When you consider how a gun show can draw tens of thousands, and yet look at the pathetic site visit statistics this and most other gun blogs draw, it's easy to get discouraged. Take a look at the blogroll in the left column. There are many fine sites with great material being brought to you regularly by people of insight, talent and dedication. I encourage you to pick a few that you enjoy and visit regularly, and tell those bloggers you appreciate their work. Why not also tell your friends about these sites, and occasionally send them links to posts you find important, funny or interesting?
Dear Mr. Codrea:
I have been reading your web log for several months and I am heartened to know that you are out there dissenting in the face of the power mongers who want to take away our freedom. I live in Chicago, where police-state tactics are accepted as the normal way to do things. A few months ago a supposed friend told me he thought that his acquaintances in BATFE (or, as you put it, BATFU) were "cool" because they were "above the law" so they could break laws with impunity, where people who were not government agents would be arrested. These characters actually bragged to him that they could get him out of any trouble with a local cop and have any charges dropped as long as he didn't do something to personally antagonize the cop. So I found myself looking at another example of the blind worship of power.
I'm no longer surprised by the kinds of stories I read on your website. Most people seem to have absolutely no concept of the principles this nation was founded upon. What I like about your website is that you take an intelligent, thoughtful approach to the issues. Too many people focus only on the issue of guns, missing out
on the bigger freedom picture, and display knee-jerk reactions that follow the NRA party line or that of some other organization or individual they consider infallible.
Your website is a breath of fresh air in a world where our rights are routinely violated, and even many people who vaguely sense that something is wrong do not understand the concept of individual liberty. Thank you for carrying the unadulterated message of liberty.
Sincerely,
A Friend of Freedom
7 comments:
David-
I rountinely visit many of the other blogs dedicated to gun and freedom issues, but I rarely bookmark them. But your site is very unique and I bookmarked it for the following reasons:
1) Insightful commentary and ability to reveal the hypocrisy so often present in the words and actions of those on the "other side"
2) Impressive knowledge of statements and writings by our founding fathers as it relates to freedoms, particularly gun freedoms
3) Interesting, non-main stream stories that I never see on other sites (where do you find all of them?)
4) After reading the same story on 20 different blogs about some ridiculous comment made by Schumer, I enjoy coming to your blog and reading stories about gun-grabbing bureacrats at the local and state levels (continuation of #3)
5) Stories of law enforcement that I don't read on other blogs (continuation of #3 again)
6) You keep your comments CONCISE and DIRECT! Nice, refreshing changes from some bloggers who ramble on and on.
I enjoy your blog and will spread the word as much as possible.
Jason
Ditto, David. As long as there are people telling lies, there MUST be those present who will tell the TRUTH!
You and I both know how thankless this task is. (In fact, you were the one who told me at first!)
The way I try to 'keep my chin up' is to look at it as I'm doing my 'civic duty'.
You have been doing this awhile. And you have done ONE HELL OF A JOB! Perhaps you need a little time to step back and evaluate your position.
Here is some incentive - Hitlery, as I'm sure you've heard, has announced her 'intention' to run for 'Supreme Dictatress of The Universe'. That is justification enough for me to stay 'hammering the keys' 24-7-365 until elections!
We know that the internet has become a very important tool in the War On Guns and Freedom. So much so, that there were attempts at banning bloggers!
Would urge you to seek guidance from the 'Big Guy in the Sky' and ask for STRENGTH, COURAGE and POWER as well as MOTIVATION!
We need YOUR insight!
"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."
- THOMAS PAINE,
The American Crisis, 1776
With the looming clouds of tyranny approaching us - we NEED every Patriot available. The reward may not come until the next life. But, it WILL come!
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!
I think I understand your questioning of the worth of your efforts. It is not so much the constant engagement with our enemies that is so debilitating of spirit, but the rather the disheartening number of "don't give a damns" that are enjoying their lives in the moment with no thought of responsibility to liberty or posterity, just so long as they get to the end of their lives without strain or stress of maintaining the dignity of free men. These men care nothing for their own children. Thankfully, not all their children will embrace the sins of the fathers. Especially when they feel the noose of state power growing ever tighter.
These must be the people we are awakening.
In case, I have failed to mention it, I hope you are aware of my appreciation for you and what you do.
Thanks, gentlemen. I didn't mean this to be a Pity Party for David so much as a statement of fact based on a cost/benefit tradeoff analysis.
I've always tried to get the most bang for the buck out of my efforts--I'll probably expound on this later, calling to mind such failed for lack of participation efforts as Citizens of America, the Ashcroft Petition, Russ Howard's misfortunes with CAC, the Brantuk for Assembly campaign in SoCal, McClintock v Arnold, etc. I've written about some of these before under the "Profiles in Apathy" banner.
I do appreciate the kind sentiments, expressed though, and hope you extend them to other bloggers, and include in that spreading the word about those blogs to those within your sphere of influence.
David from GunShowOnTheNet: I haven't seen a link to Hillary officially announcing candidacy. In any case, if her opponent is Giuliani or McCain or any "moderate," the GOP will have officially told gun owners to get bent. It might as well be Hillary--maybe she'll do us the service of heating the pot too quickly...although I have my doubts that such a thing is possible any more.
All men get discouraged, all men see no point in going on. It is only curiosity and stubborness that prevail. George Rogers of Roger's Rangers died alone and penniless, a forgotten man, who had done mighty service to his country, and left a legacy that became the U.S. Army Rangers. It is never that you are recognized, hailed, and showered with riches. It is that you did what was right and that liberty was born anew because of it. That mass of the human race is not much, when you look at it. But our children and our grandchildren will either curse us while in chains, or bask in the sun of liberty because of what we do. Remember David, thou art only a man.
Understood, Sean. And whatever i do, I won't be giving up or quitting involvement--I'm just questioning the time and effort needed to maintain a blog vs the amount of good it really does.
I'll probably keep at it for a while, if for no other reason than it forces me to compose every day...
It may have been a mistake for me to introduce the email with that speculation, because its central premise--BATFU corruption and authority worship has been overshadowed in these comments. That's the real outrage--thugs who think they are above the law, and the incomprehensibly wretched lickspittles who think that because they suck up to them, they will be eaten last.
Just to add my voice to the chorus, I know that I read each and every day, with few exceptions.
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