Oath Keepers Resolutions for 2010 – Add Yours!
Oath Keepers, it’s time to make, and keep, some New Years Resolutions, made to ourselves, and to each other.
I’ll let “Active Duty LT” get the ball rolling, then I’ll add a few of my own, and then as you drop your ideas in the comments, I will add them to the main list.
- know where you stand, and just as importantly, challenge our fellow citizens (especially service members and law enforcement) to do the same. The time to decide will not be when an unlawful or unconstitutional order has been issued and is being carried out by others. – Active Duty LT.
- Read both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and do it today while you’re off work, or at the latest by the end of this weekend. As you read, think about what each word and phrase means in relation to the others and how it relates to the history of that era. How can you possibly defend something you don’t know? Make sure you know the Constitution, and the bedrock principles of liberty that it was meant to fulfill. Then …
- Take, and meet, David R. Gillie’s challenge to not just read the Declaration and Constitution, but to memorize them! Start with the Declaration first, as it lays the philosophical foundation. Far better than any challenge coin, when Oath Keepers gather they should challenge each other to recite verbatim any passage or even all of the text of both founding documents. Loser buys! As CDR Gillie puts it, just by the very act of attempting to recite the text, making errors, and then correcting your own errors, you will gain an appreciation and deeper understanding of why the Founders used each and every particular word - because each had a precise meaning and place in the whole. You will deepen your understanding.
- Read Common Sense and The Crisis, by Thomas Paine. Reflect on the ominous parallels between what Paine describes then, and what we suffer now.
- Read The Federalist Papers. Both Madison and Jefferson agreed that the Federalist Papers, along with the Declaration and the Constitution itself, provided the most accurate guide to the structure of our Republic.
- Read The Anti-Federalist Papers. Reflect on how much of what they warned against has come to pass.
- Read the Kentucky Resolves [Resolutions] by Thomas Jefferson. http://www.constitution.org/cons/kent1798.htm Just as with the Declaration, a concise and brilliant expose of fundamental principles, but this time of the structure of our dual sovereignty Constitutional Republic as established by the Constitution. Also pay attention to more ominous parallels to today.
- Throw a block party and get to know your neighbors. Not only will you strengthen your community by simply knowing who lives next door and down the street, but you will find out who are the veterans, who is a retired doctor, paramedic, ham radio guy, hunter, etc. Become friends. Spend time together. Build trust and bonds of loyalty.
- Commit to getting to know the police, fire, military personnel and veterans in your community, and make sure they know each other. Throw a big Barbecue or party in town square, invite all the police, all the veterans, all the fire-fighters, and any active duty, reserves, or guard troops in the area. Don’t push Oath Keepers on them – just invite them all and let them get to know each other. Call it a “Defenders appreciation celebration” or something similar. They will soon realize the common bond of defender and protector they all share, and become friends. You will have a safer, more resilient and prepared community for it.
- Volunteer for your volunteer fire-department (half the fire-fighters in America are volunteers), for your police or sheriff auxillary or reserve, for search and rescue, or for emergency and disaster relief (called CERT in California, and going by other names in other states). Whatever you limitations or capabilities, volunteer for something in your community.
- Attend an Appleseed Rifle Class. http://appleseedinfo.org/index.htm Cost is a measly $70.00 for two days of top notch instruction in Rifleman marksmanship (and military, police, women, and kids shoot for free!). Tell em Stewart Rhodes (author of the SWAT Mag article) sent you. Or, go for a week long Rifleman Bootcamp! Becoming a rifleman (or woman) is a bedrock skill for a citizen of a free republic.
OK, I have lots more, but I’ll stop for now and see what you all come up with and then I’ll add a few more later. You don’t have to do them all, of course, but do give consideration to them all.
Stewart Rhodes
Hopefully this year we will see an interest by the ‘masses’ who are usually uninformed and unconcerned to stand up to the politicians who disregard our constitution. I am anxious to stand with a committed group of Patriots who will make it known that WE oppose the blatent disreqard for our rights. Our forefathers died for these rights and they are not negotiable.
Here is a couple of excellent sources of material:
18th Century Documents : 1700 – 1799
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/18th.asp
Also:
The Founders Constitution
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/tocs/toc.html
And let us all learn what these words mean:
“…that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…”
You are born with certain unalienable rights. No one can give them to you or take them from you unless you decide to let them. How you prevent that is up to each individual.
(1) Help Organize and build a local group of Oath Keepers, and;
(2) Contact and explain our message and oue mission to at least ten people a week.
Those were the resolutions I made, and guess what?on top of #1, and about three months ahead on #2 and counting.
Howdee from a Texas OathKeeper!
I have made a pact with my wife inre a New Year’s Resolution that I not only hope we can keep, but I would like to see it spread among the masses.
What originally started out as a spoof in my mind has taken on a serious shade as I am now faced with sticking to my guns on it.
We decided that for the entire year, we will not spend any dollar bills! It seems silly at first but there are several attributes to it that don’t sink in right away.
First: it doesn’t cost anything to do, second: if you really need the money you have it, third: it WILL make you a more conscientious spender of your money, and fourth: if 10% of the masses undertook such a project, in about 30 days the interuption of commerce through quiet peaceful means would absolutely get the attention of Washington!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think the first and second issues are self explanatory so I will move to the third issue.
It WILL make you a much better consumer because every time you make a purchase you look at your singles and have to make a decision to continue with your resolution or to violate your principles. You will find yourself continuously breaking a larger bill than you intended to in order to make the purchase. Sometimes you might find yourself deciding not to make it at all, or you will go ahead and do it only to have another single or two to add to your collection. You will be surprised how quickly they add up into a nice chunk of real money! The one exception I do make to this is: inre wait staff in public service jobs, I will not deprive working people of their gratuity!
Onto the fourth issue now. If ten million people were hoarding dollar bills for 30 days, imagine trying to get change at Wal-Mart or the gas station! The Fed would be printing more at a very rapid pace for sure but they would have to look up and asked: “what happened and why?” Or they might decide to issue a two dollar bill instead, after which all of us would recirculate our singles which might cause some commerce problems but people having money to spend shouldn’t be a problem for anyone other than the people who are trying to “manage” us.
The single dollar is the one denomination that doesn’t have the magnetic bar in it so no one will be detectable as participating in a rebellion if you even want to call it that. Smarter minds than mine will decide whether this is seditious, but I won’t worry about that.
It costs two cents on the dollar to support the Federal Reserve as printer and manager of our currency. That is what they charge! So if you follow a dollar bill from its birth and try to figure out how long it takes to tax it at 100%, consider this if you will. The person at the printing office earns a living and pays income tax on that dollar, he then spends it to pay a sales tax of around 8%. The person with whom he spent it then pays income tax on it. He then spends it again and the cycle continues until the dollar is taxed at 100% in about three and one half revolutions of that earn/spend cycle. Take the denomination out of circulation that enjoys the greatest population and watch to see what happens. Then release them all back out again and watch what happens then.
This might be a way to peaceably get Washington’s attention so we can tell them once again that they belong to a body created and supported by US! We need to get their attention just before we fire them this fall. Let us pray that we don’t fall before the leaves do!
For me Oath Keepers was a God send where I have found others that feel the same way about our love for this country and the prospect that unless we start to act, it may never be the same. This is the reason we have all come together; and the fact that our numbers are growing at an amazing rate should give us all pause not only to be thankfull that we are not alone,but encouraged to stay the coarse.
I want to thank Stewart Rhodes for founding the Oath Keepers because it is the place where I have re-discovered my faith in the people of America.
Jeff Eastwood