What I Have Learned from Dandelions, Part II:  What To Do

by Tim Wingate

Exclusive to STR

May 23, 2007

The United States federal government is huge.  It is also very powerful. Our country is deeply divided between those who believe in a strong central state and those who do not. We're faced with a time that is much like that of the Founding Fathers when some of our own countrymen are as the Tories in colonial times.  They sincerely believe that a strong central government is best and that it is the collective responsibility of government to provide for the people. To supply health and safety to all, everyone must give up more rights and property. Freedom is disappearing.  We have a federal government that is out of control and does not even obey its own laws.  We have a corrupt judicial system.  The courts make law from the bench and reinterpret the intent of written laws and constitutions.  

I could spend hours listing the problems of our system without coming close to any solutions. However, I am not a “Chicken Little” patriot only crying, “The sky is falling!” Therefore, I will focus on some solutions. Wars are won by strategy, and tactics win battles. Here is a little of both.  

Freedom lovers seem to be outnumbered. At the very least, we are out of the power structure. When emotions build up and people are frustrated, the angry venting usually is about initiating some form of force using violence.  That would be suicide.  No matter how many militia personnel or mutual defense members you have, you do not have enough to withstand the force of thousands of newly created 20-something robots who will do what they are told and then maybe ask questions later.  

We do need to use force. Not lethal force. The force of reason, will, faith, intellect and moral philosophy. The force of a better idea, a better way to live, a better answer to the insipid gradualism of tyranny – Freedom!  It is time to use something that has not happened since we boomers were teenagers. Use a population bubble to change a national culture. We need to grow a generational movement of fighters for freedom.  

Sam Adams and John Adams both recognized that the American war for Independence did not start in 1776. It started 25 years before in the 1750s and encouraged through the 1760s. That was when young men and women embraced the philosophies of natural rights, life, liberty and personal ownership.  

We have a unique opportunity to influence a whole generation for liberty. Right now! Starting today. I’m not saying that we abandon our individual fights for liberty and justice. I am saying that unless we do something right now to influence this new generation for freedom, the light of liberty will dim for a generation or more!  

What is needed today is a nationwide emphasis on reaching the youth with the liberty message. We have a once in a lifetime opportunity to influence a whole new generation. The “Echo” or “Y” generation will be the largest generation of simultaneous teenagers at one time, in one place on this continent in our recorded history.  Within the next 10 years there will be over 100 million teenagers in North America .  It will be the greatest number of teenagers from ages 11 to 19 simultaneously since the baby boom generation became teens. (1956-1974)   

Why is this effort needed? Because the baby boom “protest” generation has been captured into the system.  It is the system that the baby boom generation once fought against.  The baby boom generation has been co-opted and compromised by the pursuit of wealth and convenience, and has thus become complacent.   

The amount of energy needed to overcome the inertia of the complacency and compromise of the boomer generation is greater than which a small, loud and persistent minority of freedom boomers can generate.  Those of us who see the rise of a federal police state must also recognize how many people are caught up into this system, benefit from the system and are dependent upon the system.  Government has become the largest employer in some states. Also, government sponsored industries like prisons and prison manufacturing are some of the fastest growing businesses in the country while international corporations move jobs offshore.  

We the children of the WWII heroes will have turned over this nation to the neofacists of a global corporate oligarchy controlled by those who still believe in the “divine” right of an imposed aristocracy to own the world and the people upon it.  

What I am talking about is a bi-focused concept. We don’t abandon our issues; we simultaneously convert our issues to a message and medium that will engage the younger generation. We need people who can see this vision of reaching a generation for liberty. We purpose to reach young people on their terms of communication, not ours. We make it fun and “in” to be part of a freedom generation. We work in the background to provide the resources and tools to the young freedom leaders to reach their own generation. We use that natural adolescent desire for freedom against the system that wants to enslave them. We market freedom. We uphold the ownership of one’s person.  

Southwest U. law professor Butler Shaffer asks, “Do you own yourself?”  I add that the test of self-ownership is that if you can say, “I won’t!” to any who demand something of you, without risk of life, liberty or property, only then are you free. (F=I.W.; Freedom equals I Won’t!, from And Then There Were None by Eric Frank Russell)  

What to do?  YOU purpose right now, today, to reach as many young people as you can with the mind-freeing culture of liberty with everything that you have. Use whatever technology you have available. The information is there, they just need to know where! Use viral video such as DVDs, YouTube, Google Video, or MP3 music, email, instant messaging, Facebook, MySpace, blogs, websites, video games, flyers, personal contact, seminars, anything that will reach them for the next 20 years.  

For me, nothing replaces personal contact. I go to the local college campus, the local skate park, the downtown area where they are. While wearing my Strike The Root DISOBEY tee shirt (they really like it), I am passing out DVDs and CDs to the kids at the skate park and the city center mall. I get into some really good conversations with them. I hand out Repeal the Curfew stickers, flyers, and engage them with conversation pointing them to other information sources.  

YOU starting today will accomplish this, and more. Are you interested in doing something about the future, or are you a “Chicken Little” patriot always spreading doom and gloom about the “sky falling” without a plan for the future? What kind of dandelions will those seeds be? Seeds for weeds or seeds for medicine, food, and drink? What will you tell your grandchild?  

Join with us. Be a positive patriot. Seed the future for freedom. Seize Liberty !!