Neal Ross: "So Now I Am A Communist As Well?"

Folks,

I resent this characterization of my writing. I haven't written any "communist propaganda" for at least 33 years.

Mike
III


So Now I Am A Communist As Well?

by Neal Ross

14 Aug 09


It doesn't happen very often, but every once in awhile some one else will write something that I find important enough to print out and take to work for people to read. Such was the case with Mike Vanderboegh's column entitled Eat Me.

I have gotten pretty used to people not agreeing with what I write, but today something entirely different happened. After one of the guys I gave Mike’s article to had finished reading it, he told me that someone had glanced at it and said something along the lines, ‘Get that communist propaganda out of here.’

It does not bother me that this guy said this, but it does bring up a few questions. First off, this guy is a former United States Marine. I don’t know how many hitches he served, but I do know he was, at one time, a Marine.

I was never a Marine, I served in the Air Force instead. However, each branch of service has an oath of enlistment that you must take upon enlisting. The Marine Corps oath states, “I, (name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code Of Military Justice. So help me God.”

If you will note, that oath states that upon entering into the Marines a recruit swears to support and defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Everything I write has as its basis the upholding of the Constitution, and the principles upon which it was written. Does this ex-Marine now find the Constitution communist propaganda? So much for semper fi.

People seem to think I am some sort of a radical, pushing for revolution. That belief is so far from the truth that I am not going to waste my time responding to it. However that does not mean I will not fight to defend my rights if it becomes necessary.

The simple truth is this, I want my government to just leave me the hell alone! I want them to stop taxing me to pay for programs and ideas that they have no Constitutional authority to act upon.

The other day I got an e mail from a friend who had called his elected representative to ask where in the Constitution does Congress find that they have the authority to enact universal health care legislation.

The staffer quoted the General Welfare Clause of the Constitution, which states, “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States...”

That clause is a catch all clause which is being used by our government for all the laws they that they want to pass which are not specifically enumerated in the rest of Article 1, Section 8. However, that was not the intent of the General Welfare Clause.

Joseph Story, a former Supreme Court Justice writes, “The plain import of the clause is, that congress shall have all the incidental and instrumental powers, necessary and proper to carry into execution all the express powers. It neither enlarges any power specifically granted; nor is it a grant of any new power to congress.”

Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

Taken in this light, how many laws do you think Congress has enacted which do not pass muster according to what the Constitution says?

It appears to be the general consensus among people that government can do whatever the people ask of it, or whatever it deems necessary to take care of them. That was not the purpose for which our government was created.

Our Declaration of Independence tells us the purpose for which our government was established, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...”

How I wish I could grind up those words and put them into peoples morning coffee so that they would sink into their thick skulls! James Madison would be astonished at the fact that Americans do not grasp that simple point, that governments are there to protect our rights, not infringe upon them for our own good.

In a speech at the Virginia Convention in 1829, Madison said, “It is sufficiently obvious, that persons and property are the two great subjects on which Governments are to act; and that the rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.” Obvious James? Not any more it isn’t.

These laws that our government passes are slowly stripping me, and you as well, of our rights and our liberty. You may not feel that way because you are still free to do the things in life that you enjoy.

What would you do if the government passed a law outlawing sporting events? Then what would you say if the government said that all televisions must be registered and that all broadcasting was to be government run programming? How about if the government suddenly shut off all cell phone service, or all internet access?

I bet you would start getting a little pissed if these things happened. Yet that is how I have been feeling for quite some time now. The things which I find important in life have been legislated upon, regulated, and restricted.

In the Movie Triple X, starring Vin Diesel, there is a scene were Gibbons, played by Samuel L. Jackson states, “You ever watch lions at the zoo? You can always tell which ones were captured in the wild by the look in their eyes. The wild cat. She remembers running across the plane, the thrill of the hunt. Four hundred pounds of killing fury locked in a box. But after awhile their eyes start to glaze over...and you can tell their soul has died. The same thing happens to a man.”

They say the most dangerous animal is one who has been forced into a corner. That is how some in this country feel, myself included. The things that we value, among them personal liberty and freedom from governmental intrusion into our lives, have been slowly eroded to the point where we say, no more, enough is enough!

The other night I was in a chat room during the broadcast of Perspectives on America, by Jeffrey Bennett. Someone made the comment that we need to impeach the whole bunch in D.C. I made the comment that it wouldn’t do any good, and I’ll tell you why.

If we were fortunate enough to get rid of every scum sucking bottom feeder who takes an oath to uphold the Constitution, who would replace them? More scum sucking bottom feeders from the same pool of corruption that are the Democratic and Republican Parties.

As long as the people of this country think that it is the function of the government to care for them, to fix all that is wrong with their lives, nothing is ever going to change. We will continue to get the kind of representatives that we have now.

Even if we were to have a revolution in this country, the vast majority would soon go back to voting for those who make them the most enticing promises. The following quote is attributed to Ben Franklin, and it aptly applies to what has happened in this country, “When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”

In a speech during the Virginia Ratifying Convention, James Monroe said, “How prone all human institutions have been to decay; how subject the best-formed and most wisely organized governments have been to lose their check and totally dissolve; how difficult it has been for mankind, in all ages and countries, to preserve their dearest rights and best privileges, impelled as it were by an irresistible fate of despotism.”

That is where our country is heading folks, despotism and tyranny. We were once a Constitutional Republic, founded upon the principle that the people held the ultimate power, and that their rights and liberty were sacred.

It is those like myself, and Mike Vanderboegh, who write about restoring these principles. So for anyone, including ex-Marines, who would think to call us Communist, I would suggest picking up a dictionary.

According to mine communism is defined as a theory advocating the elimination of private property or a system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed.

We are rapidly on the path to socialism, which is defined as, any of the various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.

I am neither communist or socialist. I consider myself more of a Libertarian than anything else. Libertarians believe in the principles of individual liberty. And yes, this means I am willing to fight, and quite possibly die, protecting that liberty. Can you say the same about the principles you believe in? Would you be willing to die while you try to force me to accept universal health care? Would you be willing to personally come to my door and try to take away my guns, knowing full well that I am willing to use them on you if you do?

Like I said at the very beginning. All I want is to be left the hell alone. Or, as Charlie Daniels sang, “I’m the kind of man who wouldn’t harm a mouse, but if I catch someone breaking into my house, I’ve got a twelve gauge shotgun waiting on the other side.” Leave me alone and that shotgun will sit there and rust. Try and take it from me and.....