"The Republic is dying, and I doubt the process is
reversible, barring Divine Intervention. But since I believe
in Divine Intervention, the last thing I want to be found
doing, should our Lord intervene,
is hiding in a dark hole
pretending there is no problem."
Written By: Daniel New
RICH'S RANTS
4/19, Arise, arise, the BATF are coming.
It was a beautiful day; room temperature (86) with flags
flapping in a not-too-stiff breeze, just like it must have
been 7 yrs ago on the open prairie. We pulled into the drive
way and were met by a greeter showing us where we to park.
When we attended 2 yrs ago, the service was at the visitors
center just inside the gate. Today we had to go up the road
we didn't have the guts to walk up last time, past the trees
planted in honor of the scores of murdered Davidians. I
could see the church atop the slight incline. As we
approached, we could see a a bevy of vehicles in a field to
our right belonging to press and VIPs with a yellow ribbon
signaling the end of the road.
Wasn't sure if we were welcome to go into the church,
but there didn't seem to be any place else to go. It was
different than before, when we sat under the hot Texas sun.
There was more of a carnival atmosphere in 1998. Last time,
I recall seeing more blacks, and I didn't see any Republic
of Texas people who were so obvious then. We made our way
past a single Reform Party volunteer obtaining signatures to
place Pat on the Texas ballot. (We're not eligible to sign
the petition, because we voted for Alan Keyes in the GOP
primary.) Later, when I got home, I saw on TV that Robert
Rodriguez, the fed mole who befriended Koresh and tried to
call off the attack when the element of surprise was lost,
was there, but I didn't see him. Just to the left of the
church walkway, was a familiar sight, the giant replica of
the liberty bell.
Once inside the church, I saw some men in camouflage,
and whispered to Peg, "There's the feds, pretending to be
militia." I counted 2 columns of ten folding chairs, ten
deep. 200 seats in all. Behind them, and along both outside
aisles, were a row of about dozen commercial tripod mounted
cameras. I looked around for a familiar face, Ron Englman to
be specific. No luck. I recognized David Thibideau from his
book signing carried by C-SPAN last year. Clive Doyle was
recognizable, but I had never met him to speak to. Only a
couple of traded emails.
The church centerpiece was a beautiful chandelier
hanging front and center. There was track lighting,
recessed lights and a row of ceiling fans over the center
aisle. Later I was to find out that this miracle was built
in the last 32 weeks. Actually, the last 32 Sundays. All it
lacked were permanent pews and some floor covering to hide
the plywood floor. We sat there an hour while the church
filled up with an overflow on the lawn.
The style of emcee Alex Jones, the young firebrand
Austin radio talk show host, contrasted with the more
relaxed style of Ron Englman who performed those duties in
the past. Alex took, and was given, credit for building the
new church, raising $90,000 for materials, and more than
that in volunteer labor. Couldn't help but to draw a
comparison with the multimillion dollar monument, with
built-in reflection pool, being dedicated at virtually the
same time, 300 miles to the north at OKC, paid with tax
payer dollars to honor the fedl work force.
Ramsey Clark, former Attorney Genl of the United States
under Carter, was the final speaker. He showed alarm as to
the number of people being warehoused in the nations prisons
and the runaway govt controllers who have risen to the
highest ranks in our defacto govt. Communism, he assured us,
is alive and well. Assigning our troops to serve foreign
nations and assigning them to peace keeping roles while
asking them to train domestic police to perform in military
style, was destroying the military. He has dedicated his
life to fixing this once great country which we all once
served proudly.
The consistent message from the speakers could summed up
by one of them who said: he's not against our country, he wants
to reconstruct it in the image of the Constitution.
(Personally, I think he may be a bit late, which is why I
favor a Constitutional Convention, as called for in that
Great Document as the only way to Throw All the Bums Out.)
I got another surprise, when the somber looking militia
men turned out to be just that, militia men. They were the
top officers from the Militia of Michigan who raised $1,600
in contributions for church materials. They were invited to
speak and offered a plaque bearing the names of the MOM
volunteer force. In their speech they gave what sounded very
much like an apology for not realizing what actually went
down at Waco earlier. "No more Waco's" was the cry. They
pledged not to let it ever happen again.
Clive Doyle announced that everyone was welcome to have
dinner with them at Ryan's Steakhouse.
Not sure why, maybe because it wasn't the first time,
perhaps the different style speakers, I didn't feel the
total "awe" I felt at the fifth anniversary. That time, I
couldn't bring myself to walk up the road to pass those
memorial trees. This time, I commented to Peggy, they look
like Mesquite to me, which to a northerner like me means:
there's another Texas shrub. Still, 82 rugged Texas bushes
is impressive even at age 5.
After the service, as we were filing out, a guy was
handing out business cards. I took one, to be polite, and
glanced down as we walked on. It said: Jeff Davis Show,
www.jdshow.com email, jeff@jdshow.com. I turned around, and
introduced myself. "Ah, you're the email guy" he replied.
Well, I guess so. I've been called worse.
I ran into Clive Doyle as we were leaving Ryan's. I
walked up to him and introduced myself as Rich Martin who
traded emails with him. I got to tell you, he's just such a
regular nice guy, I wish he lived next door.
Well, this is longer than I planned, and I still haven't
told you much of what the speakers had to say. And, it's
getting late. I'll have to finish tomorrow.
-
THE TRUTH IS...
- A. Powerful.
- B. Irrelevant.
- C. In the eye of the beholder.
- D. All of the above.
