Oath Keepers: OFFICIAL OATH KEEPERS SPEECHES THAT JULY 4 TEA PARTY EVENTS CAN USE

Friday, July 3, 2009

OFFICIAL OATH KEEPERS SPEECHES THAT JULY 4 TEA PARTY EVENTS CAN USE

Below are two Oath Keepers Speeches that can be used by any public July 4 Tea Party event and read by any veteran, current or former police officer, or active duty military. The first one is long. The second speech is very short. Use whichever best suits your event. Both include an Oath Ceremony so the entire audience can take the oath.

To get a sense for what that is like, watch this video of the oath ceremony from the April 15 Knoxville Tea Party, where 3,000 people stood and took the oath:

NOTE: Oath Keepers grants permission for public July 4, 2009 Tea Party type events to use these speeches and have a local veteran or police officer read the speech and administer the oath. We do NOT grant permission for any other type organization or events to use these speeches unless and until they contact Oath Keepers at oathkeepersok@gmail.com and secure permission. In particular, your event must be open to all, regardless of race, nationality, or religion.

SPEECH #1

The following speech has been adapted from a speech written by Houston, Texas Police Officer John Shirley, who serves as the Texas peace officer liaison for Oath Keepers. With officer Shirley’s consent, the Founder of Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, has provided this speech to dozens of Tea Parties across the nation, who will all be conducting Oath Ceremonies for Independence Day. (Might be a good idea for the MC to state the above and then introduce the police officer/veteran, etc. who is giving it).

[NOTE: Please feel free to shorten as needed. See also the very short speech below].

SPEAKER: I want to thank the Tea Party Organizers for inviting me to speak to you on behalf of Oath Keepers. It’s a humbling honor to be a part of such a great and laudable gathering of Americans taking on this grand intellectual revolution.

My name is _____________ and I am a __________ (veteran ,peace officer ect.). I served in ____________ . And I am an Oath Keeper. Before I explain what the Oath Keeper Organization is all about, I’d like to first speak on the nature of Oaths in general.

Webster’s Dictionary defines an Oath as a solemn, usually formal, calling upon God or a god to witness to the truth of what one says or to witness that one sincerely intends to do what one says. It also defines it as a solemn attestation of the truth or inviolability of one's words.

Put simply, an Oath is a person’s formal promise to actually do what they say they’re going to do….

Generally speaking, we use oaths when calling upon someone to fulfill an important purpose or to take on responsibility not normally required of every person.

I took an Oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution.

Our respected military service members all took an Oath to Protect and Defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic.

While many political offices require a similar Oath, among public servants only military and Police Officers have the training and means to truly fulfill the Oath…. But more importantly, we are the only ones not beholden to a political party or candidate. We are only beholden to the Constitution and to the People we serve. We are the true Guardians of the Republic!

To that end, Oath Keepers exists to remind current and veteran Police Officers and military service members of their Oath to the U.S. Constitution, and the restrictions the Constitution places on the power and scope of governmental interference into the lives of its citizens. You can go to www.oathkeepers.org to learn more and to join Oath Keepers if you want. Even if you are not current or former military, you can join up as an honorary Oath Keeper and help spread the message.

As a member of Oath Keepers, I pledge to be faithful to my Oath, and to that end and in that vein of belief, we pledge NOT to do any of the following 10 things listed in the Oath Keepers Declaration of Orders We Will NOT Obey:

We will NOT obey orders to disarm the American people.

We will NOT obey orders to conduct warrantless searches of the American people.

We will NOT obey orders to detain American citizens as “unlawful enemy combatants” or to subject them to military tribunal.

We will NOT obey orders to impose martial law or a “state of emergency” on a state.

We will NOT obey orders to invade and subjugate any state that asserts its sovereignty.

We will NOT obey any order to blockade American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps.

We will NOT obey any order to force American citizens into any form of detention camps under any pretext.

We will NOT obey orders to assist or support the use of any foreign troops on U.S. soil against the American people to “keep the peace” or to “maintain control.”

We will NOT obey any orders to confiscate the property of the American people, including food and other essential supplies.

We will NOT obey any orders which infringe on the right of the people to free speech, to peaceably assemble, and to petition their government for a redress of grievances.

You can read the full version of the above declaration, with explanations for each point, on the Oathkeepers.org website. While this list is not all encompassing, it lays out the types of government abuses that we see on the horizon and ones we will not tolerate nor enforce.

I want to take a minute and speak with you about things that are going on around us that aren’t receiving coverage and things we the people need to be aware of….

Number One…. Violation of the Posse Comitatus Act…. Although the Federal Government didn’t begin violating this law there, the events surrounding the Hurricane Katrina Aftermath are an egregious example of an out of control government. For months, US military troops (as well as armed government contractors), patrolled the streets of New Orleans and surrounding areas…. This is a direct violation of the law… They also took part in mass gun confiscations, including door to door searches for weapons in parts of the city that were not flooded. A natural disaster is NOT a legal reason to deny citizens of their 2^nd Amendment Rights….. Nobody has a problem with the military rescuing people from their rooftops, but its another thing entirely for them to be running armed patrols around a city. This is a job for the local and state police.

Another disturbing trend is the ongoing Urban Warfare drills going on around the country, where US troops and sometimes foreign troops will “occupy” small US cities for several days of training. We are told by press releases that these drills are to “prepare the troops for the jobs they will do overseas”, but I take issue with that reasoning. The streets of Fallujah have absolutely NOTHING in common with Main Street USA….. and the military already has mock cities and towns to train in. The only logical reason to train going door-to-door in Middle-America, practicing disarming people, is for the troops one day to do EXACTLY that, right here!

The purpose for our Armed Forces is to project force SOMEWHERE ELSE, against foreign enemies! From the days of ancient Rome, it was against the law for Caesar to march the military under color of flag across the Rubicon River… and when that rule was broken, the Roman Republic was history – Ceasar made himself emperor and Rome was ruled by Emperors from then on. We must NOT let these drills continue! How do we put the military back on track? Since most of the military is under direct Federal Control, it starts with congress…. We must elect our representatives based upon their belief in the US Constitution, as it was WRITTEN… Not based upon some phony party affiliation, or the false left versus right paradigm.

For fixing the National Guard, we encourage electing state representatives and governors that will demand the sovereignty of that State’s Guard units from the Federal Government. A little known fact is that although the National Guard of a state can be deployed by the Governor of that State, the Federal Government owns most, if not all, of the equipment they have (including weapons and vehicles)… Therefore, without the permission of the Federal Government, the state guard can’t deploy. We must demand the COMPLETE sovereignty of the State Guard from direct Federal Government control.

Number Two….. We must fight to keep our local police LOCAL… For decades, the Federal Government has gotten local politicians addicted to Federal money and now they basically control how local police departments are run. Any police chief or Sheriff who dares not follow the federal agenda risks losing millions of dollars…. In the end, the federal government doesn’t have to pass laws to militarize the police, they only have to threaten to stop the flow of grant money.

On a related note, it is our belief that the Federal Government wants to make all police into Federal Law Enforcement Officers…. This is happening through standardized training, standardized policy manuals, even standardized police identification cards. While accomplishing this is a tall order, even for the Federal Government, the handwriting is on the wall….. As the US economy suffers from the plundering by the Federal Reserve System, many large cities are quietly whispering of going into bankruptcy and how they are going to need a Federal bailout….. Mark my words…. Along with Federal Money, comes increased Federal Control…. And this takeover will be wrapped in threats of laying-off police officers and anarchy on the streets. They always use fear to obtain their goals, and this time will be no different.

What can you do, as citizens, to stop this? It may sound cliché, but its as simple as the old saying, “Support Your Local Police”

Encourage your Sheriffs and Police Chiefs to get out of the Federal Lunch Line….. Send them copies of Sheriff Mack’s Book, The County Sheriff: America’s Last Hope. Encourage your Commissioner’s Court and City Councils to return their police departments to their original intent, which is being Peace Officers…. It is the transformation of the police officer from one of being a peace officer to one of law enforcement officer that has engendered a god complex in a select few, and an “us versus them” mentality in most.

We must return our police to being IN the community, not OVER the community…. Officers need to be reminded that Community Policing is not new, it’s actually what being a peace officer was all about 100 years ago…. In the name of efficiency and response times, officers no longer know the people or businesses they serve. They are discouraged from getting out of their cars and meeting business owners, citizens, or pastors, in the name of “productivity”…

I encourage citizens to get to know their local police officers by name….. Invite your officer’s to a block party…. Have them over for coffee… Let them know that you appreciate the hard job they have. The more that local officers feel like they’re a PART of the community and not only there to “take out the garbage”, the less likely they are get the “bunker mentality”.

These men and women are the real last official line of defense between you and tyranny…. Because it doesn’t matter how many laws come out of the State Capitol or Washington D.C. What matters are the public servants that are out in the community choosing whether to serve the government or serve the people.

Lastly, once you have that relationship built, encourage them to join Oath Keepers….

I know there must be a lot of you out there that are either current or retired military and police….

I would ask all current or retired military to raise their hands….

I would also ask all current or retired police officers to raise their hands….

Now, I would ask everyone else to shake their hands or pat them on the back and thank them for protecting the Constitution… Because at the end of the day, that is what these men and women do….. They are the real protectors of the Constitution… The real protectors of our rights….. Its these men and women that separate us from tyranny.

Thank all of you for your service to the people and the Constitution.

It has become an Oath Keepers tradition (albeit short lived), for whenever we speak to a group, we administer n Oath to the Constitution….. And we encourage everyone here to join and take it along with military men and peace officers who wish to renew their oaths. When the chips are down (and people, right now the chips are down….) we are ALL protectors of the Constitution.

If you are compelled to take the oath, please stand and repeat after me:

OATH KEEPERS OATH:

I, ___________________, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support

and defend the Constitution of the United States of America, against all

enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the

same, and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or

purpose of evasion, pledging my life, my fortune, and my sacred honor. So

help me, God.

Now all we ask is for you to be true to your oath, and spread the word…. For more information I encourage everyone to visit www.oathkeepers.org. There you will see testimonials from officers around the country and soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, Coasties and Fire - Fighters who share their commitment to YOU and the CONSTITUTION.

Thank you for your attention and God Bless America.

SPEECH #2

HERE IS A MUCH SHORTER SPEECH YOU CAN USE IF YOU HAVE LIMITED TIME – Written by former Army Ranger, David Helms:

Oath Keepers

Thanks to _____________________ for allowing me to speak and thanks to all of you who came out today. My name is ________________________ and I am an Oath Keeper. Before I explain what an Oath Keeper is I have a few questions: Do we have any active duty service members here? Any veterans? Any current or former law enforcement personnel? Do we have any patriots? Very good, I want to thank you all for your service.

____________________, when I was inducted into __________________________I took an oath. This is how that oath read:

“I, _____ do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me God.” (or whatever version of the oath you took).

Now let me explain what I meant when I said I was an Oath Keeper. Oath Keepers is an organization founded by former Army paratrooper and Yale-educated attorney, Stewart Rhodes. Its membership is comprised of active duty service members, veterans, law enforcement personnel, and fire-fighters who will honor their oaths to defend the Constitution, who will not just follow orders, who will stand for liberty, and who will save the Republic, so help us God. Our motto is: “Not on our watch!”

Oath Keepers is a non-partisan organization. Its purpose is to remind those of us who have taken the oath of our duty to the Constitution. Our oath wasn’t to an officer in the ranks above us, or to a politician, or even to a president. It was to the Constitution. This means that not only will we obey lawful constitutional orders but that we MUST refuse unlawful, unconstitutional orders. This is not only our right it is the law, it is our DUTY, and the essence of the oath we took. For if we follow an unlawful, unconstitutional order, how can we possibly be supporting and defending the Constitution? Based on that reality, Oath Keepers has issued a Declaration of ten orders we will not obey. Here are those ten orders:

1. We will NOT obey orders to disarm the American people.

2. We will NOT obey orders to conduct warrantless searches of the American people.

3. We will NOT obey orders to detain American citizens as “unlawful enemy combatants” or to subject them to military tribunal.

4. We will NOT obey orders to impose martial law or a “state of emergency” on a state.

5. We will NOT obey orders to invade and subjugate any state that asserts its sovereignty.

6. We will NOT obey any order to blockade American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps.

7. We will NOT obey any order to force American citizens into any form of detention camps under any pretext.

8. We will NOT obey orders to assist or support the use of any foreign troops on U.S. soil against the American people to “keep the peace” or to “maintain control."

9. We will NOT obey any orders to confiscate the property of the American people, including food and other essential supplies.

10. We will NOT obey any orders which infringe on the right of the people to free speech, to peaceably assemble, and to petition their government for a redress of grievances.

In closing I would like to ask two things:

If you are in military service or law enforcement remember your oath! You may someday find yourselves as a last bulwark against tyranny.
If you believe in this Constitutional Republic of ours, whether you’ve ever been in military or law enforcement or not, and you would like to swear an Oath to defend the constitution, please stand, raise your right hand and take the oath with me now.

Repeat after me: