Who is your American Idol???

This morning I hung my Gadsden flag out in the brilliant sunshine of the first truly hot, summery day here in Maine, and sat down to check my Facebook. OK, so I'm a little addicted to FB - every morning I check it to see "what's new." And every afternoon. And every evening. But that's beside the point. This particular morning a good friend had posted a status that expressed his wish that we, as Americans, were as engaged in caring about the nefarious actions of our government as we are about who wins on "American Idol." I have to confess, I should not judge "American Idol" as I have not seen a single nanosecond of the program, but I have a sneaking suspicion a nanosecond might be too long to hold my interest.

Don't get me wrong. I DO have American idols in my life. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain is a serious American idol for me (and ever so much hotter than that guy on tv's "American Idol" wearing the guyliner). George Washington. Henry Knox and his amazing cannon escapades. William Tecumseh Sherman (I know - controversial...). Albert Einstein. Ron Paul. Abigail Adams, often reminding her husband to have a cool head and a long range view. Andrew Wyeth. My sons. My brother. My grandmother. I have international idols too, but I'll spare you the list.

One of the reasons I have not watched "American Idol" is that I can't get past the name of the show. I don't WANT a pop star for an idol. And I don't want an idol for reasons as simplistic as "he's a nice person" or "she sings really well" or even "he's overcome so much adversity." An idol, and an American idol, for me, needs to represent something of gravity, and something much larger than him or herself. Our founding fathers - worthy of the name "American idols" - signed the Declaration of Independence on a similarly sweltering day to this one, knowing that if this revolution thing failed they would all be executed for treason. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, his 20th Maine, and let's not forget the men of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York, held the Union extreme left under the most improbable of conditions at Gettysburg on yet another impossibly hot day. Everyday soldiers in our Revolution, our Civil War, our World Wars, and every conflict since have given their "last full measure of devotion" so that we might be free. That's what Memorial Day is for - to remember this mind boggling sacrifice over hundreds of years by real, true American idols.

These men and women did not die so that we could sit by in a reality tv induced stupor while our government hurls us headlong into ill advised or unjust wars. They did not sacrifice their quiet enjoyment of home and hearth so that we could casually dismiss the erosion of civil liberties and the trampling of our Constitution. The founding fathers (and mothers, I'd assert) were not joking when they pointed out that threats to our freedom, our sovereignty, and our natural rights to life, liberty, property & the pursuit of happiness could be both foreign AND domestic in nature. Thomas Jefferson made clear the "right of revolution" in the Declaration of Independence - not just a right, actually, but a sacred duty to throw off any government that became oppressive to the rights and liberties of the people. These people are my idols.

Increasingly, it seems, the "ends justify the means" in America. As long as we can rationalize something as ending in some "common good, " it seems not to matter whose liberties are squatted upon or what socialist or fascist path we take to get there (e.g. the "Patriot Act"). Gun control advocates would trash the 2nd Amendment "for the greater good." Some of those who find flag burning as distasteful as I do would "make an exception" to the 1st Amendment so that they didn't have to watch this form of expression anymore. The 6th Amendment can take a powder if a public school official wants to search a student's car "for cause." "Eminent domain" laws allow the government (and in some cases developers!) to seize private property "for the common good." Government defines marriage. Government defines adulthood. Government defines what makes a "good education," although the government schools are ironically some of the poorest choices for education. And all of this government defining is justified by "the greater good." Where is Ayn Rand when we need her? Or Patrick Henry, eyes ablaze declaring, "Give me liberty...or give me DEATH!" Or one of my personal favorites, John Brown (oooh, I know...really controversial...) although I'm not really fond of the violence thing. Harriet Beecher Stowe, after all, did more to further the cause of abolition in the long run with her pen than John Brown did with his cache of firearms. But the guy had wicked hair. His hair might have even won him a spot on "American Idol."

But I digress.

To get back to the point, I was immediately sympathetic to my friend this morning, who was clearly exasperated by our culture's obsession with a silly television show while the very foundation of our freedoms is under threat, and while our foreign and domestic policy is so corrupt and so detrimental to ourselves and others. One person on Facebook made the point that America is still the best country in the world, and that if one doesn't like it here, they are welcome to leave, as others are clamoring to our shores. This defensive posture is neither intelligent nor truly patriotic. American malcontents are our conscience, our movers, our shakers, and our guardians of freedom - we'd damned sure better keep them here rather than inviting them to leave "if they don't like it." We are not called as Americans to relative liberty - as though being the "free-est nation on earth" is somehow good enough as long as we're "free-er than they are." No. Freedom is an absolute. We have our own standard of freedom in America. Our true American idols set the standard - and some more American idols over the centuries have improved upon the standard. Who are we to stop making noise if those standards fall to relativism or are weakened?

This Memorial Day weekend take some time to think about what liberty means. Google the texts of the Declaration of Independence, of the Constitution, of the Bill of Rights, the Gettysburg Address, MLK Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech, Thomas Paine's "Common Sense, " or some other treatise on freedom and civil liberties. And remember - memorialize - freedom's defenders. Better yet, be freedom's defender.

Patriots criticize. Patriots protest. And, if it comes down to it, patriots die for their beliefs, and for freedom, and for us. They are the real American idols, even if they can't sing a note.

A word from Thomas Merton...

Last night I responded to a thread on Facebook and then went to bed and started reading Thomas Merton's essay, "The Street is for Celebration." It was amazing that this very essay was saying - in such a better way - what I had been trying to express in my thread response. I copy a segment of this essay here, but the entire text can be found in the book "Love and Living" which is free for the reading on GoogleBooks.

"We can dance in the street, but that will not change the fact that our buildings are lousy, the rent is too high, the garbage is not taken away, and back yards look like bomb craters.

Never mind. We can begin now to change this street and this city.

We will begin to discover our power to transform the world.

He who celebrates in not powerless. He becomes a creator because he is a lover.

But celebration is not for the alone.

To pull down the blind and empty the bottle and lie on the floor in a stupor: this may help you forget the street for a while, but it is surrender. It is the crowning submission, the acceptance of powerlessness, willingness to admit you are nothing. The alienated city isolates men from one another in despair, lovelessness, defeat. It is crowded with people who are not present to each other: it is like a desert, although full of people.

Celebration is not noise. It is not a spinning head. It is not just individual kicks.

It is the creation of a common identity, a common consciousness.

Celebration is everybody making joy.

Not as a duty (you can't manufacture joy out of the duty to have fun).

Celebration is when we let joy make itself out of our love.

We like to be together. We like to dance together. We like to make pretty and amusing things. We like to laugh at what we have made. We like to put bright colors on the walls - more bright colors on ourselves. We like our pictures - they are crazy: the craziness of not submitting even though "they," "the others," the ones who make life impossible, seem to have all the power. Celebration is the beginning of confidence, therefore of power.

When we laugh at them, when we celebrate, when we make our lives beautiful, when we give one another joy by loving, by sharing, then we manifest a power they cannot touch. We can be the artisans of a joy they never imagined.

We can build a fire of happiness in this city that will put them to shame.

They with their gold have turned our lives into rubble. But we with love will set our lives on fire and turn the rubble back into gold. This time the gold will have real worth. It will not be just crap that came out of the earth. It will be the infinite value of human identity flaming up in a heart that is confident in loving. That is the beginning of power. That is the beginning of transformation. One day, you'll see!

Meanwhile, we have an answer to the question: "Can the street become an inhabited space?" "Yes, when it becomes a space for celebration."

- Thomas Merton, from "Love and Living"

I would argue that we can exchange the word "street" for something like this:

"Can our lives become an inhabited space?" "Yes, when they become spaces for celebration."

If you are unfamiliar with the life of Thomas Merton, Google him. I have always wondered if, had he lived, he would have eventually become a persona non grata with the Church as his delivery of the teachings of Jesus was rather stripped of all dogma and agenda, and he hung around with Buddhist monks like Thich Naht Hanh, who he referred to as his "spiritual brother." Thomas Merton was no Polyanna - he witnessed the worst this world can dish and still tried to be "Bread in the Wilderness." I would say he succeeded.

Used Car Lot

35 Mile Long Used Car Lot
Current mood: disgusted
Category: Life

I guess it's yet another sign of the times. You know, one of those signs that the Bush Administration ignores? You know, like when they put out economic statistics that EXCLUDE the price of fuel and food?

In the past couple of weeks I've had occasion to do the 35 mile drive between my home in Paris and my cottage in Gray, Maine quite a few times. The road between these two points is state route 26. I could not help but notice that this stretch of highway has become one long used car lot. There must be more than a dozen cars for sale along this route - all parked out on the road with "For Sale" signs plastered on their windows. Last night on my way back from the cottage I stopped to look at a Honda CRV, thinking it might be a good alternative to my gas guzzling Suburban. Lately I've been thinking a lot about buying a cheap used car in the fall to save gas. I figure by then gasoline will be about $6/gallon. The CRV, however, was $6500 - way beyond my budget for a cheap used car.

Just as I've never seen so many foreclosed homes in a single area, I have never seen this many cars for sale by private owners either. I think the reasons are many - the SUVs, big vans, and trucks for sale are probably being exchanged for more efficient vehicles. But how to explain the Honda CRV, or the other small efficient vehicles? It's very possible that for some families a car has to be sacrificed to simply survive, or plan to survive, the coming winter's heating prices, and ever escalating food prices.

The best price we've been able to find for heating fuel for this coming winter is $4.83/gallon for our residence, and $4.89/gallon for our duplex rental property. At those prices, our rental property may not be profitable. Like the Katahdin Paper Mill here in Maine that has recently had to close because the extreme fuel prices have turned an extremely successful plant into a fiscal loser, our apartment building may also cost more to heat than we can possibly recoup in increased rent. Be it large scale or small, the fuel prices are putting people out of business and out of work.

People in Maine are already talking about closing off parts of their homes (we are included in that group), or literally shutting down their homes for the winter and sharing space and heating costs with friends and family.

Where are the protests? Where are the riots? The FRENCH, of all people, are currently staging protests over fuel prices - where are the AMERICANS? What will it take? Will it take the first wave of New Englanders freezing to death in their homes for lack of fuel? The fuel assistance programs can't keep up with the demand. Will it take the massive layoffs as more and more companies can't make ends meet and close? WHAT...WILL...IT...TAKE?????

This is the question that keeps coming to me and for which I have no answer. Just as I don't know exactly where the limit is for Americans as we are increasingly robbed of our civil liberties - where is the breaking point? At what point is Revolution inevitable?

This is a question that throughout history has been difficult to answer. Even in hindsight historians argue over what that "last straw" actually was before the outbreak of a revolution. I don't have the answer. I don't know what the last straw will be. But I believe it's coming. The decision for me, and for you, is whether to be a part of it, or whether to lie by complacently while greed, corruption, and power plays (including the intentional squelching by our gov't and the oil interests of the alternative fuel industry) rob us of our quality of life.

Used cars will continue to pepper the 35 mile route between Paris and Gray here in rural Maine. I no longer see them as just cars. I see them as a sign of a revolution in the making.

Speechless for a change...

Speechless for a change
Current mood: grateful
Category: Life

I have been trying for quite a few days now to configure a blog post about the trip I took last Friday to Concord, MA with my oldest son Rob to visit primarily the Thoreau and transcendentalist sites, but also to see North Bridge and briefly go to some Revolutionary War sites.

I find myself in a rare state - still speechless. The task of writing a post on what it meant to me to spend that day with my son, who is a kindred spirit in all things historical, philosophical, political, etc., in a place sacred to both of us is proving to defy expression. Add to this the inevitable fact of his departure from our every day lives in August as he embarks on life at college, and my inability to express my feelings adequately intensifies.

Instead I present to you his blog post on the subject, which can be found at:

http://darksaturos.blogspot.com

and his photos - all taken by him with the exception of the ones in which he appears. You may view these on my "pics" in the Concord, MA folder.

I will relate one moment that will be impressed upon my memory for the rest of my life, along with the feelings it brought with it. Rob was stopped on the footpath at Walden Pond, in the rain - it was raining all day, contemplating how to capture what he was seeing and feeling with the camera. Suddenly he stripped his coat off, spread it over the wet muddy ground, and lay down on it in order to get the photo from the ground level. It reminded me of a knight spreading his cloak over a puddle so that the fair maiden would not muddy her feet, but in this case it was simply a young man dedicated to his quest to take this experience, this feeling, these emotions home with him in digital format. As the coat hit the squishy path my first instant reaction was that of a typical Mom - "Oh Rob, that’s going to be a mess!" - but I soon shut that down and realized that this was one of those moments I would never forget. As I watched my son carefully frame his shot, and get up smiling with satisfaction at having captured it, I knew I’d witnessed something sacred in my own story of parenting and his story of becoming his own man with his own very deep philosophy of life. He casually brushed off the back of his coat and put it back on, and as we continued down the path to find the site of Thoreau’s cabin I noticed in amazement that his back was without a spot of mud.

Free Tibet - One Boycotted Product at a Time

See this article at CNN. com and watch the associated video.

http://edition. cnn. com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/27/tibet/?iref=mpstoryview

If the monk nearly in tears pleading for freedom does not move you, perhaps you’d better check your pulse. You might be legally dead.


This is a big deal. If the United States does nothing to stand up and help, in some way, Tibet achieve freedom it will be recorded in history that we were a shameful pawn of the Chinese government. We are hundreds of billions of dollars in debt to the Chinese government, and our trade deficit with them is enormous as well.

Do you know what that means?

They own us. We are owned by a totalitarian communist regime half way around the world. And, sadly, it appears that as such, they own our policy and we have surrendered our moral compass and deeply held belief that all people should be free.

The Iraqis should be free, but not the Tibetans? Oh yes, Iraq doesn’t own us.

Boycott the Beijing Olympics. Vote for real change in local, state, and federal government. Boycott Chinese products to the furthest extent you are able to. I know this is extremely difficult given the combination of the glut of Chinese products on our market and our extremely weak economy, our collapsed domestic manufacturing base, runaway inflation, and the cost of heating fuel and gasoline squeezing everyone near to death financially. But try. Please.

Boycott to the extent possible for you every single one of the Beijing Olympic sponsors.

Again, you can find their names at:

http://en. beijing2008. cn/90/53/column211995390. shtml

Your body will thank you for skipping that Big Mac and so will your conscience.

Our leaders will not take a stand. But we can, if even in small ways. Until we regain our own freedoms, our own economic footing, our own moral compass, we will be powerless to stand by Tibet as a nation in any meaningful way. Vote for change. Look actively for change as a material fact, not as a slogan - seek it out - and vote for it.

Real I.D. in Maine - latest news - freedom quotes

The Real I.D. fight in my state & some asskicking quotes on liberty
Current mood: disgusted
Category: News and Politics

For background, here is the article from this morning’s Lewiston Sun Journal:

Baldacci seeks Real ID extension

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

AUGUSTA (AP) - Gov. John Baldacci asked the federal government Tuesday not to penalize Maine travelers if the state misses a deadline to make driver’s licenses more secure, saying the state is making progress in upgrading the security of state-issued credentials.

Baldacci sent the letter to Secretary Michael Chertoff of the Department of Homeland Security as next Monday’s deadline looms for states to request waivers that give them more time to comply with new licensing standards under the Real ID act, an anti-terrorism law enacted after Sept. 11, 2001.

DHS says it will impose new air travel restrictions on residents of states that do not seek waivers from the Real ID act and will deny them access to federal buildings when the federal requirements take effect on May 11.

Without directly asking for a waiver from the government’s deadline, Baldacci asked the department not to penalize Mainers. He said Maine "has been at the forefront in the national discussion of identity security" and has worked closely with Homeland Security on the issue.

"We remain committed to improving the security of our credentials," says Baldacci’s letter.

The wording closely follows that of a letter from Montana. Even though it did not ask specifically for a waiver, Montana was given one last week, said Baldacci spokesman David Farmer.

"We’re asking for equal treatment," Farmer said.

Other states including South Carolina and New Hampshire also have not sought waivers. New Hampshire asked to be exempted, but federal officials do not view its letter as a legally acceptable request and the Granite State has not received an extension.

Gov. John Lynch’s spokesman, Colin Manning, said Tuesday that New Hampshire had not received a response from the federal government.

Maine, like some other states, has enacted a law forbidding its motor vehicle officials from complying with Real ID. Baldacci said Maine, along with other states bound by such laws, will continue working with the government on credential security issues.

But complying with Real ID could cost the state $200 million, according to Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, who is in charge of Maine motor vehicle regulation. Privacy issues are also being raised.

"I share the concerns of other Maine lawmakers that Real ID could put in jeopardy the personal information of every Maine resident," Baldacci said.

Dunlap said a likely alternative to Real ID requirements will be a passport, passport card, military ID or other federal identifying document&183;

Baldacci’s letter drew statements from the Maine congressional delegation. Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe asked Chertoff to allow Maine IDs to continue to be accepted for federal purposes following May 11.

"As the state and the nation continue to grapple with a sluggish economy and widespread budget shortfalls, this is the wrong time to force an undefined federal mandate on the state that, by all estimates, it cannot afford," Snowe said.

Democratic Rep. Tom Allen expressed doubts that Real ID will enhance security and said no state is in compliance. His letter to Chertoff calls the May 11 deadline "arbitrary" and says, "I believe that your agency has recognized that Real ID will not work in its current form."

If you read between the lines here, you can see that my state, under the leadership of a Governor I detest but am at least glad is not rolling over on this issue, is fighting for its life in this battle. The Department of Homeland Security (another Orwellian term) and its totalitarian commander Michael Chertoff seem to be threatening to impede travel for Mainers by not accepting our typical form of i.d. at airports and other travel hubs - that would be, normally, our Maine issued driver’s licenses. We are not the only state under threat and I am hoping that those states who have chosen not to comply with Real I.D. can band together and stand up to the federal bullying being doled out by this administration. You see, this President and his posse don’t know their world or American history, and they don’t understand that the moment you start trading civil liberties for so-called security (which is doubtful even in its effectiveness), your free republic is dead. "Live free or die" is not just a slogan that our forefathers came up with to sell tee shirts and coffee mugs - no - they were deadly serious and truly willing to die rather than live enslaved or have their children enslaved.

Please - wherever you are - educate yourself on Real I.D. I’ll try to put up some resources on this blog site and on my MySpace site at http://www.myspace.com/parrishouse. We have to fight this, and we have to win. Contact your representatives, go to protests, vote for freedom loving and seeking candidates, write blogs, write to your newspapers - do whatever it takes to have your voices heard.

I have vowed that I will not carry Real I.D., and I will not be chipped (which is on the table as a possibility). I don’t know if this means that I will not be able to travel in future, or that other public services will be withheld from me. But for my part, I am already much too much of a data point for the federal government via social security and other invasive records. I can not take this additional step, nor would I even if I believed that it would improve so called "homeland security" - which I do not believe.

The following great quotes on liberty were found at: http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_freedom.html

Check out the site for the complete list, if freedom is of interest to you.

"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security." - Benjamin Franklin

"When liberty is taken away by force it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished voluntarily by default it can never be recovered." - Dorothy Thompson

"We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home." - Edward R. Murrough

"Human history begins with man’s act of disobedience which is at the very same time the beginning of his freedom and development of his reason." - Erich Fromm

"Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never has and it never will." - Frederick Douglas

"None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free." - Goethe

"The average man does not want to be free. He simply wants to be safe." - H.L. Menken

"Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison." - H.D. Thoreau

"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty." - John Adams

"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt. (1790)" - John Philpot Curran

"Ultimately we know deeply that the other side of every fear is a freedom." - Marilyn Ferguson

"For those who stubbornly seek freedom, there can be no more urgent task than to come to understand the mechanisms and practices of indoctrination. These are easy to perceive in the totalitarian societies, much less so in the system of ’brainwashing under freedom’ to which we are subjected and which all too often we sere as willing or unwitting instruments." - Noam Chomsky

"Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!" - Patrick Henry

"For what avail the plough or sail,
Or land or life, if freedom fail?" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A right is not what someone gives you; it’s what no one can take from you." - Ramsey Clark

"Freedom lies in being bold." - Robert Frost

"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." - Sam Adams

"If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too." - Somerset Maugham

"I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to Heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all." - Thomas Jefferson (one of my favorite quotes of his, I might add)

"So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men." - Voltaire

"Patriotism does not oblige us to acquiesce in the destruction of liberty. Patriotism obliges us to question it, at least." - Wendy Kaminer

"Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us." - William O. Douglas

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." Wendell Phillips

Fly the Gadsden Flag

Gadsden Flag
Current mood: determined
Category: News and Politics

This is the Gadsden Flag. Most of you with a clue about history will recognize this as a flag from the time of the American Revolution. I have been reminded of this flag again in watching the John Adams series on HBO. A bit of the history of this flag can be found at http://foundingfathers.info, but one excerpt written at the time stands out:

"In December 1775, "An American Guesser" anonymously wrote to the Pennsylvania Journal:

’I observed on one of the drums belonging to the marines now raising, there was painted a Rattle-Snake, with this modest motto under it, ’Don’t tread on me.’ As I know (it is the custom to have some device on the arms of every country, I supposed this may have been intended for the arms of America.’

This anonymous writer, having "nothing to do with public affairs" and "in order to divert an idle hour," speculated on why a snake might be chosen as a symbol for America.

First, it occurred to him that "the Rattle-Snake is found in no other quarter of the world besides America."

The rattlesnake also has sharp eyes, and "may therefore be esteemed an emblem of vigilance." Furthermore,

"She never begins an attack, nor, when once engaged, ever surrenders: She is therefore an emblem of magnanimity and true courage. ... she never wounds ’till she has generously given notice, even to her enemy, and cautioned him against the danger of treading on her."

Finally,

"I confess I was wholly at a loss what to make of the rattles, ’till I went back and counted them and found them just thirteen, exactly the number of the Colonies united in America; and I recollected too that this was the only part of the Snake which increased in numbers. ...

"’Tis curious and amazing to observe how distinct and independent of each other the rattles of this animal are, and yet how firmly they are united together, so as never to be separated but by breaking them to pieces. One of those rattles singly, is incapable of producing sound, but the ringing of thirteen together, is sufficient to alarm the boldest man living."

Many scholars now agree that this "American Guesser" was Benjamin Franklin. "

I could not help but feel that the times are right again for the flying of this flag. As I prepare to go to the April 15th tax day protest, the state convention in Augusta as a Ron Paul delegate, and then to the Revolution March - I hope - in Washington this summer I truly believe that America is poised to fight her second grass roots revolution for independence (no offense to y’all in the South, who might argue that this is our third). This time we are seeking independence from the socialist agenda of the left, the liberty withering fascist agenda of the right, onerous taxation which is sometimes double and triple and often without representation (as an example - how many Americans support this war for which they are paying dearly - and for which we are becoming increasingly indebted to China, a nation known worldwide for its human rights violations and a political philosophy antithetical to everything we are alleged to stand for?). We are seeking independence from a broken Federal Reserve system. We are seeking independence from big corporations which dictate our foreign policy, our monetary policy, and set our fuel prices. We are seeking independence from a government that thinks it knows best how our children should be educated and whether or not gay Americans have the right to define their relationships as they see fit. We are seeking independence from a government that wants to dictate how doctors may treat their patients and whether or not holistic and alternative medicines will be squashed in the marketplace because the big pharmaceutical companies have purchased our FDA. We are seeking the freedom to keep our 1st and 2nd amendment rights. We are seeking the freedom to assemble without a permitting process that discriminates on the basis of the message of those assembled. We are seeking independence from big media which wants to tell us who is or is not "electable" and packages the messages according to the whims of its corporate sponsors.

I could go on, but by now I’m sure in your minds you’re begging me not to.

Here’s my point. If you go on line and Google "Gadsden Flag" you will find many fine companies where you can purchase one. I urge you - if you are sickened by the state of our union today - to fly this flag in protest. The American flag is very dear to me (although I detest and am sickened by its burning I would fight to the death a person’s first amendment right to burn it) and that is the flag that generally flies beside my front door here in Maine. However, this year it will be the Gadsden flag, and it will continue to be that flag until true liberty and freedom, as envisioned by the founding fathers and as protected by many American and allied veterans, is restored to our nation. Perhaps I’d better buy several really good quality flags, because this revolution is going to take a very long time to fight.