Raging
Lethargy
Charlie Earl
Former WLW,
Cincinnati, radio personality Gary Burbank regaled many of us with his
idiosyncratic characters. One of his most enduring and endearing was “Earl
Pitts” who closed his bits with “Wake up, America!” followed by his signature,
“Pitts off!” If only we had Earl Pitts dispensing his down-home advice and
wisdom on the airwaves today. His ‘redneck’ persona and plain talk went
straight to the core of his selected issue of the day. While “Gilbert Gnarley”
was the curious but often naïve loon, Pitts told it “like it is” and the way it
ought to be. We should be screaming at the top of our liberty-loving lungs that
it’s time to “Wake up, America!!!!”
It is
understandable that so many of our fellow citizens appear to be semi-zombies in
their attitudes toward a huge and oppressive
government/statist/crony-corporatist infrastructure. Either they have decided
to capitalize on the “freebie” aspect of government (taxpayer) largesse, or
they perceive that the issues and problems are too large and numerous to
withstand. They are experiencing over-load withdrawal. Our highly medicated
culture is consuming anti-depressants at an alarming rate. One wonders if the
natural tension between an individual’s desire for freedom and an overwhelmingly
intrusive government is a major contributor to our national malady. Depression
often leads to withdrawal, and on a cognitive level people perceive that they
should not retreat from their obligations to others and their posterity, but
they believe themselves to be inadequately armed for the preservation or
restoration of liberty. Frustration is manifested in indifference and despair.
Most of us
are capable when confronted by a single task or barrier, but even the strongest
among us sometimes falters when we feel surrounded by a legion of problems and
foes. We hesitate…not knowing which difficulty to tackle first. We flinch and
attempt to prioritize, but the challenges grow larger and more ominous as we
struggle to devise a strategy. We freeze in place because we cannot act. To
attack an issue head-on may expose our flanks to other vital considerations. We
retreat and we withdraw from the battle. We justify our lethargy by claiming
that it’s better to live so we can fight another day. We fall behind as the battle
rages around us, and we either attack with a suicidal charge or curl into the
fetal position and pray for it to end. Lethargy and immobility are natural and
understandable during conditions such as those we face today.
To protect
the future we must win the present. With so many out-of-whack elements
bombarding us on a daily basis, the truly difficult task is deciding when or
where to fight. If we err, we may not be capable of recovering in time to make
the proper adjustments. Tea Party and Liberty groups have similar issues. The
field of devastation is so littered with big government debris that every week
brings new challenges and new “alerts.” Prioritizing, personal interests and
divisions of labor seem to offer the best strategies going forward. Individuals
should choose one or two critical elements that are most important to them and
marshal their resources and energies on those fronts. Groups should follow a
similar game plan by identifying and prioritizing the assaults on our liberty
followed by the creation of “task forces” to research and respond. Clearly… the
members of each task force will be individuals who are most concerned or
passionate about the particular issue under scrutiny. Additionally…each group
and task force should attempt to work with other liberty and Tea Party groups
on their parallel paths. Feed one another information plus give one another
encouragement and share strategies and solutions. With the technological
capabilities we have, we can be as effective as our forefathers’ committees of
correspondence.
We cannot
remain in the fetal position because the progressives/statists will kill
us….literally and figuratively. We must overcome our indecision and lethargy or
we’ll be radically outpaced. Our rally cry must be liberty! Our unbending goal
must be freedom! Any other purpose (e.g. single issue) cannot generate enough
support for an effective coalition. Liberty! First, foremost and forever!
Charlie Earl
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