By
Ron Ewart
February 5, 2014
NewsWithViews.com
"To sin by silence when they should protest, makes cowards of men." —Ella Wheeler Wilcox, American Author and Poet, 1850 - 1919
What
in the Hell is the matter with Americans? Are they so docile and compliant
that they would let an oversized bully push them around? Americans didn't
used to be that way. The bully didn't push us around years ago. When 
someone
pushed, we pushed back because that is the natural instinct of all life,
except maybe in humans who have been conditioned to be pushovers by their
government. Why do we let government push as around now?
What has changed?
We don't let nations push us around, so why do the people let their own government push them around? And boy has the government been pushing us around lately, especially since a glib Chicago con man showed up on the scene and started pushing the American people around as if he were King. A man professing to be King in America should be impeached, or run out of town on a rail. Did you see that disgusting "I am King - Bow To Me" speech a week ago?
What has happened to us? The IRS tramples all over the American Citizen's constitutional rights of due process with questionable law to back them up and the people have capitulated for 100 years. Obama and the Democrats shove Obama Care down the people's throats, strip them of their insurance, raise their insurance premiums and deductibles and the people, like little bo peep, roll over and sign up on Health Care.gov. The government wastes billions upon billions of our tax dollars due to fraud, abuse, corruption and criminal negligence and the people punt! Why!
Obama, his administration and the Democrats are complicit in the scandals of Obama Care, Benghazi, the IRS and NSA snooping and the people are glued to their television sets, or texting worthless trivia on their Iphones, all across the fruited plain, oblivious to the camouflaged slavery trap that has been laid for them by their government.
Obama says in so many words that he is King and he is going to use his pen to make law, in direct violation of Article I, Section 1 of the U. S. Constitution. No one challenges him, not even the Congress, much less the people. Where are the American people in the face of this blatant drive to absolute power by the man who wants to be King?
Ladies and gentlemen, in its history there is evidence all over America of people saying enough is enough and pushing back against government tyranny, corruption and little tin Gods. One such push back occurred in a little town in Tennessee in 1946. Another took place a little more recently on Independence Day 2000 in a little town near Elko, Nevada on the Jarbidge River. The first push back was called the Battle of Athens. The second was called the Jarbidge Shovel Brigade. In the first case, a bunch of returning Veterans from World War II pushed back and corruption was silenced, at least for a while. The federal government was told to shove off in the second. In the first case, the town's people had to resort to violence because the corruption had gotten so bad. In the second case, the town's people showed up in large numbers from all over America with shovels raised at the ready, forcing the government to retreat. That's right! A bunch of Americans with shovels sent the federal government packing. Perhaps we are using the wrong weapons against government tyranny and should take a page out of the Jarbidge Shovel Brigade playbook.
Corruption in Tennessee is nothing new and it is still going on. Just ask Navy Lt. Cmdr. Walter Fitzpatrick. He'll tell you a story of corruption in Monroe County, TN, that will curl your hair and he had to go to jail to prove it. Even today he's still fighting to restore his reputation from those that smeared and trashed him with the sole purpose of silencing him by fear, intimidation and yes, illegal incarceration because he dared to expose them.
But our story of the people pushing back goes back to a time right after the end of World War II when 15,000,000 soldiers were repatriated in their own country, a country for which they fought so bravely and paid so much. When they came home, they were greeted with accolades and parades in every small and large town and county in America. But in one small town in Tennessee, their welcome home was far from what they had expected. Although this story has been told many times, it bears repeating in light of where America finds herself today and the tyranny and corruption that has infected most of her institutions, including government at all levels, her courts, academia, her public schools and the news media.
In the late 1930's and early 40's, McMinn County, Tennessee was notorious for its corruption and voter fraud. The local sheriff at the time, one Paul Cantrell, having been elected three times by the people, decided he would be King of the County and started a racket where he and his deputies would be paid a fee for every arrest they made. They sometimes would stop a bus going through town and charge some of the passengers with public drunkeness and arrest them. They lined their pockets for a fair the well and manipulated the vote to stay in power. The people in the town lived in fear of Cantrell and his henchmen.
Corruption and voter fraud were well known by the FEDS at the time and the Justice Department, you know the one that corrupt Eric Holder runs now, investigated McMinn County, but no charges were ever filed against Cantrell or his deputies.
Returning veterans were also aware of Cantrell's racket and corruption and ran 5 candidates at the local election in August of 1946. The Vet's campaign slogan was a "fraud-free election." Needless to say Cantrell and his men were not about to go down without a fight and a fight they got. On the other hand these returning vets were returning from war, where high adrenaline and violence were a daily part of their lives. They weren't about to be pushed around by some pot-bellied sheriff who thought he owned the town.
The vote was August 1, 1946. Over 200 armed guards were placed around the polling places. With only 15 deputies under sheriff Cantrell, he had to bring guards in from surrounding counties. A black man was assaulted and then shot at one of the polling places by one of the deputies. The deputy ultimately went to jail for 3 years.
When the polls closed the deputies seized the ballots and took them to the jail. The jailhouse was barricaded and defended by 55 deputies. The veterans, very familiar with guns from the war, armed themselves from the local armory and descended on the jailhouse. Estimates of the number of armed veterans besieging the jailhouse ranged from 200 to 2,000. The veterans demanded the ballot boxes but sheriff Cantrell refused. Riots broke out across the town with most of the damage being inflicted on police cars. The veterans opened fire on the jailhouse and ultimately dynamited the jailhouse door. In any event, the veterans recovered the ballot boxes and after a "fraud free" count, 5 veteran candidates replaced the corrupt ones. The gambling and liquor houses, owned and operated by the sheriff and his deputies, were raided and closed down. (source: Battle of Athens (1946))
Please take note that the corruption in Athens, Tennessee would have never been stopped with nice words. In almost every case, the only thing that will stop corruption and vice, which is violence by its very nature, is violence challenging violence. Corruption in the hands of those that carry the guns is violence on the people. Government, by definition is force. Force, or the threat of force against the people, is violence. We are not advocating violence at this point in America's history because there are still peaceful ways to root out the corruption, that is if enough Americans are up to the task.
Jarbidge is a little town of about 50 people, some 100 miles northeast of the town of Elko, Nevada and is nestled deep in the Humbolt National Forest, near the Nevada's northern border with Idaho. The Jarbidge river flows by the little town. The town is serviced by a long narrow road and is accessed off of Nevada State Route 51 from Elko. The people of Jarbidge weren't bothering anybody but they were about to be "bothered" by the federal government and an environmental group, Trouts Unlimited. You see the Jarbidge River contains bull trout and the environmentalists and the government decided that the bull trout were endangered and needed to be protected. One way to protect them was to declare the river a protected habitat and to close off the access road to the river. Now the county owned the road, but granted a right to the forest service to maintain it as needed. The forest service intentionally closed the road by dumping tons of rock and debris on it. Part of the rock and debris was one giant bolder in the middle of the road. The forest service refused to remove the rock and the bolder and open the road. Enter the people of Jarbidge, Nevada.
On July 4, 2000 the people of Jarbidge and a whole host of other citizens from all around America, numbering around 5,000, took on the forest service and joined the town of Jarbidge to open the road with their shovels. Most of the 5,000 or so were from Nevada and adjoining states, but some came in caravans from as far away as New York, Maine, Florida and the Carolinas. With their shovels and even their bare hands they cleared the road of all of the rock, debris and the giant bolder. The forest service and Trouts Unlimited, even though trying to stop the people of Jarbidge from opening the road, had to capitulate to the town's people and went away. (source: WND)
Once again, the people rose up and the people won. They were not about to be pushed around by a bunch of high-paid bureaucrats in Washington DC and a wealthy environmental group that thought they could throw their weight around and con some "ignorant" rural landowners into giving up their land. How wrong they were.
Ladies and gentlemen, progressives, liberals, or Democrats, whatever you choose to call them and those that follow their radical socialist and environmental ideology, are running scared. They have been exposed for what they are; anti-American, anti-freedom, anti-free markets, anti-property rights and anti-constitution. Obama, Obama Care and the Democrats in Congress exposed themselves. They are vulnerable. Quit punting and go get 'em! Being nice won't eliminate corruption or socialism, as the people of Athens TN found out.
If the Republicans won't do the job, "esplain" it to them in no uncertain terms so that they will. If the Republicans take the House and the Senate in 2014, lobby both Houses of Congress to impeach the President. This lawless president needs to be impeached before he can do any more damage. It's your free America ladies and gentlemen that is if you care to keep it free.
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This author has come to the conclusion that big events, like civil unrest, massive uprisings, revolutions, or civil war tend to come in their own time. It takes a catalyst or a great leader to trigger an uprising. So far the catalyst or the leader haven't happened ….. yet! But it will. The pot is warming rapidly and it's getting hotter by the day ..... thanks to Obama and the Democrats. Those that cherish freedom and there are millions of us, are not about to go quietly into the night, or "punt when Obama or the government pushes." Do you need a platform on which to stand, then read our "18 Basic Principles for America". Are you with us, or are you just kicking the tires?
Are you fighting the IRS? Check out our information-rich website HERE. Who knows, you might just find what you need.
� 2014 Ron Ewart — All Rights Reserved
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Ron Ewart, a nationally known author and speaker on freedom and property issues and author of his weekly column, "In Defense of Rural America", is the President of the National Association of Rural Landowners, (NARLO) a non-profit corporation headquartered in Washington State and dedicated to restoring, maintaining and defending property rights for urban and rural landowners. Mr. Ewart can be reached by e-mail.
Website: www.narlo.org
E-Mail: ron@narlo.org
