The Soapbox

So I promised my friends my next post would be about Apple and their ridiculous walled garden practices, and I still plan to write that post, but my civic duty called me to action before I was able to do so. My friends, October 1 will be a sad day for every American. Whether or not we mourn it then, we will all soon wish we had observed the passing of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.

I didn’t bother to find a picture for this post, as I felt I must spend as much time writing it as I had available to me, and as any blogger with kids will tell you (Louis Gray you’re my hero) when you get the time to blog you just go all out. What we face now is a turning point in our nation. A dangerous precedent is being set and done so completely under the radar of mainstream media, all of whom are in a frenzy over the economy. Now don’t get me wrong, the economy is huge right now, and something we all should rightly be focused on, but we must keep our eyes sharp, for those wily politicians are trying to slip one past us again.

For those of you who chose not to follow the link above, Posse Comitatus is an act passed by Congress forbidding US troops from being deployed in any sort of peace keeping or law enforcement capacity inside the borders of the US. This law is the reason why Kennedy called the National Guard to move George Wallace out of the entrance of the University of Alabama instead of the Army in 1962. The law was made after Reconstruction, the period after the Civil War when the Army was used to keep the former Confederate states under martial law while order was restored. Basically the whole point of the law is to safeguard our rights as citizens to never have the Army that we as citizens comprise and finance used against us. My friends this law has been broken, and broken in such a quiet and innocuous way that there hasn’t been much of a fight. I aim to change that.

Starting October 1 the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 3rd Infantry Division has a new job. Under the command of NorthCom these brave soldiers will be stationed at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, CO, with their stated goal being to quell civil unrest and provide crowd control. Here. On us. Americans. Our own Army is being turned on us. And this is a permanent post.

This turn of events cannot be allowed to happen. By definition, a Democracy is a nation ruled by its people, which we are already only squeaking by on a technicality to qualify for. That means you and I are supposed to be the ones in charge; the ones making the decisions. I know it doesn’t feel like that lately, because it hasn’t been, but ostensibly that’s what is supposed to be going on. Now the spying on Americans, the lying to get us into war, the botched job on Katrina and even the terrible economy I can try and get over, but this is a whole new level. Once these troops are deployed, the very first time they are used as a policing agent against US citizens just like themselves, we are no longer a Democracy. When the Army is used to control the people it is supposed to protect then you can by definition call us a Police State. Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it does it? I can’t see the ancient Athenians waxing philosophically about the virtues of a Police State, can you? I don’t remember reading any of Sartre’s great works about the future of the Police State. But that’s what we will be. A sad shell of the former greatness we once were. An insult to the men who came before and made this nation great.

I already know what you’re thinking. Its only one brigade. They are here for crowd control. They are using non lethal weapons. I don’t care if they come at me with sticks, I pay them to protect me, not control me. Our nation’s leaders have gotten so far out of touch with what they are supposed to be doing (helping us) that they now fear an uprising and feel the need to have my fellow Americans quell any ‘disturbance’ that should arise. It also must be noted that they are not repealing the law, but breaking it. They are simply acting as if the law only applies to those they wish it to, much like they did with the telecom companies and the banks. This is not how a democracy is works, this is how a totalitarian government is run. I pray for the sanity of the men and women who are forced to make the choice between obeying a superior officer and destroying their nation. There is no faster way to bring a nation to its knees than from within, and this is definitely an inside job.

Now I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen many a country go from Democracy to Police State, but I’ve seen very few make the trip back. Will we be so lucky? Only time will tell. As I said before, a dangerous precedent is being set; the most dangerous one of all. I promise you this is no hyperbole, for we speak on the matter of the passing of the United States of America, something I never thought I would live to see. As a father, a husband, and a patriot I beg you to stand up. Do not let this be the sad final chapter of what was once the greatest nation on the planet.