The Tree Of Liberty And Fertilizer

 “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” -Thomas Jefferson

"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. You won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country." - General George S. Patton

“Whose blood will be shed? It may be that of those in this room. It might be that of our children and grandchildren. I have nine children. It breaks my heart to think that it might be their blood that is needed to redeem something, to reclaim something that we, through our apathy and our indifference, have given away. Don’t let it happen.” - Matt Blevin

You are probably familiar with those first two names. Maybe not the third. Mister Blevin is the Governor of the Bluegrass State, Kentucky. Last week, he was awarded the Distinguished Christian Statesman Award from the D. James Kennedy Center for Christian Statesmanship, a ministry of Evangelism Explosion International. Governor Blevin is a champion of the downtrodden conservatives. “It’s a slippery slope. First we’re killing children. Then it’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ Now it’s this gender-bending kind of ‘don’t ask, don’t be a bigot, don’t be unreasonable, don’t be unenlightened, heaven forbid, just keep your mouth shut.’”

I don't know about you, but that last flurry, "don't be unenlightened" caught me by surprise with its double negativeness. Or is it triple negative? He would like us off that slippery slope, and he doesn't seem to favor "don't ask, don't tell." Does this mean he is in favor of enlightenment, or he would rather have us keep our shoulders to the wheel and not look up from our struggle? The struggle for which we must be willing to shed our blood and the blood of our children, but not our unborn children, to maintain.

All of this made me think back to 1984, a simpler time when shots being fired in anger were primarily done in other countries while we worried over a nuclear stockpile that we couldn't figure out a way to use. After more than a hundred years without a shootin' war on this continent, some people were anxious to get the party started. So they made a movie called Red Dawn, in which a group of high school football players successfully repelled a Communist invasion of their rural home. It was a stirring, neo-conservative wet dream, starring Patrick Swayze. That was good enough for about thirty years, but because that certain segment seems so intent on getting the revolution re-started, they remade it in 2012. This time, the star was a great big Australian guy best known for his long hair and big hammer. 

Okay, so maybe Governor Matt doesn't want us to take up arms against those with whom we disagree. Maybe. But in those tiny brains that take orders from Orange Dawn and sucker punch people in the face as they are being lead from the meeting, we really don't know how this message will be received. How could any of this possibly be misinterpreted?