We Tell Our Sorrows to the Stones

An Open Letter from a Citizen of the United States of America

TO:  President Barack Obama

CC: Vice President and Senate President Joe Biden, Senate President Pro Tempore Patrick Leahy, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Chief Justice John Roberts, Presidential Cabinet Members, Senators, Representatives, Honorable Justices of the Supreme Court, NSA Wire-Monitoring Interns of the “Third Shift Roughnecks”, and All the Ships at Sea;

Greetings.

Though without warrant, appointment, or commission, I write to you on behalf and in the name of any and all American citizens who find themselves in agreement with the thoughts and statements detailed herein.

First Off, Let’s Get This Straight: It is OUR Constitution!

The Constitution of the United States is OUR Supreme Law of OUR land – the foundation upon which all of OUR government is built. It defines the duties of all those temporary positions WE hired you for. It is the basis of all the laws WE have agreed to impose UPON OURSELVES, and by which WE have promised to abide.

OUR Constitution defines the procedures by which OUR government is formed and sustained, and the powers OUR government may wield over us through "temporary sequential governors". As such, OUR Constitution is primarily a document of limitations which WE have imposed upon OUR Federal Government which otherwise, in perfect harmony with history and human nature, would certainly stampede towards tyranny unencumbered and unrestrained.

You are OUR hirelings, not our rulers, and you are not allowed to claim Constitutional authority while breaking any of OUR Constitution's provisions. It serves to safeguard OUR Country and OUR people.

You are not allowed to ignore, bypass, or "get around" OUR Constitution.

What you apparently do not realize is: This is for your own protection as well as ours.

Allow me to elaborate…

You abuse and break OUR Constitution at your peril, because your authority to tax us and spend the resulting revenue, and to use force to uphold the law, is only authorized by OUR Constitution. It is the sole source of your power; a power derived from WE THE PEOPLE, which you wield only with OUR consent, expressed through our willing agreement to abide by the Grand Contract which is OUR Constitution. 

If you break that contract, you render it null and void. It can’t be broken just on your side… You can’t shred it and expect us to uphold our end of the bargain.  In other words, if you do not abide by the terms of the contract by which WE voluntarily lend you legal and lethal authority, then, you are nothing but violent thieves, fit to be hung from trees.

Hey! Let’s make that a subsection!

Without OUR Constitution, You Are Nothing But Violent Thieves Fit To Be Hung From Trees

I doubt I need to spell this out exhaustively, but since some of you in D.C. are obviously slow learners, I offer you the following ramifications:

If you act against us unconstitutionally, you are nothing but violent thieves fit to be hung from trees.

If you use the legal power of taxation to fund your profoundly unjust persecution of certain groups of our citizens based upon their political beliefs, you are nothing but violent thieves fit to be hung from trees.

If you refuse to execute your legal duties to enforce the law and bring to justice government officials who not only have grievously broken our constitutional protections but who have openly admitted to doing so, you are nothing but violent thieves fit to be hung from trees.

Let me reiterate: OUR Constitution is the sole source of your legal power!  That’s it!  Not weaponry, not technology, not even (contrary to what one might assume) social and political inertia. 

Consider yourselves warned… OUR adherence to OUR Constitution is what keeps US from utterly destroying you in the name of High Justice. If you take away OUR Constitution, you make of yourselves OUR enemy, and all the over-militarized municipal police forces across the land won’t make a bit of difference, because WE know your names. WE elected you, and WE THE PEOPLE outnumber you roughly a half-million-to-one.

The strangest thing is… you already know this, and yet still you won’t listen.

A Momentary Sidebar to Just the Republicans

Hey Guys!  How’s it going?  Been busy?  Well thanks for heading up to D.C. on our behalf. What a cesspool! We really appreciate the sacrifice.  Really!  Just a little feedback though, while we’ve got your attention…
I thought it best to remind you: WE elected you to defend individual freedom and liberty – to fight against those bleeping statist leftists infesting OUR Capitol, trying to destroy OUR country and OUR way of life!  And what did a lot of you do? You allowed yourself to be wooed by flattering terms and melodious words of sweet affection from this base and untoward President; an angry abandoned boy who, having had poison poured into his own ears, is now full grown and set upon revenge.

Don’t be deceived: You’ve been deceived!

Polonious:

Affection! pooh! you speak like a green girl,
Unsifted in such perilous circumstance.

You have no excuse for being this gullible or naïve.

Ok, now back to the whole entire gang of you ne’er-do-wells…

Tyranny

Tyranny is far the worst of treasons. Dost thou deem None rebels except subjects? The prince who Neglects or violates his trust is more A brigand than the robber-chief.

— Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron)  , Source: The Two Foscari (act II, sc. 1)

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

— C.S. Lewis 

Back in 1905 or thereabouts, George Santayana wrote "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it". Many popular variants have arisen, with the one I tend to hear the most being "Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

I personally feel that history repeats itself unavoidably, and those that don't learn from history are doomed to not be in a position to take advantage of this... but maybe that's just me.

I mention this because you are following down a well-worn path to destruction, and you either refuse to recognize this (which is the charitable interpretation of your actions), or are incapable of recognizing this (another charitable interpretation, and the one which gets my vote), and no amount of hand waving, fact espousing, and logical declaiming on our part seems to be able to get through your thick skulls.  

Of course, you could also be doing all of this intentionally and with eyes wide open, but that would be evil.  Sadly, many of US shy away from labeling you “evil”, while many of YOU don’t even believe in “evil”, rendering any argument we could make against your actions moot, in vain, and a complete waste of time. But hope springs eternal, so we slog on and try again and again.

So here goes…

Detroit was recently in the news, yet again, regretfully, because the city’s abusive foster-parents (you can’t say “city fathers” anymore when referring to the town’s officeholders – it isn’t politically correct) momentarily emerged from their delusional fog to declare bankruptcy, only to have it thrown back in their face by a judge who said they couldn’t because it would be “unconstitutional” (at the State level), and furthermore disrespectful to Obama (thus creating a brand-new legal standard in the bankruptcy courts), but then hey! they got lucky! and a different judge – recognizing that the Federal bankruptcy laws trump the State’s constitution (which apparently makes guarantees that Reality can’t live up to) proceeded to reinstate the case and bar further lawsuits against it.  And yet still some find it possible to scream “UNFAIR!!!” while the city takes what few steps it can to survive, all the while many of their elected officials prescribe “more poison” as the cure.

New York has its bedbugs – Detroit has the terrible contagion gradus arma stultitiae.

Those who HAVE studied history know that this isn’t humanity’s first time around this particular block.

"'It is scarcely possible that the eyes of contemporaries should discover in the public felicity the latent causes of decay and corruption. This long peace, and the uniform government of the Romans, introduced a slow and secret poison into the vitals of the empire. The minds of men were gradually reduced to the same level [NOTE: Can you say "Common Core"?], the fire of genius was extinguished, and even the military spirit evaporated.' Now that no one buys our votes, the public has long since cast off its cares; the people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two things----Bread and Games!"

-Juvenal, Satire 10  

Most of us out here in Realityville could make a list of things OUR government – you – are presently doing that makes us want to scream “STOP!!!”  For many of us, such a list would be several pages long.  The funny thing is, our lists wouldn’t all be the same. There would, however, be a great deal of overlap.

An honest accounting of the scandals this government is embroiled in – including this President and his Administration – would likewise be a lengthy list.

I’m not going to recount them all here.  Why should I? You’re not listening (OK – I admit your minions over at the NSA are, but that’s beside the point).

No my point here is not to issue threats, but to give warning.

That reminds me…

Another Momentary Sidebar to Just the Republicans

Hey guys? Just remembered – what’s with all this “adherence to decorum” nonsense?  It’s late in the game!  Have you checked the score recently?  I have!  Here you go:

US National Debt - $17 Trillion

US Unfunded Liabilities - $125 Trillion

Currency and Credit Derivatives - $631 Trillion

Now I’m always big on manners, and protocol certainly has its place, but seriously guys… you’re supposed to be defending us!  For $17 Trillion we should at least see the occasional knife fight on the Senate floor!  In fact, since this Congress, along with prior Congresses for decades past, have committed us HyperDetroit-Style to $125 Trillion in future expenses for which (admit it) there will NEVER be any money, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect regular rolling gun battles within the Capitol.  Seriously – could you really call it “Civil War” if it was basically confined to one building?

And regarding the "Currency and Credit Derivatives" market - well you DO remember the name of this site, don't you?

You may think I’m being facetious, but honestly – I wasn't kidding about that whole "written in blood" thing.

I could cite the Preamble to OUR Constitution, or relevant parts of the Declaration of Independence, but what’s the use? You’re still not listening.

Therefore let me turn my attention to a different audience; my would-be cosigners in whose names I oh-so-arrogantly presume to speak.  Many of you are asking of yourselves and of those you trust “What should we do? What actions should we take for ourselves, and how should we respond to this pack of tyrannical rogues?”

For what it’s worth, I say that until such time as our hands are forced - until in defensive action taken for self-preservation a violent response is required and unavoidable, I say we should look to the tried and true – even to the ancient – for sound guidance.

The sides of Democritus shook with unceasing laughter, although in the cities of his day there were no purple-bordered or purple-striped robes, no fasces, no palanquins, no tribunals. [NOTE: The subject of "Democritus" alone is worth more than I could do justice to within a mere blog post, especially one wherein such an elaboration would quickly stray wildly off topic... I mean really! I don't think it's possible to even tangentially tie the "father of modern science's youthful pursuit of alchemy, or ‘The Wisdom of Al Khmet/Egypt’” into a post scolding Congress for their dereliction of--- wait a minute... Yes I can! Stay tuned! I’ll put that in a follow-up post!]  What if he had seen the Praetor uplifted in his lofty car amid the dust of the Circus, attired in the tunic of Jove, hitching an embroidered Tyrian toga on to his shoulders, and carrying a crown so big that no neck could bear the weight of it? For a public slave is sweating under the burden; and that the Consul may not fancy himself overmuch, the slave rides in the same chariot with his master. Add to all this the bird that is perched on his ivory staff; on this side the horn-blowers, on that the duteous clients preceding him in long array, between Styrofoam columns, [NOTE: OK, I added that last part] with white-robed Roman citizens, whose friendship has been gained by the dinner-dole snugly lying in their purses,  [NOTE: Can you say “Food Stamps”?] marching at his bridle-rein. Even then the philosopher found food for laughter at every meeting with his kind: his wisdom shows us that men of high distinction and destined to set great examples may be born in a dullard air, and in the land of mutton-heads. He laughed at the troubles, ay and at the pleasures, of the crowd, sometimes too at their tears, while for himself he would bid frowning fortune go hang, and point at her the finger of derision.

It seems to me that the advice of a man far wiser than I would be to laugh at them. And why not? They certainly deserve it!

A Recommendation to Ourselves:

We must remember that we often overlook the obvious. We know that bad rulers behave badly, so we can’t allow ourselves to be astonished by this and get caught out unprepared.

Proverbs 28:16 

A tyrannical ruler practices extortion, but one who hates ill-gotten gain will enjoy a long reign.

Luke 11:21

"When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe.

We Tell Our Sorrows to the Stones

 
As I said, we’ve seen this all before.

Titus Andronicus

…Grave tribunes, once more I entreat of you--

Lucius

My gracious lord, no tribune hears you speak.

Titus Andronicus

Why, tis no matter, man; if they did hear,

They would not mark me, or if they did mark,

They would not pity me, yet plead I must;

Therefore I tell my sorrows to the stones;

Who, though they cannot answer my distress,

Yet in some sort they are better than the tribunes,

For that they will not intercept my tale:

When I do weep, they humbly at my feet

Receive my tears and seem to weep with me;

And, were they but attired in grave weeds,

Rome could afford no tribune like to these.

A stone is soft as wax,--tribunes more hard than stones;

A stone is silent, and offendeth not,

And tribunes with their tongues doom men to death.

(Rises)

But wherefore stand'st thou with thy weapon drawn?

Photo Credit: Original Rolling Stones image: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02373/rollingStones_2373378b.jpg