Category Archives: duty

defense of others, duty, Elsewhere, mindset

War horses

November 18, 2015 Sheila Stokes 1 Comment

I know Veteran’s Day was a week ago. And I apologize, for not having written a column for Veteran’s Day. Life has been a bit hectic and I had an event that I wanted to attended before I wrote my column.

The use of war horses goes back about 5,000 years, in human, not horse years. Originally I don’t believe they were ridden, instead being used more as pack animals and later pulling wagons and chariots. As equine technology improved, saddles and stirrups came along and the horseback rider made a difference in battles. Different breeds of horses were used for different tasks, owing to their difference in sizes and temperaments. While a Friesian makes a fine mount for a knight, it’s not going to work so well for the cavalry scout.

These horses have fought alongside and died alongside their people for thousands of years. One of the most well known is Sgt. Reckless. She was a member of the USMC, she EARNED the rank of Sargent, believe me. Take a minute and read about her. She was amazing, and came from very humble beginnings.

So why am I writing about horses for Veteran’s Day? Because there is a new organization called Warhorses for Veterans. Their goal is to help Veterans that have returned home and find being home not quite as familiar and comfortable as it should be. Not as easy to return as it should be. It’s not always easy to talk through stuff with people that have no understanding (no matter how much they try) of what you’ve been through.

Warhorses was founded by a young man after he came back from Iraq around 2004 he returned to his equine oriented life. He found that it gave a sense of peace and calming and began to wonder about the possibilities of it helping other veterans. With the help of a wonderful couple Warhorses for Veterans was founded.

My view, and my view alone here. No matter how people may feel about the wars America has been engaged in, the “limited actions”, “police actions” or whatever else they may be called, one thing remains the same. Our soldiers have suited up, showed up, given their best and sometimes their all. They have left behind their families, their homes and their jobs to do what was put in front of them. I guess all of us know when we get on the highway to go some place we may not come back. But that is not the same as waking up of a morning drinking a cup of coffee and getting in a tank to go out on the battlefield. That camaraderie that develops in battle is part of what helps in the Warhorses program.

More than once on American soil as well as other countries soldiers are what stood between civilians and a threat. I’m very aware and appreciative of the liberties I still enjoy because of their sacrifices.

This last Sunday Warhorses hosted a 5K run/walk. Their goal is to raise money to help the program, which if you didn’t read the link, is briefly, to give Veterans a rural place where they can talk with each other, network and experience the healing that horses bring. No singing Kum Ba Yah. There is no expense to the Veteran. This is not a government program, this is good people seeing a need and stepping up to help.

I signed on.

It was a cool/cold day and a bit more of a hilly course than most of my walks, but I didn’t care. I had told a co-worker of mine on Wednesday night about the program and that I was signed up. He is a Viet Nam veteran, and not given to warm fuzzys, but is kind. He listened and said “They are doing good work, and you are doing a good thing”. From him? That’s a lot. I held on to that as I dug in and powered up those hills. It was windy and “right nippy” as we say around these parts. I didn’t care. I did my best and completed the most challenging course in my best time ever.

I had a chance to meet one of the founders after the race and told him what my co-worker had said, and who he was. He seemed pleased, and glad to know it was being well received. I’m also glad I was wearing my very fetching berry colored TZP zippy hoodie.

I fully realize walking in a 5K is pitiful small thanks to our Veterans, both staff of TZP and our members, but it’s what I could do, and I wanted so much to find a way, to try in some way, to give back for what I have so generously been given by ya’ll.

Thank you Veterans and their families who have given so much. Ya’ll are my heroes and I thank you from the bottom of my heart and feet.

Warhorses, still on the job — War horses, still on the job

You’ll have to click on the picture about to understand why it’s there 😉

authoritarian swine, duty, Inspiration, resistance, Schools and campuses, self defense

Four of the best comments on the Oregon campus shooting

October 4, 2015 Claire Wolfe 2 Comments

Forget the pathetic little mama’s-boy murderer and remember Chris Mintz, the man who charged straight at him.

—–

Stop pretending that your “commonsense” anti-gunnery will end mass shootings. Although this piece by Trevor Burrus advocates paying more attention to mental illness — a dubious proposition when applied to gun owners in this age when 25% of the population is considered “mentally ill” — it also contains some questions we should ask everybody who wants more gun laws:

Perhaps you think all guns should be confiscated. Okay, tell us how you will do that without stormtroopers roaming the country systematically violating our Fourth Amendment rights in a way that makes Donald Trump’s call for the mass deportation of illegal immigrants look like taking a census. …

Perhaps you think that all guns should be registered and licensed. Again, explain how you will do that without a battalion of stormtroopers kicking down doors. Sure, some people will voluntarily register their guns, but they are unlikely to be criminals or would-be mass shooters.

—–

Time to talk about gun-free zones.

As details emerge, it’s clear some that Umpqua Community College students did, in fact, carry firearms despite the school’s weasel-worded anti-weapons policies. But too few — and none of them in that classroom where the little creep chose his victims.

—–

If there were no guns by Joe Huffman. Huffman doesn’t directly address the Oregon killings (though clearly his post was inspired by them).

He says, “Because of this change from a society of force to a society of reason one could, and should, go so far as to say the gun is civilization. Those who claim ‘civilized countries’ are disarmed have it exactly backward.”

defense of others, duty, mindset, resistance

“Black lives matter” is a great slogan

August 24, 2015 Claire Wolfe 10 Comments

… if your aim is to guilt-trip Democrat politicians and alienate potential friends. Otherwise it’s just spouting a truism while denying the broader truism “All lives matter.”

But those who espouse the slogan are determined to hang on to it. Several activists have insisted that saying “all lives matter” is a violent statement against black people. (Short of a specific threat to do harm, I’m not actually sure what a “violent statement” is, and how valuing life could be a threat escapes me.) Taking a more moderate position, one Leonard Pitts writes in the Miami Herald (using specious examples) that it’s merely an act of moral cowardice to claim that all lives matter.

There’s nothing wrong, of course, with an interest group trying to protect its own interests. And some specific proposals of the Black Lives Matter movement could go a long way toward helping people of any race, color, or creed who encounter cops:

The platform also demands that all officers be equipped with body cameras; for hog-ties, nickel-rides and chokeholds to be felony offenses; for officers to undergo consistent racial bias training; police demilitarization and the establishment of a permanent special prosecutor at the federal level who will independently investigate all cases of a police killing or seriously injuring a civilian.

But shouting, “Black lives matter” — with its clear implication that other lives don’t matter is … well, at the very least, it’s terrible PR. It’s divisive and hostile (imagine how we’d react to the equivalent statement, “White lives matter”!).

Fortunately, if this poll is correct even most black people prefer the broader “all lives matter” viewpoint.

—–

But what about what these Black Lives Matter activists are actually doing to protect themselves and their communities? Petitioning for laws to curb out-of-control cops is well and good. But it’s not the same as taking personal responsibility to defend lives.

I think back to the Deacons for Defense and Justice, who clearly believed with their hearts and souls that black lives mattered, but who walked their walk. They didn’t bother disrupting and intimidating politicians. They just armed themselves. Not merely for protection against “freelance” racist thugs, but against those who enforced noxious Jim Crow laws.

Later came the Black Panthers, who were even more in-your-face than the Black Lives Matter activists. Their techniques were divisive, too. They scared the heck out of “honkies” and some of their techniques may have boomeranged on them badly (with the help of J. Edgar Hoover, who loathed them and militated against them).

Their sudden armed appearance at the California statehouse in 1967 may have been one of the factors that led to passage of the federal Gun Control Act of 1968. But let’s also not forget that, on that day at the California Assembly, they were acting as pro-gun activists. They were protesting a proposed bill to outlaw carry of loaded firearms.

To this day, historians debate whether the original Panthers (there’s now a revival party) were good or bad for the black community. But of one thing, there’s no doubt whatsoever. They armed themselves and took responsibility for trying to protect and better their communities. Per Wikipedia:

At its inception in October 1966, the Black Panther Party’s core practice was its armed citizens’ patrols to monitor the behavior of police officers and challenge police brutality in Oakland, California. In 1969, community social programs became a core activity of party members. The Black Panther Party instituted a variety of community social programs, most extensively the Free Breakfast for Children Programs, and community health clinics.

If Black Lives Matter advocates really believe what they say, then they won’t just protest and petition. They won’t wait — patiently or otherwise — for the political establishment to fix the problems they perceive. They’ll step up to defend real lives in the real world as the Deacons and the Panthers did.

It would be a bonus if they recognized that the very political establishment they’re looking to for their salvation is the one that militarized the police, equipped them with both the mindset and the materiel of soldiers, and ensured that few armed agents of the government would ever bear personal accountability for excessive brutality. That same establishment is the creator of the drug war that has wrecked so many black homes, left so many black children fatherless, and filled so many cities with gang violence.

If black lives really matter — and they should — then activists will step up to personally defend them. Not only with defensive arms, but with the understanding that government is a cause, not a solution, to their problems.

defense of others, duty, Elsewhere, genocide, gun control, hatred of Jews, Jewish history, Media, mindset, resistance, Schools and campuses, spirit of rebellion

My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys

August 5, 2015 Sheila Stokes 3 Comments

I’m of the generation that grew up watching John Wayne and Roy Rogers, and greatly admired both men. After I read a few of the books written by Dale Evans Rogers, Roy’s wife, I admired him even more. They were straight shooting, honest men. Hard working, with guts and integrity. And that was just in their private lives, let alone their persona in the movies. As you can tell, I’m from a time gone by.

I guess what got me to thinking about heroes was a facebook meme I saw a couple days ago. It had a picture of Batman and said “My boss told me to dress for the job you want, not the job you have. Now I’m sitting in Human Resources at a disciplinary meeting dressed as Batman.” I was telling a girlfriend about it and said I wanted to find one that said I’m sitting in a disciplinary meeting dressed as Judah Maccabee. She seemed a little astonished. She said Judah’s battles were in many arenas. Spiritual, physical, emotional and psychological. She felt that was quite a chunk to chew. I agree.

The night before I had watched a 1982 movie called “The Wall” about the Warsaw ghetto, and how the resistance came to be. Well, at least Hollywood style. One of the leaders of the resistance turned out to be (in the movie anyway) a woman named Rachel. She was one of the first to insist to the resistance the cattle cars weren’t going to the Ukraine. She was the first to insist they were going to have to be responsible for defending themselves. She was the one that was teaching them how to shoot a pistol. Sadly there is not enough back-story in the movie to know how she acquired such knowledge, but her directions were pretty good. But as best as I can tell, she was just a nice woman who was enjoying a nice Jewish life with her family when the world went crazy.

Judah was the same, he and his family were having a nice Jewish life in Modin. Well, as nice as you can have when Antiochus has decided your religion will not be allowed to exist and you must abandon it and now accept HIS religion. Oh, and if you follow yours, you will die.

My girlfriend pointed out some of my thought processes are a tad bit different than a lot of peoples. Ok, maybe so. So I asked her who HER heroes are? She is quite a bit younger than I am.

Her choices were Corrie Ten Boom, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Nathan Hale, Patrick Henry and all the founding fathers. For quite similar reasons. Corrie? A nice old lady building and fixing watches, well, until the world went cray-cray. Laura? She and her family were some of the early pioneers. Their lives were not easy and they went through many difficult and trying times. But they stuck it out to help settle their land and have nice lives. The founding fathers? Well, they were farmers and simple men. Men with families just going about their daily lives. Yet, when the need for them to rise to the challenge in the case of freedom and liberty, they did. She summed it up with ordinary, everyday people doing extraordinary things. People with regular lives becoming amazing heroes. Ordinary people overcoming extraordinary odds.

I asked a relative of mine who her heroes were. She is five years younger than I am. Hers? Winston Churchill, “Iron” Margaret Thatcher, and sigh, Colin Powell. All for the same reason, they were people who took unpopular stances when it was necessary to do the right thing, because it was the right thing.

A friend of mine a couple years older? Leonard Bernstein. Because he stepped in and did such a marvelous job when the chips were down. I kind of caught her off guard with the question as our whole conversation up to that point had been a completely different topic.

My point is this, all of the people I surveyed are within about 15 years of each other. We have similar reasons for picking our heroes.

What are children taught today are heroes in the public schools? There are pages on Michael Jordan, paragraph on George Washington? Really. The media tells us it is a football player who is “courageous” enough to tell the world he is “gay”. Ok, takes courage, but is the result the same as Nathan Hale? A man has a sex change operation? Courage? Um, well, ok. But actually I think his/her saying on public television that he/she is a Republican took more. It reminds me of collage in the 60s. All these kids dressed alike, bathing as often, chanting the same slogans and protesting for the same causes claiming they are “bucking the system” and never seeing the irony.

Today we have celebrate “diversity”, as long as you go along with what the liberal political correctness tells you IS diversity. If not? You will be attacked in the media as a hater, your bank account subject to IRS seizure and the tolerant left will try to shut your business down. We must be diverse, as long as we are diverse the way it’s “allowed”. Ahh, what was it Hitler said about giving him a generation? I’m sure professor Bill Ayers said similar though. Just a guess.

So now I will sound like the old person I am. I will bemoan that today the main topic is who will win American Idol, what are the Kardashians wearing and where is Paris Hilton, while they may not know there is a Paris, France.

Perhaps it is just me, perhaps it is the rainy day, but I can not help but wonder, for how little can the title “Hero” be purchased today? Will people be the same today as they were in the meeting in the film clip from “The Wall”, they delayed fighting evil, because they did not recognize evil for what it was, and if they began to they were unable to admit to it. Almost every hero listed above, no matter who selected them, recognized a threat to their area and addressed it.

From 1^st Maccabees 3:17

Now when Seron, a prince of the army of Syria, heard say that Judas had gathered unto him a multitude and company of the faithful to go out with him is to war ; he said, I will get me a name and honor in the kingdom ; for I will go fight with Judas and them that are with him, who despise the king’s commandment. So he made him ready to go up, and there went with him a mighty host of the ungodly to help him, and to be avenged of the children of Israel.

And when he came near to the going up of Beth-horon, Judas went forth to meet him with a small company: who, when they saw the host coming to meet them, said unto Judas, How shall we be able, being so few, to fight against so great a multitude and so strong, seeing we arc ready to faint with fasting all this day ? Unto whom Judas answered.

It is no hard matter for many to be shut up in the hands of a few; and with the God of heaven it is all one, to deliver with a great multitude, or a small company: for the victory of battle standeth not in the multitude of an host; but strength cometh from heaven. They come against us in much pride and iniquity to destroy us, and our wives and children, and to spoil us but we fight for our lives and our laws. Wherefore the Lord himself will overthrow lo them before our face and as for you, be ye not afraid of them.

Now as soon as he had left off speaking, he leapt suddenly upon them, and so Seron and his host was overthrown before him. And they pursued them from the going down of Beth-horon unto the plain, where were slain about eight hundred men of them ; and the residue fled into the land of the Philistines.

Then began the fear of Judas and his brethren, and an exceeding great dread, to fall upon the nations.

So who are YOUR heroes, and why?

defense of others, duty, gun control, gun grabbers, hoplophobia, Media, mindset, Politics, self defense, Sellouts and traitors

To Keep Them Safe

July 21, 2015 Sheila Stokes 4 Comments

On 16 July 2015 a observant member of the religion of peace shot up military recruiting center in a strip mall, and then proceeded on to a Naval reserve center. The price tag for this particular member of the religion on peace having a rampage is one dead sailor and four dead marines. I suppose the correct way to put it is “having a rampage”, perhaps “pitching a hissy fit”? Well, if the government initially said it had it may have had no connection to terror, it can lead to confusion. To paraphrase a couple of things I read on FaceBook that may account for this confusion perhaps it was “Fluffy’s” yells of “Jesus loves you and died for your sins” as he killed the service members that confused the trained government investigators. “Fluffy” is the name I’m choosing to use as I also chose not to give slime the fame it desires. These attacks follow attacks in Little Rock, Fort Hood, The Naval Shipyard. I’m not sure why the government had such a hard time determining that the attacks were related to Islam “The Religion of Peace” considering that ISIS had been sending out tweets as warnings according to Pam Geller who posted some nice screen shots. Of course poor little Andrea over at MSLSD tried to lead her 4 viewers down the garden path by attempting to persuade them that “Fluffy”was just your typical rural Tennessee woodsman, what with hunting, fishing and all. The fact that “Fluffy” worked at a nuclear power plant for 10 days didn’t seem to distress little Andrea nearly as much. Those MSLSD news readers are as confused as BHO about things. It could be because The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria doesn’t actually have anything to do with Islam according to BHO’s Orwellian speech. In fact, after the terrorist attack by “Fluffy” the only comments made by BHO were regarding Ramadan.

“Michelle and I would like to extend our warmest wishes to Muslims in the United States and around the world celebrating Eid-ul-Fitr,” a statement from the president read.“As Muslims mark the end of the month, they are reminded that Ramadan is a time to reflect spiritually, build communally, and aid those in need. While Eid marks the end of Ramadan, it marks a new beginning for each individual — a reason to celebrate and express gratitude on this holiday.”

Perhaps no one had told him about the yells involving something about Allah and the snackbar. Yes, I got that one off FaceBook too.

Why is this important? Because BHO does not yet realize who the enemies of America are. Now, I will admit that perhaps he doesn’t consider the enemies of America as his enemies. Perhaps they aren’t, since he just gave them nuclear weapons and a pile of money and the technology to defeat any attack Israel might wage against the reactor. But they are in fact, enemies of the country of America.

There was an interesting opinion piece in Slate, that points these attacks on our military personnel state side are not considered terrorist attacks, but valid targets. Why? Because how many times BHO has bragged about taking out their training centers. They are paying back in kind. They don’t much care that while the people in their training bases are armed to the teeth, our recruiting stations and military bases were made toothless by the rabid Clinton regime. Yes, the Clinton regime decided military bases would be safer if everyone was a victim waiting to happen. Liberals do not love our military I do not believe. BHO, as the Clinton regime, has been no supporter of the military. It’s almost as though he sees them as the enemy.

Ordinary everyday Americans have a much different view of our military than this though. Around the country ordinary, everyday American Sheepdogs have been showing up armed to protect THEIR military recruiting stations. I believe quite a few of those showing up are veterans of the military themselves. This is happening in different places around the country, not just in Chattanooga.

http://www.teaparty.org/armed-americans-stand-guard-outside-military-recruitment-center-108421/

http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2015/07/20/lancaster-ohio-armed-citizens-unite-to-protect-military-recruiting-centers-in-wake-of-tennessee-massacre.html

Interestingly, this comes about the same time BHO has decided to apply the same techniques used by the disgrace known as The Veteran’s Administration. The Veteran’s Administration under the Clinton regime began to use the force of the V.A. and the Department of inJustice against veterans. The BHO regime is just following along the Alinsky path of disarmament, this time using the Social Security Administration.

If Social Security, which has never participated in the background check system, uses the same standard as the VA, millions of its beneficiaries would be affected. About 4.2 million adults receive monthly benefits that are managed by “representative payees.”

So now the Clintons have disarmed a group of people that were willing to give their lives to protect this country and BHO is disarming a group of people made vulnerable by age, probably a good portion of them Veterans as well.

These people are not the enemies of America. These are not the people that are shooting up military bases and recruiting stations.

If you can not identify and name your enemy, you can not win the fight. It is as though BHO has identified his enemy, and we have met this enemy. It is US. ~~Pogo.

defense of others, duty

Tears for our society

July 17, 2015 Nicki 9 Comments

Those who know me well know I don’t cry easily. I’m generally pretty stoic, and with a few exceptions, I tend to get enraged rather than weepy. Lately it’s been a different story, however. This year has been a difficult one in many ways, and I’ve found myself moved, touched, enraged, teary eyed, and downright hysterical crying at times. There’s a lot going on, both in my personal life and in the world around me, in general, and I seem to be getting a lot more emotional in my old age…

So I cried recently at the vicious stabbing death of Kevin Sutherland earlier this month. Those of you who are unfamiliar with the incident, the 26-year-old man was on a metro train on Independence Day when an 18-year-old savage attacked him for his cell phone. Jasper Spires repeatedly punched, kicked, and stabbed Sutherland and left the former Congressional intern bleeding on the train floor as other passengers watched.

I didn’t just cry because this tragic incident ended a promising young life.

I didn’t just cry because as someone who lives in Northern Virginia, I consider Washington, DC very much my city.

I didn’t just cry, because as a Virginian I enjoy my right to carry my tool of self defense, both openly and concealed with no impediments.

I didn’t just cry because, the moment I step on the Metro and make my way to my Washington, DC, that respect for my rights no longer exists.

No, all of this is tragic, but nothing new.

What I did cry about was the disintegration of our society exemplified in this tragedy. This is what I find most tragic. This is what has kept me up at night as I thought about what I would have done had I been on that train on Independence Day.

As a veteran, I have a certain attitude – a certain mindset, if you will. I joined the military after college graduation rather than getting that high-paying job at a brokerage I was considering, because I felt I wanted to serve the nation that gave me so many opportunities I would have never had as a citizen of the former USSR. I wanted to protect America’s people and America’s Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. I certainly didn’t do it for the paltry pay and the time away from my family. I took my oath with that goal in mind, and I took it seriously.

That attitude drives my thoughts about that day. Would I have intervened? Would I have attacked the thug and beat him to within an inch of his life? Would I have saved Sutherland’s life? I certainly want to believe I would not have sat idly by and done nothing. I carry my firearm with the sincerest hope that I never have to draw it, but with the practiced attitude that should I have to, I would not hesitate to save a life. I like to think that attitude would carry over even when I am unarmed in a metro car. I’m not a weak, small person. I have no doubt I would have been injured, but I’m pretty damn sure I would have stopped that savage punk one way or another. Or at least tried my best… spores

But no one did anything. They all sat there and cowered. They all watched, and did nothing to help this guy, who got savaged because this barbarian punk wanted his cell phone. They stood by and did nothing.

Police consistently advise bystanders not to intervene.

Call the police, they say.

Do not confront the violent savages, they say.

Translation: let the victim die! Rely on us! We’ll protect you.

My aching arse.

And you know what? Most of these sheep do exactly that. From the tragic Kitty Genovese murder in 1964, to the attack on Marianne Seregi in which only one small woman had the courage to yell at the attackers (who were unarmed, by the way), to this current travesty…

…they did nothing.

Don’t tell me it’s some kind of psychological effect. I don’t want to hear excuses. This is simply a shift away from personal responsibility. It’s a shift away from courage, from humanity, from self-reliance.

And that’s what’s really tragic about the murder of Kevin Sutherland, other than the obvious loss of a young life! It is an overall societal abdication of every shred of self-reliance and accountability.

I weep for the kids who are taught from a young age not to stand up to bullies, but tell a teacher instead, even as they cower while the larger kid pummels them.

I weep for the children who are told they must wait for a nice policeman to arrive and protect them, rather than do their damnedest to defend themselves.

I weep for the cowards who are too afraid to stand up for themselves and for others, choosing instead to record brutal attacks with their damn smart phones while they wait for the police to arrive!

I weep for a society that reacts to brutal attacks on defenseless individuals by calling for government force to make them even more defenseless and vulnerable to armed thugs!

I weep for the pusillanimous weaklings who accept the message that they must rely on anyone else – be it big government, police, or anyone other than themselves who chooses to be armed and to take responsibility for their own safety and for the safety of those around them – to protect them.

It’s not any kind of psychological effect. It’s decades of indoctrination into the idea that you must rely on others for everything from putting food in your mouth and providing for you, to your very life.

It’s laziness.

It’s the unwillingness to be responsible for your own survival.

It’s the perception that everyone else is responsible for everyone else – their brother’s keeper – it takes a village.

It is this parasitic inability to fend for oneself that’s killing our society.

Someone else will protect me.

Someone will ensure I don’t starve.

There’s got to be someone who will intervene.

I’ll leave it to other people to carry a gun and to train with it. I’m afraid of guns. I’ll let others stand up.

Well, guess what, parasites! When you mewl to have the rest of us just as disarmed and defenseless as you are, there will be no one left to intercede on your behalf when a violent degenerate, who takes a large, steaming dump on the laws that you assiduously abide by and so stupidly insist others will obey, boards a metro train and stabs you to death while everyone watches in horror, because there’s no one around with the intestinal fortitude to help you!

You insist on disarming our military members while stateside, and they get slaughtered by frothing fundamentalist Islamic zealots. Just like they did at Fort Hood. Just like they did yesterday.

And then you will squeal and blame large-capacity magazines, the NRA, “gun fetishists,” and “loopholes” for the fact that this society has descended into a whining, spineless, triggering, social justice warrior-ruled swamp of hurt feelings and demands that someone, ANYONE but you, do something!

RIP, Kevin Sutherland.

RIP, GySgt Thomas J. Sullivan.

RIP, LCpl Skip Wells.

RIP, Staff Sgt. David Wyatt.

RIP, Sgt. Carson Holmquist.

RIP, Petty Officer Randall Smith.

Your government failed you by disarming you, but your society failed you worse – by both demanding that your government disarm you and failing to act on your behalf after the government leeches made you vulnerable at their behest.

And if you’re not weeping for the demise of courage, honor, integrity, and strength in our society, you’re not paying attention.

defense of others, duty, genocide, Inspiration, Jewish history, resistance

Defiance in the face of deadly evil

July 8, 2015 Claire Wolfe 4 Comments

Yesterday, Y.B. wrote a remembrance of Lothar Kreyssig, a German judge who defied the Nazis. Kreyssig didn’t succeed in halting their genocidal plans, but he lived — and lived a good, meaningful life.

Unconsciously, it seems to have become part of modern myth that nobody, but nobody, in Germany openly defied the Nazis. Sure, people all over Europe covertly defied them in ways large and small. And partisans outside of Germany took up arms against them, attacking and fading into the woods. Finally, even the most downtrodden captives in Sobibor and Warsaw openly defended themselves against their monstrous tormentors.

But ordinary “Aryan” Germans? We’re so unaccustomed to thinking of them defying their rulers that “good German” remains a term of contempt 70 years after the fact.

But defy they did, even if it was rare and dangerous. Another example, besides Kreyssig’s refusal to give an official stamp to deadly eugenics, was the Rosenstrasse protest, in which “Aryan” wives laid their lives on the line to save their Jewish husbands.

The wives won. Some 1800 Jewish men were saved. Today, there’s a monument at the site of the protest that carries this inscription: “The strength of civil disobedience, the vigor of love overcomes the violence of dictatorship; Give us our men back; Women were standing here, defeating death; Jewish men were free.”

The wives not only saved their husbands. They revealed a weakness in the Nazi regime (that also applies to many tyrants in our day): even the worst brutes on earth squirm and cringe when the light of bad publicity shines on them.

—–

Germans also committed more acts of covert defiance than we give them credit for. A great example is a story that got quite a bit of coverage last year (two good versions here and here).

A German photographer, asked to submit entries for a Nazi-sponsored “perfect Aryan baby” contest, submitted the photo of a child he knew to be Jewish. Her adorable picture beat the rest of the competition and was printed on magazine covers and postcards.

The photographer didn’t ask the family’s permission and his act potentially put both them and himself in danger. At the time, the child’s parents were horrified. But today that baby (now known as Hessy Taft and a professor of chemistry in New York) says she’s quite proud to have been part of the deception.

The photographer wanted to prove that the Nazis were fools — and he succeeded wildly, even though he had to keep his victory and his laughter to himself.

—–

Just think how different, and how much less deadly, 20th century history might have been had even more “good Germans” showed their courage, anger, contempt, and love of decency and refused to be so “good.”

defense of others, duty, genocide, Inspiration, resistance

Remembering Lothar Kreyssig

July 7, 2015 Y.B. ben Avraham 2 Comments

On July 6th 1986, Lothar Ernst Paul Kreyssig, passed away after living a life of honor and principle. This was especially so during times when it seemed these virtues were rapidly leaving the world forever.

A member of the Confessing Church, he spent his later years working vigorously to atone for the wrong his countrymen had wrought, believing that even those who resisted should have, and could have, done far more to stop the evil in their midst.

Trained in the law, in Leipzig, he became a district court judge. Soon he was transferred to Brandenburg an der Havel and his new duties were as a guardianship judge for the mentally ill.

Many people think of Nazi Germany as pioneers in the field of eugenics, but that is not really so. That distinction belongs to the United States and Great Britain, and included such names as Margaret Sanger and Sir Francis Galton. Still, the eager understudy, Germany made up time with persistence and passion.

By the summer of 1940 a program known as Aktion T4
was quietly in full swing. The flip-side to nationwide programs encouraging childbearing among Aryans, this program worked to create “Racial Hygene” by removing the ill, the infirm, the defective… the üntermenschen, from the gene-pool of the Master Race. A race for the New World Order.

But, being Germans, everything about this quiet program had to be nice and tidy, with all the documents organized and everything correct. And legal.

Judge Kreyssig kept seeing reams of odd paperwork, often nearly identical, except for the names, cross his desk for approval. Dozens, then hundreds of people were dying under his watch. He soon concluded that this was in fact a forced euthanasia program on a huge scale, and he was placing his own imprimatur on the horrible act.

He refused to do so.

Moreover, he wrote Minister of Justice Franz Gurtner, protesting in very strong terms the treatment of people under his charge, including now, prisoners and residents of a concentration camp, writing:

“What is right is what benefits the people. In the name of this frightful doctrine — as yet, uncontradicted by any guardian of rights in Germany — entire sectors of communal living are excluded from [having] rights, for example, all the concentration camps, and now, all hospitals and sanatoriums.”

Trusting in German Jurisprudence, Judge Kreyssig then filed criminal charges against the program administrator, and issued an injunction against the operation.

Judge Kreyssig was in for a rude awakening. He was called to a meeting by the Justice Minister, and shown a letter authorizing the Aktion T4 signed by Adolph Hitler himself.

This was the Führerprinzip (Leader Principle) in ‘action”. The Law must serve the State. The Leader embodies the State. Thus, the letter of the Law bends to the will of the Leader.

Horrified, but not stupid, Judge Kreyssig, this very powerful and respected jurist, narrowly avoided being sent by the Gestapo to a concentration camp himself. Marginalized over the next two years, he was finally forced to retire from the bench.

Most of us know of the trials of major political and military leaders of the Nazi regime at Nuremburg. There were also trials of morally corrupt Doctors, and of willing (or worse) Prosecutors and Judges.

It is said that when the Nazi Judges were tried by the Allies at Nuremburg, they looked everywhere for a Judge who under the Regime steadfastly refused to do evil. They found just one:

Lothar Kreyssig.

But, after refusing the seduction of the National Socialist German Workers Party, since the Judge lived in Saxony, he had a new problem. He was now in the “East Zone”… soon to become the new Deutsche Demokratishe Republik. Communist, East Germany.

And, THEY wanted him to be a Judge. Having seen this show before, he refused.

A life-long Evangelical (Protestant) Christian, instead he returned to a prior focus on his faith and community, becoming President of his church for the province of Saxony, and on to many other positions of community leadership.

Most noteworthy, in 1958 Mr. Kreyssig founded the Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (ARSP), an international organization that continues to this day.

This organization’s view, as an outgrowth of the ideology of Confessing Church roots, calls for “repentance and reversal” on the part of those who do harm to others. Thus, in the context of postwar Germany, not just individual or communal guilt, but an earnest and direct request to aid those who were harmed.

The ARSP sends nearly two hundred volunteers annually to engage in long- and short-term social work for survivors in Belgium, France, the UK, the Netherlands, Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Belarus, Ukraine, Israel and the U.S. Over the years thousands have served.

When faced with a society filled with mindless evil, Judge Kreyssig refused to bend. When lured by a sister-evil, he refused. Instead, Mr. Kreyssig worked the rest of his life for true reconciliation and encouraged others to follow his lead.

A model for us all.

authoritarian swine, defense of others, duty, genocide, hatred of Jews, Israel, Jewish history, resistance

Capturing Eichmann

May 12, 2015 Vladka Peltel 8 Comments

This week is the 55th anniversary of the capture of Adolf Eichmann. It’s a story worthy of a Hollywood thriller.

Many people know its outlines. But did you know that after the war but before the Mossad decided to capture Eichmann alive and put him up for trial, there was an armed Jewish group called The Avengers that handled Nazis more directily?

At first they handed over the SS men to the Allied authorities, but many of the SS men “escaped in the chaos that followed the war or were released.” At one point the Russians released two Nazi Germans who had been turned over to them by the Jews. The Germans walked out into the street, laughing at their release. But not for long. The Avengers “cut the men down with a burst of sub-machine gunfire.”

From then on the Avengers simply tracked down and killed former Nazis. Perhaps 1000 Nazis were tracked down in this way after the war.

It seems that, following the war, allies had a habit of letting Nazis escape — not surprising when you consider how much some high-ups among the allies despised Jews.

It was also revealed a few years back that the West German government knew where Eichmann was hiding nearly a decade before the Israelis dragged him from Argentina.

Did the Israelis violate international law in conducting their unauthorized arrest of Eichmann? No doubt they violated many laws. But the keepers of the laws were busy either protecting or ignoring Eichmann — who (after the Nuremburg trials) was the only still-living senior official responsible for the Holocaust.

Eichmann was hardly the bland, colorless bureaucrat some have portrayed him as being. He was the chief administrator of genocide and a dedicated Nazi who continued to dream of setting up a new Third Reich in South America. His bureaucratic apparatus made mass murder possible. His lies persuaded hopeful Jews to believe they were merely being “relocated to the east” instead of being relocated to misery and death. His methods made mass murder go smoothly, with least resistance from the victims.

Before his trial, a lot of politicians and thinkers believed the best course was just to forget the Holocaust. Stop talking about it. Let it fade into history as quickly as possible. The trial of Adolf Eichmann ended all that and started an examination of the process of state-perpetrated evil that continues to this day — more than half a century after his capture.

defense of others, duty, guns, Inspiration, Media

Bob Owens analyzes the dispatching of jihadis in Garland, Texas

May 9, 2015 Claire Wolfe 4 Comments

It’s surprising how few specifics have been released about the shooting of those failed jihadis in Texas. We’re stuck with media accounts of attackers wearing body armor and bearing the standard “assault rifles.” And you know how genius reporters usually are about such things.

But Bob Owens looks at photos of the scene and gives a fascinating analysis.

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