REAL HOMELAND SECURITY

I don’t know if you have flown commercially lately, but I marvel every time I do.   The hoops we have to jump through in order to get on a plane are unbelievable.  What used to be a fun experience has turned into an ordeal similar to a trip to Disney World, as one stands in line for a trip upon the latest ride.

I’m all for safety.  Heck, who isn’t?   But the charade at our airports, designed to make us feel safe aboard the aircraft, is a joke.  Take off your shoes, no toothpaste, no water bottles, the list of “protective measures” taken by the airport screener borders on lunacy.  Why do we put up with it?  Do you really feel safer?  Do you really think that disrobing and wanding 80 year old grandmas makes a flight safer?

Like so many Americans, I am really beginning to re-think this “war on terror.”  The purpose of this article is not to debate the pros and cons of our involvement in Iraq, whether or not we should be there, or who did and didn’t lie.  That is what “the clowns” do.  I would much rather talk about solutions that are outside the box.  So much of what serves as policy in America is so unimaginative. 

I was driving through the Ohio countryside this past weekend, an experience that most city-dwellers rarely have the opportunity to enjoy.  Life away from the hustle and bustle of the city sure gives one a different perspective on America.  As my wife and I rolled up and down the tree-lined hills of our county I was struck by a couple of observations.

In real America, “fly-over country,” as Washington insiders call it, there is still a profound sense of community.  Although we are not as connected as we once were, most Buckeyes are willing to do whatever they can to help out a neighbor.   This spirit helped make America great.  The sense of community and local pride runs deep across the amber waves of grain in this nation.  Believe it or not, there are still areas of my community where you can drive a mile between houses.

As Michele and I were rolling down one long hill on the back roads, something obvious hit me.  “You know,” I said to my perky little wife, “If someone out here needed help from the police it would take a half- hour for the sheriff’s department to get to them, if they could even find the place.  If I lived out here, I’d be sure to own a few guns.  I don’t think these folks can count on the sheriff, or Homeland Security to protect them from an intruder.”

No, out in the hills of Eastern Ohio, your neighbors and your guns are the original Homeland Security.  Perhaps we should begin to think outside the box on this one.

Look around your community.  Do you really think that Homeland Security can protect you?  Are we really safer since 9-11 or are we just being given the impression that we are?   I’m beginning to think that the purpose of Homeland Security is not to protect the people, but to control the people!  Our freedom makes us so vulnerable, but giving up freedoms does not make us safer.  Can you say Virginia Tech?

What if, simultaneously, terror attacks were launched on a multiplicity of targets in Ohio?  In our county alone there are 10 government high schools, a slew of junior high and elementary schools, as well as many private schools, not to mention shopping malls.   If a committed group of terrorists decided to descend on all of these schools at once and put the lives of our children at risk, I can promise you our local law-enforcement would be unable to protect the children.  Imagine if it happened simultaneously in the next county west of us, with their scores of schools and innocent children.  What if it happened in five counties at the same time?  Do you really think that Washington D. C. would be able to save our children from the carnage?   What unimaginable havoc could 100 death-embracing terrorist thrust upon small-town America?

Is it possible that those who love death have considered such a scenario? 

“Let’s fight the terrorist over there so we don’t have to fight them here,” I hear the clowns say.  What foolishness.  They are already here, that’s why we have to take off our shoes at the airport.  The clowns know it and we know it.

Is it time we prepared to fight them here?  What about that old saying, “Better to be safe than sorry.”  Are you really willing to give up your right to self-defense so that the “government” can protect you?

I was a child of the 60’s and the Cold War.  I remember having drills in elementary school to practice how to behave if the Russians decided to bomb us.  “Get under your desk, put your hands over your heads, put your chin on your chest, and rest your elbows on your knees….”  Oh, the futility of thinking that would protect us against an atomic blast!  But it made us FEEL safer.

But are we any smarter today?  Did you see how FEMA and Homeland Security responded to Katrina?  Do you really want to trust the federal government to protect you and your property?   Can you say Virginia Tech?

Are you old enough to remember the Civil Defense Corps?  Check this out.  This is from the day when our government still believed that an armed citizenry was a good thing.  All around the nation ordinary citizens became involved in the defense of our nation.    Our parents didn’t count on the government to protect them.  They knew that God-fearing men and women with the right to keep and bear arms was the greatest security that this nation could offer.

I suggest it is time that we return to those days.  But we must understand that there are forces that do not want to see that.  They don’t want an organized and armed citizenry. Each new mass-murder brings a cry to get rid of guns.  How stupid can we be?  Why do you suppose those who wrote the Constitution put this in it?

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

I went to high school with our local sheriff.  He is a good man who cares deeply about our community.  His roots run deep.  I trust him far more than I trust some former CIA or FBI agent working for the Department of Homeland Defense.  Sheriff Thorp would take my call, he knows the lay of the land, and he knows the people.  We elected him.  He is one of us.  There are thousands of local public servants just like him around this nation. 

Look at Michael Chertoff.  Does he make you feel safe?  I’ll take my chances with our local sheriff.

So here is a plan.  It may not be perfect but it is a start.  Bring back the Civil Defense.

If it was good enough for the Russians who were going to bomb us from the sky, it is even better for the terrorists who live amongst us.  I say enough of this gun-control foolishness.  I trust my neighbor.  He cares about America, too.  Most importantly, he cares about his own neighbors -- and we care about his family's safety. We're here for each other – after all, it's just common sense.

For starters, let’s re-institute the draft.  A six-week boot-camp for every American boy is exactly what the doctor ordered for this narcissistic generation.  Our young people need discipline more than they need a college education.  Boot-camp will give many a new direction for their life, and a renewed sense of responsibility. At the conclusion of the six-week training only those who choose to volunteer for military service will continue on in their training, those who do not, return to their local communities where they are required to serve a period of time as a ready-to-defend local force under the leadership of the local sheriff.  They would be civilians in every sense of the word, but they would be a contingent properly trained in the use of firearms and other military techniques who would be available at any time to defend their homeland should the sheriff issue the call.

Let’s stop being the policeman of the world.  If the battle is to come to us, let each community be prepared to defend itself.  Men will willingly defend what they see as theirs.  We must wrest control of our lives from the powers in Washington before it is too late.  Let’s allow former lawmen like Greg Evenson and Sheriff Jim Schwiesow  lead the effort.

Do you think that when Paul Revere made his famous ride he had to stop, knock on doors, and try and convince folks to join him at Lexington and Concord?  No, quite the contrary, they were ready, willing and waiting.

Where would we be today if those Patriots had counted on the King for their protection?

"No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation." -- General Douglas MacArthur

The British are coming.  It is time to prepare.

By Coach Dave Daubenmire Email: coach@ptsalt.com Click here for bio and archived articles