Applause

I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy your magazine. I had previously subscribed to the Survival Journal but all it seemed to have was guns, so as a woman I cancelled after a debate and somehow your wonderful magazine started coming. To one living up here in Alaska it seemed it is a godsend with information we can relate to, and as a woman it has so many other interesting departments and not all advertising. I usually don’t write but you and your staff are to be commended for a wonderful “family” oriented and educational magazine. I lived in Gold Beach many, many years ago so using and seeing your address brings back a lot of memories. Thank you again.

Yvonne Newman, Fairbanks AK

Your magazine should be illegal! It is as addictive as any narcotic. I read each issue from cover to cover and “fiend” for a “fix” until the next one arrives.

Please begin to make this a weekly publication. Because as a bimonthly one, it is killing me.

Since I have your ear I have a couple of other requests.

First, would you consider doing an article on the climate zones? With a map showing each zone and some pros and cons of each. Along with growing seasons, temperature extremes, plants which do well in each, etc.

Second, I am interested in puchasing the book, “More Power to You” by H. Skip Thomsen. I no longer see it advertised in your mag. And can’t find it in my Loompanics catalog either. Where can I purchase this valuable publication?

To Dave Duffy: way to go man!!

Never let “them” convince you to pull your punches. I know you won’t!

Politically and philosophically we are birds of a feather.

Coming from the bottom of my Libertarian heart—”I love you, man!”

Keep up the great work.

Steve Greer, Dalhart, TX

The climate zones article is great idea. Look for it in the future. More Power to You can be found at www.mailbooks.com.

I renew just for John Silveira’s articles. MacDougal is my hero!

Jeff Absher, Ocean Springs, MS

I first found you on line last year and had to have the print version. I’m only 23-years-old and I was beginning to feel like a bit of an outcast because of my views on a number of subjects (politics, education, self-reliance, firearms possession, etc.). I’m very happy to know that my fiance and I are not alone. I’m a carpenter by trade so I read all your around the homestead articles with great interest. I also found myself agreeing with so many points raised in “The Coming American Dictatorship.” It’s content has caused a number of heated debates between my friends and me. Keep your gun clean and your powder dry.

Tony Vergura, Menands, NY

Pursuing excuses

There is a lingering philosophy of the inseparable brothers, namely, the liberal left and the hippie culture of the 60s which has invaded traditional American culture as handed down by the Founders of our Republic. This politically correct philosophy incorporates the antithesis that all wrongful acts are not necessarily the sole fault of the one(s) who commits the evil deed.

If one should choose to pursue excuses for justifying a wrongdoing, then an unending list is always readily available. It wasn’t the rapist’s fault; the victim asked for it, as she should have dressed more modestly. It wasn’t the murderer’s fault; society, inner frustration, home environment or an innumerable host of excuses are listed on the menu. Excuse me, but do people have a choice to do good or evil?

A woman drives through a fast food restaurant and orders coffee. As she departs, she spills the coffee on herself and gets burned. Why did it happen? Naturally, the “mean ole restaurant is to blame for giving her hot coffee.” No matter what, it couldn’t be her fault!

The article “My View” typically weaves through its content the same philosophical overtones and rhetoric as aforementioned, with the subterfuge that the September 11th atrocity couldn’t possibly be a choice of evil people. The article states, “They keep telling us why, again and again…” as if to suggest that the perpetuator is truthful and the victim is clueless.

The same despicable ploy is used by clever lawyers who cloud the issue of who is really the criminal and who is the victim in a specific case of law.

I was raised in an Arab-American home and have been privileged to travel to the Middle East. As youngsters we were taught to hate the Jew. Why do we hate them? Because they’re Jews! Fortunately, I became a Christian later in life and became familiar with the politically incorrect book, called the Bible, which changed my hate to love for the Jewish people.

The Saudi Prince, who, with synthetic compassion attempted to salve his conscience by buying good will to America with his 10 million dollar donation, rightly got it thrown back in his face. How many of the terrorists were from Saudi? Case closed!

Your writer continues with suggestive overtones that the attack on the Twin Towers was simply a response to U.S. foreign policy and/or our presence in the region. Because of our presence? Who dug them out of the desert sand and made them wealthy nations?

In the early ’20s, catastrophes hit Japan, and the country was on the brink of economic and national collapse. Who came to the rescue? Good ‘ole Uncle Sam. Yet, less than 20 years later, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Was this just a response to U.S. foreign policy? The ground quakes with such absurdity as the founding fathers strive to cry out—Insane! Insane!

The article ends with the adamant words, “It should.” The sadistic implication of such a closing lends itself to a leftist statement made by our former hippie generation President, William Clinton, “We need a new government for a new century…” That is a statement from a pro-socialistic agenda.

We do not need a new or different government. The founding fathers established a government, which has produced the greatest nation in history. No, we do not need a new one! We need a revival of the old one! Our government is far from perfect, but with mortal brings, it’s the best thing going.

To appease the Arab world, all America needs to do is turn her back on Israel. The Arab world does not wish Israel to exist! America made a choice to support Israel, and the promise of God has been given to us, “I will bless them that bless thee (Israel) and I will curse them that curse thee.”

Thank you for allowing me to express my opinion on the matter of Sept 11th and alleged reasons for the same. You need not respond. Backwoods Home appears to be a good magazine.

Wayne Barkett, Pinetta, FL

It’s interesting that you should lean so heavily on the Founding Fathers in your letter. It was Washington himself who, in his Farewell Address, warned against foreign entanglements and alliances and making other nations’ problems our own problems. He said no good could come of this. I also wonder what the effect on American society would be if we meddled as actively in British/IRA affairs, or the Russian/Chechnya conflict, or the Tamil rebels?

As far as making them wealthy nations goes, all that cheap oil (even at today’s prices, oil from the Middle East is relatively cheap) has made Western nations and Japan wealthier. So, it’s been a two-way street. But no matter what, even if we made them wealthy, I’m not clear on how that entitles us to meddle with them.

Japan’s near economic and national collapse in the early ’20s is news to me, but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. However, even if we did save them, Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor was a response to America’s containment policy of the expanding Japanese Empire. Without getting into the imponderables of whether American policy was correct or not, it’s pure foolishness to think it had no impact on the Japanese—unless one imagines that the Japanese got up one morning and said, “Let’s attack either Costa Rica, Belgium, Argentina, Ethiopia, or America. Hmm, let’s role the dice and see who the victim is.”

As far as turning our back on Israel goes? Are we somehow responsible for them? Or the Pakistanis? Or the Brazilians? And if we are responsible for some countries and not others, who chooses? (One other thing: until recent changes in the Middle East, Jews there have historically lived better under the Moslems than they had under Christians in Europe, who for centuries seemed to find great sport in running the Inquisition and concentration camps in World War II, among other things.)

The last thing I have to say is, maybe we should be playing world cop, or whatever it is we do, and Washington’s Farewell Address be damned (no one reads it anymore, anyway). But, if that’s what we want to do, let’s stop kidding ourselves that our policies have no consequences, climb down from our self-righteous pulpits, and accept terrorism as part of the price.

John

I have just finished reading the final installment of John Silveira’s “The Coming American Dictatorship” series. Although I missed the beginning of the series, the articles I did read, concerning the steady loss of our rights and freedoms, the rise of fascism in our government, etc, were right on target. However, I was disappointed with the cop-out ending in the final paragraphs, “Who’s to blame?”, and “Is there a solution?” John’s answer (in the guise of his character “Mac”) is there is no solution, and there is nothing we can do to stop it. So what was the point in writing the series if John feels the situation is hopeless?

A big reason I buy and read this magazine is to feel like there is hope for the future. True, we (the American people) did fall asleep, and allow fascism’s tentacle to encroach upon us. But the Declaration of Independence states that all people “…are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” And “…whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.” We have come full circle and like King George III’s government, the U.S. government today has plunged into absolute despotism. How we proceed at this point, I’m uncertain. Another violent, bloody revolution or civil war is the last thing I want, as did our Founding Fathers over 200 years ago. But it is a sad fact of history that no government, once it had accumulated excessive power, surrendered that power willingly or peacefully. Unfortunately, most revolutions resulted in even worse governments (i.e., the French and Russian Bolshevik revolutions). Ours was an exception.

Looking around now, how much worse can things get? I don’t think we have much freedom left to lose. If we choose not to do anything about it, and simply give up, as John seems to allude to at the conclusion of the article, and just enjoy our little socialist/fascist utopia. Or looking at it another way, to quote George Orwell’s “1984,” when the question is asked about the future of humanity under a totalitarian dictatorship, the reply is, “Imagine a boot stomping on a human face forever.”

Ray Parker, Spokane, WA

Please understand that I agree that there are things the American people can do about the encroaching American dictatorship. If you read the entire series closely you saw I cited quite a few solutions. What I no longer believe is that the American people will do them. The Americans of 200+ years ago are gone. Where are the Washingtons, Jeffersons, Adamses, Masons, etc., of today? In 1776 it was they, the community leaders, who led the Revolution against a tyrant who lay across the ocean. Today, with the exception of a precious few, like Ron Paul of Texas, the community leaders are the tyrants, not some “foreign” king.

Some 200 years ago, when the Shawnee Indian chieftain, Tecumseh, tried to get the various tribes to enter into an alliance to resist the encroachments of the white man, he had little trouble getting the young braves to agree with him. Where he ran into roadblocks was with the older braves and chiefs. They were opposed to resisting the white man because they were receiving annuities from the federal government and didn’t want to shut off the spigot of goodies. It was because they were now dependent on the federal government that Tecumseh was doomed to fail.

Today, like the Indian chiefs of old, so many Americans believe they have a stake in the status quo that I am beginning to think it almost laughable that anyone thinks we, as a nation, are willing to change it. Oh, we’re willing to demand changes in the goodies other Americans are getting from the government, but we want ours left alone. The voices of people like yours and mine are a frightfully small minority that are almost not heard. The result is that I don’t expect anything to change for the better.

John