Throughout history, April 19^th is a day of resistance to tyranny.  Funny, really, that governments the world over would choose to persecute their citizens on the same day, year after year.  Guess those too stupid to learn from history truly are condemned to repeat it.

  April 19, 1775 – Lexington and Concord .  Those pesky American Minutemen decided they weren’t about to take any crap from British troops determined to take their arms. 

 At Thermopolye in ancient Greece , upon being told by his enemies, “We do not want your lives, we only want your arms”, Spartan King Leonidas said two bold words: “Molon Labe”.  (Come and get them.)

 So said the Americans to the British that day.

 Twelve American heros died that April 19^th.  Over the next few days the battle raged, leaving 95 Americans, and approximately 270 British Army troops dead.

 Founded in the resistance to tyranny, a new nation was formed April 19, 1775 .

 Sadly, the victory was short-lived.  For less than a hundred years later, the government of that newly formed nation, under the leadership of President Abraham Lincoln, was well on its way to becoming its own tyrannical state.

  April 19, 1861 , President Lincoln issued proclamations authorizing the blockade of Confederate ports.  War had not yet been declared with the South, but that meant little to Lincoln .  During the three months prior to war being officially declared, Lincoln ’s Union Navy captured and seized numerous merchant vessels.  Those seizures were challenged in court on the basis the President had exceeded his authority.

 Unfortunately for the owners of the ships and cargo, the Supreme Court did then what it seemingly still does today.  It did what it was told by the President.  In 1863 that Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that President Lincoln’s actions were constitutional.

 Go figure.

 Fast-forward to 1903.   Elliot Ness is born.  Not in itself a fantastic historical event, I’m sure, but a little down the road it became pretty relevant.  Ness and his “Untouchables” from the Justice Department stormed people’s homes without warrants, which the Justice Department still does with disgusting regularity today.

 Sure, Ness claimed they had “good reason” for their tactics. 

 Don’t they always.

  April 19, 1961 – Cuba and the Bay of Pigs invasion.  Bloody disaster, really.  But by the 19^th, all the invasion forces were either captured or killed, leading to severe tensions between the Cubans and America .  And within America .  But that’s a tale for another day.  Right Oliver?

 My favorite April 19^th event is the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943.  It was here that a ragtag group of Patriots realized with crystal clarity that to be deported from the Ghetto meant certain death at the hands of the Germans.  So, they did what any honorable person would do.  They started killing their captors.  And not on a small scale, either.  With only a few stolen guns a handful of Jewish Freedom Fighters held off the entire German army for over a month.  In order to “win”, the Germans had to raze the Ghetto to the ground, and even then, many of the Jewish fighters escaped.

 1993.  April 19^th.  Waco , Texas .  Federal agents, you know, like Elliott Ness earlier in the century, bombed and burned a religious compound and murdered 70 or so men, women and children.  ‘Cause they were “different”.  ‘Cause they had some guns.  Legal, mind you, but that didn’t seem to matter to Janet Reno or the Justice Department.  “Better 70 innocents should die than one guilty go free” was apparently their motto.

 Couple years later someone got even for that though, didn’t they? 

 1995, April 19^th, Oklahoma City and the Alfred P. Murrah Building .  Called “the deadliest terrorist incident ever to occur in the United States ” (until 9/11, of course). Timothy McVeigh, disgusted at his government’s actions in Waco (and Ruby Ridge before that), decided it was time to take the war to the enemy.  And he took out 168 people and a federal government building to prove his point. 

 The tyranny doesn’t end.  But every now and then there just might be some justice.  This April 19^th for example, there are a couple of trials going on in the nation.

 Down in Brownsville , Cameron County Sheriff Conrado Cantu goes on trial for allegations of abusing the power of his office.  He, of course, denies any wrongdoing.  They always do, though, don’t they?

 And in North Carolina one former State Trooper go on trial for numerous sex offenses, stemming from a series of rapes that started when the alleged victim was only 7 years old.   That the former State Trooper hasn’t been hung by his balls from City Hall is rather sad.

 Also on that date, former Seaboard Police Chief Craig Ira Clapp is due to be sentenced for accepting bribes from drug dealers.  Nice work there, Chief.

 But, unfortunately for patriots everywhere, the tide of tyranny does not appear to be ebbing any time soon.

 In the United States , as in that wannabe-communist country to the North, governments insist on stripping citizens of their God-given rights to freedom and liberty.

 Government forces of all acronyms kick in doors in the wee hours of the morning to steal guns away from law-abiding citizens. 

 Maybe some day soon, populations from both countries will take a page out of King Leonidas’ book, and do like the heroes at Lexington and Concord did. 

 You want our guns?

 Molon Labe. 

Christopher di Armani is a freelance writer based in Lytton, BC. He can be contacted at Christopher@diArmani.com.

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