Heartbeats and Hoofbeats

Some events are pleasant for us, and others fill us with apprehension. The only people whose lives are a straight line with no ups or downs are those in a coma. When we are excited, our hearts beat faster and our adrenaline kicks into “turbo mode.” When the anticipated event is a happy one, our senses are heightened so that we may enjoy the moment to the fullest. Pending peril, too, generates a similar response. Our sensory tools are sharpened as we wait for the danger to reveal itself to us. After identifying the threat, we determine our response…usually fight or flight.

Most of us who love our nation experience the swelling pride and joy whenever we hear a patriotic song, view a film clip of homecoming soldiers or witness a community pulling together following a natural disaster.  Our sense of connection is more than patriotism. It is a sense of common place…shared experiences and views. Happy heartbeats germinate in a similar environment. When we encounter something that springs from the familiar but contains a positive joy-inducing stimulus, we respond with happiness…unrestrained and glowing. Heart beats induced by happiness may be fast and furious, but they do not consist of the heavy pounding intensity that fear-based ones do.

The thundering hoof beats of Paul Revere’s galloping steed echoed through the night as many in Massachusetts slept. Those who were awake, however probably felt apprehensive heart beats in their chests as Revere spoke the alarm. For them it marked the beginning of new and unknown chapter in their lives. Their zeal for liberty must have been tempered to some degree by the knowledge that they were about to challenge the greatest military power on earth. Second thoughts must have entered their minds as Revere’s hoof beats faded into the dark, and the pounding staccato of their beating hearts may have caused them to fear that the noise might stir their neighbors. The rhythmic sounds of hoof beats and heart beats blended to form a melody of freedom with minor chords of fear.    

The thrill and challenge of facing overwhelming odds when you know that your cause is just can be an exhilaratingly fearful time. The body springs into alert mode and all of the senses are on “super-sensitive.” Muscles twitch with anticipation, and a surge of energy flows through the body. Do you feel that way now? Are your body, your mind and all your senses on “high-alert?” They should be. The hoof beats of alarm have left the area and are moving to call out the next alarm. Your liberty is threatened. Your life, as you know it,…is in danger. Your nation faces its most grave crisis since 1861. You as a champion of liberty and as a defender of the country are being called to action.

This danger is not new to you. I am aware of that, and I know that you have been battling for months or years to stem the flow of a big government run amok. This column is nothing more than an attempt to reinvigorate you because I sense that many of you may be getting weary. Each effort begins with so much hope and anticipation, but the turnout for the meeting is too small, the volunteers at the event are too few, or the hardheads in another group are too obstinate to cooperate. The obstacles sometimes seem too great to overcome. After watching Congress or the President, the legislature or the Governor, the Commissioners or the mayor all do something grievously unconstitutional or monumentally stupid, the task seems too difficult. The sound of the hoof beats reminds you that the alarm is real, and you are needed once again for this just and worthy cause.

Harness your fear for the future, and corral your anger about the audacity of those who foul the Constitution and the rights of our citizens. Bind them, merge them into a burning white-hot heat that will not be denied until your country has been restored…recaptured…returned. Remind yourself again and again that your fight is not for you but for those who follow. Your fervor and energy must not waver. You must persist and persevere because failure is unacceptable and leads to despotism and tyranny. You cannot stop. You must not stop. Your emotion-filled heart reminds you with every forceful beat why you must fight on……………………….and you will.

Comment:  cearlwriting@hotmail.com     or   www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

A Response

A friend and reader of this column passed the Tuesday “Terrorists and Tyrants” piece on to a friend who responded rather forcefully that she or he didn’t wish to read any more such ideological trash. The individual went on to remark that I should be arrested and convicted if a terror attack should occur because of my unsafe obsession with liberty. Let me state that I fully understand that person’s concern with his or her safety. None of us who has our right mind willingly walks into a deadly situation. Our federal government is mandated to protect and defend its citizens from outside threats.

What I find most vexing, however, is that our government restricts our freedoms, spies on our movements and limits our capacities for making personal choices in the name of protecting us yet demonstrably fails to secure our borders. Why does our government restrict our own citizens rights and movements in the name of security but does not seriously seek to interdict those dangerous non citizens who cross our borders with impunity? Will the complaining reader hold the government responsible when a terrorist totes a small nuclear device across the border and blows an airport terminal to smithereens while he or she is standing in line waiting to be groped by the TSA? Perhaps, but the government is immune and cannot be held accountable for its failures.

Dear reader, my concerns about our loss of freedoms is not intended to strip you of your safety. I would argue as forcefully as you that your safety is an illusion, but losing our liberty is a reality that grows more ominous every day. It truly concerns me when someone wishes that I would stop writing about freedom because they want the government to insure their safety. Their eyes are open, but they do not see. I wrote in an earlier column that “wishing to live and being afraid to die” are two different attitudes. The angry reader is clearly afraid to die, and that attitude has caused him to accept nearly any thing…nearly any abuse that would give him some small sense of security. Given the reader’s state of mind, the response is predictable. For those of you who understand how governments use crises to increase power, your skepticism about government rules and enhanced “civil” security are justified. Remember Rahm Emanuel’s pithy observation that one “should never let a crisis go to waste.” Government messes up nearly every activity with which it gets involved except for those that increases its power.

Personally, I do not want anyone to be at risk, suffer harm or die as a result of a terrorist act or war. I do firmly believe that our greatest security failure in the current “War on Terror” is our government’s unwillingness to secure our borders. Government has developed the uncanny ability to close the security barn door long after the threat and the horse have moved on. Our security actions are reactive. We force U.S. CITIZENS to undergo all types of discomfort and indignities to assure that former styles of attacks do not occur again. Our government is ineffective, inefficient and power hungry. If one has listened to the story of the Osama bin Laden killing in Pakistan, one must be puzzled by how often the story has changed. These are the same people in the same theater of concern who are tasked with protecting us. Would you describe them as reliable and trustworthy?

Trust the government if you choose. Surrender your freedom and your unalienable rights if you choose. Allow the stupid, the clueless and the power-hungry to order you around like cattle if you choose. Our words are here to alert you and inform you. Ignore them if you choose. Please do not be offended if when I’m charging the hill for freedom, I do not stop and open your self- constructed cage of fear as I run by.

Comment:   cearlwriting@hotmail.com    or   www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

Terrorists and Tyrants

Fear is a powerful thing. Many people fail to take risks because they fear failing. Despots know this and utilize fear to control others. Evil flourishes when people allow their fear to subvert their desire for liberty. Fear overwhelms our rational thought and drives us toward making choices that are contrary to our best interests. Choosing to live a life that is marinated in fear as opposed to living in liberty is somewhat like a tiger preferring the cage to the wild. You are alive, but are you truly living? People who are free dare to dance. People who are fearful scurry for hiding places. Psychologists tell us that negative reinforcement and positive reinforcement are useful for manipulating behavior, and fear clearly fits into the negative mold.

Fear of ostracism and fear of retribution or pain appear to be the most common forms of internal justification for compliant behavior. Tyrants and terrorists are fully aware of our inclinations to avoid discomfort so they capitalize on our fear. Fear is an instinctive reaction that generally leads to one of two responses: fight or flight. People who resist oppression are the fighters, and those who succumb to it are fleeing pain. Our reactions to tyranny and terror are very personal, but whole groups of people can be motivated to pursue a collective strategy by inspirational leaders. Leaders can sound the “retreat,” or they can lead the charge for liberty.

Tyranny is not necessarily the product of a single forceful individual in a position of power. It can be achieved by a bureaucracy or an overwhelming, over burdening mass of laws, rules and regulations by a collection of individuals who when standing alone would not be tyrants, but when their efforts are compounded, the result is a state of tyranny. Terrorism operates in a similar fashion. It can be a single mastermind, a group of fanatics or a gaggle of well-meaning politicians who spread fear and anxiety throughout the land. Terrified people are indecisive people, so terrorists and regulators capitalize on the people’s inability to act decisively and proactively.

We fear terrorists because they can strike at any time, any place. We fear tyrants because their strong arms of oppression will punish us for any deviation from their laws. The common element is perpetuity...constant fear. In both cases our voices for liberty are reduced to whispers for survival. Our shouts for freedom morph into whimpers of apology. While we may survive the terrorist attack or the tyrant’s control, we are, in essence, already dead. Clearly liberty has no value for zombies.

Here in the United States we have experienced an interesting phenomenon. Our leaders of our REPUBLIC have used our fear of terrorists to advance the rule of tyranny. Our desire for greater safety has led us to accept the early vestiges of enslavement. Our acquiescence to our governments’ calls for more power in order to protect us has drawn us down the path toward tyranny. True, the federal government is mandated to protect and secure our nation, but it has a greater responsibility to protect and defend our liberty. Our fear of outside threats has seemingly given the government carte blanche to run roughshod over our personal freedom. For our liberty to prevail, we must resist tyranny as forcefully as we denounce terrorism. There is no such thing as freedom from fear. The minds of people are fertile enough to imagine monsters of every type under our beds. Liberty can only survive when we reject fear as a lifestyle….and it does not matter what the source of our fear is.

The fear that is used by terrorists and tyrants springs from the same root. Sometimes fear can be a healthy thing for people because it may restrict our compulsion to act stupidly by taking unnecessary risks, but fear is more commonly manifested as paralysis. Liberty is too precious to be sacrificed on the altar of fear and indecision. We can never allow our fear of half-baked loonies to cause us to run to the momentarily safe arms of tyranny. The New Hampshire motto says it best: “Live Free or Die.” Freedom is fleeting, and death is inevitable. Why not live for liberty? It is better to live in freedom and die while pursuing a glorious purpose than it is to die slowly while bound in chains.

Comment:  cearlwriting@hotmail.com    or    www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com