WITH COLORFUL HISTORICAL BACKDROP
by Ms. Silence Dogood
(Oct. 6, 2013) — Albany, NY – Most Americans are aware of the 1775 Ride of Paul Revere to warn the colonists with his shout, “The British are coming!” On February 8, 1690, a bit shy of a century before, another patriot, Symon Schermerhorn, had raced his horse from the stockade area of Schenectady to warn the settlers in Albany, previously called Beverwyck (the Stream of Beavers in Dutch), that they, too, were in danger. French soldiers with Iroquois allies attacked Schenectady and were expected to march towards the Hudson River settlement next.
In the vein of the American tradition of patriots warning other citizens of tyranny, about 700 bikers rode into Albany on Saturday, October, 5, 2013 to sound yet another alarm: government abridgement of the right to bear arms in New York State and the tyranny of Common Core educational initiatives from the federal government which New York State is imposing on school children and their families with Governor Andrew Cuomo’s imprimatur.
Historical allusions are helpful in both cases. Germans were disarmed during the early years of dictatorship leading to World War II. Herod saw children as instruments of his political will when he ordered the Slaughter of the Innocents in Bethlehem. In New York State, the blame for “chilling” legal and law-abiding gun owners as well as the data-mining of NYS school children falls squarely, according to rally organizers, on the shoulders of Democrat Andrew Cuomo. Indeed, Cuomo is reported as saying that the so-called SAFE ACT, which throws up hurdles of many kinds to thwart gun ownership in the state, has been “The best thing I’ve ever done!” After “fracking” citizens’ Constitutional rights to bear arms, Andrew even chortled, “It was very courageous for lawmakers to vote on that bill.”
Debra (“Debbie”) Busch, Albany County Legislator and speaker at the rally, recounted the case of a Rensselaer County (across the Hudson River from Albany) citizen who challenged a burglary in progress on his own property with arms drawn. In a perversion of justice, the citizen was later subjected to state confiscation of his guns. Bush, who seems on the verge of being thrust into the national political arena with her clear and honest points of view strongly rooted in the Constitution, juxtaposed the travesty of the Rensselaer County citizen with the recent tragedy in Washington, D.C, in which police did not exercise other options and used deadly force to shoot an unarmed woman. Bush challenged Albany lawmakers to get back from vacation, even while biker patriots and like-minded citizens were “here defending freedom” ending that they (i.e., legislators) are “not listening.” The crowd erupted in applause as she ended, “Cuomo has gotta go!” She added relevant personal information about herself when she told the crowd that she was a registered nurse and was opposed to “Obamacare” which, she explained, “gives entitlement packages to certain groups, exemptions for politicians, while destroying the Middle Class.”
New York State Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin, a Republican hopeful for governor in the state, also spoke to the receptive audience. He pointed out the irony and questioned the wisdom of Cuomo’s recent insistence that “Washington, D.C. should be more like Albany.” “When Progressives come towards you, run the other way with your hand on your wallet,” he exhorted those gathered in front of the state Capitol presided over by a statue of President George Washington. “Everything they tell you is the opposite,” he explained. “The Affordable Health Act is NOT affordable. The SAFE act has nothing to do with Safety.” This contradiction stems, McLaughlin pointed out, from the fact that the ideas of the “Progressives” cannot stand the light of day. “Much to the chagrin of Sheldon Silver and Andrew Cuomo, I’m not stoppin,'” he ended to the cheers of the gathering.
Perhaps one of the most impassioned speeches came from Yvonne Gasperino of STOP COMMON CORE IN NEW YORK STATE (www.StopCommonCoreinNewYork.com), whose fervor immediately reminded some of those gatheredof the conviction, dedication and commitment of the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo (Mothers of the Plaza of Mayo) who began to meet 1977 every Thursday on the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires to demand the government inform them of their kidnapped children, victims of political violence in that nation. In the case of the mothers of Argentina, their children had been taken from them by the government. Mrs. Gasperino made a similar case against the “tyranny” of the Common Core educational program which New York State has bought into. In this paradigm, teachers and schools follow a prescribed plan of study handed down by “educrats” in Washington, D.C. This is in contrast to the 10th Amendment to the Constitution notion that States are to be in charge of education with lots of communication with and feedback from local schools, boards of education, and parents. In the Obama scheme, there is no input from parents, whose rights over the education of their children were “transformed without knowledge and consent.” “There is a hell of a lot of pi**ed-off moms and dads,” she informed the crowd, which realized her language was that of deep love of a mother for children, akin to Sarah Palin’s “Momma Grizzly” allusion that truly loving American parents will not allow the federal government to turn their children into “human capital.” A hush fell over the leather- clad crowd as Gasperino explained to them the Orwellian goals of Obama and the fallacy that standardized testing is how to assess “progress.” Gasperino rejects the element of Common Core which mines data and “harvests information about children, grandchildren and families” for the federal government to use. Looking at the Capitol building looming in the background of those assembled and in front of George Washington’s statue, her voice became a roar as she told Cuomo, and through him, Obama, [Education Secretary] Arne Duncan, and Progressive elites, that “OUR CHILDREN ARE NOT FOR SALE!” To this she added, “Teachers have been handcuffed. Common Core is Education Without Representation.” To reference again the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Gasperino should take inspiration from a mother there who dared to advocate for her child and stand up to authorities in Buenos Aires:
“One of the things that I simply will not do now is shut up. The women of my generation in Latin America have been taught that the man is always in charge and the woman is silent even in the face of injustice…Now I know that we have to speak out about the injustices publicly. If not, we are accomplices. I am going to denounce them publicly without fear. This is what I learned.”
María del Rosario de Cerruti
Various speakers mentioned the barricading, also known as “Barry-kading,” of veterans’ monuments such as the World War II Memorial, built with donated funds and paid for in patriots’ blood. The Honor Flight organization has taken, free of charge, 100,000 Word War II veterans to see that memorial in Washington, D.C. “Mr. Obama, tear down those barricades!” drew rousing shouts of approval. Readers of The Post & Email who know of World War II veterans who have not yet visited the memorial with Honor Flights, free of charge, flight and transportation included, should contact the organization at http://www.honorflight.org/index.cfm.
Another trip is planned, and organizers have been told that visitors and veterans will BE ARRESTED if they are told three times to leave the premises and then do not. Said the speaker, “We are taking money in our pockets to get out of jail,” leading listeners to believe that the Obama administration is not going to capitulate even to those whose service is of the highest order to our Constitutional Republic.
Today, Symon Schermerhorn would have ridden into Albany on a Harley, not his horse, but the effect is the same. There is extreme danger to the Republic from an enemy which is domestic, at least as far as tyranny is exercised. Readers are urged to remember that it was Al Qaeda, after 9/11, which promised to bring America down “from the top” in ways “it would not understand until it was too late.” Al Qaeda, Obama, Cuomo et al, underestimate the American citizenry: they are on it, they do understand, and they see villainy for villainy, just as Symon Schermerhorn and Paul Revere did, albeit with different horsepower!