On Independence Day, Ammunition & Wal-Mart

This is a post from 2004 which I have regularly posted these past five years and over these years it has only become worse.

Yesterday, in preparing to honor today, a friend and I went to purchase some ammunition at the local Wal-Mart. We selected our ammo, the young man placed it on the counter, scanned the items and then stated, "I need your drivers license." He stated this in that dull, slow and overly bored tone of the drone. (Of course many will say, well look at the dead-end job he has so what do you expect instead of the realization that one should work to the best of one's ability. Perhaps we accosted him at the wrong drone moment but this is not the point of this missive and I have digressed.)

Naturally our response was, "What for?" He then explained that it was needed for the system, corporate policy, to verify our age, etc., etc.- ad nauseum. My friend started to walk away after we both said NO you are not getting it. I then explained to him, in a very forceful and direct fashion that I was not producing ID. I further explained that tomorrow was Independence Day which was started in 1776 when our Founding Fathers told their government to go FUCK THEMSELVES! and that this ammunition purchase was to honor and remember them. I told him then to get a manager and what does the drone do? He looks for permission to the woman on her knees doing inventory, who spoke NOT ONE WORD of English. He tried three times when he looked to foreigner on the floor once more and she told him to go ahead and sell me the ammunition.

The drone then asked me if I understood and had was okay with him selling me the ammunition without asking me for ID. This perplexed and pissed me off again. I explained to him that this was Texas and America and our Founding Fathers said nothing about showing ID to do so and in fact, just the opposite. He then attempted once more to tell that it was simply store policy. I told him that NAZI Germany started the same way and I would not stand for it and his simple stance of just following orders would not cut it. It is his responsibility, just as it is everyone's, to question such inane policies whether government or CORPORATE. I can no longer tolerate either- doing so only allows such filth to grow and flourish.

Of course, this leads me back to the following which I post every year on Independence Day and remind folks that you SHOULD tar and feather a politician or their supplicants today, I know the Paranoid family is certainly hoping to- so without further ado, the reminder.

I found this a couple of months ago:



And it made me think of just how far most people in this country have let slip their desire for freedom and liberty- so much so, that I remembered this:



Then, two days ago, my compadre No-Neck sent this to me:



I knew this would be true and I thought long and hard about these men:



The men, whose history is unknown my so many- and cared for by even less, gave us our start on this path and that so many of the men of their day were willing to do this:



Understand, they were traitors to their government, they conspired to commit acts that would bring certain death down upon them and their families, and I must ask, how many are willing, today, to risk the same?

Vin Suprynowicz has a column that has been around the net since he first wrote it in 1997, and it is well worth reading and then contemplating, particularly in light of recent laws, regulations and SCOTUS announcements.

Happy Independence Day!

-WP