A Modern Militiaman In Jail

Dear Modern Militiaman:

With all the negative media hype regarding the militia; Bob Starr's incarceration; *my* incarceration; the incarceration of countless unsung other good folks; and in the fallout from the McVeigh debacle, I feel the need to address a subject which may become relevant to the modern militiaman: life in jail.

One of my concerns going in was the possibility of being bored to the point of madness -- and I mean literal madness. This situation has not obtained. In one respect, I am atypical, and very fortunate. I have a lot of friends who send mail--letters, email postings, correspondence of all descriptions. I have acquired new friends, and strengthened friendships with others. For the sanity of the jailed militiaman (and be reminded, the law and the dictionary define who is a militiaman -- and that is dern near everybody), remember him or her. Spread the word, and the contact address. It is our duty.

Not only is it our duty, we reap as we sow. In December, 1776, Thomas Paine spoke of the "summer soldier and sunshine patriot." He mentions that tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered, but that a difficult struggle results in glorious triumph. He discusses the celestial price of heavenly goods--to wit, freedom. He points out that the then embodiment of tyranny, Great Britain, presumed themselves to possess the right not only to tax, but to bind their "subjects" "in all cases whatsoever." Paine points out that if this is not slavery, no such thing exists.

Our embodiment of tyranny, government at *all* levels, presumes no less. "Laws" in defiance of our rights have been foisted onto a sheepish people, and those who would stand in defiance, in protection of their rights, are prisoners in the making. The "War on Drugs" and the "War on Guns" go hand in hand as started during the first "War on Drugs" -- Prohibition -- the War on Alcohol. It was in the wake of Prohibition that silencers and automatic weapons were outlawed.

It has now reached such an absurd condition that a husband taking his wife's innocuous antihistamine could incur a federal felony conviction. Of course, our "masters" are not subject to such treatment -- but we are "subject" to anything government, with the willing cooperation of those "protectors of the First Amendment," the media, can demonize. Last week, I saw a TV news report, delivered by a smiling, bovine reporter, of a roving, random roadblock, complete with dogs, looking for "drugs."

Somehow, "the people" have been convinced that permission of government is required to operate *their* cars, which must also be licensed, on roads paid for *by* the people. In some jurisdictions, governments send inspectors with rulers to measure the depth of the grass on lawns, and if it doesn't "meet specifications," will cut it and bill "the owner."

This type of governance might be appropriate for a population under military discipline -- but we, as a people, are *not* subject to such "discipline." We are sovereign -- *we own the place.* It's high time we started acting like it, standing up for our rights, our principles. *Those who will not stand for rights and principles have none.*

Which brings me back to my first paragraph. The modern militiaman, the American who stands for his rights, can expect to see the inside of a jail. Boredom has not been my worst problem. My problems have been with diet, and medication, or being forced to stop writing, or walking for exercise to go stand in line for medicine, or food, or roll-call, or "lockdown" for no reason at all except someone "in authority" said so.

But the very worst thing about jail has been the utter waste. The waste of my productive time; the waste of my normal responsibilities going unfulfilled; missing my son's birthday, or my other son's graduation with honors.

The very, very worst? The utter degradation of our society. Men who have degenerated in our modern malignancy. Men who are warped beyond repair, men who babble to themselves and each other, guarded by men who haven't a clue. Jail is an enormous, intellectual and emotional void which can and will suck the vitality from the modern militiaman, even from one aware of the hazards going in. *It is a concentrated microcosm of our society.*

Our court system has abandoned civilization, and is, by design, intended to crush the spirit of life, the spirit of resistance from the modern militiaman. Jail is intended and designed to dehumanize, to crush the sense of self, to remove identity.

Support your brothers and sisters -- hold fast to your principles -- we stand at a precipice which, I believe, would have frightened Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry, and George Washington right out of their shoes.

Jail is the living, breathing, malignant embodiment of Big Brother -- the Brave New World in the flesh. Madness is a living presence -- and it is far worse than boredom.

William Michael Kemp,
Gadsden County Jail
6/12/97

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Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.

--Frederick Douglass, abolitionist, August 4, 1857

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The more crap you put up with, the more crap you are going to get.

Scott Adams; Dilbert's Laws of Work

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