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Saints!

Thursday
March 28th, 2024
L&T Opinions Page

larry phillips mugshotGUEST COLUMN, Larry Phillips, Kismet

 

It is obvious Kansas State Legislators desperately need to totally re-write the “Governor’s State of Emergency” powers. Especially now that we have seen what happens when a true left-wing tyrant gets elected governor.

Hope you folks in those eight – and only eight – counties that elected her like what you got.

When watching one of my favorite television series reruns “Gunsmoke” the other day, I was wishing Comrade Laura Kelly would mandate everyone is required to watch old westerns while in lockdown, instead of all her other “unconstitutional” dictatorial edicts.

The value in watching old western series is immense; the first being that good triumphs over evil. The other is the so-called “Code of the West” which was very real and not that long ago.

In episodes of “Gunsmoke,” for example, we see numerous acts of violence that’s not only handled with haste, but with justice as well. And, most importantly, rarely is an attorney involved. That, in my opinion, creates haste alone.

One sees psychopaths, sociopaths, rapists, killers, card sharks, liars and cheats in westerns, but bad people are always caught and jailed, or shot dead when wielding weapons against men of law, like sheriffs and U.S. Marshals – or even the good guy, who doesn’t draw first.

The “haste” that worked the best.

In the early 1800s, after the Lewis and Clark Expedition from 1803 to 1806, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, the “West” had been opened up.

The men and women who headed west to make their fortunes didn’t have the luxury of eastern lawyers and courts and law enforcement officers.

They soon developed western justice, which was loosely based on American laws, but were whittled down to basic laws of God – or God’s natural laws. These

laws stood soundly on the Ten Commandments, too.

When frontiersmen gathered to harvest furs, thieves were ran off into the vastness of the wilderness or beat within an inch of their lives, literally.

Horse thieves were as bad as murderers to the frontiersmen. A man left alone without his horse, was akin to killing someone – and that usually happened to many alone in the wilds without a horse.

Horses, for that century, were the “cars or automobiles” for western pioneers and travellers.

I love it when Marshal Matt Dillon would walk into the livery stable and tell Moss Grimmett, “Get my horse saddled, I’ll be back shortly” when he was going after a bad man, or woman.

The livery stable was like our car lots, where our “rides” were kept.

Matt was like, “I have to go get my keys to the car first.” And it took time to saddle a horse, and man were they quick about it. Reminds me of the guys in the NASCAR pit stops.

Women were treated as Mother Mary’s by the good guys and good people. Even saloon girls were protected when men used physical abuse against them. Those “saddle tramps” or “buffalo hunters” were dispatched with a good beating or a faster gunfighter. 

Haste, my friends.

Bartender Sam in “Gunsmoke” not only slung drinks, he played the fiddle and was a great “bouncer,” too. He usually kept his orders brief and succinct, mainly because he came out from behind the bar with a double-barreled shotgun.

Haste again. Heh. Heh.

All the explorers, frontiersmen, pioneers – brought with them the understanding of America’s founding documents – which were, and are, based upon Christian-Judeo values. Our Declaration of Independence, our Bill of Rights and our Constitution are full of those values from front to back – and rightfully so.

They were written down by great men, and owning slaves during that time doesn’t diminish what they believed in: Independence, individual liberty and government of the people. They despised government of Kings – or mobs. Look at the The Whiskey Rebellion (also known as the Whiskey Insurrection).

It was started in 1791 and ended in 1794. 

The western distillers didn’t like a Whiskey Tax and decided to take matters – and the law – into their own hands. The analogy to what is happening in Marxist-run cities today is staggering. Think Portland, Ore., for example.

The mob rebels started attacking the taxmen – then showing up at the taxmen’s houses and even attacking and harming the taxmen’s wives and children. They threatened to “burn down” Pittsburgh. (Black Lives Matter leader recently threatened to “burn down” this country).

It was President George Washington who, aided by American Revolutionary war veteran Major James McFarlane, put down the insurrection. He had finally had enough of “the mobs.”

Washington showed up in person with 12,000 federal troops and the mob’s rebels disappeared throughout the western hills of Pennsylvania like the cowards they were.

But today, all our nation’s values are under constant attack by Marxists and anarchists who want to literally destroy what America stands for. Sadly, the Democrat – nee Socialist-Democrat – Party is siding with the bad guys.

America is on the brink of destruction, and I often find comfort in words of our Founding Fathers. Think about these when you prepare to vote – in the primary and again in November.

“If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed.”

— Thomas Jefferson

“Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains taken to bring it to light.”

— George Washington

Don’t let these mobs “burn down” America.

L&T Publisher Earl Watt

 

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