The actual quote is:
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." - Ed Howdershelt
It's a simple concept, y'all. Stand together and act to prevent tyranny.
Enough people like the quote that it's all over the Net in sigs and blogs, sometimes even with proper attribution to the author.
Yet some people manage to get it wrong.
Or they try to add a box or two.
Someone inserted 'mailbox', but that's covered under 'soap', as in 'making yourself heard'.
In another blog, some guy is trying to add 'the moving box', which he defined as moving away from threats to liberty.
What Crap.
How is running away a form of defending anything but your own cowardly ass?
I laugh when I see my quote on a rabidly left-wing website or blog.
Seems to me the lefties would only be capable of carrying things to the third box before they scatter and hide.
Unending torrents of words and ridicule are their weapons. If things ever reach a point where the fourth box is required, chances are excellent the ever-yapping lefties will have incited the situation.
The right-wingers tend to better understand my quote, but many of them seem to want to believe we've already reached -- or are only moments from reaching -- the fourth box.
Why? Is armed conflict such an attractive prospect?
Box four should not be regarded as a quick fix.
When we fought the Brits, everybody used black powder rifles and cannons.
Things are different today with high-tech detection devices and weapons.
Don't assume 'we, the people' would win a short war against today's military hardware.
Better to use the vote to straighten things out while votes still matter.
On the other hand, we learned a lot from Charlie in Vietnam and from others since about unconventional warfare, so there's no good reason to think it would be a short, decisive war.
That's something politicians should probably keep in mind.
Nobody's truly out of reach.
Ed
Ed Howdershelt - Abintra Press
Science Fiction & Semi-Fiction
http://www.AbintraPress.com
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Amen Brother!
ReplyDeleteI have to admit I got a little bent when I got the word thru the Management of the Co.I work for that the quotein my signature was "inappropriate". This is after I got several comments, from people who had recieved my emails, praising your quote. Bottom line, it was their email system. But on my private Email....there it is. BTW, anyone who thinks war is a good thing has never been there. By the same token, there are worse things than war. I love the folks who say "violence never solves anything". What a crock.
Great Blog Ed!
Very well said Ed!
ReplyDeleteI'm adding this to the bottom of my email signature. And I can get away with it because I OWN the company.
ReplyDelete(BTW, I love your stuff Ed.)
Ed,
ReplyDeleteFound this almost by accident. It's kind of like you read my mind.
Here's another thought. I don't know the attribution. It appears in the sig of a user on an automobile website that I subscribe to.
"Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end".
Worldwide the second box is in action, Well at least in the West denial of the preceding boxes of Liberty is all to obvious in some parts of the World who jump straight to the fourth box because corruption and evil deny access to the preceding three boxes all people deserve access to.
ReplyDeleteWell, seems to me that a certain someone would call all four boxes fake news regardless of their veracity. Would be good to see Ed work that into one of his 3WP novels.
ReplyDelete