If you read
my previous column on this topic (“Picking Rocks,” 4-11-2012), you know that
rocks represent the politicians, bureaucrats and policies that harm our
prosperity and limit our liberties. Rocks must be removed from the field
whenever we encounter them. They will damage our tools (yes, I broke a tine on
my 3-point tiller on my final pass before planting) and disrupt our seeding if
we allow them to remain in place. Rocks hide just under the soil until a rain
exposes them, and that is when the diligent farmer must retrieve them and
remove them from the field.
Clods are
somewhat different from rocks. Clods are tightly wound or clustered hunks of
soil that resist the manipulation of the seed bed preparation tools. Clods are
made of the same stuff as the remainder of the fertile soil so the goal is not
to discard them, but to pulverize their stubbornness into cooperating with the
rest of the seedbed. While clods are actually soil, their tendencies to deflect
seeds at planting time can limit plant growth and diminish the harvest.
Cultimulchers and cultipackers are useful for breaking the clods, but sometimes
after a gentle rain clodbusting can be accomplished by the more gentle
application of a harrow. The harrow is preferable because of compaction issues
related to the two packer types.
Yes, we do
have some clods in the liberty-patriot movement. They are the ones who may be
focused on only one issue, one candidate or one party. Their sentiments are
with us and our goals, but their blinders have caused them to be resolutely
bullheaded about what they perceive as our best path. Oddly… most clods believe
that all the other members of the movement are thickheaded and cloddish. They
suspect that we are unusually dense because we cannot grasp the obvious
superiority of their point of view. They stay with us, but constantly grouse
about our failure to see it their way. They bitch a lot. They rightfully
discern that their opinions are unappreciated. While they profess loyalty to
the Declaration, Constitution and other Founding or Framing principles, they insist
on government intervention into certain aspects of our lives. Typically the
clods support a Homeland Security-type effort that crushes individual liberty
or they promote federal legislation that defines strict guidelines for personal
behavior. Neither approach is constitutional nor respecting of individual
sovereignty. Clods rarely understand how their positions may be counter to the
Founding vision. Instead, they interpolate the characters and integrity of the
Founding Generation into hard-fast legal requirements. They fail to realize
that the Framers’ insistence on citizen virtue as a fundamental element of our
nation’s success was an individual necessity not a collection of laws and
rules.
Clods are
not hopeless. They are valuable members of the field. If treated with care and
carefully cultivated, they will become very fertile members of the movement.
Rocks are permanent, always dangerous and must be removed. Clods generate bumpy
rides and are difficult and obstinate, but they must be massaged to become the
productive assets they can be. Leaders and Do-ers sometimes have difficulty
discerning the difference between rocks and clods. Clods often seem to be
obstructionist and disruptive, but their hearts and souls are laden with patriotic
fervor. Their reasoning, understanding and knowledge must catch up to their
passion, and they will become the indefatigable warriors for the cause of
liberty. Admittedly they’re a little thick, somewhat hard and very rough around
the edges, but clods are precious and will carefully nurture the seeds of
freedom if they are treated appropriately. Clods will become vital parts of the
fertile field when they accept the goals for the harvest.
Always
discard the rocks. The politicians, bureaucrats and unconstitutional policies,
programs and agencies are lethal. Their very presence displaces the seeds of
liberty and destroys the work of freedom. When the rocks are numerous and
control the field, the harvest is meager and the people starve. Rocks are
deadly. Clods can counteract the rocks. Before they have become integrated into
the fields of freedom, clods are used by rocks to stir the people and advance
the rocks’ agendas, but when the clods understand and appreciate their rightful
places in the fields of liberty’s labor, they will expose the rocks for what
they are. Move and destroy the rocks. Nurture and work with the clods. Liberty
will win.
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