At a recent public discussion about health insurance with US President Barack Obama, a New Hampshire man with a gun strapped to his leg waved a sign saying, “It Is Time to Water the Tree of Liberty,” a reference to a quote by Thomas Jefferson that finishes, “with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”  When asked by a reporter if the gun was loaded, the man, William Kostric, laughed, saying, “Wow.  Who would be silly enough to carry an unloaded firearm?”  Not only was Kostric not detained by police, police even assisted him, telling him where he could stand.

A few days later, a dozen people showed up at a Phoenix, Arizona speech of Obama’s with guns, at least two with semi-automatic rifles.  The police made sure that the men with guns were protected from the people without guns!  One reporter said he had never seen civilians with automatic weapons at any event of George W. Bush’s when the latter was president, but, the reporter added, in the infuriating style characteristic of the American media, which pretends both Left and Right act the same, that doesn’t mean they weren’t there.

Very soon, it will be commonplace for dozens of people with automatic weapons to be at Obama’s speeches.

Obama in fact recently removed restrictions on carrying guns, so these men are not protesting against Obama because he is curbing their “rights.”  They are sending a not-so-veiled threat to Obama, So you want to be like JFK? They want him to stop going down the path to what they call “socialism”―you know, the kind that failed in Western Europe.  Or was it Eastern Europe.  Whatever.

The constant comparisons of Obama to that arch-socialist, Hitler, also have this aim.  They saw the Tom Cruise movie.  Any action against a Hitler is justified.

The secret service will be unable to watch all the potential taxi drivers, which is the plan, thus making it that much easier for the next person wanting to get his name into the history books.  And, afterwards, the media, crying crocodile tears, will ask, “How did we let the hate reach this point?”

“You call my kin Nazis I won’t let that pass,” Christopher Barwick once wrote me. “Get a Bodyguard or carry gun you will need it.”  Which gave me an idea:

If conservatives won’t cool it, liberals should start packing heat.  When police arrest crippled black Harvard professors but assist men who threaten the life of the president, white liberals must start coming to Obama’s speeches armed, and stand right behind the gun-nuts.

Indeed, a modest proposal is that liberals should stand outside Kostric’s home and follow him wherever he goes.  With guns loaded of course.  (Carrying unloaded guns would be just silly!) If Kostric should ever confront Obama, and make a move that is “misinterpreted” by someone on our side... Oops. Hope he has health insurance!

Besides, show me when, in the entire history of America, any right-wing organization has ever been bothered by an “accidental” shooting―when the shooter was a white policeman and the “shootee” an innocent, unarmed black child.

The right-wingers comparing America today to Germany in the 1930’s are kooks, but their comparisons are apt in one respect:  Weimar fell because there was an insufficiently muscular response to the stormtroopers.

Squeamish liberals will pout, “Violence never solved anything.”  But liberals already act as if they were blind and toothless.  Hypocritical conservatives will scream that I am advocating violence.  To which I say: The Black Panthers carried guns legally, and you murdered them. That’s violence. I’m calling for piece-keeping.

If you don’t want America moving back, and to the right, then lock’n’load, liberals. Let’s not say, “Never again,” ever again.

BlackCommentator.com Guest Commentator, Dr. Jonathan David Farley, is the 2004 Harvard Foundation Distinguished Scientist of the Year. He is currently Teaching and Research Fellow teaching mathematics at the Institute für Algebra Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, Linz Österreich Click here to contact Dr. Farley.

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