The Violence Worker Manifesto

THE VIOLENCE WORKER MANIFESTO

I believe in the shining city on the hill.  I’m a Reagan Republican.

I believe in not asking what my country can do for me, but what can I do for my country.  I’m a JFK Democrat.

I believe in the power of the individual.  I believe that it is individuals that make a society great, not society that makes great individuals.

I believe that victim-hood robs a person and people of greatness. I believe that a person or a people who rise up from and conquer victim-hood are truly great.

I believe in the goodness of the American people.  It’s the same goodness that brought billions in Tsunami aid to the people in Asia and Indonesia and who brought help and aid to the victims of  disasters in our own backyard. 

I believe in America’s greatness and I believe that without a great and strong America, the world will be a much more dangerous place.

I believe that the family is the basic unit of society and if society is to survive, society should work to strengthen the family but not to the point where the family is dependent upon Society.

I believe in God and more to the point, I believe in the Christian God. I believe, in America, you should be able to believe or not believe according to your conscience. 

I believe that the responsibility of government should be limited. Its primary function is to preserve societal order and protect the citizenry from attack.  That might mean we attack first before the other guy gets the chance. 

I believe in an orderly society, but it's not government's job to tell me what to eat, where to live or what kind of car I must drive.

I believe in freedom and I believe that such freedom must come with a certain amount of responsibility and humility.  You have the freedom to speak, you do not have the freedom to incite or cause harm.

In the end, we remember the builders -- those who get things done, not the naysayers and those who are full of doom and gloom.

The Violence Worker
November 21, 2006

Comments

[canuckistani]

Yes, I was just over at the Progressive Conservative and annoyed that someone expected me to come down on either one side or the other--liberal or conservative. My argument is why can't I be a bit of both? Why do people have to be strictly defined as to what camp they fall in. It's like that over at the Indepundit too, which has turned me off to the point I hardly go there anymore.

People who are rigid and inflexible in their political leanings are what's dividing the U.S. These people think they are preserving the country and don't even realize what they are doing to it.

[yankeemom]

Good post! I agree ~ I'm so tired of the us and them division in this country. I really prefer to make up my own mind on what I believe, think and feel. The last thing I want is the govahment in my house.
And all this "it makes me uncomfortable, so we'll make a law against it" nonsense has to go ~

[Violence Worker]

Thank you both. Perhaps I should add a disclaimer:

It's my manifesto, yours may vary by weight, color, size or cooking time.

In other words, That's me, you are different and that is a bit what makes this a great country.

VW

[Tampa Bay Patriot]

I admire and agree with much of what you've stated, here, but am genuinely puzzled by a couple of comments that seem to be in direct opposition to each other.

Perhaps you can clarify?

You say you have the right to use pre-emptive lethal force "before the other guy gets the chance", yet we do not have the freedom to "incite or cause harm" with words? I guess that's thrown out the window if we've already identified an entity that may do us harm and we pre-emptively strike with words?

And while I admire your open mindedness vis-a-vis not shoving your own version of Christianity down my throat, I would simply ask how, as a Christian, you balance pre-emptive strikes with your faith in Jesus "turn the other cheek" Of Nazareth?

You're obviously a bright and articulate person. My heart aches at the thought of you investing those gifts in the violence/death business. Any idea how many folks your work killed over your career? Not trying to be flippant. Just wondering if you've ever pondered that.

Peace, health, and prosperity to you and your's.

[Violence Worker]

Thank you for your well thought out comments.

Words are different then the threat of bodily harm. Talk is one thing, but when the words are intended to convey a credible threat, that is a crime and we arrest people for conveying a credible threat. That fits the definition of "preemptive". And so it is with nations.

We have a right and an obligation to defend ourselves from credible threats. An example of someone just talking is the Communist Dictator, Hugo Chavez. Mr. Chavez is all bluff and bluster. Are we going to attack him? Hardly.

Saddam Hussein, on numerous occasions threatened the US and was believed - even by the French and the Russians to have chemical and biological weapons. Weapons that could be given to terrorists or Iraqi agents and smuggled into the US. Even Bill Clinton understood the threat.

My belief in Christianity includes the belief that I have a right to protect myself, my family and my home from harm. I don't go looking for trouble, but if it finds me, it is my responsibility to protect my family. I am not a pacifist.

I've never been in combat. That's not to say that I am opposed to it.

I spent 20 years of active duty in the Air Force. In that time, I suppose my efforts aided the ability of pilots to drop bombs or shoot down other planes. I spent a lot of time working on munitions handling equipment. Today, I help provide direct support to those who fly the C-17. The C-17 is America's premier cargo/transport aircraft. I assume they haul munitions to Iraq and Afghanistan from time to time. They also haul relief supplies to places like Aceh, Indonesia and people out of New Orleans.

None of that bothers me. I sleep well at night. I sleep even better because of the men and women who wear the uniform who are out there ready to protect you and I from harm.

I am not a violent man. Violence should be something we try to avoid and should be used only as needed.

If you threaten and wave a gun and won't put it down, don't be surprised if I fire the first shot.

VW

[Ian MacLeod]

Like another commenter here, I agree with a lot of what you've said. What I can't for the life of me understand is how you can completely ignore the administration's systematic destruction of the very Constitution he swore to uphold, or the lies upon lies upon lies, including deliberately cooked intel that got us into this war they had planned even before Bush ran, much less took office. How can you support a man whose family and fellow Old Money Elites and appointees who owed literally STOLE more than one election? There so very, VERY MUCH evidence like that, and that's with the president classifying out of reach everything he can get his hands on!

Here's one biggie: he sued to stop a vote recount in Florida on the grounds that it would cause him "irreparable harm". In other words, if the real count were known, he'd lose the election. The judge was a Bushie and gave it to him. Election by flunky. Not very American.

He calls himself "pro-life", but he could care less how many innocent people die in a war we should never have been in. Iraq had no WMD and HE KNEW IT! They had no plans to attack the US; they weren't even harboring/training terrorists (unlike us in the School of the Americas). Hussein had been backed over and over by the US. The problem happened when he disobeyed orders and attacked Kuwait. Still, IRAQ WAS NO THREAT! They DID, however, have the cheapest, best quality oil on the planet, and lots of it.

Bush fires expert after expert until he finds one who'll sell out or agree with him. We LOSE, have LOST, centuries of human expertise. The laws he backs have ruined much of our infrastructure, our public schools, dismantled laws that conserved our natural resources and poisoned much of the commons, shredded the social contract... I could go on listing things like this for a long time here. The (should be) clear point is: this president is a liar, a thief, a conscienceless mass murderer and a war criminal who will happily impoverish every non-wealthy person in America to keep feeding the already-wealthy and Big Business. There's just too much evidence lying around thick on the ground for any of this to be rationally disputed. On top of that, his administration has screwed our comrades-in-arms royally, over and over, starting with turning them into the Big Oil private army. I know: I'm dependent for most of my own treatment on the VA. So how can you support thid administration in any way? Or have I misunderstood?

I am, FYI, a Vietnam Era vet, now disabled (no combat, but I joined up in wartime, like both parents and every male relative since the Spanish-American War). What you call "doom and gloom" and seem to regard as sniveling, I see as trying like Hell to sound the alarm that we've been taken over by a bunch fanatic nutcases that are destroying everything we value about America. And the more I dig, the more I find, damn it all anyway.

Nailing someone whm we KNOW is about to attack is one thing. Cheney's "one percent Doctrine" is something else again; that would be "obscene". The Rule of Law means nothing to them, either. Unless they manage to create another "emergency", declare martial law, suspend the Constitution and implement laws from the Old Testament like a lot of the Dominionists in the Neocon core want and (by their own statements) intend to do. Another sickness at the heart of my beloved country to worry about and fight against, now, when I'm old, damaged and in pain and all I can do is write.

I remember the arms race very well. I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis and a lot of other things like that, but for the very first time in my life I am afraid for my country! I've gotten into fights more than once in my life defending America in private arguments with loudmouthed Europeans and a Canadian; now I cannot. There IS no defense.

Can you explain how you miss so very much? Or appear not to care might be more accurate. I don't understand.

Ian

[anna]

Brilliant, Ian.

Where's your rebuttal MR. VW?

[Violence Worker]

How about this, anna. Why waste my time on someone who never came back?

Only an idiot thinks Bush shredded the constitution. It's baseless and you are proving to be as clueless as Ian.

VW

[Cheworks1959]

Ana, the mask of the American public has been removed. I grew up being told that Americans are, as a whole, ignorant; a discussion of our under-funded and 17th ranked (of all industrialized countries) education system is a topic in itself). I was also told that the majority of Americans that volunteered for the Armed Services, usually but not always, enlisted due to economic factors (lack of education, poor job availability in the region, lack of college money). Having stated that, VW strikes me as someone more interested in dividing through hate than uniting through tolerance and knowledge. VW proves that there exists an element in American society that hates everything that is not like them. Well, sir, you are wrong. Here is a quote by a Wolfgang Goethe (German literature): “None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free.” Gracias.

[Kirk]

With all respect to Mr. VW:

CHEWORKS1959, your hero was a communist piece of trash and a filthy scum-bag who murdered people in cold blood...he got EXACTLY what was coming to him when he tried to hurt MORE people in South America...the most disgusting part is how you and your liberal/socialist friends use his image as some sort of a hero and brainwash the college kids today with lies about him...someday Castro and all his cronies will be gone, and the long-suffering people of Cuba will finally be free, and then maybe people will know that CHE GUEVARA was a murdering scum-bag!