How do you respond to a crisis?

One random bit I have been thinking about lately is how different people respond to crisis type events. It seems to me there are a few basic responses. From what I have observed in my life, there are some people that respond to a crisis with panic, some instantly seek shelter, some get angry, some stop and think, and some take action. I'm sure there are different reactions, and also there are most defiantly combinations of these reactions. I was thinking about these courses of response in regards to the current crisis in our nation. What first sparked the idea was reading a quote that Glenn Beck (I know some of you just shut off you brains) cited in his book Common Sense, from Samuel Adams. Yes that is a type of beer, no, that is not what I am referring to. Samuel Adams lived in the 1700's (to early 1800's) and is considered one of our country's founding fathers. Loosely quoted He said: For those of you who prefer the "tranquility of servitude" you must be prepared to "lick the hands which feed you." He followed with a statement of well wishing for the traitors saying; "May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." As you may be able to gather from his words, He was one of the predominate leaders in the movement that became known as the American Revolution. You may be asking yourself what this has to do with how we handle a crisis. Well Samuel Adams made me realize something, there is a large portion of people today, when faced with the crisis of our Nation, who are more than willing to accept the immediate solutions set forth by our officials no matter what the consequence of them may be. Some people are followers and other people are leaders. The followers tend to run to the loudest voice with the most immediate solution that promises comfort and security. There is not a great deal of debate, logic, or thought that goes into this process. Samuel Adams was correct about the danger this causes. We often end up giving away our freedoms in exchange for "security." We will receive life of tranquility so long as our master chooses for it to be that way.

Even the most uneducated people, in regards to our country's history, equate one thing with America: Freedom. So why is it that safety and security cost us freedom? Why can't we be free and secure? Everything in this life has a price. Newton thought he was only speaking of motion when he said "For every action there is a equal and opposite reaction." This third law of motion holds true not only in our physical world, but also in our social world. Our freedom was bought through war and sacrifice. It was not a road of peace, fluffy bunnies, and sing-a-longs. Freedom is a precious thing worthy of being defended to the very apex of what we can give. Individuals through history have sacrificed themselves for the good of their family, and their country. They have gone to war so that we all may live, advance, and prosper under freedom. Adam's understood this sacrifice, he lived and toiled and watched lives extinguished to buy our country, our children their freedom. One cannot blame him for disowning people who chose to turn their backs on this gift. They wanted to take the easy road, but an expensive price had already been paid for their benefit.

The antithesis of freedom is slavery. When one becomes a slave, they have a bed and food provided for them, their basic needs taken care of. Very basic. The master in power determines how good or bad that person's life will be. The master of our country is our government. Yes, I am telling you that wars and revolutions did not only buy our freedom from outside threats, but from our own government. Power will inevitably put shackles on it's followers. Lord Acton was correct when he said, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." The more we depend on and, run to the government officials for protection and answers, the more we are relinquishing our power to them. The government was created to be the protector of our rights, but it has all gotten horribly out of control. Our basic rights are being protected at the cost of our freedoms. They tell us if you want this, we must have this, but it's alright! we will not abuse the power we have over you. Can you trust that? Can you trust another person with a bad track record to never abuse their power? Can you hand over everything dear in your life to another person? I don't think people realize anymore how precious and necessary freedom is. Some who have successfully shut off their logic can, when presented with a few temporary comforts, empty promises that cannot possibly be true when they come to fruition. The cost of freedom is struggle, the reward of freedom is life over flowing. The cost of security is slavery, the reward of slavery is a stagnant life.

In a free America many people experienced hardships. People come from all over the world and struggle to make it, struggle to pay their way through colleges, struggle to get their foot in the door, struggle to get their ideas brought to life. When their struggles are over, they all pay off ten fold. It doesn't matter what class you come from, what part of society you were born into, our dearly bought freedom extended to all. Some roads may be long, some may be short, but all have a road to travel. We all are allowed to move forward. We were rewarded for our persistence, for our unique ideas, for solving problems no one else could. As more and more people fall into promises for hand outs, for all our most basic needs being taken on by the government, they are slowly having their freedoms stripped away. What's worse is the very spirit that made America great is being crippled. When you reward people for mediocrity, when you put a cap on how high they can rise, people stop trying. They stop creating new and better ideas. When you take away a person's gains and spread it out across the board, when you say, We will provide all of your basic needs by taking your extravagance, you promote mediocrity and cripple the creative spirit. Motivation is extinguished and complacent people are born. Wait.... isn't that the whole idea? Complacent rats are much easier to rule. I shouldn't need to remind you, but we were not founded to support a big government. We were to have a bare bones government to protect our rights, but not to rule us. We were founded to rule the government.

I got my anger at the ANGER store.

Some of you may be interested to know just exactly what the response is to dissenters of Obama's health care plan. I was asking people just the other day, in regards to how much opposition the government has been meeting about socializing health care, "what do you think the response is going to be to all of these protesters?" I was met more often than not with the response, "Ignore them and pass it anyway." This morning as I was browsing through the news on different sites, it came to my attention that my question is no longer unanswered, I got an answer and it was even more infuriating than being ignored. Below are some snippets from the article, in no way did I copy and paste these in a way to make what was said to look more or less bad, it is simply naturally that way. I will post a link at the bottom of the page to the full article if anyone would like to read it.

"In fact, I think you've had groups today, Conservatives for Patients Rights, that have bragged about organizing and manufacturing that anger," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

I want to point out something about this statement. At first glace you think he is stating a fact. That he has seen or heard somewhere that there is a devilish group out there bragging about their conservitive exploits against the left wing. On closer inspection you see that he began his statement with "In fact, I THINK..." Stating that you THINK something may be the case, does not mean it is a fact of truth, it simply means you happen to believe it may possibly be the case, but he prefaces the statement with "in fact" both parts of this statement cannot be true. So which is it Mr. Gibbs? Get your facts together and seperate them from your own thoughts and opinions on the matter before attacking the right wing demons, or we may send our minions out in an orginized and manufactured way.

"This mob ... did not come just to be heard, but to deny others the right to be heard. And this appears to be part of a coordinated, nationwide effort," Doggett said in a statement. "What could be more appropriate for the 'party of not' than having its stalwarts drowning out the voices of their neighbors by screaming 'Just say no!'"

In this quote it bothers me that we are described as a "mob" because people were chanting "just say no" to the heath care reform bill. I was unaware that the definition of mob has shifted from "a crowd bent on engaging in lawless violence, or a disorderly or riotous crowd of people." To, "Right wing Conservatives practicing their rights and showing their deep seeded concern about a bill that is in the process of being passed against the wishes of the people by holding signs and chanting or at most 'yelling.' " Oh my word, they may have also possibly drowned out the cries of a left wing liberal. That's it, to the guillotine and off with their heads! We all know that when one liberal speaks in a sea of Conservatives silence is expected. It has been my experience through the media and life that Conservatives are not the loud ones, liberals are the first to cry wolf. Conservatives do not speak up until pushed to breaking, then we are a force to be reckoned with.

The Democratic National Committee has dismissed the protests as "mob rule."

What?! there is an organized committee of democrats? I thought only right wing Conservatives were organized... wait a minuet.... I smell hypocrisy.

"The Republicans and their allied groups desperate after losing two consecutive elections and every major policy fight on Capitol Hill ... are inciting angry mobs of a small number of rabid right wing extremists funded by K Street Lobbyists to disrupt thoughtful discussions about the future of health care in America taking place in Congressional Districts across the country," DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse said in a statement.

......are inciting angry mobs of a small number of rabid right wing extremists funded by K Street Lobbyists to disrupt thoughtful discussions about the future of health care in America. As a writer and a foaming rabid right wing extremist I take the greatest offence at the words of Brad Woodhouse. He is associating all Conservatives that do not agree with this 1000+ page health care reform bill that 99% of Washington as not read (yet are highly thoughtful about what this bill could possibly contain!) with extreme squirrels infected with rabies. While the insightful democrats who think all Americans making less than .50 on every dollar they work their fingers to the bone for so that illegal immigrants and the unemployed can have health coverage while our elderly get turned away at every medical facility is a good idea. Well then Mr. Woodhouse I am a squirrel and if you continue to try and take my nuts, I will do what all rabid animals do, and bite back.

Linky Linky - http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/04/angry-protesters-confront-democratic-lawmakers-health-care-town-halls/