In Defense of Rural America
 

"IN DEFENSE OF RURAL AMERICA"
a weekly column published every Sunday by
Ron Ewart, President of the
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF RURAL LANDOWNERS

For the week of:
Sunday, July 14. 2013

The "In Defense of Rural America" column archives are available HERE.

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Stronghold

"Saving America - One City, County and State At A Time"
From * In Defense of Rural America *
By Ron Ewart, President
National Association of Rural Landowners
and nationally recognized author on freedom and property rights issues.
We are helping to spread freedom and liberty around the globe.
© Copyright Sunday, July 14, 2013 - All Rights Reserved

"Take over your city and school boards and tell the county to take a hike. Then create a tight-knit association of free cities. Take over your county and tell the state to take a hike. Then create a tight-knit association of free counties. Take over your state and tell the federal government to take a hike. Then create a tight-knit association of free states. Take over the federal government and reclaim freedom for all Americans. That is how the socialists took over America, one school board, one city, one county, one state at a time and finally the federal government. That is how conservatives will save America from the ravages of socialism by creating small, but ever-growing strongholds and associations of freedom. If freedom cannot be reclaimed in this manner, then freedom will only be reclaimed in blood."

Ron Ewart

From Virginia going liberal in 2012, to New York and Pennsylvania and finally to the seven remaining 13 colonies in the Northeast that started America's march towards freedom, America's states and counties are turning blue. Actually, America is turning red, the color of socialism and communism. Large urban centers around the great bodies of water from the Atlantic, to the Great Lakes, to the Caribbean and on to the Pacific Ocean, are driving the Electoral College into the jaws of liberalism and Progressivism with growing urban populations that are dependent on government. From government itself, to academia and to those who make (not report) the news, liberalism has taken over America one school board, one city, one county and one state at a time. Liberals now OWN most city, county and state governments and the federal government.

This all happened while conservatives in the general population busied themselves with anything but politics. The fundamental transformation of America took place right under their noses. Obama is not the only President who was and is complicit in this radical transformation. He is just one of a long line of liberals that aided and abetted the transformation, from Wilson, to FDR, to Kennedy, to Johnson, to Carter, to Clinton and now Obama. The fundamental transformation is just about complete. Turning back the clock may be virtually impossible because the transformation has come so far. Nevertheless, there still might be time to save America if we hurry and get our collective act together.

Many conservative authors, including this one, are quick to tell their audience, with article after article, about all the things that are wrong with America, but are short on solutions to make the wrongs right. We, in our weekly column, often have written that it will take 10 million Americans acting in unity to reclaim American freedom. But there is a significant problem with getting 10 people to find unity in anything, much less 10 million. In response to one of our articles claiming the need for 10 million Americans to act in unity, one of our readers wrote:

"EXACTLY WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE US DO?"

"..... I have been involved right up to my neck in the resistance to this tyranny in every legal way that I could possibly think of. All of it to no avail. I believe that a vast number of our fellow citizens are critical thinkers with reasonable intelligence. We, meaning all of us, have always stood ready to do 'something. Taking into account all that has been said and done to this point by a multitude of individuals and groups, I also suspect that most of us have a good idea what that 'something' is. Even so, what none of us are willing to do is fall on our sword in the name of saving something which, individually, we are powerless to save. So, I must say this. Give me the plan of action you have in mind and muster the army of patriots it will take to implement it and you can count me in. Until then, please stop worrying me to death with the ever growing list of tyrannies those of us in the liberty movement have been actively and relentlessly resisting for the past twenty years. You are not alone in this. You never have been. But, nobody in his right mind is going to act independently in the name of righteousness and have his life ruined just to make a point, while everyone else blithely goes on about his or her business."

"So, how about this? Drum me up an army of people who give a damn and I'll lead it."

This reader's response is dripping with not only a boatload of frustration, but also a significant measure of sarcasm. Who, ladies and gentlemen, can blame him? We have all felt this frustration, almost daily. This author thinks regularly about throwing in the towel and has come very close on many occasions, especially after creating many different initiatives to reclaim America's freedom, only to be greeted by mostly a resounding silence.

Nevertheless, the reader's reaction demands a response. Perhaps there is a more realistic approach that doesn't take 1 million, or 10 million people. Obviously, it is much more realistic to get 10 dedicated people in each city to take on their city, than it is to get even one million people to take on the federal government. After all, the prevailing wisdom is that all politics is local. So far, all the conservative TV and radio talk show hosts and conservative politicians have been ineffective in turning the tide of socialism in America.

But let's step back a minute and examine some facts. One source tells us that there are over 30,000 cities and towns in America. Boiled down however to government incorporated municipalities, in 2002 that source tells us that there were 19,429. Another source tells us that there are 3,141 counties in America. Of course, most of us know that there are 50 states in America. No, actually and tragically, there are millions of Americans who haven't a clue as to how many states there are in America, or even the names of the president and vice president.

If conservatives were really serious about reclaiming America for free Americans, like the liberals have transformed America into an absolute democrat/socialist monarchy in the last 100 years, conservatives would have to form a unified army of about 10 dedicated individuals per city, another 10 per county and another 10 per state. That would take about 200,000 dedicated individuals to cover the cities, around 31,000 dedicated individuals to cover the counties and about 500 dedicated individuals to cover the states. With a small army of around 232,000 dedicated individuals, working in a well- coordinated effort with each other under one banner, we predict that they could take back America in about 20 years. Remember, it took about 100 years to get us to where we are today. Reclaiming America for freedom is not going to happen overnight and the job is going to be anything but easy. In fact, the job is going to be more difficult as each day passes.

One dedicated hopefully charismatic leader, acting as the head of a national organization, could appoint 1 leader for each state to start the ball rolling. His or her appointments would come from a large list of volunteers who would come out of the woodwork to volunteer if they knew such an organization existed. He or she would give speeches all over America with the idea of raising the money and enlisting the volunteers. Each state leader could then appoint 1 dedicated leader for each county in the state and in addition, appoint 9 other individuals to take on the state. Each county leader would appoint nine other individuals to cover their county. Each county leader would then appoint one city leader for each city in the county. Each city leader would then appoint 9 other individuals to cover their city and on and on it would grow from there in true grass roots fashion.

Each leader, state, county and city, would have a fully defined and coordinated game plan on how to influence their state, county, or city to move it in the direction of the constitution and freedom. The game plan would first be to target and expose waste, fraud, abuse, crime and corruption in their city, county, or state, with the sole purpose of getting the general population up in arms. There is plenty of waste, fraud, abuse and corruption in government to expose, as these maladies have been institutionalized in government over the last 100 years. After a couple of years of exposing government for what it is and arousing the ire of the general population, the organization would start discrediting existing politicians with corruption or dereliction of duty charges and then begin to focus on selecting candidates to run for political office to take advantage of the growing dissatisfaction of government in general.

The first goal of the organization would be to create small, but growing "Strongholds of Freedom" in every city, county and state in America. The second goal of the organization would be to eventually render the federal government impotent, except for the actual constitutional functions of the federal government, by the full and legal exercise of the 9th and 10th Amendments.

To fund the organization we envision, each leader and volunteer would be asked to pledge $10.00 per month, or $100 per year in a lump sum. When fully staffed with a total of 230,000 dedicated individual volunteers, the organization could raise over $26,000,000 per year. With that kind of funding, not only could the organization fund its operations, large donors could be enticed to contribute even more. The organization WOULD NOT seek an IRS 501(c)3 or 501(c4) status as such a designation would limit the organizations ability to conduct its necessary work. If large donors are more worried about an income tax deduction than saving their America, then the organization would not want them.

Finally, there would have to be a national newsletter that would be the venue to publicize everything that the 10 dedicated individuals for each city, county and state uncover. That newsletter would be fed to every news outlet in America, using every social network available.

The key to the success of this organization would be to get the general population up in arms over what has happened to their country by focusing on waste, fraud, abuse, crime and corruption that has been institutionalized in all government and then provide an alternative. Their collective anger would begin to move the country back to its roots in freedom and liberty maybe ..... that is if we aren't too far gone already.

Sure, it can be done, but who would lead such an organization? Where would the first monies come from? And are there 232,000 dedicated individuals out of 315,000,000 Americans that would have the time and the resources to conduct the necessary functions of the organizations in every city, county and state in America? If we had to base our answer on the number of people who have been interested in the initiatives we have floated over the last ten years, the answer would be "NO ONE" to all these questions. However, if a Rush Limbaugh or a Sean Hannity started such an organization it might have a chance. But neither of these individuals has shown any signs of doing any such thing in their entire careers.

We could lead such an organization and give the speeches, if there was anyone to lead and if there was sufficient early funding. We have structured the plan, the name, the goals and the end game but there is no money for such an effort.

So who will save American freedom? Who will expose the wholesale waste, fraud, abuse, crime and corruption that we all know exists in government, local, state and federal, in order to raise sufficient anger in the people to move them to act? Who will create the small, but growing "Strongholds of Freedom" around the country? Who will raise the money to fund such an organization? Has government grown so big that it is now all-powerful and has rendered WE THE PEOPLE impotent? We must confess ladies and gentlemen, we don't have a clue. America is befuddled by the five debilitating diseases of division, disorganization, apathy, fear and greed. Until we find a cure for these diseases, America's future in freedom is in serious jeopardy.

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Ron Ewart, a nationally known author and speaker on freedom and property issues and author of his weekly column, "In Defense of Rural America", is the President of the National Association of Rural Landowners, (NARLO) a non-profit corporation headquartered in Washington State and dedicated to restoring, maintaining and defending property rights for urban and rural landowners. Mr. Ewart can be reached by e-mail for comment at ron@narlo.org or by 'phone at 1 800 682-7848.

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COMMENTS: Should you desire, you can e-mail a comment to this article at: comment@narlo.org. Worthy, thoughtful comments, in our sole discretion, will be posted below the article. Comments that use foul language, perjoratives, or attacks against others will be discarded. Be sure to include your full name, as blind e-mail comments will not be posted.

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COMMENTS:

I am 65, white, a Republican relic from the '60's, and worn out by being pushed and pushing back against the tidal wave of Liberalism that has been matched by the apathy of so called conservative voters.

I spent 9 years fighting King County for my right to operate a business in my home until, finally, the mistake of one insignificant functionary who substituted a lower case r for a capital R, was finally discovered.

Suddenly, all that we had been working for, fighting against, and enduring from was revealed.

In those years of misapplying written land use codes, I had earned 5 stints in my heart and wasted countless hours chasing the ghost of rural living.

The key was the irregular "Urban Growth Boundary that was designed by a drunken political hack that has caused immeasurable pain to the formerly sanguine rural residents.

Rural businesses that had plenty of justification for existing in the rural areas, were seized upon by a Gestapo like platoon of county code enforcement officers and even the ones who sympathized with the land owners became powerless, at the peril of their own jobs, to allow us to go, peacefully, about our business.

After the bait and switch tactics regarding the creation of the May Valley Basin Plan, in which our effort to show true support for the ecology of May Valley was reversed and planted on our heads like a crown of thorns, Some residents, myself included, left May Valley exhausted and broken hearted.

King County's attempt to gentrify rural King county has been successful. With the support of "One Thousand Friends (Thugs) of Washington, and a few "comments" from an Indian tribe that had NOTHING to do with May Valley, the restoration of the fish in May Valley is left undone.

The liberal county government had one chance to become, again, the supportive government it was meant to be, when David ZIrons was foully lied about by his PARENTS, in his bid to unseat Ron Simms. After that, it was down hill from there. Now, I live in Walker County Georgia where the executive is a sole commissioner who protects rural land owners' rights.

My hope is to die before that changes.

David V. Dahlin
618 Osburn Road
Chickamauga GA 30707
706-375-9500
msrdavidv@comcast.net
Working on casting all of my cares upon Him....

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