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Chatterbox: Keep the faith, get the lead out

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It was my intention, in keeping with the last few Chatterbox columns, to cover the Second Amendment this week.

It gets thrown around, misused and misinterpreted too much. Now, with the hearings about Jan. 6 being aired, we are examining the fallout of what its misuse can be, ending in an imaginary militia leading to chaos by everyone, but no one in particular.

However, though any good engineer will tell us “there is safety in redundancy,” for now, I’m opting out as last week’s Herald featured a worthwhile piece on that very topic. There is much to the Second amendment that can be discussed to death, but W.D. Ehrhart, Ph.D., former Marine sergeant, Vietnam vet and author, covered the topic to sufficiency. Anyone who hasn’t read it yet should do so. Quoting from the Amendment itself, he succinctly covered the topic I planned, as well as the feelings of many Americans, including me.

We lose parts of the literal intention and validity of our nation’s Bill of Rights with the abuse, misuse and misquoting of the Second Amendment, to the multi-billion dollar benefit of gun manufacturers and lawmakers invested in and/or owned by it.

Our country is already in the hands and under the control of a powerful group of people with very specific and calculated plans to procure and secure for themselves as much of what they want, in excess. It comes at the cost of the lives of too many individuals and the safety, sanctity, and solubility of all, and the nation as a whole, if necessary. We see the evaporation of the good for the greater population, the health and safety of that population, and the ability of that population to achieve.

Our people’s impoverishment is the current price of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” a college education, small home, a reliable vehicle and even our health. “The American way” has gone the way of the Dodo.

If any of us wonder how we’ve come to this, one can only say, “One step at a time.” In a very well-planned scheme, certain industries have legislated, through corruption, their way to power. They have benefited beyond their wildest dreams, at the price of our American dream.

It’s not necessary to say, but only fair to those who are still in there fighting for the rest of us, that certainly not all of America’s leaders have gone over to the dark side. Many, if not most, thankfully, did and still do work to the ideals which Americans deserve.

Still, big business was thorough and patient. Eventually, like a snowball rolling down a mountainside, it gained speed, power and influenced enough legislature that “we the people” now find our nation struggling to not only maintain justice for all, but the idea that justice for all deserves to be maintained.

Former Marine Sgt. Ehrhart reminds us about the exact meaning of the Bill of Rights and the true purpose of its exact words. We need to be aware of what exactly was intended to happen, what is supposed to be happening, and observe what is actually happening: with the misuse of the Second Amendment as well as: to all the rights and freedoms of Americans today.

Two weeks ago, we looked at the actual words of the Declaration of Independence. We examined what the writers of that letter wanted for themselves and others like them, at the time. Their words demonstrated the futility and frustration of royal rule and the yearning of men to be free – free to structure their own lives, to free choice, to be paid for their work – earning and saving – to live, and to representation which accurately reflected the choices of the majority with laws that ruled the land and people accordingly.

Today, we still want those same things for each of us, all of us, every one of us, regardless of personal wealth, connections, gender, trade, color, religion, or heritage – and we are supposed to be guaranteed this equality in representation regardless of how much we have personally invested in the finances of our leadership’s campaign or pockets.

The little people remain united and hopeful, but only action creates change. The investment we must maintain in America must be far more than financial, and the rhetoric that divides us must be identified as part of the plan of those who want to disregard or misrepresent the foundation of the nation.


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