http://newamericantruth.com/natwp/2010/07/spartans-and-government/
Spartans and Government Frank Borelli <mailto:[email protected]> Editor In Chief New American Truth - Even my twelve year old son knows the story of Sparta and the Battle of Thermopylae. Spartans have become almost legendary for the stand they took there and the success they enjoyed in that battle - no matter that they lost against overwhelming numebers in the end. Spartans in "future history" (the HALO video games) are also valiant super-human warriors, genetically manipulated and equipped with armor that is almost super-natural. The key characteristic of both, however, has nothing to do with the word Spartan other than the courage that it implies. Thanks to Dictionary.com: Spartan: suggestive of the ancient Spartans; sternly disciplined and rigorously simple, frugal, or austere; brave, undaunted. Thanks to the movie 300, a great many folks today think that 300 Spartans stood alone against thousands upon thousands of Persian troops. Well, history shows that there were 300 Spartans there. along with 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans. Not that the additionall 1100 warriors made a difference in the long run - except to determine how long the battle would last. Spartans were - by all accounts - a rare bread though. At the age of 20 all male Spartans were required to join their basic military unit - the syssitia. There they trained and bonded, each soldier considered equal to another - no soldier being superior to his comrades. They weren't able to exercise the full rights and duties as citizens until age 30. That's ten years of dedicated training and service before having any say. The Spartans remained in "active reserve" until age 60 - and had to remain capable throughout that 30 year span. Although encouraged to marry at 20, the men couldn't live with their families until age 30 - again showing the high level of dedication required of the Spartan lifestyle. One historical report says that when a Spartan went to war his wife would give him his shield saying, "With this or upon this." It meant that they should only return in possession of their shield or carried upon it. (If they lost their shield it was considered proof that they'd run from the enemy) Take all of that into consideration and think about what we could use the term spartan to mean today. A Spartan can be any warrior (obviously). Our society has many. * We have the soldiers who protect and defend our country and its constitution * We have the law enforcement professionals who protect and serve our citizenry and our country's constitution * We have the citizens who stand up against crime and terrorism, preferring "battle" to oppression or servitude in any form * We have those who cast votes to designate who will lead and form our country and protect its constitution When you think about it, all of those groups "stand in the gap" in some way. All of them display courage - albeit of different types - to stand and do what they feel is right. I fear the definition of "What's right" has changed though. In my father's time - that being the 1920s-1950s as he was growing up - "doing what's right" meant pursuing justice as you worked hard to pursue the American Dream: life, liberty and happiness (or as close as you could get to it with your own achievements). In today's world there are many who believe that "doing what's right" means constantly giving to those who have less; it means taking from those who work hard to give to those who have less - even if the "have less" is a direct result of laziness or victimism (not really victims of anything but having created a fictional bad thing that has oppressed them somehow). It may be arrogant of me but I consider myself a Spartan. I stand in the gap against that onslaught of today's version of doing what's right. While I'll happily fight to protect every American citizen's rights to pursue life, liberty and as much happiness as they can legally obtain through their own hard work and dedicated efforts, I will stand equally against a government who takes - only in the name of power - the earnings of hard workers and redistributes them to the lazy. I have served in a military uniform. I have served in a law enforcement uniform. Now I serve in a citizen's uniform and I look forward with pride and eagerness to doing my duty - that being to cast my vote in November. I urge all of you to be equal contemporary Spartans. Get educated. Get out. VOTE. Whether your votes match mine doesn't matter. What matters is that we actively and aggressively participate in our governmental process through our vote. Otherwise the government will continue to do whatever it wants unchecked - and we'll have no one to blame but ourselves. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [email protected]. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [email protected] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. 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