Federal Way presently has two high schools that offer the Junior Air Force ROTC program. According to Major Barry Jones some states, like Idaho, are on a waiting list for Air Force Junior ROTC. The Marine Corps, Army and Navy also have ROTC programs.
At the School Board meeting on November 9, 2010, I suggested on behalf of myself and some other concerned citizens that we have other high schools that can benefit from the Junior ROTC program. According to my sources, there is a cost for the District of approximately $100,000.00 per year per school. This is based on $50,000.00 each for the two instructors needed at each school. The JROTC program is proven to motivate students to achieve academic excellence.
Federal Way School District received approximately $4.4 M in federal Education Jobs funding. This funding is available to support expenses over two fiscal years (2010-11 and 2011-12). The fact that the school district will be losing approximately $4.1 M in Federal Economic Stimulus funding next year (2011-12), had raised the issue of whether the District will save the funds to offset the drop in revenues expected next year. Additionally, the state has now withdrawn an additional amount from state funds available to Federal Way- in an amount that is approximately equal to and completely negates the federal funding!
It takes 2-3 years to apply and get a new ROTC detachment in place. The federal government provides a good part of the funds for a JROTC program (but not the salaries for the instructors). The proven successful track record of the Junior ROTC program in Federal Way makes the investment of local funds worth discussing.
At the January 25, 2011 School Board Meeting, the Board announced that it has decided not to proceed with JROTC at this time but will continye to assess the budget with a view toward adding JROTC program(s) at one or more additional high schools in the future.
The existing JROTC detachments within the FWPS are nationally recognized as the best in the U.S. The programs motivate students to obtain academic excellence because of the discipline, team building and mission that is associated with military culture. The benefits of such a military culture cross all racial, social and other cultural lines!
Charlie Hoff had a great deal of input into the process of instituting the JROTC program that presently exists in Federal Way and Todd Beamer High Schools. Fortunately, Federal Way does not seem to have the problem experienced in some other Western Washington school districts populated by folks that look at the military as a force that disturbs their Progressive status quo which apparently values education that is free of many important values but heavy on diversity and tolerance.
As a former Board Member who methodically researches educational issues, Hoff may well be the most knowledgeable guy in the room when it comes to education and has a wealth of recognized experience. He expresses himself politely and thoughtfully but he doesn’t seem to share a certain set of values shared by at least some members of the School Board.
Mr. Hoff’s passion for excellence in education elicits a certain amount of disdain from some of the best people in the community.
For example, Mr. Hoff maintains that despite the quantity of information showing that gadgetry provides no advantages in the classroom, we ignore inexpensive solutions (like JROTC and the Federal Way Public Academy) in anticipation of future levies to provide additional technical gadgetry in the classroom:
“Imagine if we designed the 21st-century American classroom to be a place where our kids could learn to think, calculate, and invent as well as the students in the top-performing countries around the world.
What would those spaces look like? Would students plug into mini-MRI machines to record the real-time development of their brains’ executive functions? Would teachers be Nobel Prize winners, broadcasting through screens installed in the foreheads of robots that don’t have tenure?
To find out, we don’t have to travel through time. We could just travel through space. At the moment, there are thousands of schools around the world that work better than our own. They don’t have many things in common. But they do seem to share a surprising aesthetic.
Classrooms in countries with the highest-performing students contain very little tech wizardry, generally speaking. They look, in fact, a lot like American ones-circa 1989 or 1959. Children sit at rows of desks, staring up at a teacher who stands in front of a well-worn chalkboard.”
From “What do the best classrooms in the world look like?", by Amanda Ripley/Slate Magazine, Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Hoff points out that, according to the Higher Education Coordinating Board (the equivalent of our state government’s school board for colleges and universities in the Evergreen State), the threat of diminishing employment opportunities in Washington State due to lack of educated workers is imminent. Many of our professionals in technical jobs come from other states and countries like India where employers are increasingly competing for workers. Without a pool of skilled workers, businesses with high paying jobs will locate in other states!
Are there enough students that will participate in additional JROTC detachments in Federal Way? Go to school board meetings. The more fundamental question is what it will take to get more busy parents motivated and involved. We will all soon be depending on today’s students to lead the way in matters of life and death.
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On May 27, the Korean People’s Army issued a statement declaring that it “will not be bound” by the 1953 armistice that halted hostilities in the Korean War:
Over the last few years, I have read at least five books dealing with the Korean War. David Halberstam completed THE COLDEST WINTER right before he was killed in a car accident on April 27, 2007. Halberstam, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his Vietnam reporting, is known for using personal history and techniques favored by novelists to write serious journalism. Although many of the assumptions and conclusions are what you would expect from a book by one of its own acclaimed by the New York Times as “a grand gesture of reclamation and remembrance”, THE COLDEST Winter is the clearest picture I have found of America’s “forgotten war”.
According to Halberstam, Chipyongni was the turning point at which China began to realize that troops could hold UN positions while exacting a terrible toll on Chinese troops. Prior to Chipyongni, there was little reason to be optimistic about the outcome of the conflict.
The Korean War began when the In Min Gun (North Korean Peoples’ Army) began moving into place above South Korea on June 15th, 1950. North Korea removed residents from homes near the Yalu River so that there were would not be reports of the troop build up on the North Korean side. China augmented North Korean with troops that, although allegedly North Korean, had fought as Chinese regiments during WW II. Thus, the In Mun Gun troops were battle-hardened and could travel over the mountainous landscape of the Korean peninsula with very little logistical support other than small packs containing meager amounts of food and ammunition.
The massive Chinese assaults usually came as a complete surprise to UN troops. Engagements like the Chinese assault at Unsan in 1950 usually resulted in American battalions becoming enveloped and then totally overrun by hordes of enemy troops that would suddenly appear with the sound of bugles, a form of psychological warfare that helped to confuse the American troops. The results were usually brutal and devastating for American troops, invariably grouped close to the roads and depending on heavy transport in order to accomplish almost anything, including a retreat.
Americans soon had many wounded men on their hands and suffered from shortages of ammunition. The urgent question quickly became how to evacuate the area without greater loss of life. When the U.S. Eighth Regiment’s First Battalion fought the Chinese in a brief firefight on October 31, 1950, the members of Dog Company (a heavy infantry company) thought they were in a routine firefight with North Korean troops. The Chinese commanded the high ground and even massive U.S. firepower was ineffective when the Chinese struck with full force. The Chinese troops used their bugles as a primitive communication system in order to change the direction of attack. However, the terrifying surprise of masses of Chinese that kept coming like fields of wheat provided the main tactical advantage.
Oreviously during the war, when UN troops (mostly Americans) broke out of the Pusan perimeter, crossed the 38th parallel and traveled to the Yalu, whole Chinese armies that had not even been identified as potential players in the conflict, were quietly enveloping our troops. Intelligence reports identifying the potential for Chinese involvement were systematically downplayed for a number of reasons, most of them political. Such politics subjected American soldiers to horrifying slaughter that has been swallowed up by the collective consciousness of most of our U.S. talking classes.
The Marines provided invaluable lessons in how to hold up under fire at Chosin Reservoir but the devastation meted out to the Chinese at Chipyongni solved the puzzle of how to wage war against vastly superior numbers of troops. First the Chinese threatened to maim UN forces at the battle of Twin Tunnels, the beginning of a contest for control of transportation routes leading south. Three miles east of Chipyongni, Twin Tunnels was looked upon by both Gen. Peng and the U.S. command as essential to control of Wonju, a transportation center for the central corridor that was considered more strategic than Chipyongni. The Americans had no idea where the Chinese were, other than a few scattered reports that Chinese were in the area.
Reconnaissance troops in the Twin Tunnels area were very much separated from the main U.S. force. Four officers and fifty-six enlisted men carried eight BARs, two heavy and four light machine guns, a rocket launcher, a 60 mm mortar and 57 and 75 recoilless rifles. A spotter unit was overhead looking for Chinese units. Almost as soon as the liaison plane spotted Chinese, communications with the base were lost and everything started to go wrong. Very quickly the recon patrol was under fire and the men were in danger of being overwhelmed.
Engines stalled, Chinese machine gun fire commenced, coolant began draining out of radiators and the troops began racing to a nearby hill, leaving most of the heavy armament behind. The men took two BARs (full-auto 30.06 Browning rifles) and one rocket launcher, a light machine gun and two twenty-pound cans of ammunition up the hill and into heavy snow. Many of the men were fresh recruits with no battle experience and never heard the order to climb the hill. Men picked up weapons when others fell and resumed the barrage for as long as the ammunition held out. Every shot counted as the Chinese appeared from behind cover.
Relief was on its way but only twelve of the sixty returned without being killed or wounded. Thirteen were dead. Ned Almond wanted to clear out the Chinese and sent the Twenty-third regiment back to the area. Almond had already earned a reputation at Chosin for failing to respect Chinese military tactics. He had a “reputation as a martinet who often commanded by instilling fear in subordinates”. In fact, his only claim to command seemed to be that he served MacArthur with unquestioning loyalty.
The U.S. Army now provided a startling venue for demonstrating the age old process of going from green recruit to grizzled combat soldier. Almond’s hubris forced dubious men with better sense than he to head towards Chipyongni in order to do something, anything aggressive, even though Almond’s orders had no tactical rationale other than to create a grave risk to his men.
Battle-tested French troops, veterans of the Indochina war, fought a preliminary battle alongside Americans in an area about four miles from Chipyongni. Led by General Ralph Monclar, the French wanted to warm up at some little fires and an argument ensued between the respective commanders on the way to Chipyongni. Nevertheless, Col. Paul Freeman and Monclars’s troops had time to position themselves, adjust their fields of fire and mortar emplacements were established. Twin Tunnels and Chipyongni were too far apart to support each other and vulnerable to being isolated by the Chinese. Almond wanted units to move into both areas at full speed and already mistakenly had decided that Freeman was too timid.
Almond’s order to fire on some huts at Chipyongni signaled to the Chinese that UN troops were now returning to the Twin Tunnels and Chipyongni areas. At 0430 the Chinese bugles sounded through the chilling fog and snow. The Chinese were reacting to the rapid American move into the area and had not prepared themselves with ammunition. Nevertheless, the ensuing battle was bitter. The French and Americans repulsed constant Chinese attacks and were soon low on ammunition themselves. The Chinese were prepared to suffer huge losses, however.
All available firepower was focused on the hill where the French took the brunt of the Chinese attack and had ample opportunity to demonstrate their proficiency with bayonets (apparently the French were not just bragging when they insisted that they loved to wield bayonets against Chinese).
Meanwhile, U.S. cannons mounted on two tanks along with mortars and twin 40 cannons (antiaircraft guns left over from WW II) “vacuum cleaned” the massed Chinese troops on the ridge. Ammunition was airlifted to the UN troops after Marine pilots delivered surgically placed air support- five hundred pound daisy-cutters followed by 50-caliber machine gun fire and rockets. Now the UN troops advanced to Chipyongni.
Rather than take the highest hills in the area and spread his forces thinly across a twelve mile perimeter, Freeman took the unusual measure of consolidating his firepower on a few smaller hills that were close together creating a perimeter only about two miles long by one mile deep. By doing so he made it possible for the heavy guns to support each other and for reserve units to come to assist when positions came under threat. Because the Chinese lacked long range heavy artillery, the higher ground would not provide a great advantage to the enemy and the Chinese machine guns would have little effect.
The UN forces had ten days to prepare their positions, from February 3 through February 13, 1950. The men’s lives depended on how well they could dig in. Fox holes were prepared and fields of fire for artillery and mortars were marked off precisely; barbed wire was copiously strung and every available mine was laid.
Ten miles southeast, ROK, American and Dutch troops collapsed around Wonju, putting Chipyongni at risk and demanding all available airpower. By February 12, all evidence was that Freeman was also about to be overwhelmed by Chinese. Troops sent to reinforce him had been hit badly and the little salient at Chipyongni was “sticking out like a sore thumb”! Freeman asked permission to execute a tactical retreat but Ridgway wanted Freeman to stay put. All other UN units were pulling back and it was soon too late as the swarms of Chinese in the area made the roads potential gauntlets with roadblocks designed to choke UN transport with murderous machine gun fire.
Nevertheless, a last minute decision was made and Almond issued orders to retreat to Yoju, fifteen miles away. As the men of the Twenty-third prepared to fire off ammunition in order to lighten their loads, the orders were changed again. Ridgway promised to provide whatever support it took to hold even if the whole Eighth Army had to come to their rescue.
With at least four Chinese divisions surrounding them, Freeman instructed every commander to inspect fox holes and check fields of fire once again. Fifty-four hundred men were depending on their ability to hold the line together under Freeman’s command. This is where the respect of his men became critical.
On the other hand, Gen. Almond was known to be racially prejudiced, dismissive towards his own commanders and dismissive of the enemy. Only his close relationship to Gen. MacArthur seems to have recommended him as a leader. His prejudice toward black troops was only matched by his inability to make intelligent assessments of the Chinese “laundrymen” who would have eaten his lunch at Chosin had it not been for the Marines- Marines led by a command that subsequently refused to serve under Almond.
Almond’s strategy of using ROK troops as cannon manure in Wonju also evidenced his disregard for Asians and increased the pressure on Paul Freeman’s troop at Chipyongni. The “police action” in the central corridor was going badly just a short distance from the little hills on which Freeman had dug in. One regiment alone had lost 438 men in “Massacre Valley”.
As Wonju collapsed, a spotter plane flew lower when an observer saw a moving line of trees near a river bank. The camouflaged Chinese, so confident that they had never even stopped when they heard the plane fly over, were caught in the open in front of artillery tubes that were perfectly prepared to deliver massive fire. Even under such a withering barrage, the Chinese waves kept coming. When the ammunition was running low and the big guns began to melt, Stewart ordered, “Keep firing until every last shell is used!” More ammo was ordered from Japan and Stewart, the hero of the battle, according to Halberstam, ordered that the guns be fired “until the barrels melt”. Five thousand Chinese were killed but more hard fighting was to come.
Freeman suffered a minor wound and Almond, who was waiting for his opportunity to remove Freeman from command, now issued orders removing Freeman from the battle. Freeman managed to miss his plane and retained command long enough to get his men through the battle, becoming one of the preeminent leaders of the Korean War, mostly as a result of his actions at Chipyongni.
The command sent Marcel Crombez on a controversial rescue mission in which he inadvisedly placed troops on top of the tanks. Foreseeably, when the turrets rotated the men were swept off the tanks during firefights with the Chinese and were left along the way to be killed and captured or captured and killed, in many cases.
The second night at Chipyongni, the Chinese found a route that focused many Chinese troops on one particular sector of the UN perimeter. A friendly fire incident exposed U.S. troops to some terrible losses as Chinese crawled forward again and again with sticks of dynamite lashed to a pole. Wave after wave of Chinese attacked one machine gun position covering a spur on a hill needed by the Chinese to access the position in front of George Company.
The machine gunner, Corp. Eugene Ottesen, knew he was a dead man but fired short bursts that continued to hold the position until he was knocked out by a hand grenade. Others tried to stand in the gap left by Ottesen but ammunition was running low and almost every U.S. soldier was wounded, dying or dead. Crates of ammo were dropped but much of it was damaged and jammed BARs had to be cleared again and again with pocket knives.
Some men turned to the smaller M1 carbine for the close range fighting, but the cold froze the carbines’ actions and made operation difficult. Each fox hole taken by the Chinese now became a position from which Chinese troops could suppress UN fire and make a way for more determined Chinese to come up the hill. By the time the Chinese took McGee Hill there were eight hundred dead Chinese in front of the one position! A combination of endless artillery fire and napalm, however, devastated the seemingly inexorable wave of Chinese manpower.
The Chinese were positioned to exploit their new vantage point but lack of ability to take initiative, lack of communications and Chinese inability to resupply its troops provided enough time for Crombez to arrive with tanks and troops. Notwithstanding the unnecessary loss of troops along the way, Crombez was a savior to some and a bastard to others, including one Captain that threatened to kill him right in front of the bewildered and dazed survivors of the men of the Twenty-third, who thought they had suffered utter defeat. Additionally, the men of the Twenty-third now believed they were watching an insane man accost Crombez!
This was the battle Matt Ridgeway had been looking for and Freeman’s tactics were studied at the Command and General Staff School at Leavenworth for years to come because this is when the U.S. finally learned to fight the Chinese! The massed troops of Chinese could be handled!
The lesson was that if the fighting men held the right positions with the right fields of fire and had the right leadership, the burden of battle would be on the less heavily armed but numerically superior Chinese. As many as five thousand Chinese are estimated to have died at Chipyongni. Thus, according to Halberstam, the Chinese had also learned a lesson about U.S. firepower by the time Chipyongni was over. And another important lesson was that you should always take a good BAR man along for the fight.
See Is China Preparing for War?
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An NRA firearms instructor was visiting our Federal Way Noon Kiwanis Club and I found out he goes all over the Northwest instructing Boy Scouts in firearms safety and marksmanship skills. I also found out that Major General Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting, was a hero during the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) due to his central role in holding a railroad town called Mafeking on the edge of the Transvaal and the Kalahari Desert.
As related by Arthur Conan Doyle (of Sherlock Holmes fame) in The Great Boer War, Baden-Powell was a skilled hunter who had out-scouted Zulu trackers, often alone and at night. He was a combination of a precocious but mischievous school boy, resolute warrior and commander with administrative abilities that shone well during the 217 day siege of Mafeking.
Prior to Mafeking, he had performed service with the 13th Hussars in India, held special service in Africa and then returned to India to take command of 5th Dragoon Guards in 1897. He even performed some secret service activities in Africa disguised as a butterfly collector!
During the time right before commencement of the Boer War in 1899, he wrote a manual summarizing his training lectures to recruits on military scouting. He was organizing frontier militias to aid the regular British Army against the Boers when he was trapped in Mafeking. An 8,000 man Boer Army surrounded Mafeking which the South African Government had left totally unprepared for an attack.
A Boer raiding party captured an armored train along with two7-pound cannon. Colonel Baden-Powell led about nine hundred defenders (including shopkeepers and other local residents of Mafeking), including the garrison that consisted primarily of irregular troops, volunteers and police. The circumference of the town was five or six miles so Baden-Powell supervised construction of numerous small forts manned by ten to forty riflemen.
The Boers deployed two 12-pounders and a huge gun brought from Pretoria that lobbed a 96 pound shell. About one hundred of Mafeking’s defenders launched a successful sortie with bayonet only. Men on both sides died in the Boer trenches. After a few more sorties, it became obvious that the defenders could not afford to waste lives by launching attacks against such a large force. Nevertheless, Baden-Powell taunted the Boers by sending messages telling them they could not take the town by looking at it!
Both sides had excellent marksmen. The Dutch deliberately targeted women and children, according to Sir Arthur.
Baden-Powell maintained morale with comic shows, cricket matches and other sports and concerts. An ordnance factory was started in the railway workshops and kept busy manufacturing fuses, powder and shells. Eventually the factory produced a 5.5 inch smooth-bore gun that performed at good ranges with great accuracy. A force sent from Rhodesia was delayed by difficulties:
The force was originally raised for the purpose of defending Rhodesia, and it consisted of fine material pioneers, farmers, and miners from the great new land which had been added through the energy of Mr. Rhodes to the British Empire. Many of the men were veterans of the native wars, and all were imbued with a hardy and adventurous spirit. On the other hand, the men of the northern and western Transvaal, whom they were called upon to face, the burghers of Watersberg and Zoutpansberg, were tough frontiersmen living in a land where a dinner was shot, not bought. Shaggy, hairy, half-savage men, handling a rifle as a medieval Englishman handled a bow, and skilled in every wile of veldt craft, they were as formidable opponents as the world could show.
The big Boer gun repeatedly had to be moved farther from the English sharpshooters. But six months of resistance under great hardship and constant shelling drained Baden-Powell’s resources. As the inhabitants of the town ate locusts and the world looked on, the besiegers increased in number. Three hundred Boers entered the city at one point only to become pinned down by merciless rifle fire- with 117 Hollanders, Germans and Frenchmen taken prisoner within the city. The failed Boer attack was the last such attempt to be made and the siege was soon lifted. Baden-Powell became a hero and his manual, entitled “Aids to Scouting”, became so popular that in 1908 he rewrote it for young men and boys.
His manual became a best-seller and all over the world scouting groups were formed on an ad hoc basis. WW I started and Lord Kitchener averred that Baden-Powell was more valuable to the war effort leading the Boy Scouts. By 1922 there were at least a million scouts in 32 countries; 3.3 million in 1939. We should all thank men that lead the Boy Scouts and for countless NRA instructors that devote major portions of their lives to make it possible for marksmanship to continue as part of the Boy Scout heritage.
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On September 29, 2010, the City of Federal Way presented an Urban Disaster Preparedness session.
Think about how to store some food and take action immediately. Many people think nothing will happen or that it will happen to someone else, somewhere else and some other time but if you take that attitude you will be standing in line waiting for supplies that may be rather meager. Act within 24 hours by taking some steps or you may never get started.
Have an evacuation plan but store enough food and water to stay at home for the long term. There may be nowhere else to go. Mylar bags and lockable five-gallon buckets are good for storing food. Think about what you will use to cook hot food.
Terrorists are known to be planning to put something in the food or water supply and any interruption in the distribution system will disturb the food and water supplies in other parts of the country.
An event to honor veterans and first responders is planned for November 13 from 1:00-3:00 PM at Todd Beamer High School. Joe Jackson, a distinguished Medal of Honor recipient, will be speaking. We now realize that stateside duty is just as dangerous as going to Iraq or Afghanistan.
Every place is a danger zone! Modern tactical doctrine has evolved to the point where recognizable fronts and uniformed armies have been replaced with committed packs of warriors that randomly circulate in small teams looking for opportunities. Thus, a teacher, a firefighter or a janitor may need to be just as vigilant as a member of our special forces in Afghanistan!
The potential for danger is all around us every day, not just during an obvious catastrophe. This is why churches and pastors may be the most important key to getting ready for future events. The sense of community that already exists in churches requires that pastors, priests and rabbis- even imams and other leaders- train those within our various spiritual communities so that we do not just react to crises.
Every business organization should be discussing these issues and begin creating a plan. Get into CERT training and classes provided by the City, state and federal governments and recognize First Responders that labor among you.
Many of us already have extra food and emergency supplies. None of us are able to take all the steps necessary to prepare for every contingency. We depend on each other. The beginning of good government is when neighbors voluntarily pool resources in order to provide for each other’s well-being and for the common defense.
Historically, public order starts with volunteerism. People have to take the initiative again by making our voices heard and preparing to confront emergencies and/or threats of violence with or without help from the surrounding community. The police and even your neighbors may be overwhelmed during a big disaster.
Every Thanksgiving, I appreciate America’s Biblical roots, the U.S. Constitution and the freedom to talk and write about such things. I also appreciate the professionals that have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and stand guard over the City!
On April 8th, the Tacoma News Tribune published an editorial about alleged death threats against Sen. Patty Murray. The editors stated, “In the furious arguments over health care reform, legitimate conservatives have sometimes been accused of fomenting violence with bitter and angry rhetoric”.
The next day in Olympia, almost three-dozen leftists dressed in black, wearing masks and calling themselves anarchists chanted obscenities at law enforcement officers. The anarchists attacked a newspaper photographer, spray-painted buildings, broke windows and threw newspaper boxes into the street. Police arrested 29 leftists. Two officers were hit - one in the head and one in the groin.
In February, 2008, an antiwar concert at Evergreen State College resulted in severe damage when a deputy’s car was overturned and looted. The name of the hip-hop group- Dead Prez- conveys something of what the anarchists were fomenting at the gathering.
No guns were involved in recent local anarchist attacks. Nor were guns used in 1999 when anti-globalist anarchists went berserk and smashed up the streets of Seattle. A bullet shot through the window of Republican Eric Cantor’s office in Virginia is one recent example of gun violence related to Health Care. Where are the other examples?
Alleged threats by anyone connected with Tea Parties or patriotism are amplified in a virtual reverberating echo chamber. “Wackos on the right have guns,” according to the Tacoma News Tribune.
To put things in historical perspective, however, on August 7, 1970, 17-year-old Jonathan Jackson, armed with an automatic weapon took Judge Harold Haley out of a Marin County courtroom. The left-wing militants took the Judge, Deputy District Attorney and three jurors hostage to demand freedom for the “Soledad Brothers“. Subsequently, a raft of music, heroic literature and popular culture has evolved around the Soledad Brothers who killed prison guards to retaliate for the killing of three black prisoners during a prison fight.
Judge Haley, Jonathan Jackson, and two prisoners were killed as they attempted to drive away from the courthouse. The judge was killed with a sawed-off shotgun fastened to his neck with adhesive tape. The anarchist-socialist left (paradoxically such fish swim in the same schools) conducts terrorist operations against police and government on a regular basis in other countries like Greece- Europe’s current symbol of big government’s fiscal insanity.
Angela Davis purchased the guns. At that time an acting assistant professor in the philosophy department at the UCLA and member of the Communist Party USA, Davis is now a Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Women’s and Gender Studies Department at Syracuse University and a frequent speaker on subjects like racial and gender justice. The list of hardcore Sixties radicals that are now esconced within the ivied halls of academia is a fascinating historical pecularity that is quite extraordinary!
When I was 16 years old, I spent a summer exploring radicalism on the streets of Chicago. I slept in a crumbling Anarchist Bookstore and spent time perusing source documents from the earliest socialist internationales, International Workers of the World and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. I studied antiquated handbooks on how to barricade the streets, deploy Molotov cocktails and foment disturbances designed to raise the consciousness of the proletariat.
The following summer saw the Black Panthers, SDS and Yippies (Youth International Party) succeed in villifying the Chicago Police during the 1968 Democratic Convention. A coalition of various leftwing and counter-cultural groups catalyzed a new perception of the Vietnam War when mainstream news journalists, many of whom were already alienated from U.S. policy in Vietnam, were caught up in the reaction to a well-planned maelstrom of leftist provocation against the police in Lincoln Park. The provocations included throwing bricks and feces at the police and taunting the police officers by calling them pigs.
After I received Christ and repented of my former spiritual ties to such mischief, I felt nothing but remorse for even contemplating such things. But I never dreamt that acting out violence against police and other innocent people might lead one to become a law professor at Northwestern University!
Did Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers, formerly radical bombers within Weatherman faction of the SDS ever suspect that they would rise to the top of the academic elite? The couple are friendly with President Obama and have written and spoken at length about their pasts. Today Ayers is an advocate for progressive education and a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago; she’s an associate professor of law at Northwestern University. They left behind a trail of murderous violence that would make Bonnie and Clyde proud- and never repented. Dr. Ayers never even served any time in prison!
Ayers has spent a great deal of time sitting on boards in Chicago that disperse tax-exempt foundation money primarily for education purposes. Ayers prefers educational programs that promote his radical Marxist-Leninist agenda. In fact, even though Pres. Obama denies a close friendship with Ayers, they have worked together at the foundations.
In fact, Dr. Ayers only regrets that he did not actually kill any U.S. personnel with his bombs. Despite claims in the news media that he never killed anyone, however, there is a great deal of evidence that he was accomplice to the murder of a police officer in San Francisco.
In a 1969 speech to the SDS Weathermen in Flint, Michigan, Dohrn said of the murder of eight month pregnant Sharon Tate, “Dig it! First they killed those pigs and then they put a fork in pig Tate’s belly. Wild!” She said of the LaBiancas- also victims of the Manson family- “Offing those rich pigs with their own forks and knives, and then eating a meal in the same room, far out! The Weathermen dig Charles Manson!”
Leftists often assert that violence is necessary in order to advance the cause of social justice. The mainstream politicians and media focus on isolated examples of violence perpetrated by misguided groups or individuals like Timothy McVeigh that act under color of patriotism. The news media collude with the Democratic attack machine to ignore leftist violence and threats of violence and smear Tea Party folks that peacefully protest and actually love their country too much to even consider acting violently.
President Clinton came out on the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing and renewed claims that talk radio and the internet enable violence by creating a climate of hate. That was how he regained his grip on the levers of presidential power in 1995. The bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City provided the turning point that Clinton needed after the 1994 gully wash against Democrats in Washington, DC. History does not repeat itself but it certainly does seem to rhyme at times.
The concerted refrain is that rightwingers have guns and we are trumpeting an anti-government call to arms. To listen to the squads of Democratic operatives that have taken to the airwaves, those of us that criticize deficit spending want to eliminate police protection and other core government services.
Most of us appreciate our police protection and that is why we exercise our duty to speak out peacefully on behalf of fiscal responsibility. There is a great deal of history to demonstrate the social disorder that occurs when government strips away wealth by increasing the money supply and devaluing currency. Good law enforcement officers cannot afford to serve and protect when tomorrow’s paycheck may barely buy enough to buy the family a loaf of bread!
Legitimate gun owners are as likely to be union members, Democrats, gay activists, liberals, leftists or people of color as “Tea Party” activists. Some of us talk a lot about the Constitution because we have this old fashioned idea that it is the bedrock of the American legal system. On the other hand, left-wing groups like the New Black Panther Party have received favorable treatment from the Obama administration despite a recent record of intimidating voters at polling places and violent, racist rhetoric. How long before the American left repeats the historical and deadly pattern of violence that continues to rage worldwide?
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