The Price of Liberty is Indeed, Eternal Vigilance
Sharon October 15th, 2009
When I’m in a lousy mood, there’s always The Onion:
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/third_amendment_rights_group
‘Davison expressed pride in the NAQA’s grassroots involvement at the local level, citing the association’s direct-mailing campaigns and its fully staffed regional centers where citizens can report Third Amendment rights abuses. The NAQA also holds quartering-safety seminars for citizens interested in learning how to effectively defend their households against U.S. troops seeking shelter.
Davison reiterated the organization’s promise to oppose pro-quartering legislation should any ever be proposed.
“Keep the fat hands of soldiers out of America’s larders!” Davison said to rousing applause. He was quoting the NAQA’s familiar slogan, which can be found on T-shirts, bumper stickers, and other merchandise sold on the group’s website.
Davison ended his address by warning of the dangers of the NAQA resting on its laurels.
“Pro-quartering advocates are waiting for just the right moment to stick a bunch of troops in our homes,” Davison said. “Well, I say to them that we will never allow this to happen. You can count on the true patriots of the NAQA to ensure that no chickens and livestock will be appropriated, and private stores of salt, brandy, candles, and vinegar will stay firmly where they belong: in civilian hands.”
The NAQA is known for its quick and aggressive mobilization when it believes Third Amendment rights are at risk, and has rushed to the defense of homeowners it believes are being illegally coerced into housing American soldiers. Last month, 200 NAQA members marched on a private residence in Fairfax, VA after receiving a tip that the owners were being victimized by three Navy seamen demanding prolonged quartering. They ended their demonstration, however, when it was discovered that the sailors were brothers on shore leave visiting their parents.
Davison, 49, has headed the NAQA since January, replacing longtime president Lawrence Frost. Frost, 58, left the organization to chair the Citizens Committee for the Right to Drink, a 21st Amendment rights group committed to the continued legal status of alcohol for Americans of drinking age.’
Or there’s this one: http://www.theonion.com/content/statshot/how_are_we_making_ends_meet
- humor
- Comments(5)
Surprisingly, quartering soldiers in citizen homes hasn’t been an immediate problem lately. But defenders of the 3rd Amendment do exist, and are moderately active. You don’t just find them on satire sites like the Onion.
The abuse that the Third Amendment was really intended to address was not just the funny-sounding individual predicament of having some stranger in a red coat sacked out on your couch. The diabolical aspect of the British policy was that troops, who were there to keep the colonists properly subjugated by violence or the threat of violence, were implanted into local communities – and those communities were made responsible for their well-being. If anything happened to the well-armed outsider who had been placed in your midst, you and your children would suffer, even if you had had nothing to do with it and could not have stopped it. Does this sound like something that happens in some places today?
Arguably, given the militarization of federal agencies and many police departments, and their habit of behaving as an occupying army toward peaceful protestors and minority neighborhoods, you could almost say that we Americans have an army “quartered among us” now. Having a guy with a face mask, armor, and machine gun standing on the street corner when you try to go downtown is just about as menacing as having a soldier in your house – maybe more so, because one who actually stays in your house probably gets to know you as a human being and is unlikely to kill you just because his trigger finger gets itchy.
All of this is completely true, but I still thought it was funny.
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Orwell probably thought some of his thoughts and stories were so outrageous that people would just shake their heads and say…”No Way!”
Guess what happened. We are snoozing, and we are losing. And, guess what? It IS NOT funny, any more.
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