PIML 96062010 / Forwarded to Patriot Information Mailing List: Date: Wed, 19 Jun 1996 14:51:16 -0700 From: Joe Horn <6mysmesa@1eagle1.com> Subject: L&J: (Fwd) Poetry - "A Visitor From The Past" Reply-To: liberty-and-justice@pobox.com This might give everyone some insight into why militias are forming and from whence some of the rhetoric of the right arises. While probably no one reading this poem will agree with every plaint, I suspect most of us will find an item or two that ring a bell for us. I think most Americans want to be loyal to the American Ideal. As Lincoln said, what makes an American is not birth, but allegiance to a set of principles....many of us feel we have grievously strayed from those principles. When the conservatives talk about "Big Government", liberals will point out the the current adminstration has both reduced the number of employees and the cost of the central government. They don't seem to understand that Big Government is not measured by economic terms or the number of workers at any level of government. It is measured by its overwhelming and pervasive intrusiveness. We live in a society where the deposit of a small amount of money or its transfer from one account to another triggers a reporting event from the bank to the national government....a society where property is "arrested" even though its owner has yet to be convicted or even charged with a wrongdoing....a society where people's homes are allowed to burn down in a wildfire lest the "homes" of a subspecies of desert rodent be disturbed. Other examples of intrusive, overbearing government. And the beat goes on..... Ron Moore ******************************** The following poem is from the West Virginia Muzzleloading Association... ************************************************************************** A VISITOR FROM THE PAST I had a dream the other night, I didn't understand A figure walking through the mist, with flintlock in his hand. His clothes were torn and dirty, as he stood there by my bed, He took off his three-cornered hat, and speaking low, he said: We fought a revolution to secure our liberty. We wrote the Constitution as a shield from tyranny, For future generations, this legacy we gave. Is this the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave? The freedom we secured for you, we hoped you'd always keep, but tyrants labored endlessly while your parents were asleep. Your freedom gone, your courage lost, you're no more than a slave, In this, the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. You buy permits to travel, and permits to own a gun. Permits to start a business or to build a place for one. On land you believe you own, you pay a yearly rent Although you have no voice in choosing how the money's spent. Your children must attend a school that doesn't educate, Your religious values can't be taught according to the state, You read about current news, in a regulated press, You pay a tax you do not owe, to please the I.R.S. Your money is no longer made of Silver and Gold, You trade your wealth for paper, so your life can be controlled. You pay for crimes that make our Nation turn from God in shame You've taken Satan's number as you've traded in your name. You've given government control, to those who do you harm, So they can padlock churches, and steal the family farm. And keep our country deep in debt, put men of God in jail, Harass your fellow countrymen, while corrupted courts prevail. Your public servants don't uphold the solemn oath they've sworn Your daughters visit doctors, so their children won't be born. Your leaders ship artillery and guns to foreign shores, And send your sons to slaughter, fighting other people's wars. Can you regain the freedom for which we fought and died? Or don't you have the courage, or the faith to stand with pride? Are there no more values for which you'll fight to save? Or do you wish your children, to live in fear and be a slave? People of the Republic, Arise and take a stand! Defend the Constitution, The Supreme Law of the Land! Preserve our Great Republic, and God-Given Right! And pray to God, to keep the torch of freedom burning bright! As I awoke he vanished in the mist, from whence he came. His words were true, we are not free, and we, ourselves to blame. For even now as tyrants trample each God-Given Right. We only watch and tremble, too afraid to stand and fight! If he stood by your bedside in a dream, while youre asleep, And wonders what remains of our Rights he fought to keep. What would be your answer if he called from the grave, Is this the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave? Author Unknown --- OffRoad 1.9p unregistered -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Sent via WISe (WNPB's Information Service) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Unsub info - send to majordomo@pobox.com with "unsubscribe liberty-and-justice" in the body (not the subj) of the msg. 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