Day one of the new schedule, sort of…  I was up & out this morning to join my neighbor and her dog for the “morning constitutional stroll”.  On my doorstep was a pair of fliers announcing a group promoting freedom and the voice of the unheard.

So, I’ve given them a little more than an hour of my morning, checking their site to see what they believe in and how they promote those beliefs.  It was rhetoric, double-speak, and new vocabulary that really didn’t define the bottom line.  We’ll start there – that’s annoying.  If you believe in something to the extent that you want others to agree and/or join you, it’s rather important to be able to put that belief into a clear statement, not muddled circular arguments.

I believe that God created the world and all elements and creatures in it, thus He has the right to establish and declare laws and standards, both natural and moral.  I believe that every person has value from single cell to last natural breath, that heinous acts are worthy of forfeiting that life but not that value.   I believe that government has become too large and personal responsibility has become too small.  I believe that we should pursue correction of that balance, starting with ourselves, our homes, and our communities, while using civil and legal means at our disposal to curb the intrusion of government into our private lives.   I believe that responsibility includes keeping private things private and shielding the young and innocent from mature matters until their responsible guardians (generally parents) determine appropriate levels of exposure.

There – it’s still a bit open ended, but it’s quickly clear whether we agree on the basics and whether you would be inclined to follow up on the details.  It took about 20 minutes.  This group has been established for several years, citing news program interviews from 2007.  They’ve had time to clearly define their objectives for recruiting purposes.  I have a hard time trusting an established group that can’t say what they’re about.

Next, they’re very careful about remaining an elusive ‘they’ – a hidden force that rises up and shows itself behind masks when it deems appropriate.  There is actually a part of their agreement indicating that being a member of their group requires not revealing one’s actual name or face.  Hmmm…about that…

There’s a time and place for remaining unseen…  Admittedly, I don’t have my mugshot on my blog, I may (or may not) change that.  If you’re reading, it’s probably because you already know me.  When I’m ‘in uniform’ as one of my two clowns, I don’t answer to the name my mom gave me – it’s Clown Culture, keep the mystery, keep the magic.   Since I’m just as vulnerable as any other average person in America, I tend to take security into account – locking doors, looking both ways, and not publishing my contact information…it’s common sense.  Likewise, there is necessity & wisdom to keeping a very low profile if one is involved in activities such as underground railroads, witness protection, abuse shelters…  There’s a time & place for staying invisible.

There is another dynamic, however, to having a group dedicated to bringing about public change from behind a mask.   Cowards & coverts do that, and public change is no place for cowards.  If you believe it, stand up for it, with boldness born of conviction.   Hiding, for an organization, tends to be the first clue that something’s not on the up-n-up.

Well, I followed up by seeing what other sites had to say about them – it became a bit more clear.  According to lists of interviews & activities, it turns out that this group believes in anarchy, to the extent that they will aggressively pursue anarchy through interruption of others’ attempt at order.  Not my style, so I won’t be joining them, nor promoting them.

Before someone raises the ‘extreme circumstances call for extreme measures’ defense, let me assert that I’d have been proud to march with Dr Martin Luther King, based on the whole of his faith & philosophy, not just the popular sound-bytes.  I’ve attended a few demonstrations, where the objective was to have numbers of people representing an ideal, peacefully.  I salute the Patriot Riders who respectfully enforce the boundaries of funerals, protecting grieving friends and family from the obnoxious absurdity of a few.  The key here is not maintaining status-quo, but speaking up with order and respect, giving dignity to that which you believe in, and asking reasonable people to consider it as a valid public change.  Anarchy and disruption are a completely different approach to change, and I will clearly oppose it, without a mask, respectfully.

The obvious next question becomes, why blog about them??  To encourage others to thoughtfully explore groups and rhetoric before diving in with both feet.  We are a marketing society that lives on sound-bytes – we put labels on ideas and groups, then rally for or against the label, without digging into the quality and/or consequences found beneath.  On the surface, with the initial advertisement, this group seemed like something worth exploring – so I did. Many others will jump on the first opportunity to sign up, then find out later what they’ve gotten themselves into.  Results of good marketing.

In this, I agree with them – speak up – find others that agree with you and seek to improve society.   Just make sure you know who you’re agreeing with, and what else they believe.