National Association of Rural Landowners
                   

"AMERICA HAS BECOME A DEPENDENT CULTURE"
By Ron Ewart

How can you help others, if you can't even help yourself? Your good 'Ole Government has designed and "forced" a system of existence upon us that makes us "dependent" upon them for survival. We are crammed into homes that become unlivable if the power, the water, or the natural gas goes off for a day or more. We are stuffed into apartments so that when one stupid tenant decides to cook (or stay warm) with a barbecue in his unit, the accompanying poisonous fumes (or fire) force everyone else out into the cold night, or kills them outright.

When the power goes off for more than a day, the inhabitants of whole cities can become refugees from the elements and have to be saved by big-brother government. If the help doesn't come fast enough the "refugees" cry foul and complain. As in the travesty that was New Orleans (Hurricane Katrina), the people stood around helpless, waiting for government to deliver them from a nature-made calamity. They were incapable of helping themselves. Several thousand died as a result and billions of tax dollars were squandered to save the rest. They didn't have the intelligence, training or the where-with-all to escape the big city. The big city and their helplessness killed them, or made them wards of the government.

When gas for our cars becomes scarce, we line up like lemmings at the remaining open gas stations. The worst of us crowd into line and most folks just stand there and do nothing to the perpetrators. Or maybe they will call the police (government). The worst in us steal from others in broad daylight to get what they want, sometimes by threat of, or by acts of violence. (NOTE:  This applies to foreign enemies as well. It also applies to your own government which usurps authority over you that goes far beyond its constitutional limits.) But the watchers, the peace makers, the fear mongers and the appeasers do nothing, while our local, national or foreign enemies (even our own government) get stronger and trample all over us.

So what will happen to human behavior when Safeway doesn't have any more food and the gas stations can't deliver any more gas. What will happen when the water, gas and electrical utilities dry up? What will happen when the sewer backs up into your home? Will you be able to survive without government or the Red Cross' help? Will you resort to the survival of the fittest, with guns? Will you "take" (steal) from others to survive? Will you panic, or just give up and die? Or will you be prepared before all this happens?

There are five (5) requirements for survival: 1) Water 2) Food 3) Clothing 4) Shelter and 5) Good Health. (Some say money is the sixth but you can't eat or drink money) Without these requirements in sufficient quantity, you are going to die. It is that simple. Natural and man-made calamities are always with us. If it's not war, its fire, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, plagues, pestilence, or yes even large meteors. You either plan for it, or be prepared to die. You may die anyway, but if you are prepared your chances of survival increase dramatically.

If you live in a single-family home, outfit it for survival. You will need a source for heat and cooking, like a wood stove. You will need a supply of dry wood to keep the wood stove going for extended periods. You will need a potable water source. You will need a food source. You will need the knowledge of first aid and have a first-aid kit available, as you may not be able to get to a doctor or a hospital. If you live in an apartment, you had better plan on finding another safe place to ride out the event and get there soon. Apartments are death traps. Oh and if you don't know that you don't use a Coleman lantern or cook stove, or a barbecue inside your living quarters, or don't use a generator in a garage, or next to your home, you are among the wards of government and will have to be saved at the taxpayers' expense, if you don't die from your ignorance and take a few others with you.

How did you fare in your last emergency? Did you have to leave your home, or were you able to survive in it. Did you have to go to a shelter, or stay with relatives or friends? Were you able to provide help to those in your family that were in need? Did you provide the five survival requirements for your family? Did you protect your home from the elements? Did you measure up as a "man" when things really got tough and protected your family and your possessions? The measure of a "man" is whether he can "cut it". Can you "cut it", or will you be dependent on the government or others? Those that can "cut it" are, or will be the survivors and the defenders of freedom. Those that can't, will have to be carried on the collective backs of those that can.

If we do not teach our children the survival lesson when there is no help, then America is doomed to become a "dependent" culture and destined to abject socialism. When things do get tough, they will have no choice but to reach out to government for help. But what if government isn't there, or doesn't get there fast enough? Will you and your family be able to survive?

So you say, what has all this talk about survival have to do with freedom, liberty and property rights? Just about everything. The government wants to cram you all into big cities by law and drive everyone off of their rural lands by ordinance. They care nothing about constitutional principles. However, the worst place to live in a man-made or natural calamity is a big city. When an earthquake makes the city's streets clogged with fallen debris, when buildings lie in ruin, when dead bodies are everywhere and begin to putrefy, when the water, gas, power and sewer are shut off, when a plague infects millions in the city, or if a foreign government or radical group drops a nuclear bomb on your front door step, if you live in a big city, your chances for survival are subject strictly to chance. However, those who live on rural lands, or rural suburbs, have a much greater chance for survival. Your government, by forcing us all to live in high-dense urban communities, have doomed the city folk to death when the grim reaper comes a callin'. The hard, cold fact is, big cities are hazardous to your health.

We do not mean to impugn a whole culture. There are many good people and there are many survivors out there. There are always many decent acts of charity during and after an emergency. But as we said in the opening sentence: "How can you help others, if you can't even help yourself?"

America was created by independent people who depended only upon themselves, family or neighbors for their survival. Those that depend on government for survival risk their lives on a corrupt bed of quivering quick sand. True Americans choose independence without government help. We choose freedom without government interference. In short, we choose liberty, or we would rather BE dead.

We penned this little epistle after the 6 days we endured without power or running water. We kept warm and cooked over our wood stove. We hauled in potable water, cut and split firewood for our stove, hauled creek water from a nearby stream for our toilets and actually enjoyed the simple life for a few days. But we survived without help from others.

Natural and man-made disasters can occur on any day. Are you ready, or has the promise of government assistance lulled you into a false sense of security? When the "sky" falls, you can only look to yourself, your family and your friends and neighbors, if you truly want to survive, or help others to survive. If the "sky" really falls, government will be more than likely, powerless to help you and you will be on your own, as it was meant to be.

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship." Alexander Tyler 1787



Ron Ewart, President

 

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