"I don't have enough time" Syndrome
by Angel Shamaya
Director, KeepAndBearArms.com
We've all used the statement "I don't have enough time" at one time or another. Some people use it as a mantra--a regularly repeated statement which magically aides Avoidance. Let's address the reality of the issue from a few different perspectives and see if we can yield some new and different thinking. At issue is not whether or not we will reclaim America; the question is how quickly we can do it. Because the "I don't have enough time" phenomenon seems to be such a convenient out for so many gun owners, somebody needs to say something. Might as well be me, and might as well be now.
First, let's nail down some facts.
Each of us has 24 hours in each day. If you know how I can get more, please let me know.
Each of us has things we "have to" do. They include family obligations, eating, sleeping, bathing, and earning a living.
Each of us has choices on a menu of how to invest our extra time. (Notice I didn't say "spend"; when you spend something, it is gone. Investing time produces a yield, just like when you invest money.)
Each of us has priorities on how we choose to invest our precious extra time.
These are the facts. Irrefutable, non-negotiable, unarguable.
What really comes to bear on the "I don't have enough time" excuse, then, is a set of priorities. We each prioritize differently, and we each make our own choices about what comes first on our menu of options.
Some gun owners invest 14 hours each week shooting, reloading, calculating ballistics, cleaning their guns, reading up on the latest guns being manufactured, et cetera. I use the term "invest" here because there most certainly is a yield. Improved skill, refined ability to hit your target, keeping up with reloads, staying abreast of new developments, and, perhaps most importantly, FUN. All of these are worthy yields, and each of them has its place.
And some gun owners do none of the above but have a gun or two and some ammo tucked away for a rainy day. They find themselves consumed by life's agenda and set aside no time to help out the folks who defend Liberty. Their priorities are not wrong; they are just different.
When I was 14 or so, every summer morning while other kids were sleeping, I was up before sunrise, enthusiastically making my way to the fields where my grandmother's next casserole awaited me. Most summer-laden teenagers prioritized sleeping until noon; by noon I was showered, and my food was cleaned and in the freezer. Neither of our priorities were wrong; they were simply different.
Today, we are seeing widespread signs that our children are being deprived the same menu option to hunt that I was granted in my youth. We are also seeing rapes and murders in cities and states where good, lawful, peaceable, long-suffering gun owners are now "not allowed" to defend their own bodies from malicious predatory attacks by armed and dangerous criminals; they are being told by law to submit to such attacks and are left to deal with the emotional and physical scars--if they are allowed to live. And we are seeing "leaders" in this country telling us we should register our guns when we all know by simple research that every registration throughout history had led to confiscation--no exceptions. In short, we have problems--concerns that will not go away if left unchecked.
It is true that more people--Defenders of Liberty--are needed to win back our America. Tens of thousands of us are working regularly, most of us daily, to stop the assault on our rights. And we require assistance--help from freedom-loving citizens in our mutually-beneficial cause.
So how could we prioritize a bit more time to assure our own and future generations can live in a free America? What menu options could we shift around a bit in our busy lives to find some extra time to pitch in for the cause of freedom? How can we help, and do more?
"Glad you asked," he wrote to himself, praying someone was really listening. "Let me tell you where I DO NOT WASTE TIME."
Television comes on when I want to check the spin the newswhores are putting on my rights. I don't waste one second, ever, watching some dimwit sitcom void of any redeeming social or moral value. It has been rumored that the average American sits in front of a television set 4 hours a day. What they are putting into their minds that is more important than America is beyond me. Our priorities are just different.
If I thought I could contribute to the restoration of the American Republic by listening to a bunch of socialists and communists speak to me through their daily broadcasts of mental clutter, I would bow to the altar of the TV Gods and pay homage to the morons on TV.
It has been suggested that some people sit at their computers for hours playing games. While there are most certainly some games that increase mental acuity and physical mastery, many of them are merely for entertainment value. How endless hours of entertainment are more important than American Freedom is puzzling. Ponderous.
If I thought that devoting my time to mastering electronic games would rescue America, I would be striving for a National Championship at the Nintendo finals.
Reading is something I do a great deal of, every day. 98% of what I read is online, and I limit what I read to things that will forward our Mission or further my knowledge of something that will forward our Mission. The exception comes regarding humor. I do make sure to access a few BRIEF things that make me laugh. I do this because I find laughter most useful in my bid to stay balanced so I can get more work done. I no longer read fiction unless it is related in some way to the emancipation of America, and then only sparingly. Reading a "romance novel" (or whatever marketing title now given to stories of phony lives of make-believe people) has no place in my life. How people can value reading someone else's fantasies as more worthy than investing time liberating our country is beyond me. I prioritize my nation over mental masturbation.
If I believed reading "love" stories would make the communists in America stop harming my brothers and sisters with their misguided, treasonous gun laws, I would read each new novel that came out and build web sites to promote the same.
Watching sports is something I might remember to do at a Super Bowl or a World Series, but I usually forget. There are people who just read that line and reduced their respect for me by half. They believe that sports are the ultimate thing to get "into", that the quarterback of the day is God II, and that knowing every sports score and statistic since before they were born is an attribute that will get them into the Pearly Gates. How they can believe sports are of greater import than stopping the legistraitors who are making the work of rapists and murderers easier is beyond me; we just have different priorities. I prioritize the safety of our citizens above the latest touchdown, homerun, or 3 pt. shot at the buzzer.
If I thought watching guys pat each others' butts on national television while they beat the snot out of each other to carry a ball back and forth across a field would save my country, I would watch faithfully, every day, memorize every stat I could find, and probably join a few clubs devoted to promoting sports.
I am aware of other things our citizens prize above the safety and future viability of the United States of America. Chit chat for hours over the latest gossip about so-and-so, banter back and forth through email about this or that, scouring the web for the latest blah blah blah, reading up on Idol #79843, study of the latest gadget to help make yada-yada easier, etc. etc., ad nauseum.
If I thought any of these things would help save this country from the tyrants who are deeply, personally committed to developing America into a Police State, I assure you; I would be sucking them all up like the vast majority of Americans seem to be doing.
But these time investments are only serving to further engulf America into an abyss from which the only return is civil war.
If we who work for Freedom had to do this all by ourselves, we would. But we will succeed much faster when the members of the Sleeping Class wake up and pitch in.
The big question is: how can we let people know it's time to divert some time away from their "important" activities and get them to help us save this country? If you have some ideas, please let's hear them in a Forum.
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
~~ Edmund Burke
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
by Angel Shamaya
Director, KeepAndBearArms.com
We've all used the statement "I don't have enough time" at one time or another. Some people use it as a mantra--a regularly repeated statement which magically aides Avoidance. Let's address the reality of the issue from a few different perspectives and see if we can yield some new and different thinking. At issue is not whether or not we will reclaim America; the question is how quickly we can do it. Because the "I don't have enough time" phenomenon seems to be such a convenient out for so many gun owners, somebody needs to say something. Might as well be me, and might as well be now.
First, let's nail down some facts.
Each of us has 24 hours in each day. If you know how I can get more, please let me know.
Each of us has things we "have to" do. They include family obligations, eating, sleeping, bathing, and earning a living.
Each of us has choices on a menu of how to invest our extra time. (Notice I didn't say "spend"; when you spend something, it is gone. Investing time produces a yield, just like when you invest money.)
Each of us has priorities on how we choose to invest our precious extra time.
These are the facts. Irrefutable, non-negotiable, unarguable.
What really comes to bear on the "I don't have enough time" excuse, then, is a set of priorities. We each prioritize differently, and we each make our own choices about what comes first on our menu of options.
Some gun owners invest 14 hours each week shooting, reloading, calculating ballistics, cleaning their guns, reading up on the latest guns being manufactured, et cetera. I use the term "invest" here because there most certainly is a yield. Improved skill, refined ability to hit your target, keeping up with reloads, staying abreast of new developments, and, perhaps most importantly, FUN. All of these are worthy yields, and each of them has its place.
And some gun owners do none of the above but have a gun or two and some ammo tucked away for a rainy day. They find themselves consumed by life's agenda and set aside no time to help out the folks who defend Liberty. Their priorities are not wrong; they are just different.
When I was 14 or so, every summer morning while other kids were sleeping, I was up before sunrise, enthusiastically making my way to the fields where my grandmother's next casserole awaited me. Most summer-laden teenagers prioritized sleeping until noon; by noon I was showered, and my food was cleaned and in the freezer. Neither of our priorities were wrong; they were simply different.
Today, we are seeing widespread signs that our children are being deprived the same menu option to hunt that I was granted in my youth. We are also seeing rapes and murders in cities and states where good, lawful, peaceable, long-suffering gun owners are now "not allowed" to defend their own bodies from malicious predatory attacks by armed and dangerous criminals; they are being told by law to submit to such attacks and are left to deal with the emotional and physical scars--if they are allowed to live. And we are seeing "leaders" in this country telling us we should register our guns when we all know by simple research that every registration throughout history had led to confiscation--no exceptions. In short, we have problems--concerns that will not go away if left unchecked.
It is true that more people--Defenders of Liberty--are needed to win back our America. Tens of thousands of us are working regularly, most of us daily, to stop the assault on our rights. And we require assistance--help from freedom-loving citizens in our mutually-beneficial cause.
So how could we prioritize a bit more time to assure our own and future generations can live in a free America? What menu options could we shift around a bit in our busy lives to find some extra time to pitch in for the cause of freedom? How can we help, and do more?
"Glad you asked," he wrote to himself, praying someone was really listening. "Let me tell you where I DO NOT WASTE TIME."
Television comes on when I want to check the spin the newswhores are putting on my rights. I don't waste one second, ever, watching some dimwit sitcom void of any redeeming social or moral value. It has been rumored that the average American sits in front of a television set 4 hours a day. What they are putting into their minds that is more important than America is beyond me. Our priorities are just different.
If I thought I could contribute to the restoration of the American Republic by listening to a bunch of socialists and communists speak to me through their daily broadcasts of mental clutter, I would bow to the altar of the TV Gods and pay homage to the morons on TV.
It has been suggested that some people sit at their computers for hours playing games. While there are most certainly some games that increase mental acuity and physical mastery, many of them are merely for entertainment value. How endless hours of entertainment are more important than American Freedom is puzzling. Ponderous.
If I thought that devoting my time to mastering electronic games would rescue America, I would be striving for a National Championship at the Nintendo finals.
Reading is something I do a great deal of, every day. 98% of what I read is online, and I limit what I read to things that will forward our Mission or further my knowledge of something that will forward our Mission. The exception comes regarding humor. I do make sure to access a few BRIEF things that make me laugh. I do this because I find laughter most useful in my bid to stay balanced so I can get more work done. I no longer read fiction unless it is related in some way to the emancipation of America, and then only sparingly. Reading a "romance novel" (or whatever marketing title now given to stories of phony lives of make-believe people) has no place in my life. How people can value reading someone else's fantasies as more worthy than investing time liberating our country is beyond me. I prioritize my nation over mental masturbation.
If I believed reading "love" stories would make the communists in America stop harming my brothers and sisters with their misguided, treasonous gun laws, I would read each new novel that came out and build web sites to promote the same.
Watching sports is something I might remember to do at a Super Bowl or a World Series, but I usually forget. There are people who just read that line and reduced their respect for me by half. They believe that sports are the ultimate thing to get "into", that the quarterback of the day is God II, and that knowing every sports score and statistic since before they were born is an attribute that will get them into the Pearly Gates. How they can believe sports are of greater import than stopping the legistraitors who are making the work of rapists and murderers easier is beyond me; we just have different priorities. I prioritize the safety of our citizens above the latest touchdown, homerun, or 3 pt. shot at the buzzer.
If I thought watching guys pat each others' butts on national television while they beat the snot out of each other to carry a ball back and forth across a field would save my country, I would watch faithfully, every day, memorize every stat I could find, and probably join a few clubs devoted to promoting sports.
I am aware of other things our citizens prize above the safety and future viability of the United States of America. Chit chat for hours over the latest gossip about so-and-so, banter back and forth through email about this or that, scouring the web for the latest blah blah blah, reading up on Idol #79843, study of the latest gadget to help make yada-yada easier, etc. etc., ad nauseum.
If I thought any of these things would help save this country from the tyrants who are deeply, personally committed to developing America into a Police State, I assure you; I would be sucking them all up like the vast majority of Americans seem to be doing.
But these time investments are only serving to further engulf America into an abyss from which the only return is civil war.
If we who work for Freedom had to do this all by ourselves, we would. But we will succeed much faster when the members of the Sleeping Class wake up and pitch in.
The big question is: how can we let people know it's time to divert some time away from their "important" activities and get them to help us save this country? If you have some ideas, please let's hear them in a Forum.
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
~~ Edmund Burke
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
