Photo from UPI/John Angelillo
Publicly expressing grievances in a lawful,
respectful, and peaceful manner is a delicate and precious attribute of Liberty that all American citizens equally possess, wholly
appreciate, and jealously cherish. It is
a welcomed event whenever any citizens decide to gather and publicly profess their
self-interests, personal passions, and political grievances. Every law-abiding American should always
warmly welcome a public redress of grievances, no matter the repugnancy or legitimacy
of claims, or the physical appearance of the claimants.
Self-government is a rare human treasure. It demands active civic participation from
the proprietors, that is, every citizen who elects servants to represent their particular
interests. An apathetic, cynical, and
ill-educated citizenry cannot govern themselves; they are prone to participate
in their own enslavement, or willingly enslave others.
American citizens, and public servants alike, have
a solemn responsibility, and hold a common, sacred, and noble trust - bequeathed
to all of us by the ancestors of America ’s freedom and independence - to live equally
under, and have respect for, all the laws we enact through our popular
assemblies. Our various legislatures,
state and federal, are the only legitimate mechanisms for our prosperity as
free and independent citizens. America is a nation governed by reasonable laws and equitable
justice. Both principles enable each of us
to contend with the abusive conduct of our legislatures by reckless majorities
and obstructive minorities. If any American
laws prove incompetent or unjust, citizens, after mature public deliberation
and experience, acting through the ballot box and their elected officials, properly
design a remedy.
It is a misguided notion to assume all the inherent
excesses and deficiencies exhibited by our free society, legislative
assemblies, its structural processes, and institutional intricacies, can simply
disappear by enacting legislation. Yet
the American system is the best human invention devised, so far, that enables
this proud nation of more than three-hundred million free people to protect Liberty ’s flame. Only
in this American system will social tranquility grace our society with the peace,
happiness, and repose deserving of a free and independent Republic. Tranquility can only spring from our careful
maintenance of Liberty ’s fragile flame, managed through the honest, just,
and transparent operation of our governing institutions.
Patrons of discontent that “occupy” Zuccotti Park - a publicly accessible, and privately owned, outdoor space in downtown Manhattan, New York - manifest extreme social philosophies that are not new additions to American political discourse. The minstrel atmosphere of events, and ridiculously redundant denunciations, do not confuse, nor fool, this independent observer of fact and circumstance. This chorus of “occupying” voices sings a clear “tune.” You may even utilize a narrow brush to paint this small, loud and mostly youthful, troop of progressive flatterers with the radical left-wing colors of the Democrat Party.
Ironies are pouring out from the discombobulated
morass of distempered Democrat revelers.
A relatively small group of protesters - brazenly “occupying” a private/public
space, to combat the American system’s inherent unfairness, and, of course, the
greedy corporations extorting labor and controlling our governments - have the
audacity to disregard lawful and useful public ordinances, diminish and defile private
property, using that property for monetary and political profits, distributing
food to the public, attracting improper and unruly elements, which is not befitting
of a peaceful public display of patriotism in a free Republic. This behavior is more suited to the
tempestuous nature of anarchy and despotism.
This little protest has morphed into a twenty-four hour a day public
disruption.
What part of “the right of the people peaceably
to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” do the
“occupiers” not understand? Breaking legitimate laws and public ordinances, duly
enacted by elected public servants, suggest to this free citizen, at least, that
a breach of the public peace has indeed occurred, several times, on a daily
basis. Laws still matter in America , even the minor ones governing human behavior in
public spaces.
Speech is a sacred right. Public assemblages petitioning for particular
redresses are fundamental rights. “Occupying”
encampment tactics are different species of expression, falling under an alternate
category. Several hundred people
parading across the Brooklyn
Bridge without a permit is in fact against the law, and
the result was mass
arrest. This was just the spectacle many
were looking for, and the fiendish favorites flocked for a fantastic feast.
In fact, the “occupiers” are an organization
petitioning Wall Street, not Pennsylvania Avenue , for a redress of economic grievances that
originate from the District
of Columbia . It is even more curious, and a rather absurd
development, that the “occupiers” think they represent ninety-nine percent of the
people in this country. They, and
certain media outlets, have created a neat little myth down there at Zuccotti Park . To claim their Utopian General
Assembly speaks on behalf of the American people is an extravagant notion.
In case the “occupying” tenants of Zuccotti Park did not realize - maybe they only read their own newspaper and listen to Democrat
propaganda - there is not a credible public forum, outside of the federal
government, that speaks on behalf of all Americans. “Occupying” elements consistently claim that
the federal government is just a puppet of corporations, who enrich themselves
by exploiting laboring classes. This has
been a Democrat tenet for more than a hundred-fifty years. It is a paranoid conception, nothing but a
conspiracy theory, which always assumes, without any exceptions, corporations
will use our federal government to destroy American Liberty, yet, Americans
receive the best wages for their labor and the highest living standards in the
world, all this with many more corporations, and greater Liberty, then ever
before. This great trend of human
freedom will persist as long as private property remains protected.
There is no legitimate assembly outside of the
United States Congress, except for a Continental Convention, when actually called
for by two-thirds of the states, which can claim they represent the interests
of all the American people, and every state of the Union . Every other entity is merely
a particular interest group, most especially a group that considers itself an
organization, conducting political demonstrations, accepting private donations,
and receiving an assortment of items delivered to the UPS store nearby. This assemblage of bold adherents to radical governing
ideologies are nothing more than an organization comprising of a few well
placed, and sufficiently staffed, professional groups, who are paid to further a
perverse global agenda seeking to undermine law and justice in this nation, and
other independent nations around the world.
Who gave this mutinous allotment of malingerers –
the fervent sympathizers of progressive governing philosophies - a special trust
reserved for our public servants assembled in legislatures? American citizens only use proper instrumentalities
and forums available in this Republic. What
state assembly, in this great Union of Republican governments, granted a special
designation to this minuscule population of roving vagabonds to speak for so
many American citizens? It is a great
error of reason to suggest that “occupiers” represent ninety-nine percent of
the population, just as erroneous as extrapolating from polling data the
overall sentiment of America . The only
numbers that matter in America are the votes tallied after an election. Everything else is irrelevant.
“Occupying” forces do not even come close to the
thirty-thousand that showed up for the most recent Columbus
Day Parade in New York City, which “occupiers” even protested, a favorite
target of the extreme left. The number
of individuals actually camping overnight in Zuccotti Park is rather inconsequential, especially compared to the drunken
masses on New Years Eve, in which the NYPD does an outstanding job, with 1600-pound
horses, managing, defusing, and controlling rowdy masses.
It should be a lesson learned, for any private
property owner, municipality, city, or state government not to allow protesters
– much smaller in number than they appear– to pull out sleeping bags and air
mattresses, erect crude structures, receive commercial deliveries, accept monetary
donations, storing food, feeding themselves, and the general public, all on
publicly accessible private property, with no permits or licenses at all to conduct
such activities. Are these people
gathering overnight considered tenants of One Liberty
Plaza ? If so,
they should, at the very least, pay rent to the property owner, taxes to the city,
for the commercial and political misuse of a space that is meant to be publicly
accessible, and whose property owner, in the property
description document, informs prospective tenants that the park plaza has nice
views of the financial district, trees, and plenty of public seating.
Well, the proper and legitimate tenants, the taxpaying
residents and businesses of the neighborhood, and the public in general, can no
longer enjoy that once tranquil space. If
a narrow path weaving through numerous personal encampment zones, articles of
several descriptions strewn all over the seats, tables, and landscaping walls -
not to mention they are killing mums, very Anti-Earth - is considered publicly
accessible, a serious legal problem exists and needs immediate clarification.
The rambunctious “occupants” rudely pushed aside the
rest of the public, taxpaying residents, businesses, and tenants of One Liberty
Plaza , usurping jurisdiction over Zuccotti Park , and even changing the public/private ordinances, nature, and name
of the space. There is even a continuous
contingent of police officers being paid taxpayer money to manage this
delusional demographic. Police officers
must have other important duties, rather than babysitting an unpredictable youthful
crew. “Occupiers” should just get out
and go home already, start paying rent and taxes, or, at least, financially
burdened by arrest, conviction, imprisonment, patient bills, fines, and fees
for breaking several public laws governing reasonable human behaviors.
“Occupying” tactics, condoned and legitimized by a
few predictable lawmakers, and a well-paid celebrified breed, leads this free
citizen, at least, to assume it is quite all right for other individuals to
simply, and “indefinitely,”
engage in similar activities in and on any other city space that is accessible
to the public. Nonetheless, the
“occupiers” are continually breaking public ordinances, which do not really
seem to be operating at all. Should we
suppose, then, as rational creatures of nature, endowed with unequal inductive
and deductive capacities, that the public ordinances once applied to Zuccotti Park no longer apply to other public spaces in and around New York City ?
Can the public, so long as they’re an invading
horde of Democrat loyalists denouncing capitalism and corporations, “occupy” Central Park , Prospect Park , and Gramercy
Park , or, even worse, march out anywhere from their squalid
utopian citadel and descend on our own personal and private properties? What is to keep this roving brigade of
rabble-rousers from coming to a neighborhood park near you, or even visit your private
residence? Can this band of brutes
merely obstruct commerce, and disrupt street and sidewalk traffic, forever, intimidating
any pedestrian or private business they see fit, at any time of their choosing? If wet and cold weather persists, since we
are closing in on the depths of autumn, and soon winter, will these encamped Democrat
dwellers suddenly become ill, and spread communicable diseases to the rest of
the population, as they traipse through restaurants like McDonalds to use the
bathroom. There is, and will continue to
be, depraved spectacles and enterprising ventures departing from Zuccotti Park
on a daily basis, if they continue to persist, not to mention other subversive entities and splinter groups that will promote, spin off, co-opt, plot,
and plan concerted efforts to escalate the propensity of physical conflict and violent
altercations.
The various, verbal and visible, messages are
quite clear to this independent observer, who is all too familiar with their
antiquated mentalities and intrusive tactics.
Enroll into any liberal arts degree program in private and state
colleges and universities, you will find all of the “occupiers” sentiments
prominently advocated and professed. Our
primary and secondary schools also have curriculum designed by union educators that
inculcated this latest generation with the polarizing polemics of class warfare
and the inherent unfairness of capitalism.
Progressively liberal demagogues, and their well-paid professionals, administer
a highly divisive social re-education program that bombards Americans with unreal
notions of government and economic power.
Democrats want the federal government to be the dominant redistributive power,
and that is the problem. Their hard-core
radical friends want to expropriate all private property and resources to
redistribute the proceeds equally to all.
Even the most casual observer can easily
recognize the democrat flavors, and repugnant Marxist mentalities, swirling
around the “occupying” crowd. The
varying elements possess warped rationalities, paranoid conceptions, and corrupting
cynicism, carrying union cards, regurgitating defective arguments that divide,
distort, and distract popular sentiments, with a virulent strain that brings disease
and disgust to our national character and public discourse.
Infectiously filthy propaganda is nothing new in our
schools or the media. It is quite funny,
though, that the bastion of liberal propaganda runs a particular promo
– really, it amounts to a Democrat spot advertisement - in which the New
Liberal Left’s champion denounces the politics of division. Yet, the same celebrified pundit, and all of her
collusive colleagues, cheerily glorifies political division any chance they
have, especially when it takes the crude form of a frenzied mass of sympathizing
subversives squatting in Zuccotti Park, denouncing a particular segment of
American society based on income, wealth, and occupation.
The most prominent, and usual, democrat notables,
from the private and public arena, fall all over themselves to highlight this liberal
construction project erected for electoral advantage, trying to gain legitimacy
for their cause. It is a form of self-flagellation
for the well-paid celebrified punditry to denounce their economic status. They pay homage by making public pilgrimages
to the “occupied” space, conducting theatrical displays, and making
disingenuous declarations that make them feel better, and seem useful. Always be aware of those that are quick to
attach themselves to a cause, it is usually a sign of self-interest and
opportunism.
“Occupiers” in Zuccotti Park have the same philosophical persuasion, and use the same tactical
application, as those who unruly “occupied” the State Capitol in Madison , Wisconsin earlier this year. Madison was a test run.
How far can the radical liberal left go before they self-destruct, or
cause civic distemper? The Madisonian partisan
project, along with all the creatures of an elite arrangement, who used naïve student
debtors, wanted the “occupation” of Wisconsin’s Capitol building to spread, and
considered as another “Tahrir Square.”
This was a rallying sentiment in Madison , and now echoed at Zuccotti Park .
Extreme progressives possess a perverse affinity toward
the “Arab Spring,” which, followed out logically, really amounts to a radical social
revolution, where the participants gravitate toward extra-constitutional
remedies, whimsical governing philosophies, the allurement of demagogues,
curious political tactics, and suspicious associations. Suggesting revolution in America as a possible remedy, when this nation has not
even exhausted all the constitutional avenues that remain open for necessary and
legitimate alteration, is a highly dangerous maneuver. There are many protesters suffering from a severe
denial of reality, and ignore the dangerous consequences of such a proposition. Do “occupiers” really want to carry this “Tahrir”
tactic out to its logical conclusion? Is
“Tahrir” just a casual statement thrown about to get some sort of reaction? It is plainly absurd even to suggest such a reckless
remedy, especially before all the lawful constitutional avenues open to the
people of America are not even tried.
There is a great difference between what happened
in Cairo and the events currently going on in Manhattan . Comparing
century’s long oppression of Egyptians, and other enslaved populations in the
region, to America ’s current situation is an extravagant proposition
that should meet harsh rebukes, and not taken as a credible proposal. If the events unfolding in Northern Africa impress the “occupiers,” perhaps they should
consider self-immolation, then, maybe, they might get their point across, and
attract even more supporters.
However, if one carries out this dangerous revolutionary
logic forward to its eventual end, it leads one to perceive the American system
as so corrupt, and a complete tyranny, that the normal governing processes are
no longer conducive or open to American citizens, thereby implying second
Amendment and Declaration of Independence remedies. Is this what the “occupiers” mean when they
want a “Tahrir” style moment? Do they
expect that most Americans would simply want to throw away the American system
and separate from our most cherished values of constitutional practice? Maybe the “occupiers” want the Egyptian
military to take over America , or something of a similar nature. Do they really expect, or want, the police and
other armed forces to join their “occupation?”
This is not putting the cart before the horse; it is shooting the horse
and burning the cart.
This “occupying” sentiment ultimately takes a
contrary path from the constitution, the Union ’s sacred bond, and the Liberty and Independence they both stand to protect. What is even more serious, with far greater
implications for our liberties as an independent nation, is the foreign global flavor
of their “solidarity movement” that seemingly recognizes no international
borders, national sovereignty, or American rule of law. Several adversaries of American freedom are
emboldened by any weakness exhibited, even though the spectacle of
“occupationist” tactics represents an extreme perversity of liberalism, and a
distinct minority interest.
Public discontent is the best vehicle for foreign
adversaries, and domestic deniers of American Liberty, Independence , and Sovereignty, that would like nothing better
to happen to America then to have citizens set out against each other. Americans have, and will continue to possess,
the most freedom in the world. Nevertheless,
we are not free to do away with all the precious rights, ancient privileges, common
law traditions, and sacred benefits we all inherited from our ancestors, which are
contained in our various charters of freedom.
“Occupiers” also want something akin to an
ancient Athenian style democracy. If
America was a direct democracy - which is unconstitutional because it is not a
republican form of government, guaranteed to every state of the Union - one-hundred
fifty-five million people could rule, absolutely, and directly, with a mere majority. The presidential election in 2008 only had one-hundred
twenty-five million people voting, and the total US workforce is one-hundred thirty-nine
million. Only citizens who vote move
this nation, many people do not even vote at all, and those who do, are evenly
divided. It is impossible to have most
people agree on any issue, at any time, and sufficiently administer the nation
at large.
The few individuals encamped in Zuccotti Park,
and other smaller groups corralled in a few spaces across this nation, would be
lucky to muster one million people at any one time, in any one space, let alone
tens of million, which would still be an insignificant portion of people in
America, by no way constituting a legitimacy to speak on behalf of the whole
American population.
Maybe they can garner enough people to gain
representation in Congress. If this was
the case, a re-settlement plan is in order, preferably based on the trail of
tears model. They can go to Wyoming , with seed from Monsanto, fertilizer from
Potash, some agrarian machinery from Caterpillar, and see what they can do for
themselves. That is where they can set
up their social commune, or phalanx, and get out of New York City parks. If
the “occupiers” are claiming they represent ninety-nine percent, they must be
talking about representing ninety-nine percent of the radical Democrat
platform.
A Continental Convention is the last
constitutional line of defense for the survival of our individual liberties and
national independence. We are not there
yet. If the requisite states call for a
convention, this free citizen would welcome it as a legitimate assembly having
the authority to propose amendments for state ratification. Of course, this constitutional instrument must
come before any type of civic conflagration or violent revolution. A convention is the only legitimate assembly,
outside of Congress assembled, sanctioned by precedent and the
constitution. It is the best venue,
uniquely attached to the people and their states, to remedy any material defects
that the American system exhibits.
A grand forum, such as a Convention of States, can
gather and propose amendments for ratification by three-fourths of state
conventions. This is the last path to
take before anyone suggests secession and any other extreme tactics that
undermine constitutional restraints on government power and any majority or
minority interest that encroaches upon the precious liberties we all
possess.
Any action taking a revolutionary route outside of our American system is treason.
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