I'm going to share the words of an Appleseed instructor from Arizona. Earlier this year he was running a shoot where some of the students mentioned words like Militia, Revolution, and Today while talking to one another. The following is what he had to say. His words far more eloquently express my thoughts than I ever could have.
America is probably the most fortunate mistake to ever happen in ten thousand years of human government. It is the exception to the rule, rather than the standard... and sets the measuring bar so high for any other government that it stands without parallel, even with the current problems we face today.
These last 234 years have celebrated the right of Americans to determine their own futures, free from the trappings of birth-right elitism. In some ways we get better as we progress, and in other ways we may get worse.
Make no mistake though: Anyone that heaps praise upon that favoured quote of the keyboard commando ("The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants") and urges a new American Revolution, is not doing this country a service.
Consider the form of government put in place for us, embodied in our Constitution in 1787... bestowed no entitlements on the men who wrote it. They did not protect and enshrine their chosen industries into that document, creating guaranteed incomes and powers for themselves. They did not give greater rights for certain types of people over others.
They created a system designed to keep government out of the way of honest men seeking to make their own way in the world.
Ben Franklin could have established a State research institute or other pet project.
Thomas Jefferson could have worked for voting rights as a function of the size of a man's estate. Monticello was pretty big, after all.
John Adams could have created special privileges or access to lawmakers, just for lawyers.
You find none of that in our Constitution, and the lack of self-interest on the part of our Founding Fathers when constructing our new government is staggering... and unprecedented in man's history.
It will not happen again.
A new Revolution, should that unfortunate day come, has no guarantee to leave us as unencumbered by hidden self-interests as our predecessors were so wise to leave out. In great likelihood, it is more likely to leave us worse off than before.
Appleseed is the answer. And other organizations that share a vision to revitalize the knowledge of our country's foundations, origins, philosophy and character. Take that knowledge and outlook... share it with your family, your friends, your church and your work. Invest your self, your faith in this country and your energy into fixing what we have now... if Hancock and Adams and Revere can invest their lives and fortunes into this little 234 year experiment, then surely we can spend a few weekends a year to contribute in some small way.
Would you meet John Adams on horseback out on Battle Road, April 20th of 1775, and tell him "I'm sorry, but we threw that system out... We're building something new." ?
All because we didn't protect it properly the first time?