Theos-Talk Archives (June 1997 Message tl00149)

Alan:
We've all thought about that.  Just packing up everything and leaving the
state.  However, after thinking about it, we realized that it just isn't
going to solve anything.  The friend which was beaten is very concerned
about the welfare of the rest of the people in this town, as I am.  She's
concerned about the ignorance of the general population here regarding the
existence of such a militia.  If we leave, it only means that we don't
care about everyone else.  Everyone is affected by them, whether they know
it or not.  We've decided to stay and try to expose them for what they
are, in the hopes that they will 1) leave, or 2) be brought to justice.
If I do leave, it will be a very selfish act indeed, and I won't be able
to live with myself knowing that I left thousands of people in the dark.
After we blow this thing out in the open, we probably will leave, for the
aggression toward all of us will be very extreme, I'm sure.

Patrick:
You are correct in the reasons behind the rise of militias in the U.S. and
their popularity.  However, many militias are not just fighting for their
rights.  There is more to it than just that.  This is the scenario.  A
friend of mine came up from California and bought some property up here.
She is a metalsmith by trade, a skill passed down to her by her father.
She built a house on her property, and a shop so that she could work on
restoring things like antique swords and guns as well as creating some of
her own "look-alikes" of the old weapons.  She had a road which ran
by her property and realized later that the road was ON her property.
This road had a fair amount of traffic, and the point of buying the
property where she did was to have some peace and quiet.  It is basically
out in the middle of nowhere.  So she put up a "no trespassing" sign on
the road allowing a neighbor she had become acquainted with to pass
through if he wanted to.  Things were ok for a while, but the neighbor
soon began to start travelling the road with others and it didn't take
long for the traffic to get just as bad as it was before.  So my friend
put a gate across the road.  They went around the gate.  A week or two
later, she woke up to noises outside of her little cabin which she built
herself.  She took up a pistol and opened the door to look outside.  It
was dark, and she saw several shadows moving around.  She fired a few
shots into the air and the shadows scattered.  I forgot to mention that
she had been threatened before this by a few of the people living in her
area, that if she tried to block their passage again, they would "do
something" about it.  Of course, she was very frightened by the
disturbance outside, and decided to grab a shotgun, which wasn't loaded,
to protect herself against anyone that had the nerve to approach her.  As
she was loading the gun, standing outside the door, a fist seemed to come
out of nowhere, knocking her to the ground.  Another followed, breaking
her jaw and the bones in her ears.  Her eye was pushed back into her
skull, fortunately undamaged.

Sometime after putting up the no trespassing sign and the attack, her
neighbor had approached her, learning that she was a gunsmith, and asked
her to come to a "neighborhood meeting".  It was here that she found out
about the militia.  They wanted her to join them.  To help them build
guns, etc. in their fight for "freedom".  They told her quite a lot about
themselves.  They showed her bits and pieces of their arsenal, some of
which included automatic guns, rockets, and many other VERY illegal items.
They told her of their cause, who they were, what they were fighting for.
She quickly learned that these people were very "neo-nazi" oriented with
regards to their ideas of a "free" society.  Of course, she declined,
agreeing with their concerns about freedom, but not their definition of
freedom, and definitely not their violent way of obtaining it.It was here
that she learned that her "wonderful" neighbor was the head of this
organization.

She went to police and they refused to investigate the matter.  She went
to the FBI and they told her "there is no militia here."  She can't seem
to get anyone to listen to her, despite the fact that she was almost
killed.  If the militia had been fighting for freedom, they would have
surely understood the right that she had to her own land.  They are not
the kind of militia that I can respect.  Granted, there are others which
fight for the cause that I can agree with.  The government takes away more
and more of our rights by the week.  They don't kill people due to their
skin color, or sexual preference, etc.  I can respect their values.  The
militia here I could never respect.

Liesel:
I honestly don't know how my fellow T/theosophists could help.  The main
problem we have is the fact that government agencies refuse to accept the
fact that there is a problem here.  They deny the violence as if they were
TOLD to ignore it.  What we need is someone who has enough influence in
government and law enforcement to wake these people up!  I refuse to
believe that government agencies only know of the existence of the
oppressive and hate-driven militias in Texas and Montana.  Yet they deny
the existence of one here ...the perfect place for one to be.  Out in the
middle of nowhere...a town with little crime.  Maybe they are ignorant of
the fact, but they even refused to investigate it.  Even after my friend
was physically assaulted on her own property!  I just don't understand any
of it.  It frightens me a little, to know that this can happen to anyone
and no one will do anything about it.

The only choice we really have now is to bring the existence of these
people out in the open.  We want to let people know that they are not
being protected, and there is definitely something here to be protected
from.  This is more than likely happening in every state in America.
Possibly even on a world-wide basis.  Who knows.  If the government does
know about such things, it doesn't appear that they want to tell anyone
about it.

Thank you all for your concern in this matter.  It helps to know that
someone is listening.  I sent the letter in my prior post to several
places.  Human Rights organizations, the White House, Art Bell (a little
media influence perhaps?), the Southern Poverty Law Center, and a few
others.  I am still waiting for replies from them.  I doubt if I will get
any.  I'll be going over to speak with my friend tonight.  I still don't
know the whole story.  I think that if I did, it would be much easier to
write letters to the appropriate places and hopefully get a response.

Good wishes,

Jaqi.