We have been warned...

[Heartland Patriot]

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

We have been warned...take heed.

[Heartland Patriot]

I see that about 150 people have read this statement up to this point. In case anyone doesn't know about Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn...he was a dissident during the days of the Soviet Union, and spent time in the gulag (prison camp). He started out being a part of the system there and ran afoul of it, and came to see it for what it really was...

You can read about him at the following:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Solzhenitsyn" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[longtooth]

I well remember the news broadcasts that were in that day.

[FishInTx]

Feels like something is coming. I am a member of the NRA, I warn my family and friends, and I prep. Tried to convince my democrat acquaintances to vote republican this time, to no avail obviously. Not too sure what else I can do. Seems like most people have just dropped out of what's going on in Washington. The writing is on the wall and nobody seems to notice or care?

[Jeff B.]

We (the nation) are at a very delicate place right now. You can pretty much divide the nation into two camps. One, feels it has the momentum and can impose what it believes to be "right" on the other half. That "other half" has been simmering for the last four years, first shocked by the passage of the ACA and rapidly expanding government entitlements, now finding out that they're going to have to really ante up to pay for what the other half wants and Oh Bye The Way, we the "victors" are going to radically change your rights under the Second Amendment and for once and all, see that the public safety is ensured.

My personal belief is that the Progressives are about to commit what will amount to a fatal error for the future of this country. If they are successful in ramming through their agenda, they are going to force a large segment of the population (which is also a net positive tax paying segment I bet) to make a couple of decisions.

First, will they obey the new laws/regulations?

Next, will they feel that the Federal Government has overstepped its legal and Constitutional bounds?

Finally, will they begin to reject the idea that the Federal Government represents them, has legal and moral authority over them and essentially become a mass of people that seek every opportunity to make things difficult or even impossible for the government and its agencies. Will tax protests, the underground economy and tax avoidance become a national pastime as it is in Europe?

How well will things go if a third of the population is antagonistic and willfully in opposition to the Federal Government and sees it not as their government but as an out of control monster that's forsaken the ideas, beliefs and concepts which constituted our Republic for so long?

All of these questions suppose that things remain relatively civil and rational. Let a couple of hot-heads try to flex the muscles of the Federal Government and we could have a very unfortunate and tragic series of events develop that could lead us into a national crisis.

I'm not as "seasoned" as many here, but I don't recall a time when there was almost palpable anger in the air, which is what I feel now.

Jeff B.

[Dave2]

I'm not as "seasoned" as many here, but I don't recall a time when there was almost palpable anger in the air, which is what I feel now.

Jeff B.

[gigag04]

I lived in Moscow 85-90. I was young, but remember it well.

[Andrew]

Civil Disobedience has a long history in the U.S., heck thats how we got started.
Let's see, before my time... The War of Northern Aggression, The Whiskey Rebellion, 19th and 20th Century Veterans Marches, Suffrage, Prohibition.
During my time... Civil Rights Movement, Viet Nam/ anti-war, (and because I was quaking in my boots a time or two) Home Schooling.
Palpable....The mid 60's to early 70's were a time of very open and bitter conflict. Riots, Assassinations, Brutal Police reactions, Kent State, Brothers in Arms in the U.S. military fighting each other and rioting, heck P.D. motor officers riding through the halls of my high school trying to round up troublemakers and mass arrests for inciting to riot on the football field(I was there dressed out for practice, still went to jail, explain that to your former wing commanding, general officer Pop).
While we are a people and a land of laws, civil disobedience is part of our heritage. Be active, demonsrate, write your reps, start a newspaper(oops blog) do what ever you can within the law. And perhaps go to jail, get bopped on the noggin, whatever you need to do to remove the intolerable weight of oppression.

P.S. dang, the foregoing was not meant as an incitement to civil disobedience, just a reflection on my times.