Mice and Men
A friend of mine in high school had one of those cheap black light posters in his room. It depicted a menacing looking eagle swooping down on a rather cartoonish looking mouse. The mouse had its hand outstretched and was clearly flipping the eagle a bird. Below was a caption that listed Webster’s definition of Defiance. The mouse was sure to die, but he was defiant until the end.
Senator John Ensign recently talked at a high school:
Ensign spent an additional 30 minutes taking questions from students on a variety of topics. He said he intends to vote to repeal a ban on assault weapons, which he called “the stupidest law that was ever written.
“Without the Second Amendment, you might as well throw away the rest of the Bill of Rights. It sounds like kind of a radical statement but I don’t know if there is a truer statement,” Ensign said.
“Every dictatorship that has ever existed, the first thing they do Saddam Hussein, Adolph Hitler, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot in southeast Asia the first thing they do is disarm the citizenry.
“Because if you disarm the citizenry, then you can trust them. If they are armed, you can’t trust them. That is why our founding fathers recognized the right to keep and bear arms is so critical,” he said.
Ensign said the assault weapons ban is ineffective because it allows some guns that look like and function in the same way as other prohibited guns.
“All you need to know about gun control is to look at Washington D.C., which has the strictest gun control laws in the country and it is one of the least safest cities. All the criminals have guns and none of the law-abiding citizens have guns,” he said. “It is just too easy to get guns illegally to ever ban them.”
I do respect and appreciate the gist of Ensign’s sentiment, however gun ownership was quite prevalent in Iraq. Each family was allowed one gun for self defense (mostly AK47s). This does beg the question: Why didn’t Iraqis revolt? They had guns. My conclusion is that they lacked the quality our little mouse mentioned above had: displaying defiance.
Of course, you can’t blame them. Spending decades with a government that commits night time raids, rapes of family members, torture, gassing people, and a whole other list of atrocities may have lead the Iraqis to develop learned helplessness. After all, seeing a friend or family member dragged off never to return would likely have the desired effect of crushing dissent.
In short, guns are useless without the will to right wrongs and take risks. Sadly, I think America is at the point where most of us are unwilling to take risks, stand up for what’s right, and speak truth to power.
We sit by while our courts restrict speech; politicians authorize government agencies to snoop through citizen’s records without warrants; police randomly harass motorists; indoor plumbing justifies why police no longer have to knock and announce their presence before entering a suspect’s home; dissenters are quarantined to First Amendment Zones; judges tell people they can’t sell their book; local governments abuse eminent domain; men armed with machine guns parade around our large cities; people are detained without access to legal counsel, sometimes in secret; and the list goes on and on.
As long as Michael Jackson is in the news, Paris Hilton is sucking dick, and the latest reality TV shows are popular, we don’t notice. Or we don’t care.
Or we’re forced to pick two losing sides. Democrats and Republicans have equally deplorable records regarding civil liberties. It just depends which particular civil liberty you’re talking about. We often vote for the lesser of two evils.
It’s up to us to change it by holding politicians responsible. If we can’t do that now with our vote, we won’t have the will to do anything if our last hope turns out to be AK47s.
Are we Iraqis or mice?
January 13th, 2004 at 4:23 pm
Curse you! This is the second time you’ve reminded me of an article I’ve read but can’t find, like you did as the inspiration for this post.
I read a great article specifically about how odd it was that most Iraqis are so heavily armed and yet were oppressed for so long. I think it was even in the same journal, but I can’t find it.
I’ll have to dig through my stack of reading material when I get home.
January 13th, 2004 at 4:25 pm
Are you referring to the one about the island that managed to get guns? You gave me a link to it a bit back and it was interesting reading. I’ve lost it myself.
January 13th, 2004 at 4:26 pm
Nevermind, that one was at the link you listed.
January 13th, 2004 at 5:05 pm
SU
I should remind you that the Iraqis did revolt, and were butchered. Small arms are no match for a modern army. A gun is not protection agaisnt a tyrant, not anymore. Making sure the soldeis aren’t willing to be the tyrant’s tools is the best, and really only, protection.
January 13th, 2004 at 5:15 pm
Kevin, I wholeheartedly agree that our primary goal is ensuring soldiers won’t be the tools. I absolutely disagree about the effectiveness of small arms.
January 13th, 2004 at 5:50 pm
Uncle,
I did a post on this a while back. Might find it useful, ya might not.
http://publicola.blogspot.com/2003_04_06_publicola_archive.html#92355641
It’s called “The Means, Knowledge & Will to Resist”
Kevin,
If a government was intending to nuke it’s citizens at the leats sign of defiance you might be right. But no matter how advanced military operations still come down to controling real estate. Now that may be easy in NYC or DC, but I guarn damn teeya that occupying Charlotte, NC or Columbia, SC would be a major headache (literally) for too many soldiers to make it popular, let alone viable as an option.
Small arms have their place & it’s still the most important one in warfare. Bombers & artillery are nice, but not very effective when you don’t wanna shell your own soldiers.
The way we make sure soldiers don’t become the tools of a tyrant is ideally by dsibanding the regular troops, but in a pinch making sure they realize the heavy losses they’d take if they attempted oppression might be enough.
January 13th, 2004 at 7:03 pm
Red Dawn! Red Dawn!!! Wolverines….!
(sorry, just fantasizing about a takeover of the USA in the future and being able to use my handguns to wipe out the bad guys…)
🙂
January 13th, 2004 at 9:36 pm
SU,
You diagnosed the problem.
As long as we can eat, follow our social pursuits, and be entertained, we don’t care.
January 13th, 2004 at 9:54 pm
Publicola,
I think you over-estimate the resistance in the hypothetical government vs. the people scenario.
Americans like to talk tough (easy to do when your military blows away all others), but at their core they’re humans that share the same fears that the Russians, the Chinese, the Eastern Europeans, or whoever else experiences when the government cracks down.
Sure, some people would resist. But I don’t know that it would be as many as you think.
January 13th, 2004 at 10:40 pm
The important thing is to educate the population about the relationship between liberty, freedom, and personal firearms – *BEFORE* they are in law-enforcement and/or the US Military.
An army of the free with not enslave their own.
January 13th, 2004 at 10:45 pm
I agree Rich. I don’t see our armed forces…unlike the Chinese and N Koreans who are brainwashed…firing on their brothers and sisters.
January 14th, 2004 at 9:44 am
(1)Red Dawn! Red Dawn!!! Wolverines….!
(sorry, just fantasizing about a takeover of the USA in the future and being able to use my handguns to wipe out the bad guys…)
(2)In short, guns are useless without the will to right wrongs and take risks. Sadly, I think America is at the point where most of us are unwilling to take risks, stand up for what’s right, and speak truth to power.
Just wondering how many people are aware of a battle that took place many moons ago:
The Battle of Athens
2 AUGUST 1946
I. Introduction
On 2 August 1946, some Americans, brutalized by their county government, used armed force to overturn it. These Americans wanted honest, open elections. For years they had asked for state or Federal election monitors to prevent vote fraud — forged ballots, secret ballot counts, and intimidation by armed sheriff’s deputies — by the local political boss. They got no help.
These Americans’ absolute refusal to knuckle-under had been hardened by service in World War II. Having fought to free other countries from murderous regimes, they rejected vicious abuse by their county government. These Americans had a choice. Their state’s Constitution – Article 1, Section 26 – recorded their right to keep and bear arms for the common defense. Few “gun control” laws had been enacted.
II. The Setting
These Americans were Tennesseeans of McMinn County, located between Chattanooga and Knoxville, in Eastern Tennessee. The two main towns were Athens and Etowah.
McMinn Countians had long been independent political thinkers. They also had long
accepted bribe-taking by politicians and/or the Sheriff to overlook illicit whiskey-making and gambling; financed the sheriff’s department from fines – usually for speeding or public drunkenness – which promoted false arrests;
put up with voting fraud by both Democrats and Republicans.
Tennessee State law barred voting fraud:
ballot boxes had to be shown to be empty before voting; poll-watchers had to be allowed;
armed law enforcement officers were barred from polling places; ballots had to be counted where any voter could watch.
III. The Circumstances
The Great Depression had ravaged McMinn County. Drought broke many farmers; workforces shrank. The wealthy Cantrell family, of Etowah, backed Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1932 election, hoping New Deal programs would revive the local economy and help Democrats to replace Republicans in the county government. So it proved.
Paul Cantrell was elected Sheriff in the 1936, 1938, and 1940 elections, but by slim margins. The Sheriff was the key County official. Cantrell was elected to the State Senate in 1942 and 1944; his chief deputy, Pat Mansfield, was elected sheriff. In 1946, Paul Cantrell again sought the Sheriff’s office.
IV. World War II Ends; Paul Cantrell’s Troubles Begin
At end-1945, some 3,000 battle-hardened veterans returned to McMinn County. Sheriff Mansfield’s deputies had brutalized many in McMinn County; the GIs held Cantrell politically responsible for Mansfield’s doings. Early in 1946, some newly-returned ex-GIs decided to challenge Cantrell politically; to offer an all ex-GI, non-partisan ticket; to promise a fraud-free election.
In ads and speeches the GI candidates promised:
an honest ballot count; reform of county government.
At a rally, a GI speaker said, “‘The principals that we fought for in this past war do not exist in McMinn County. We fought for democracy because we believe in democracy but not the form we live under in this county.'” (Daily Post-Athenian, 17 June 1946, p. 1).
At end-July 1946, 159 McMinn County GIs petitioned the FBI to send election monitors. There was no response. The Department of Justice had not responded to McMinn Countians’ complaints of election fraud in 1940, 1942, and 1944.
V. From Ballots to Bullets
The election was held on 1 August. To intimidate voters, Mansfield brought in some 200 armed “deputies”. GI poll-watchers were beaten almost at once. At about 3 p.m., Tom Gillespie, an African-American voter, was told by a Sheriff’s deputy, “‘Nigger, you can’t vote here today!!'”. Despite being beaten, Gillespie persisted; the enraged deputy shot him. The gunshot drew a crowd. Rumors spread that Gillespie had been “shot in the back”; he later recovered. (C. Stephen Byrum, The Battle of Athens; Paidia Productions, Chattanooga TN, 1987; pp. 155-57).
Other deputies detained ex-GI poll-watchers in a polling place, as that made the ballot count “public”. A crowd gathered. Sheriff Mansfield told his deputies to disperse the crowd. When the two ex-GIs smashed a big window and escaped, the crowd surged forward. “The deputies, with guns drawn, formed a tight half-circle around the front of the polling place. One deputy, “his gun raised high …shouted: ‘You sons-of-bitches cross this street and I’ll kill you!'” (Byrum, p. 165).
Mansfield took the ballot boxes to the jail for counting. The deputies seemed to fear immediate attack, by the “people who had just liberated Europe and the South Pacific from two of the most powerful war machines in human history.” (Byrum, pp. 168-69).
Short of firearms and ammunition, the GIs scoured the county to find them. By borrowing keys to the National Guard and State Guard Armories, they got three M-1 rifles, five .45 semi-automatic pistols, and 24 British Enfield rifles. The armories were nearly empty after the war’s end.
By eight p.m., a group of GIs and “local boys” headed for the jail to get the ballot boxes. They occupied high ground facing the jail but left the back door unguarded to give the jail’s defenders an easy way out.
VI. The Battle of Athens
Three GIs – alerting passersby to danger – were fired on from the jail. Two GIs were wounded. Other GIs returned fire. Those inside the jail mainly used pistols; they also had a “tommy gun” (a .45 caliber Thompson sub-machine gun).
Firing subsided after 30 minutes: ammunition ran low and night had fallen. Thick brick walls shielded those inside the jail. Absent radios, the GIs’ rifle fire was un-coordinated. “From the hillside, fire rose and fell in disorganized cascades. More than anything else, people were simply ‘shooting at the jail’.” (Byrum, p. 189).
Several who ventured into “no man’s land”, the street in front of the jail, were wounded. One man inside the jail was badly hurt; he recovered. Most sheriff’s deputies wanted to hunker down and await rescue. Governor McCord mobilized the State Guard, perhaps to scare the GIs into withdrawing. The State Guard never went to Athens. McCord may have feared that Guard units filled with ex-GIs might not fire on other ex-GIs.
At about 2 a.m. on 2 August, the GIs forced the issue. Men from Meigs county threw dynamite sticks and damaged the jail’s porch. The panicked deputies surrendered. GIs quickly secured the building. Paul Cantrell faded into the night, almost having been shot by a GI who knew him, but whose .45 pistol had jammed. Mansfield’s deputies were kept overnight in jail for their own safety. Calm soon returned: the GIs posted guards. The rifles borrowed from the armory were cleaned and returned before sun-up.
VII. The Aftermath: Restoring Democracy in McMinn County
In five precincts free of vote fraud, the GI candidate for Sheriff, Knox Henry, won 1,168 votes to Cantrell’s 789. Other GI candidates won by similar margins.
The GIs did not hate Cantrell. They only wanted honest government. On 2 August, a town meeting set up a three-man governing committee. The regular police having fled, six men were chosen to police Athens; a dozen GIs were sent to police Etowah. In addition, “Individual citizens were called upon to form patrols or guard groups, often led by a GI. …To their credit, however, there is not a single mention of an abuse of power on their behalf.” (Byrum, p. 220).
Once the GI candidates’ victory had been certified, they cleaned-up county government:
the jail was fixed;
newly-elected officials accepted a $5,000 pay limit; Mansfield supporters who resigned, were replaced.
The general election on 5 November passed quietly. McMinn Countians, having restored the Rule of Law, returned to their daily lives. Pat Mansfield moved back to Georgia. Paul Cantrell set up an auto dealership in Etowah. “Almost everyone who knew Cantrell in the years after the ‘Battle’ agree that he was not bitter about what had happened.” (Byrum, pp. 232-33; see also New York Times, 9 August 1946, p. 8).
VIII. The Outsiders’ Response
The Battle of Athens made national headlines. Most outsiders’ reports had the errors usual in coverage of large-scale, night-time events. A New York Times editorialist on 3 August savaged the GIs, who:
“…quite obviously – though we hope erroneously – felt that there was no city, county, or State agency to whom they could turn for justice.
… “There is a warning for all of us in the occurrence…and above all a warning for the veterans of McMinn County, who also violated a fundamental principle of democracy when they arrogated to themselves the right of law enforcement for which they had no election mandate. Corruption, when and where it exists, demands reform, and even in the most corrupt and boss-ridden communities there are peaceful means by which reform can be achieved. But there is no substitute, in a democracy, for orderly process.” (NYT, 3 Aug 1946, p. 14.)
The editorialist did not see:
McMinn Countians’ many appeals for outside help;
some ruthless people only respect force;
that it was wrong to equate use of force by evil-doers (Cantrell and Mansfield) with the righteous (the GIs).
The New York Times:
never saw that Cantrell and Mansfield’s wholesale election fraud, enforced at gun-point, trampled the Rule of Law;
feared citizens’ restoring the Rule of Law by armed force.
Other outsiders, e.g., Time and Newsweek, agreed. (See Time, 12 August 1946, p. 20; Newsweek, 12 Aug 1946, p. 31 and 9 September 1946, p. 38).
The 79th Congress adjourned on 2 August 1946, when the Battle of Athens ended. However, Representative John Jennings, Jr., from Tennessee decried:
McMinn County’s sorry situation under Cantrell and Mansfield;
the Justice Department’s repeated failures to help the McMinn Countians.
Jennings was delighted that “…at long last decency and honesty, liberty and law have returned to the fine county of McMinn…”. (Congressional Record, House; U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1946; Appendix, Volume 92, Part 13, p. A4870.)
IX. The Lessons of Athens
Those who took up arms in Athens, Tennessee:
wanted honest elections, a cornerstone of our Constitutional order;
had repeatedly tried to get Federal or State election monitors;
used armed force so as to minimize harm to the law-breakers;
showed little malice to the defeated law-breakers;
restored lawful government.
The Battle of Athens clearly shows:
how Americans can and should lawfully use armed force;
why the Rule of Law requires unrestricted access to firearms;
how civilians with military-type firearms can beat the forces of “law and order”.
Dictators believe that public order is more important than the Rule of Law. However, Americans reject this idea. Criminals can exploit for selfish ends, the use armed force to restore the Rule of Law. But brutal political repression – as practiced by Cantrell and Mansfield – is lethal to many. An individual criminal can harm a handful of people. Governments alone can brutalize thousands, or millions.
Since 1915, officials of seven governments “gone bad” have committed genocide, murdering at least 56 million persons, including millions of children. “Gun control” clears the way for genocide by giving governments “gone bad” far greater freedom to commit mass murder.
Law-abiding McMinn Countians won the Battle of Athens because they were not hamstrung by “gun control”. McMinn Countians showed us when citizens can and should use armed force to support the Rule of Law. We are all in their debt.
This is a bare bones summary of a major report in JPFO’s Firearms Sentinel (January 1995). This document is from: chiliast@ideasign.com (A.K. Pritchard)