Time to lead by example

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sat, 20 Oct 2001 15:32:54 GMT

FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED Oct. 20, 2001
THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
Time to lead by example

Authorities are advising Americans not to panic or exaggerate the risks from the dissemination of anthrax spores through the mails. Indeed, a sense of proportion is called for.

Though no innocent death should be dismissed as unimportant, the fact remains that only tabloid photo editor Bob Stevens at Florida-based American Media, Inc. has died as a result of this (to date) puny terror campaign -- in part because he had the misfortune to be the first infected, before health workers knew what to watch for.

As of this writing, a grand total of six more Americans are now confirmed as having been infected. But Anthrax -- an animal disease not usually contagious between humans -- is easily treated with antibiotics in its early stages, and fears of any large numbers of deaths are, so far, inappropriate. All those currently infected are expected to make a full recovery.

That's not to say sensible caution and watchfulness aren't in order. Unfortunately, the terrorists (whoever they may be) have already achieved one of their major goals. New precautions for handling mail -- steps which will be costly and time-consuming and which will inevitably leave America a somewhat less open and trusting society -- are now likely to be adopted at the offices of political figures, the news media, and other institutions which reasonably consider themselves to be high-visibility targets.

But what is needed now is for those who are calling on the public to remain calm and proceed with our normal lives, to demonstrate the courage necessary to do just that, themselves.

Leadership does not require absurd bravado and risk-taking, but it always has involved a willingness to maintain aplomb in the face of a certain degree of physical hazard, if only to set a good example. Commanders from Alexander to George Washington to Douglas MacArthur were legends in their time for maintaining their calm under fire. Their strategic genius would have been undimmed had they sent forth their orders while cowering in some bunker in the rear, but somehow the effect on their men would just not have been the same.

Did Mr. Churchill and King George and the mother of the current queen attempt to run their wartime affairs from some safe sanctuary in Scotland or Nova Scotia? They did not. By and large, they endured the blitz with the common Londoner, instilling pride, courage, and resolve by their quiet example.

So, what does our House of Representatives do while advising the common American to buck up, stand tall, show a stiff upper lip and continue heir daily tasks undaunted? They squawk in terror at news that a few dozen mailroom employees have apparently been exposed to anthrax spores from a single envelope, gather up their briefcases, throw their interns over their shoulders, and head for the hills, giving more than 5,000 employees a two-day paid holiday while their building is disinfected.

Did I mention that the mailroom where the spores were discovered was the Senate mailroom, and that the Senate remains in session, while the lower house gallops out of town like Ichabod Crane, or the damsels with their parasols careening back across the Potomac after First Bull Run?

Meantime, the American Medical Association urged Americans Wednesday to quit prescribing or stockpiling unnecessary Cipro; only people who have actually been exposed to anthrax are supposed to take the 60-day course to prevent infection. Surgeon General David Satcher urged Americans not to start knocking back prophylactic doses of Cipro, to "understand the harm that can be done if people hoard antibiotics and use them inappropriately so that we develop more resistant strains" ...

... while public officials like New York's Gov. George Pataki, apparently targeted by the terrorists but who (so far as we're being told) has not actually been exposed to the disease, admit they've already started their courses of the specialized antibiotic.

The American public are indeed maintaining an admirable degree of calm in this unsettling battle with a faceless, cowardly enemy that seeks to demoralize and sap the energies of a proud, free nation whose achievements they and their squalid, repressive homelands cannot match.

(So pathetic are these goons that they send their children to America for decent educations and medical care, paying with money happily earned on our stock markets ... even while inciting their ill-informed, propagandized followers to celebrate each underhanded blow against "the Great Satan," blaming all their own failures on the intricate plottings of the omnipotent "International Jew.")

While police and intelligence agencies are doubtless working 'round the clock to identify and nab our tormentors, our leaders must be frustrated at their revealed inability to solve such problems overnight.

But no one expects that. What the American public does demand -- and does have a right to expect -- is to be told the truth; for our leaders to practice those same courses of action which they recommend for us (flying commercial, for instance, without their armed bodyguards ... until they see fit to allow us to carry our own arms); and most of all that they screw their courage to the sticking place, accepting some reasonable measure of risk when necessary in order to get on with the task of hand ... if nothing else, to set a good example for the children.

Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Subscribe to his monthly newsletter by sending $72 to Privacy Alert, 561 Keystone Ave., Suite 684, Reno, NV 89503 -- or dialing 775-348-8591.

Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com

"When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong. The minority are right." -- Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926)

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken

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Quotes

Government doesn't work. Never did. Never will. Can't. But there are lots of good people. Love them.

-- Bill St. Clair

The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

-- L. Neil Smith

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair