Hello, Kort.
I have just read a disturbing e-mail article about the probability and means of eventual arms confiscation. In catharsis, I now compose a sermon for the choir.
As you may remember from previous conversations, I sometimes characterize individuals as "the heroes of their own movies", meaning that people generally believe in the intrinsic goodness of their motives and thereby justify their actions. I make allowance for exceptions, serial murderers, etc., who acknowledge their own behavior as evil and yet lack the will or means to change it. This leaves a small percentage of our kindred whom I categorize as the functionally psychopathologic.
I do not think Feinstein, Schumer or the Clintons fit in the serial murderer's group, and I similarly think it improbable that they could believe in the goodness of their motives. If, then, they rightfully fall into the category of functionally psychopathologic, I must consider the nature of my relationship with them.
It all makes for some turbulent thinking. My initial emotional response to the pathology of tyranny only fuels the same unwholesome lust for power and control in myself which offends me when I first perceive it in others.
In the interest of keeping my own emotional balance, I must assume Schumer wants someone to enter his prepared arena and resist his design for power. He needs the foil of engagement in order to play his ambition through to its putrid end. How ironic that this would lead me to contemplate Ghandi's principle of non-resistance as a means to preserve my right and my civic duty to bear arms.
Morihei Ueshiba, the great martial innovator, instructed his students to trust and identify with the source of the universe, even when the universe expresses itself through the acts of an insane and selfish adversary. Jesus, who taught his disciples in one context to turn the other cheek, advised them, literally and allegorically, to purchase a sword.
At the very time those who would enslave us seek to persuade and mislead the greater population with false promises of safety and peace through disarmament, we must continue to address the hard truths of the matter while we quietly and meekly maintain our arms: for I believe as long as we prepare for conflict materially, spiritually and intellectually, we will enjoy peace, whether from the avoidance of strife, in the midst of battle, or as the consequence of victory.
Until then, I remain your armed friend,
Ken Cox