III: Consider

How many people in America do you think there are who are III, even if they are not aware of it yet?

I think there are many. They are in Alex Jones' audience. They are in the audiences of Rush, Levin, Savage, the Judge, and even Hannity. We are talking about original Tea Party folks who got shoved out of the way by the Establishment when the RINO's took over.

They are the quiet guys at the gun shop. They are the guys who don't say much at a town hall meeting - but they watch everyone, and they know who is trying to ruin their lives.

These people are III. These people are the same sort who met John Parker on the Green when it was time. You don't think everyone at Lexington agreed on everything, do you? What they had in common was simple: They were willing to kill the British who were ruining their lives.

When folks today look around for people who think as do they, for people who are fed up and understand that 2A is an ugly but legitimate political remedy, they have a hard time finding us. We are few, to be sure. Also, part of that is the fault of some people in our recognized III community.

I am moving away from the Mike discussion here, folks. But here is a fact: There are many examples of people who tag themselves as III going into the "NRA-type" gun community and applying purity tests, ridiculing NRA-types for their positions, and generally isolating the III, rather than finding the common ground that we share with such people and shutting our mouths about the details about which we disagree.

There are a LOT of burned bridges out there.

If you and I do not fix that, who will? If you and I do not reach out on radio and via other means to find those people who agree with 80% of our goals and find a way to work together, we will never become a real political force. If we permit our obnoxious past to define us today, we will forever be an impotent group of guys and gals circle-jerking like Nero.

Many of you were in the military. I do not think you can deny feeling pride when you earned a tab for marksmanship, or for any other demonstration of a new skill. That helped form bonds among you and your fellow Warriors. It is called cohesion and morale.

We are trying to do the same thing. I want people to be proud to wear a III patch. I want people to see a III patch on cap across a gun show and know that he has serious shared common ground with that other person. That is the value of the patches, caps, shirts, stickers, flags.

But we have to be a group of people who are worthy of the trust and efforts of other Americans who want Liberty in their lives. We have to be a group of people who look at a typical NRA gunner and be able to say: I do not agree with everything you say, but dammit, we know who the real enemy is and we'll stand together to defeat his intent.

Not every NRA type is compatible with the III. Many are happy to deny you X or Y so long as they get their Z. But I am willing to bet that the 80% rule applies pretty well: We can probably find 80% of that group with whom we agree on 80% of the important goals before us.

Let's work together to raise the public image of the III. Let's make a III patch or cap something that many Liberty-loving Americans covet on their gear.

There are some very serious Patriots who read our blogs (or run their own blogs) who have dropped their III tags over the last year or so because of the image we have as a group. I am going to do my damndest to make them proud once again to call themselves III. That will not happen if we simply ask them to start wearing III Gear.

We have to earn it.

We have to earn it for those closest to us, and we have to earn it from those who we find at gun shops, gun shows, on the radio, and wherever we happen to meet an American who is serious about Liberty.

In my mind, we took a serious step in that direction today when serious thinkers in our community did a 'Hard Thing' and imposed discipline within the group. (For the record, AP had the balls to include me in reprimand, and I know I deserved a portion of it. When I choose to respond to antagonism, I tend to respond in a nuclear fashion. Standing up to your enemies should be easy. Standing up to your friends is harder, and AP did that. Good on him.)

Let's earn the respect of serious Americans, and make them proud to stand in the history books and call themselves members of we modern III Patriots.

Kerodin
III