Dangerous Standing Armies

Illinois, and other places have been training their standing armies for tyranny.   The most recent training was in small-town Tinley Park Illinois, a place I used to frequent for outdoor concert events, is now home to noises of a different nature:

"Residents said they heard “bomb” noises from about 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Tinley Park police received about 25 calls from residents who were either fearful or angry, especially in the wake of the bombings in Boston last week.The urban warfare training at the former Tinley Park Mental Health Center was expected to use small explosives to blow doors off hinges, local authorities said. A second training exercise at the former mental health center is planned for tonight, this time with helicopters, police said."

As you recall, Thomas Jefferson listed many grievances that King George III did to the American people... let me know if any of these things sound familiar:

"He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance." [1]

"For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: " [1]

"He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies" [1]

"He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power." [1]

Some other historical figures weigh in on the situation as well: 

"A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home."[2]

"to keep within the requisite limits a standing military force, always remembering that an armed and trained militia is the firmest bulwark of republics — that without standing armies their liberty can never be in danger, nor with large ones safe"[3]

"And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms; or to raise standing armies, unless necessary for the defense of the United States, or of some one or more of them; or to prevent the people from petitioning, in a peaceable and orderly manner, the federal legislature, for a redress of grievances; or to subject the people to unreasonable searches and seizures of their persons, papers or possessions."[4] 

"Standing Armies have ever proved destructive to the Liberties of a People, and where they are suffered, neither Life nor Property are secure."[5]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.   YOU are the ones paying these standing armies, and they are not making you safer.   Demand their removal, and demand your courts switch from their current roles as tax collectors, back to their real purpose, which is protecting the rights of the people.  We can all stop this tyranny, if we all just refuse to pay for it.




[1] Jefferson, Thomas; Declaration of independence (1776-07-04)
[2] Madison, James Speech; Constitutional Convention (1787-06-29), from Max Farrand's Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, vol. I [1] (1911), p. 465 
[3] Madison, James; First Inaugural Address (1809-03-04)
[4] Adams, Samuel; Debates of the Massachusetts Convention of 1788
[5] Reid, John Phillip; 1770 New Hampshire Gazette