “No passion so effectively robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reason as fear.”

We live in a world of predators and prey. Even human predators with psychopathic personalities that might be dressed up in striped silk suits with fancy ties and impressive offices. We must not be cowed. As Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself!” A government by terror is a government desperate for the kill.

Down through history, since ancient times, rulers have arrogated to themselves great powers to exploit, oppress, rob, rape, and kill people with no regard for Truth, Justice or Liberty for their victims. The One God is a God of Liberty, a God who sent Moses to tell Pharoh “Let my people go!” But free people have a lazy sheep-like habit of looking for a leader who invariably leads them to accept slavery for others and even themselves again.

As a Baptist, I am reminding you that being a protestant is to be a protester, a dissident who stands for the Golden Rule Christ gave in summing up God’s Ten Commandments.

Where is the love for God or neighbor in the world today? In your neighborhood?

I recall a video on YouTube about dealing successfully with predators in Africa. A pride of lions had launched into a herd of water buffalo, with some of the big cats driving the cattle with fear into an ambush by lions waiting to pounce upon them from the brush. They caught up with a calf who fell behind the stampede, which began to bawl. Suddenly, the tables turned. The herd came back to drive the lions away and form a circle around the wounded calf and protect the other calves as well. With their heads down, they met the lions’ returning charge, tossing them around a few times on the horns of a dilemna. The lions quickly decided they had better scat while they still could… and lo and behold, the buffalo chased the lions away. The hunters had become the hunted, and fled for their lives in fear of goring horns and kicking hooves.

If I must be counted like cattle, let me be bullish and stand my ground. Let me be strong in refusing to participate in unrighteous offences, but quick to defend against evil. The state may count me as no more than chattel, but I refuse to accept that, and do insist upon fighting for Truth, Justice, and Liberty in Christ’s love. I will live free or die trying! I will have no king but Jesus! How about you?