Pulling A Gun on the Government is not Patriotic

Pulling a Gun on the Government is not Patriotic
and does not defend the Constitution

 So, let me get this straight.

If you participate in a passive, non-violent protest that threatens nobody’s health or safety, you’re a no-good son of a bitch who should lose your job.

But, if you lead a bunch of redneck loudmouths with assault rifles to the steps of a state capitol and demand to be allowed in, you’re OK?

Yeah, sure, makes perfect sense to me.

Listen, you will not find a stronger proponent of the 1^st Amendment than me. Period. End of story.

But, one of the things you learn first is that with those rights, there are defined legal limits and responsibilities.

As a bonafide, card-carrying child of the ‘60s, I know a little something about protests, whether they were part of the civil rights marches or anti-war gatherings.

It was sometimes bloody and often with the 1st Amendment thrown out the window by cops beating kids with billy clubs and spraying them with mace just because they were simply exercising their right of assembly and free speech.

We were pretty much fair game except in most instances, we could run faster and jump higher than the cops, even those with the dim mentality to swing first and ask questions later.

Needless to say, as the reflexes slowed and the waistlines expanded, we weren’t as quick or agile so the protests sort of died down.

That is until the last few years.

There were a few protests over the years, but nothing that flared like the culture wars from the ‘60s until a couple of years ago when Colin Kaepernick dared to protest racial injustices by taking a knee during the playing of the “Star-Spangled Banner” before NFL games. The world came crashing down upon him with the hard-right lining up to take cheap shots, including a president who insisted that Kaepernick and those who followed his lead be fired from their professional sports gigs. Kaepernick has been blackballed by the self-righteous owners in the NFL ever since.

Now, some of those same flamethrowers from the right who blazed Kaepernick for protesting, however, think nothing of bringing their militia-style bullying tactics into play as they tried to storm the Michigan state capitol – some of them armed with assault rifles – to demand the governor put an end to the self-quarantine orders. This time, the president, who had incited many to take similar action in other states by posting incendiary tweets, said, “These are very good people, but they are angry. They want their lives back again, safely! See them, talk to them, make a deal.”

Except, carrying weapons of war and getting cheek-to-jowl with the cops sent to protect the capitol isn’t exactly my idea of “good people.” And, they were jeopardizing all who they came in contact with because almost all of them weren’t wearing facemasks to protect the spread of COVID-19, which has, in a few short months, taken more U.S. lives than were lost during the entire Vietnam War.

As I said, you will not find a stronger supporter of the 1st Amendment than me. However, there are limitations to that right.

You can gather as many as you want; you can worship any place you wish and believe in whatever God suits your need, and you can go after the government all you want with your grievances. But, that all ends when you put another’s life in danger. The Supreme Court made this clear when SCOTUS ruled that the exceptions to the 1^st Amendment include obscenity, defamation, fraud, incitement, true threats, and speech integral to already criminal conduct.

Thugs toting assault rifles into a public space to underscore your protest fits into the incitement and true threats. Not wearing facemasks in public at this time further jeopardizes others, which adds yet another true threat to the mix.

This isn’t only a problem in Michigan because unfortunately, there is no shortage of hell-bent rednecks just itchin’ for a showdown with the feds, as we have seen in Delaware, California, and even Southern Utah, where a gaggle of folks showed up to protest at the county office claiming that the government’s response to COVID-19 was an attack on their civil liberties.

Listen, buddy, your rights end when they place my life or anybody else’s in jeopardy regardless of what the president says in his pitiful tweets.

These Darwin Awards candidates just don’t seem to understand the reality that reopening the states is probably quite premature and could lead to an even more devastating round of death and suffering.

I understand the numbers game, I understand that most people who are infected with this disease will recover, but what about those who will not? What about their lives? Sure, you very well might recover just fine, but how would you feel if you passed it along to mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, your spouse, your kids, or your grandkids?

This self-quarantine business is uncomfortable for all of us.

It is depressing.

It is frightening.

It is very inconvenient.

But, it is very real.

There is encouragement that things may be getting better, to be sure, but the numbers are not down to what the experts – scientists who study this sort of thing – are telling us about the ongoing threat of COVID-19.

If those people aren’t sure if we are on the mend, we should not cave into the ignorant thugs who are storming the walls with their guns and ugliness. There were valid reasons why the country shut down and valid reasons for it to remain shut down until we are sure we have this thing licked.

More than 1 million Americans caught this thing.

More than 60,000 have died.

Are we supposed to allow some creeps in camo to make decisions that should be made by people in lab coats?

Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to be wrong, that there is no more spreading of the disease and we’re all golden.

Nothing would make me happier than to see that somehow, we can now put this behind us and move on to how things were.

Nothing would be better than to hear that the herd immunity that has been talked about has taken hold and we can all breathe easier, and not from behind facemasks.

But, those are things that only science can determine. We are simply not educated well enough to make those decisions on our own.

And, until all of that is scientifically proven, you are potentially putting your entire community at risk by insisting that the gub-ment has no right to protect you from yourself by instituting measures that just might save your life.

Pulling a gun on the government is not patriotic and does not defend the Constitution.

It is ludicrous.

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