From: Henryindivideo@webtv.net   
      
   What is an American patriot?   
      
   Group: alt.discuss.clubs.public.arts-lit.misc.papared Date: Mon, Jul 25,   
   2005, 8:23pm (EDT-3) From: PapaRed@webtv.net (Papa Red)   
   What is an American patriot?   
   One thing MOST Americans seem to consistently fail to understand is what   
   a   
   American PATRIOT really is.   
   An American patriot is NOT somebody who supports his government. If   
   that's   
   what the American definition of a patriot were, we would not have been   
   calling George Washington, Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin,   
   James Madison, Thomas Payne, John Hancock and all the rest of them   
   "patriots" would we? Those true patriots were all men who openly   
   advocated   
   revolt against THEIR government. That's what made them American patriots   
   in   
   the first place.   
   THEIR government, the one oppressing them in 1775, was headquartered in   
   London, England.   
   MY government, the one oppressing me in 2005, happens to be located in   
   Washington D.C.   
   Aside from that, there is little difference. To me, the citizen who   
     runs around waving the American flag,   
     pledges his support to the government in Washington, . and goes   
   along   
   with what that government says   
   is the same thing as what the colonials used to call a "loyalist." We   
   Americans never used the word "patriot" to describe anybody who was a   
   loyalist. The very term "loyalist" meant somebody who was "loyal" to the   
   government in London and to King George III. A "loyalist" was the then   
   equivalent of today's "statist" in that they supported the (then) state   
   which was (then) the British government.   
   The true American patriot is the antithesis of a loyalist. The true   
   definition of what an American patriot ACTUALLY IS can be determined   
   only by examining what those men who signed the Declaration of   
   Independence (and their followers) ACTUALLY DID. So, let's learn what a   
   true   
   patriot is by taking a look at what those true patriots actually did.   
   1. They spoke and wrote profusely and published their beliefs and   
   opinions   
   clearly stating the truth, that their government was tyrannical and   
   guilty   
   of crimes against the liberty of the common man. They openly denounced   
   the   
   government and its agents, not only in print but in public speeches and   
   gatherings. They did this despite great personal risk for doing so. This   
   went on for some time prior to 1775.   
   2. They conspired, both in secret and later openly, to overthrow and   
   revolt against their government with the aim of throwing it out and   
   establishing a new and different governmental system. In doing this,   
   they   
   were branded as traitors and seditionists by their government... but   
   they   
   did it anyway, despite the risk.   
   3. Eventually, after their government had fired the first shots, they   
   took   
   up arms AGAINST their government and began killing it's policing agents,   
   who   
   were the armed force enforcing the oppressive dictates of their   
   government.   
   All these things were done by a small number of men, against great odds   
   and at great personal and economic risk, but they did them anyway and   
   that's   
   what made them true American PATRIOTS. They did these things, I might   
   add,   
   in an age when documents had to be all handwritten and communication was   
   by   
   means of letters carried on horseback.   
   Those who would call themselves American patriots need to stand ready to   
   do the same things today that our forefathers did in 1775, and we'd   
   better   
   be ready to be called conspirators, traitors, seditionists and (today's   
   buzzword) terrorists by the government loyalists we oppose. We must not   
   allow them to get away with branding us with those labels. Labels are   
   the   
   instruments tyrannical governments all use to thwart opposition. Any   
   government born out of a revolution, as was ours, can be replaced by the   
   same means. And it doesn't take a majority to do it, just as it didn't   
   in   
   1775. When you see or hear patriots branded by the establishment using   
   such   
   terms, remember this. The present American government and its   
   establishment   
   press using such labels here are no different from the government of   
   Communist China branding its dissidents as "counter-revolutionaries".   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)