Pilgrim
May 28, 2003, 10:56 AM
A good letter to the editor in the Fresno, CA Bee.
Online Power to Resist (http://www.fresnobee.com/local/sv/letters/story/6818213p-7756018c.html)
By Charles W. Walker
Kingsburg
(Published Friday, May 23, 2003, 5:08 AM)
In an article about the 9th U.S. Circuit Court's declining to reconsider its earlier ruling on the subject of the Second Amendment, Matt Nosanchuk of the Violence Policy Center is quoted as saying that "the Second Amendment is not the bulwark against tyranny, the First Amendment is," indicating his belief that free speech alone will keep a government from becoming tyrannical.
Free speech is a very important right, of course. And I do not belittle its importance. But in and of itself, it will not do the job unless backed up by force.
That is why the Founding Fathers put the Second Amendment in the Constitution, so that, as an absolute last resort, the people have the means to resist.
Exercising free speech against the former government in Iraq very likely got you run through an industrial shredder.
In the old Soviet Union, you'd simply disappear after a knock on the door in the middle of the night and very likely your family as well. Free speech did not stop the tanks in Tiananmen Square, nor did it keep Jews, gypsies or others out of Nazi death camps or keep the Japanese-Americans out of the relocation camps here in our own country.
God forbid that we should ever have to fight another civil war, but the best insurance that we will not have to is for the people to have the ability to do so.
© 2003, The Fresno Bee
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Online Power to Resist (http://www.fresnobee.com/local/sv/letters/story/6818213p-7756018c.html)
By Charles W. Walker
Kingsburg
(Published Friday, May 23, 2003, 5:08 AM)
In an article about the 9th U.S. Circuit Court's declining to reconsider its earlier ruling on the subject of the Second Amendment, Matt Nosanchuk of the Violence Policy Center is quoted as saying that "the Second Amendment is not the bulwark against tyranny, the First Amendment is," indicating his belief that free speech alone will keep a government from becoming tyrannical.
Free speech is a very important right, of course. And I do not belittle its importance. But in and of itself, it will not do the job unless backed up by force.
That is why the Founding Fathers put the Second Amendment in the Constitution, so that, as an absolute last resort, the people have the means to resist.
Exercising free speech against the former government in Iraq very likely got you run through an industrial shredder.
In the old Soviet Union, you'd simply disappear after a knock on the door in the middle of the night and very likely your family as well. Free speech did not stop the tanks in Tiananmen Square, nor did it keep Jews, gypsies or others out of Nazi death camps or keep the Japanese-Americans out of the relocation camps here in our own country.
God forbid that we should ever have to fight another civil war, but the best insurance that we will not have to is for the people to have the ability to do so.
© 2003, The Fresno Bee
Your Privacy | User Agreement | Child Protection | Fresno Bee jobs
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