Sipsey Street Irregulars: Patriot's Day speech, Canon City, CO, 19 April 2015.
Monday, April 20, 2015
"'Treason' to a government based upon treason to its own founding document is no treason at all." The "law" versus the Rule of Law. "The enemies of liberty can only make you a slave to their appetites with your own permission and inaction."
Original transcript of my Patriot's Day speech, Canon City, CO, 19 April 2015.
This is my original speaking copy. I didn't finish it until just before I stepped up to speak. This will not contain the ad libs interspersed throughout. For that you'll have to refer to the video when it gets posted.
You know, I've given a few Patriot's Day speeches the past few years -- from the steps of the Connecticut state capitol to Bunch Ranch in Nevada. But I couldn't have chosen a prettier or more meaningful venue than here in Colorado this beautiful Sunday morning -- the 240th anniversary of the battles at Lexington and Concord. I wasn't able to go to church this morning but God was close by. As I drove down out of Custer County just after dawn, I was struck dumb with the power and majesty of God as the light played off the mountains in colors both stark and shaded. It was breathtaking. How anyone can see such grandeur and not be convinced of the power and majesty of the Almighty Creator is beyond me. Amen? You know we think we have mountains in North Alabama -- but they're just foothills of the old tired Appalachians. But those (points to mountains outside Canon City) -- now THOSE are mountains. The other thing I noticed as a member in good standing of the armed citizenry, is that it is VERY good KILLING ground. This is freedom fighter country, folks. May God have pity on any tyrant who tries to invade here. The scariest thing about the present regime is that they have made every day "opposite day" as my friend David Codrea calls it by redefining reality as they choose to see it. Up is down. Deviancy is normal. War is Peace. Freedom is slavery. -- and worse, lawlessness is now codified as law -- but ONLY as they wish it to be -- and only applying to their enemies -- that is, to the rest of us -- and not to THEM. There is a scene in A Man For All Seasons that applies here. Sir Thomas More is arguing with a young lawyer, William Roper. Roper accuses More: "So now you give the Devil the benefit of the law!" More answers, "Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?" "Yes!" shouts Roper, "I'd cut down every law in England to do that!" And More replies: "Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!" The Founders understood this, especially after the Alien and Sedition act crisis almost tore the young Republic apart -- never pass a law that you're pot willing to see your own worst enemy enforce upon you. They knew this from John Locke who wrote a century before -- Locke understood that the rule of law in a constitutional republic is a precious and necessary thing for it protects all and keeps the game fair and free. But as Locke warned: Whenever the legislators endeavour to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any farther obedience, and are left to the common refuge, which God hath provided for all men, against force and violence. It is more than a little ironic that those of us who swore an oath to the rule of law of the Founder's Republic find ourselves forced to become law breakers in fidelity to that oath. But here's the truth that our present would-be rulers don't get -- THE RULE OF LAW PROTECTS THEM FROM US FAR MORE THAN IT PROTECTS US FROM THEM! The collectivists currently in charge of the Executive Branch and those in charge of this state believe that the law is whatever they say it is because they won the last election. We understand that the rule of law means that any law must be subject to the limits of the Constitution. as their definition of "law" means that they have the power to compel you -- regardless of the constitutionality of their purpose -- I leave it to you to decide who is in fact "law-abiding" and faithful to the rule of law as the Founder's understood it. As for me I have made my decision -- so have all those in states like Colorado, Connecticut, New York, Maryland and now Washington state who must confront the reality of unconstitutional laws and who have decided that armed civil disobedience of such laws is the only course open to men and women who wish to remain free but who find themselves behind enemy lines. -- For this we are called many things including "insurrectionists," "seditionists," "anti-government," and even "traitors." To these people, all who resist them are "traitors." But I tell you this and I'll tell the world: TREASON TO A GOVERNMENT BASED UPON TREASON TO ITS OWN FOUNDING DOCUMENT IS NO TREASON AT ALL! It is merely obedience to God and the truest expression of the inalienable and natural rights to life, liberty and property that HE gave us. It is also an act of fidelity to the rule of law and the Founders' constitutional republic. Anyone who tells you differently is selling something. And what they are selling is the notion that you, the individual, must subordinate yourself to their benevolent collective -- OR ELSE. What they are selling is that YOU are an "enemy of the people," not them -- that YOU are "anti-government," not them -- that YOU are a "law breaker" and a criminal, not them, because you believe as the Founders did that an unconstitutional law is null and void. And what they are selling is the lie that they that they aren't what their actions prove them to be -- what the Founders would have called them -- DOMESTIC ENEMIES OF THE CONSTITUTION! What they are selling is a lie told by pathological collectivist liars in service of those liars and their hidden purpose -- to satisfy their insatiable appetites for your liberty and your property even at the cost of your life and the lives of all you hold dear. THAT is the steel fist of tyranny that they wrap their sweet lies around, hoping you won't notice until it is too late. For collectivism is the oldest form of human moral disease. And like the Terminator, it cannot be bargained with, it cannot be appeased, it can only be defeated. Collectivism in the last century consumed hundreds of millions of innocents and STILL has practitioners who want more -- and more -- and more. But increasingly our would be rulers are discovering to their horror that there is NO unconstitutional law that they can pass that we cannot nullify with armed civil disobedience. From Connecticut to New York to Maryland to Colorado and now Washington state, at every turn the tyrannical laws they passed after Sandy Hook have been negated. NEGATED! And the elites don't know whether to defecate or go blind. Connecticut and New York have non-compliance rates between 85 and 90 percent! In Washington state, Michael Bloomberg bought himself a universal background check law which is nothing more than a lawful gun owner registration act. For their purposes of citizen disarmament, this is far more effective than firearm registration. It's us potential troublemakers that they want to identify. But you know what? The uncompromising firearms owners of Washington state came together at the state capitol in the largest firearm rights demonstration ever staged there. TWO THOUSAND ARMED MEN AND WOMEN MET, DEFIED THE TRANSFER LAW AND . . . NOTHING HAPPENED! Nothing happened despite the threats of state authorities to arrest us all. They denied us a permit -- the Washington state activists said, That's all right. We don' need no steenkeeng permits!" When we got there, the state had every access to vehicles blocked with barricades. The Liberty for All leadership said, "You take them down or we will." The authorities decided that discretion was the better part of valor. In the end, we held our rally, defied Bloomberg's Law and received the praise and thanks of the state police for the professional way we conducted ourselves. In the end, all Michael Bloomberg and his paid minions could do was grind their teeth in frustration. since that time there have been other rallies defying Bloomberg's Law. at the last one, in direct violation of the hated Intolerable Act, I was presented with this -- Meet Mrs. Bloomberg -- Charlotte to her closest friends. she is named after Michael Bloomberg's mother. I take her around to every rally and speaking engagement these days to grind in the message that there is no unconstitutional law that can be passed that we cannot negate, defy, resist, evade and smuggle in opposition to. This is dangerous ground. BUT IT IS NOT GROUND THAT WE CHOSE. IT WAS CHOSEN BY THE DOMESTIC ENEMIES OF THE CONSTITUTION FOR WHOM THE RULE OF LAW MEANS NOTHING MORE THAN A FART IN THE WIND. Which brings me to Colorado today. you know your legislature refused to repeal the magazine ban last week. so, in honor of those arrogant tyrants, I brought them a present. (Assistant dumps a box of magazines on the grass in front of the dais.) Here's a box filled with fifty misdemeanors -- magazines that mysteriously appeared in your state yesterday coincident with my arrival. Now these are "politician grade" magazines. We have smuggled hundreds of perfectly reliable magazines into Connecticut and Colorado over the past two years. We call those "freedom fighter" grade magazines -- you can bet your life on them. But politician-grade magazines. . . well, like politicians they are unreliable and probably won't work as advertised. They are perfect, therefore, for presentation to anti-gun politicians. What I am looking for here today is co-conspirators in liberty. I am looking for volunteers to take these misdemeanors, present them in whatever otherwise legal method that you choose, along with the message -- "This was smuggled into Colorado in violation of your law. Now that you've taken possession of it, why don't you go arrest yourself?" Or words to that effect. So the alternative is yours -- will you join the nationwide conspiracy for liberty? It is not without risk, but somewhere the Founders will be smiling. And remember this -- THE ENEMIES OF LIBERTY CAN ONLY MAKE YOU A SLAVE TO THEIR APPETITES WITH YOUR OWN PERMISSION AND INACTION. The choice is yours. Do I have any volunteers? (Every magazine was picked up by a member of the audience. There was no lack of volunteers.)