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Another Letter to the Friends of Sam Johnson by Roger Young I recently received an email in response to my inaugural STR column, "A Letter to the Friends of Sam Johnson." The column, written in January, 2002, was inspired by a fundraising letter I received from Mr. Johnson, who happens to be my esteemed U.S. Congressman. I begin with the e-mail and follow with the response. In the interest of fairness and accuracy, let it be noted that after sending my reply to Mr. Dalton, I added more text to the original to comprise this column. Mr. Rog; While surfing the web recently, I visited Google.com, and came upon your bit. (A letter to friends of Sam Johnson .) To put it mildly, I am appalled and extremely disturbed with your assessment of the Honorable Congressman. Your comments are nothing short of absurd! However, in this beautiful land, you are certainly to permitted express in voice or in print the type of rubbish you desire (thanks in part to the Hero you choose to degrade). You guess correctly: I am and will always be a "true Friend of Samuel R. Johnson." I once proudly served as the then Captain Johnson's F-100D Crew Chief in France and England. My memory of him then (long before his horrifying imprisonment in the ("Belly of Hell") is of an Outstanding Airman and pilot who lived to fly. He is, without exception, the finest Officer I had the privilege of knowing/serving in my entire twenty plus year enlisted career. While Congressman Johnson was (as you phrase it) rotting away in that North Vietnamese prison, his sole purpose was surely to survive, while maintaining his sanity and dignity, while insuring compliance with the Military Code of Conduct that you and all your Left Wing Maniacs could retain the right and freedom to print such garbage as you have printed in your web site. After having the Honor of being associated with Mr. Johnson (not Mr. J) as you disrespectfully refer to this American Hero, I seriously doubt he might want your "penny." You,
Sir, are surely not worthy of kissing the bottom of this fine humans extra
large Texas boots! My response: Mr. Dalton, I certainly hope you hit your targets better in combat than you did with this e-mail. You missed by quite a distance. I used to be quite a fan of Mr. Johnson and respected him a great deal. However, as all politicians do eventually, he became corrupt. Like 433 out of the other 434 denizens that now occupy Capitol Hill, he became more concerned with political expediency and party support rather than principle. I have no use for those kinds of people--whatever their personal histories may be. I'm not anywhere close to being "left wing." If I had to classify my philosophy, it would be libertarian/market anarchist; more closely associated with the ideals of the Founding Fathers rather than with the noxious political cocktail of Marxism/Fascism that occupies the bantam-sized intellect of your holy man, Goergana bin-Bush. You can read more of my columns at: Strike The Root. This website, by the way, is edited by a former Army officer. You claim Mr. Johnson suffered in prison so “I could retain the right and freedom to print such garbage as you have printed in your web site.” If that’s the case, his suffering was tragic and needless. I was alive and alert during that time, and don’t recall witnessing any Vietnamese person threatening my freedom to express myself. After all, I didn’t live in Vietnam. The only threat to my liberties I remember came directly from Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and the U.S. government! If memory serves me correctly, I believe “we” lost this war, anyway. Did we therefore lose any freedom as a result? It certainly can be argued that we did, but certainly not through actions emanating from Hanoi or any other Communist capital. Those liberties were destroyed by an ever-growing maniacal Leviathan centered in Washington, D.C. I, in fact, perform positive acts every day by working and serving my God and fellow man. I do this working in private enterprise and not by being a slothful, unaccountable "public servant." If I don’t provide a service that anyone considers worthy or useful, I don’t eat. I, thankfully, have NOT spent my time serving The State, as it continues to grow and snuff out what is left of liberty and decency in this world. I do not travel the world looking for boogey men and snuffing out the innocent lives of people who never did me any harm. I do not travel the world bullying and coercing my point of view on people, but rather respect their dignity and sovereignty. Actually, I spend a good portion of my time photographing smiling children, not napalming them anonymously from the skies. I give their parents and relatives a cheerful image to remember them by before they’re grown up and marched off to be canon fodder for the preservation of the collective. It's unfortunate to think, sir, that you spent a career being led by the nose, as millions of American sheeple have and still are. I once believed as you do, but thankfully, I spend much time educating myself in never-ending pursuit of truth and have learned how evil The State is through study and personal experience. You seem to be proud to be a Vietnam vet. What "positive acts" were performed there--wasting the lives of 58,000 Americans in an undeclared, unconstitutional war? You, sir, have not served your Country, you have served your Government in its relentless pursuit of empire and hegemony. The vast majority of the people in this country did not support the war that you seem to be so proud of. If a people are to live as free individuals, they cannot tolerate, let alone support and serve, a government with these interests. Should you be ashamed of serving and supporting an immoral war? Of course not. Everyone makes mistakes in judgment through life. But why can’t you be honorable enough to admit your error and repent? After Christ, I’ll be the next one to forgive you. Why is it so hard for government employees to admit their mistakes? Could it be that they would be spending so much time asking for forgiveness that they wouldn’t get anything done? What is it, again, that they do? The folks you name at the end of your letter I have no use for. They bore me. They represent nothing but treasonous behavior. I'll leave them to cud-chewing mutton like yourself; to fester in your mind and nourish your hate and paranoia. There isn't a dime's worth of difference between Clinton and Bush. Homeland Security, Operation TIPS, etc., is right out of the Clintonista playbook! Please don't waste your time replying to tell me that we're fighting this perpetual "War on Terror" for the liberties and freedom I enjoy. Are we any freer now than before 9/11? Go through an airport and see how well your wonderful government is "protecting our freedom." I can think of at least four constitutional rights being violated. But then, those are irrelevant now, aren't they? You and your ilk claim that these terrorist hate us because "we're free." Well, if that's the case, why are people like yourself making us LESS free? Let's become MORE free and really tick them off! Take a little time during your well-deserved retirement, sir, and actually think with the grey matter in your head that our Creator put there. It's amazing what it can accomplish. I know you spent a career being told what to do and think, but if you have the will to survive a career in government bondage and the horrors of Vietnam, I'm certain you have the will and fortitude to overcome the blindness that encumbers you. No, I won’t need to be kissing the bottoms of anyone’s boots. I’ll leave that for the boot lickin’ jackboots of the Freedom Corps and the herd-following multitudes of the Bush Jihad. I’d be more than happy to leave Congressman Johnson to his “bad memories.” I’d just wish he would do it at home in private life and not be party to the actions of lunatic thugs with guns. By the way, yours is the first negative e-mail I've received concerning my columns. I knew it had to come, sooner or later. I was just hoping that it would have been more challenging--not just a morass of dime store clichés. Sic Semper Tyrannis! Yours for peace and liberty (you can’t have one without the other), Roger Young
discuss this column in the forum Roger Young is a freelance photographer in Texas and maintains a website called PixelPrairie.com. He believes that being a Christian, creationist and anarchist are three of the most rational decisions a person can make. |
