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
Sunday, March 14, 2010
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