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Metal
and Wood, by Dennis Bateman:
It is a rare person who does not attach some sort of value or emotion
to some physical object or to an event. A home becomes more than a
building. A statue of the Virgin Mary, a crucifix, a flag or a song, or
even a photograph can stir emotions greater than the value of the
material item.
I
have a piece of paper showing I served in the military until I was
discharged honorably. But, oh, the memories that piece of paper
conjures up. The friends, the fun times. The bad times. The times when
we were bound closer to strangers than to our own families and, in
frightening chaos, our lives hung by a thread.
Many of our friends died far from home. Ask us about the feeling of
“American soil” upon returning to the land we loved. Ask those
returning soldiers about America.
Remember the old, faintly humorous band of American Legionnaires,
wearing out-dated military uniforms straining at the buttons. But, God
how proudly they marched. Grinning, waving to friends and families, and
always, always “The Flag!” Ask them if the flag is mere cloth, I dare
you.
See the elderly lady sitting in a lawn chair watching the fourth of
July parade. Three flags carefully folded some forty years ago into
triangles now rest in her lap - one for each lost son. Ask her if those
flags are mere cloth, I dare you.
Look at the old man quietly crying, leaning against the Iwo Jiima
Memorial at Arlington Cemetery. As he turns to you, smiles with some
embarrassment, and says in a choked whisper, “I was there.” Ask him,
“Is it just metal and clay?” Ask him. I dare you.
The Wall. My God, the Wall. See the young man lightly tracing the name
of his father there inscribed. Ask him if its just rock. Ask him. I
dare you.
My guns? They’re of little real value compared to my family and my
home. They are toys, or tools, or both. But what those guns represent
to me is greater than all of us, greater than myself, my family, indeed
greater than our entire generation.
What could be of such value?
The freedom of man to live within civil, self-imposed limitations
rather than under restrictions placed upon him by a ruler or a ruling
class.
Imagine the daring, the bravery of a few men to declare they intended
to create a new country, independent of the burden of their established
Rulers!
Those men we call our forefathers were brilliant men. They could have
maneuvered themselves into positions of influence within the structure
of the times, but they did not. They struggled to free themselves from
tyranny. They wrote the Declaration of Independence. And they backed up
their words and ideals with metal and wood.
They knew the dangers of such dreams and actions. They knew it was a
frightening and dangerous venture into the unknown when they dared
reach beyond their grasp for a vision - for an ideal. But they dared to
dedicate themselves to achieve Liberty and Freedom for their children,
and their children’s children, through the generations.
Imagine the dreams and yearnings of centuries finally being reduced to
the written word. The Rights of “We the People!” instead of the “Powers
of the Monarchy.”
Our forefathers dared to create a new government - a new form of
government. And they knew that any organization has, as its first
and foremost goal, its continued existence. Second only to that it
strives to increase its power. It plots, it devises, it maneuvers to
achieve control over its environment - over its subjects.
Our Forefathers decided to make America different from any country,
anywhere, at any time in the entire history of the entire world. This
country, this new nation of immigrants, would be based upon the
concept that people could rule themselves better than any single person
or small group of persons could rule them.
Other countries have had outstanding documents with guarantees for its
citizens - but the citizens have become enslaved. How, these great men
pondered, can we ensure this new government will remain subject to the
will of the People?
They wanted limits upon this new government. Therefore, our forefathers
wrote limitations into the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. And one
of those Rights was that metal and wood, as the final power of the
people, would secure this country for the future generations.
Metal and wood were the means by which we won our freedom.
Metal and wood were the means by which we kept our freedom.
Metal and wood may be the means by which we regain our freedom.
Metal and wood are the final power of the people. Take away the metal
and wood and the people become powerless - they can only beg, they
supplicate for favors.
We are unique in our ability to rule ourselves but we are letting it
slip away.
Today we compromise. We try to appease man’s insatiable appetite for
power by throwing him bits of our freedoms. But the insatiable appetite
for power can not be appeased. The freedoms we feed him only make us
weaker and him stronger.
We must conquer him and again ensure the “Blessings of Liberty” won for
us by our forefathers.
We must be ready to use metal and wood again, for if we are ready,
truly ready, we may be able to conquer the monster with words - for in
its heart it is a coward. But if we continue to feed the monster our
freedoms, we will become too weak to win, to weak even to fight, and we
will become a conquered people. We will have sold ourselves and our
future generations into servitude.
If words fail us, we will use metal and wood, we will regain what we
have lost, we will achieve what we seek, we will guarantee the America
of our forefathers for the future generations.
So you see, our guns are more than metal and wood. They are our
heritage of freedom. They are the universally understood symbol that
the government, no matter how big and strong it may be, answers to us!
They are the tools we will use to prevent tyranny in the land of our
forefathers and our children. So, ask me what my guns mean to me. Ask
my children what our guns mean to them. Ask us. I dare you.
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