It has been said you have no real idea of what America is like if you live on either of its coasts.
All those early pioneers who threw up their hands during the great Western Expansion, stopped their carts and wagons and established settlements in Iowa, Oklahoma and, apparently, Lubbock, Texas have widely divergent views than their coast-hugging cousins, it seems.
An increasing number of Americans, many of them in Lamorinda but a whole passle of them in the nation's Heartland, are warning of an imminent government conspiracy, orchestrated by our president and touched off by his re-election.
The rather scary name being thrown around with increasing frequency in the nation's churches, meeting halls, and now a television talk show -- is Civil War. That's right, a militarized splitting of our nation spearheaded by the current administration and enforced, get this, by the United Nations. A future division as sure as the one that inspired the rebellious cannonade of Fort Sumter in 1861.
Are these people serious? Dang right they are.
and its presence here in the rarefied, sea air-infused climes of largely liberal Northern California, but recent events have demonstrated how widespread, and how widely accepted, the Agenda 21 conspiracy is in other parts of the nation.
Texas Judge Tom Head puts down an almost textbook outline of the Agenda 21 theory during a local television show -- claiming that he wants a private army of "seasoned veterans" to back him up when the, pardon me, this part is just so funny, "blue beanie" wearing UN troops march in to take over Lubbock.
Now, I'm sure the home of Buddy Holly is a lovely place but I don't see it ranking high on the U.N.'s hit list of "Places We Want to Occupy," so I'll leave that one alone for now. But let's address another disturbing element to the scenario -- the apparent drift in control of the nation's military away from the Executive Branch.
Quite a statement, you say, and you're right, we haven't seen rogue generals establishing isolated desert bases and taking control of the country's water and power supplies. But we have seen elements of former special forces commanders and troops politicize themselves and use their status as military heroes to cast their Commander-in-Chief in an unfavorable light. Pretty strong stuff, and unthinkable in my Old Man's day, when whole divisions would have snapped to and marched into the sea at Port Arms if FDR had pointed a bony finger in the direction of Japan and said: "Go get 'em."
Huge exaggeration, but you get my drift.
It may be because we're in an election year, with two vastly different presidential candidates slugging it out like gladiators, but the rhetoric is flying and statements are being made I happen to think we need to listen to. Remember, a lot of these people hold public office, and just because God speaks to them personally or they have great hair or say "Freedom" a lot doesn't make them right or even well-intentioned.
Dangerous people come in many stripes. It is best if we can recognize the patterns.
