I AM JOINING THE FIGHT

I AM JOINING THE FIGHT AND HAVE RECENTLY HAD VISITS FROM THE FBI IN REGARDS TO THE TRAINING I DO TO PREPARE CITIZENS WITH MEDICAL,COMMUNICATIONS AND OTHER INFO TO BE ASSETS TO THEIR COMMUNITIES AND THEMSELVES IN TIMES OF STRIFE. SEEMS I HAVE BECOME A CONCERN FOR DOING THIS AND THAT TELLS ME I MUST BE ON THE RIGHT TRACK.

I HAVE SERVED MY COUNTRY TWICE AND SWORE MY OATH TWICE TO "DEFEND THIS COUNTRY AGAINST ALL ENEMIES FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC."

I HAVE JOINED THE FIGHT FOR THE COUNTRY AND ITS RETURN TO THE REPUBLIC IT ONCE WAS.

HERE IS MY WEBSITE AND THE JULY ISSUE OF "SWAT" MAGAZINE HAS AN ARTICLE ABOUT MY TRAINING.

[Note from Oath Keepers: go here to read that excellent article by S.W.AT. columnist Jeff Randall].


I AM PROUD TO BE AMONG THOSE STANDING FOR THIS COUNTRY AND KNOW I AM IN GOOD COMPANY.

JOHN GERRARD. www.alphieomegatraining.com

[Note from Oath Keepers: We asked Mr. Gerrard to tell us a little more about his visit from the FBI, and below is what he sent. ]

A little background to this story.

May 27, 2009: Around 1600 hrs. Bryan County Sheriff detectives in a white Ford Explorer with heavily tinted windows arrived at the ranch while my wife and I were outside tending to our farm. The apparent reason for their visit was that they were looking for our daughters’ boyfriend who worked at the Bryan County Jail as a jailer. They informed us the needed to ask the boyfriend some questions and clear some things up in connection to an escape of an inmate on charges of armed robbery. While waiting for our daughter and her boyfriend to arrive home we chatted with the detectives. Since it was our daughter involved with the individual the deputies wanted to question we felt in the interest of everyone’s safety it best for them to pick him up at our home allowing us to observe and witness what could have been a potentially dangerous situation. During the course of our conversation with the deputies we spoke about the economy and I told them about the Oathkeepers site. They seemed aware of the economic concerns but only voiced an opinion of the fact the economy was “not going well” as told on the mainstream media. Once our daughter and her boyfriend arrived the deputies immediately AND peacefully put him in their vehicle and took him in for questioning.

May 28, 2009: Around 1400 hrs. our dogs again alerted us that we had someone coming up the drive so I went out on the front porch to see who it was this time. Again, it was a white Ford Explorer so I assumed it was the deputies from the day before. They parked their vehicle in the shade and again two casually dressed men, again with side arms, approached me on the porch. I started the conversation with “well, you guys back again today?” I then realized that they were not the same officers and introduced themselves with the FBI and stated their names Agent Jeff Youngblood of the FBI (his business card denotes ”Special Agent Durant Resident Agency”) and Alan N. Carpenter ( his card has a heading U.S. Dept of Justice FBI Special Agent) said they had ‘heard about my training from the local sheriff’s office’ and were here to ask me some questions about ‘the training’. We then played a verbal chess game of questions/answer and I relayed the basic information about my training scenarios i.e.: medical, communications, survival skills, alternative power, antennas, solar, as well as the firearms training. They were interesting in how far my commo gear would communicate, how much of my gear was “off grid on solar” and numerous other questions about the ability I had to communicate “long distances.” At times the questions were specific about the training and other questions appeared to be more probing like “How do you advertise for your training”? This one I avoided answering, it seems they were concerned with the potential radio programs I spoke on and had used to let others know of the training seminars. Hmmm…. I thought to myself….. 1^st amendment violations….patriot act…?

They asked if we could go “somewhere to sit and talk” and I pointed towards the porch but with only two chairs I felt more comfortable staying outside so we continued our conversation standing on the porch. I realized later that they would have preferred we had gone inside to talk. They inquired as to how I check out the people who come to the training. I responded that we really haven’t had any concerns about anyone but had a former OSI agent who teaches the communications course and if there was a concern he would ‘check them out’. Mr. Youngblood then offered to do background checks for me and all I had to do is call him. Hmmmm……. I have never heard of the FBI volunteering to assist private citizens with “background checks” before.

There was more small talk including the statement “we aren’t bad cops like on T.V. but we know there are bad cops out there”. And then the kicker statement was “it must be hard for anyone to get up your long driveway without you knowing it, huh?” To which I responded by shaking my head “yes”.

There was more small talk about my livestock the ranch,what I did for a living and I then offered them the opportunity to come to the next training seminar in July and they stated they “may have to check out the ‘website’ ”. I never gave them the web address but did point them to the July issue of SWAT Magazine article about our training and to the ‘Oathkeepers’ website.

They mentioned more than once ‘they weren’t worried about the shooting’ we were doing or any part of the firearms training we do here. We had notified the local sheriff prior to our first training April 2008. My wife actually called him at home and informed him of our meet-up training that included a shooting class and he seemed to be ok with it. She also notified our neighbors so they were not alarmed about the extra people, traffic and shooting without knowing what was going on.

I asked both agents for their business cards and again invited them to come to the training in July. At this time again, Mr. Youngblood said “he would be willing to run background checks on anyone I might be concerned with”. They both made a general statement about checking out the next training seminar, I can only wonder what their underlying purpose would be.

We then made polite good byes, said our thank you’s and shook hands. Mr. Youngblood stated as they were slowly walking back to their vehicle he had not had a chance to read my “No Trespassing” sign with it’s attached titles of code posted up the drive and they proceeded to their vehicle and drove off without incident. They murmured to each other when they read the sign words incomprehensible to me.

I was not intimidated or afraid but was very concerned as to what kind of threat I posed as an ex-serviceman, American citizen who had served his country not once but twice. With all the wrong going on in our country, the problems at the border, the bailout of crooked corporations, job loss, housing foreclosures, gang violence and human trafficking spilling over from Mexico I feel there are much more important issues they could be dealing with then hassling private citizens about preparedness training. After seeing and reading the recent DHS Report regarding right wing extremist’s and their definition of those considered a risk to national security, thinking about my Ron Paul bumper sticker on both our vehicles and the fact that I am against “bad government” and speak out on the radio and internet broadcasts I realize I am a threat to them if only by their own defined definition. It’s NOT because of the training but because I am preparing folks to be independent and aware of the downward path our country ‘I used to know and love’ is going. I also realize it is no longer a representative Republic and has been bankrupted by the elite. Therefore, I must be a threat. Does that make sense in this day and age? I have continued to wonder the real reason I appear as threat to National security and warrant the FBI’s attention, hmm.. self reliance, self sufficient, aware, concerned ex-military, able to be independent of power, speaks out……training others. the list builds of threats.

I don’t know my country anymore. It’s not the one I swore an oath “to defend against ALL enemies foreign and domestic” not once but twice. It is a foreign land, bankrupt and going down a road I see as fascist, awaiting once again for the ‘Renegades’ to make it once again a Republic, one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all. God save the Republic not the fascist system that fears its citizens.

John Gerrard

HOW TO BE A DEFENDER OF THE REPUBLIC – THE EXAMPLE OF JAMES OTIS

By

Stewart Rhodes

How do you, as an individual, defend the Republic of the Founders?

Because you must understand it to defend it, I have endeavored, over several columns, to remind you of the natural law foundations of our Republic (clearly set forth in our Declaration of Independence). I have reminded you that the Ninth and Tenth Amendments contain a built in guide to constitutional interpretation, such that the power granting provisions of the Constitution should be read very narrowly, while the rights protecting provisions should be read very broadly, as legal scholar St. George Tucker pointed out back in 1803.

But don’t take my word for it. Open the Constitution and read it for yourself, and then read Jefferson’s Kentucky Resolutions, which contain an excellent, concise analysis of the Constitution, as well as the Federalist Papers and the Anti-Federalist Papers. All of the above can be found online at www.constitution.org.

But once we understand it, how do we defend it? Once again, we can learn much from the Founding generation, and one of the very best examples is that of Founding Father James Otis.

Founding Father James Otis - the patron saint of lawyers who take their oath seriously.

In 1760 James Otis, a successful Boston lawyer, was appointed to the prestigious position of Advocate General of the Admiralty Court, the colonial equivalent of today’s U.S. Attorney General. However, in 1761 Otis was expected to defend the Crown’s use of the odious writs of assistance that allowed British customs agents to undertake warrantless searches without a probable cause determination by a judge. Otis not only refused to argue the government’s case, he quite his job as Advocate General and became the pro bono (free) lawyer for the colonists who were challenging the writs as violations of their rights.

James Otis, in a fiery four-hour argument, condemned the writs as violations of the ancient rights of Englishmen as well as the people’s natural rights, a “kind of power, the exercise of which in former periods of history cost one king of England his head and another his throne.” See http://www.constitution.org/bor/otis_against_writs.htm

The court ruled against Otis, finding the writs to be “legal” under the British Constitution. But Otis did not bow his head and accept that interpretation. That was not the end of the argument – that was only the beginning. Otis continued to speak out against the writs of assistance as a heinous violation of the rights of the people, and the use of those writs was one of the causes of eventually taking up arms against the Crown.

In fact, John Adams wrote many years later that in James Otis’s argument against the writs of assistance “the child independence was then and there born,[for] every man of an immense crowded audience appeared to me to go away as I did, ready to take arms against writs of assistance."

Even though James Otis lost his case – lost that particular legal battle – he, and the rest of his generation, eventually won the war. It would take a full fourteen years of further agitation and argument before the actual shooting began, and during that time Otis played an instrumental role in the establishment of the Committees of Correspondence. After the Revolution, the opposition to the writs of assistance also led directly to our Fourth Amendment protections against warrantless searches. This is an important lesson for us. When we take a principled stand in defense of liberty, and in defense of the Constitution, we cannot know how far reaching that stand may be, and even if we lose the particular battle, we may yet win the “war.”

Now, to see how far we have strayed from the path of the Founders, can you imagine a modern Attorney General, such as Janet Reno or Alberto Gonzales, doing what James Otis did, saying, “sorry, Mr. President, but you cannot do that, because it is simply unconstitutional” and then quitting their job and going over to the other side, volunteering to represent the people challenging the government action as unconstitutional? Imagine Janet Reno quitting her job and representing the Branch Dividians. Imagine Alberto Gonzalez quitting and representing citizen “enemy combatant”Jose Padilla or one of the people challenging the NSA warrantless surveillance. Although all lawyers swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution, you know those modern government lawyers are mere lap dogs for their presidents, yipping in agreement with whatever their master wants to do. While paying lip service to the oath of office, to loyalty to the Constitution, such people are loyal only to party, personal ambition, and to the government they are a part of. The same problem can be seen at every level of government, from the President on down to the local cop on the beat. Many have abandoned their individual responsibility to keep their oath of office, and instead blindly accept the decrees of the courts, of their bosses, or of their commanders. They just follow orders. That is wrong. The American Revolution would never have gotten off the ground if the Founding Generation had taken that view.

You have an obligation as an individual American to read and understand the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, to draw your own line in the sand, just as James Otis did, and to stand by your convictions even though it may dearly cost you.

That is how the Founding generation did it. They risked all for our liberty, pledging their lives, fortune’s and sacred honor. Many of that generation, and many since, gave their full measure of devotion to the cause of liberty, up to and including their lives. You owe them, and your children, your commitment to do the same.

If, like me, you swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution, you must stand by that oath through thick and thin. But keep in mind that, like James Otis, even when we lose we may win, and we can never know the full future impact of our principled stand. So take heart, and make interpretation and defense of the Constitution, and the natural rights it was meant to protect, a personal obligation, as the Founders intended.

- Stewart Rhodes
S.W.AT. Magazine columnist and
Founder of Oath Keepers
http://oath-keepers.blogspot.com

[NOTE: The above article was originally published in S.W.A.T. Magazine in Spring of 2008, and S.W.AT. Magazine, which supports the Oath Keepers mission 100%, has graciously permitted me to post it here. You may send it around if you like, so long as it is for non-profit and you include a link to this blog. - Stewart]

If you will be attending the rally on the Lexington Green this Sunday, April 19, 2009, and if you also spend any time in Boston, go visit the grave of Jame Otis at the Granary Burying Ground and pay respects to this great founding patriot.

Grave of Patriot Lawyer James Otis, at Granary Burying Ground, Boston.