The Rifleman  

Get off your stadium seat, and get down into the arena!

You are not winning anything, while part of the audience.

In fact, you CAN’T win anything, as part of the audience - unless someone else, down in the arena, wins it for you - and where is the glory in that?

And it’s just possible the few guys and gals down there, in the arena, could use some help.

Let’s look at our experience in the Appleseed program.

Let’s see, now that we have a track record, four years (nearly) of uninterrupted rapid growth, we can make some definitive statements:

First, let’s craft a non-profit, all-volunteer effort calculated to one thing supposedly near and dear to our hearts: Pass on a dying Tradition.

Second, let’s take a look at the response of all our people who want to see that happen.

Have they uniformly stepped forward to put their shoulder to the Appleseed wheel?

Of course they haven’t. After all, this is 21st-century America.

And why haven’t they? The answering mantra is “ignorance, apathy, and laziness” - but while a possible explanation, none of the three is an excuse.

As an observer in this process, it would be easy for me to speak an obvious truth and say, regardless of how fast this program has gone, it could have gone a LOT faster.

Sure, we met our goal, the first year, of 1000 participants - even if it turned out to be nearly twice as much work as originally planned (in other words, instead of a projected 10 Appleseeds to do the job, it took 18, IIRC).

Announce a 2A-saving program, and - the first YEAR - have only 1000 participants?

Man, the shame of it! We should have had 100,000 participants, minimum (no, we couldn’t have handled them, so maybe life is kind in allowing us to get off to a slow start). And I could argue, a million would not have been out-of-line…

Now, at the end of the first year, with an entire year of program exposure to people, two things should have been obvious, and a third partly so:

1. After a year on the Appleseed Trail, it should have been clear we were in this to stay - and it was time to “sign up” for this program.

2. There was nothing in this program to be afraid of - no, we are not militia, nor is Appleseed ‘militia-training’. Shameful you have to deal with issues of fear amongst such strong, two-fisted, freedom-loving Americans, but the fear was palpable - and still is, in the FOURTH year of the program, in more than a few faint-hearted quarters.

3. Not quite as clear, as it takes time for direct word to spread, but the hint should have been already apparent: This program has the power to do what it says is its mission - to wake up Americans to a much-needed acquaintanceship with their history and heritage. To get ‘em off the couch, and into being American, again. No longer just TV zombies…

Now, in the FOURTH year of the program, there should be no doubt remaining about that.

Yet, millions of our fellow Americans are still up there, seemingly glued to their stadium seats, watching the show (we hope they are at least rooting for us, but many seem more interested in hot dogs and twittering).

Leaving those struggling in the arena without the help they need.

Do you know why we ‘lost’ at Bunker Hill? Did you know we did not have to “lose” that fight? Did you know American reinforcements were on the scene, but held back from joining the fight because they had to cross a narrow neck of land swept by British cannon fire?

Now, take away the cannon fire - in 21st-century America, we do not have to “sweat” any fire from British cannons - and ask yourself, since you don’t have that excuse, why are YOU holding back?

To make it easy, simply nod at one or more of the following reasons:

1. Ignorance - I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to do to help my country, I don’t know my country needs ’saving’, I don’t know what to do to save my country, I don’t know what I SHOULD be doing - in short, I don’t know - I am Ignorant. (Please, be kind to the writer - DON’T say that last with any pride in your voice.)

2. Laziness - Being in touch and well-connected with all my fat cells, I simply don’t want to put any of them in danger by bestirring my lazy self. It’s a lack of motivation thing, what they used to call, in the military, Lack of Moral Fiber (LMF) - and it was grounds for dismissal, primarily on the basis of being worthless. I am Worthless. (Please, be kind to me as an author - DON’T let me hear you say that last with any pride in your voice.)

3. Apathy - I simply don’t care. I don’t care who wins; I don’t care who loses. While part of the reason may be ignorance, and part may be laziness, I simply don’t care. “Whatever” is the mantra of my generation, and “whatever” is fine with me. Hand me another hot dog.

4. Fear - Yes, this is a new addition to the lexicon, but covers many more people than any of us would like to believe. Fear, of consequences, of getting hurt, of getting on some List, of getting dirty, of getting sweaty, of losing (if you don’t fight, you don’t lose, right?), fear of this, fear of that. Even a fear of working hard! What a betrayal of trust this one represents! I doubt not there was plenty of fear to go ’round on April 19, 1775 - but enough of our forefathers failed to let that stop them to run the Brits back to Boston. And they had, unlike you, to pass over ground which had musket balls whizzing over it. Any fear they had was real fear, not a fear of commitment, a fear of being asked to step up and take a stand…

What does fear get you? Fear keeps you locked in your seat. Fear ensures the risk of failure of something you’d like to see win, except you are so fearful you won’t get out of that safe seat in the stadium.

5. Ego - now maybe we come to the Big One. ‘Fear’ after all, is simply one way of saying “I’m the one who has to be protected. Not the Cause - whatever that is.”

Yes, sir, be sure to put yourself and your personal safety above all else. In the old days, the result used to be called “cowardice” and you, when you did it, were called a “coward”.

Now, being a coward is not that rare in 21st-century America.

In fact, so far as eyewitness testimony allows, it’s pretty much the “law of the land”. Don’t make waves. Keep yourself safe. Don’t this. Don’t that.

Not a pretty sight, my friends.

Not something the founders would have looked forward to - and they were forward-lookers, being much concerned for future generations, and the challenge of keeping liberty.

No sir, the battle for liberty was not supposed to be a one-time thing. It was recognized back then, but not today, that liberty was something each generation was responsible for preserving - for itself, and for generations to come.

Yet the image of 300 million modern Americans mesmerized by TV and so dumbed-down they can hardly think should be the alarm bell that wakens you to action.

As in, if YOU don’t do something, nothing will get done. You don’t see anyone doing anything, do you? Only those pathetic few already down in the arena - and no way THEY can save the nation - not by themselves…

So, get out of the stadium seat - you weren’t born in it after all - and some of us would even go so far as to say you - as a proud American - weren’t born FOR it, but for something greater, something more glorious…

Get out of that stadium seat, and take sides…

Hope I don’t have to tell you, which side to take, in the battle for Liberty…

Appleseed is about winning in that arena. About waking up our fellow Americans by holding up to them a proud history and heritage, and letting it soak into their minds: they are destined for a better future than the one lurking in front of us.

We can have that better future, but we’ll have to fight for it, not “sit on our bottoms” for it.

Stadium seats: If there were some way to rip them right out, the guy who figures out how to do it will be savior of liberty in this country…

We say at Appleseeds - those weekend heritage and rifle marksmanship events put on by the Revolutionary War Veterans Association - that our instructors have “a time monkey on their back.”

By that we mean there’s a lot to get accomplished in two short days, both marksmanship-wise and heritage- and history-wise.

“Too much to do, too little time” is another way to look at it.

So you quickly understand your biggest hurdle is time management.

There’s no room for “wasted” time or “slack” time.

And it falls on the shoulders of the SB (the “Shoot Boss”, the guy in charge of the Appleseed) to keep the pressure on, to keep things moving, to provide the kind of drive it will take to get all accomplished.

“Drive” is a fairly rare commodity, these days.

It’s not easy, not an easy task for modern Americans.

But definitely a critical task: the success of the Appleseed depends on it.

Which is why we say the “Shoot Boss” has a “monkey” - a “time monkey” - on his shoulders - or on his back.

In a larger sense, the entire Appleseed program has a “time monkey” on its back.

Time is not unlimited. Especially if you believe the future of the country is at risk. And there’s a need to ’save’ it.

To stop the train from going off the rails (or, as some of us would say - “too late for that - better focus on how we get it back on the rails…”).

Or, in another popular analogy, to save the sinking ship.

Life has a quality which endows things which go on longer with a tendency to continue going on longer. Call it “inertia”, call it the weight of the past, call it what you want - the longer things continue on a course or path, the harder it is to change that course, and the harder it is to recover lost ground.

Hence, the longer the ship continues to sink, the more difficult the task of first slowing, then stopping, the sinking - followed by the laborious process of pumping it out, fixing the damage, and then - finally - setting sail again.

Add to the mix the uncertainty of being able to do it, and you have a recipe for feeling “time’s a-wastin’!”

Because that uncertainty can only increase with time.

Early on, with only a few thousand gallons of water, not only is the task easier, but the certainty of being able to bail out the water before the ship sinks is almost a given.

Once the water has been inflowing for years, and becomes measured not in mere gallons, but in thousands of tons, not only is the task much harder, but the certainty much less.

If the ship is the only ship you have, that’s gotta be worrisome.

And motivational: Let’s get this ship fixed sooner, rather than later.

Why stand by idly, while the future darkens - even as we stand by?

Would that more Americans feel concerned about the future of the ship they’re on.

Would that more Americans feel compelled to get out of the deck chairs, and start to bail - to have the optimism, and the energy, and the grit, and the backbone, and the spirit, and the determination - to save the ship.

To not ask “Can it be done?”, with the odor that if it can’t, there’s no point in trying.

To ask for guarantees is the wrong road to travel.

Life doesn’t give you guarantees. Expect guarantees, and you’ll never do anything, or do anything much, or of worth.

Yet many Americans succumb to the notion of “it’s too late, too late to save the ship” - whether they really believe it - or whether it’s used as a convenient excuse to do nothing (I suspect more of the latter than the former).

“Many”? Too many!

Not understanding, or having forgotten, what being an American is all about.

It’s not about passively accepting something unpleasant (and treading water is definitely gonna be unpleasant). It’s not about tamely submitting - April 19th, 1775 showed us that.

It’s not about “requiring guarantees” - what a namby-pamby attitude that reflects (sorry for the harsh language, hope no kids are reading this!).

Being American is about NOT submitting.

About fighting on - like they did for 8 years during the Rev War - sometimes without hope. Certainly without guarantees.

What is it about the modern American that he requires guarantees before he’ll get off the couch?

Why is it he can’t wake up and see what the future is rapidly shaping up to be?

Why does the modern American prefer the “ostrich head in the sand” approach to life?

Whatever the answer, it’s not an answer which would cover anyone with glory.

Nor add an iota of respect to your opinion of him - in fact, way to the contrary…

The irony is that opinions held by British officers before and during the Rev War - that “Americans are useless, militarily, fit only to be beasts of burden” - were right - only it took two hundred years for it to become ‘right’.

Certainly, the Americans who ran the British out in 8 years of bloody war were not “useless, militarily”.

Yet modern Americans subscribe to notions Neville Chamberlain - once so thoroughly discredited that even I heard about it, in grammer school - would be perfectly comfortable with - even cheered by.

Can we use the word “shameful”?

A word which means not much to modern Americans.

Unfortunately.

Because shame is a great motivator.

As well as a searing description of failure.

Let’s listen in as John Adams expresses his feelings in April, 1777 at the failure of volunteer troops from his home state to show as expected:

I am wearied out, with Expectations that the Massachusetts Troops would have arrived, e’er now, at Head Quarters. — Do our People intend to leave the Continent in the Lurch? Do they mean to submit? or what Fatality attends them? With the noblest Prize in View, that ever Mortals contended for, and with the fairest Prospect of obtaining it upon easy Terms, The People of the Massachusetts Bay, are dead.
Does our State intend to send only half, or a third of their Quota? Do they wish to see another, crippled, disastrous and disgracefull Campaign for Want of an Army? — I am more sick and more ashamed of my own Countrymen, than ever I was before.

Not a pretty picture, for sure.

“With the noblest Prize in View, that ever Mortals contended for, and with the fairest Prospect of obtaining it upon easy Terms, The People of the Massachusetts Bay, are dead.”

Heck, what part of this sentence, if you delete the reference to Massachusetts, would not apply, today? To every American, to all of America.

“The noblest Prize in View” - isn’t that liberty? Freedom? Sovereignty of the citizen (another concept I learned in grammer school, but destined never to heard about in 21st-century America, seemingly).

“…with the fairest Prospect of obtaining it upon easy Terms…” Isn’t that something you could say about today’s America - that notion of “many hands make for light work” - but we don’t have too many hands that aren’t on the couch, sleeping.

“…The People of [of America], are dead.” Now, that’s got to be something sad to say, about your own people.

Are we to take heart, that we’ve been thru this before? And prevailed?

I think not.

Any time you are able to nod your head in agreement with statements like that, you have to recognize that things ‘are in the balance’ - and far from being comfortable about it, you have to understand, almost instinctively, the future is dark.

Why else the distress of John Adams?

Why else should we who are awake and alert not be distressed?

There was a Time Monkey back then, just as there is today. Let things drift, and the opportunity for losing everything increases.

Wish I had a dime for every time I heard an Appleseeder (someone who volunteers to help with the Appleseed program) send his regrets about volunteering for a specific Appleseed because he has “family to visit”, a “wedding to go to”, or his “better half demands he stay home” that weekend.

Can you imagine, if all these people were magically transported back to 4/19/’75 - what scathing remarks would greet those excuses?

Yes, we have to have some moderation - we can’t be fanatics about saving the ship, now, can we?

But sometimes I think there’s an excess of moderation, a little bit too much of “business as usual”.

Because there’s a Time Monkey on my back, urging me on, pestering me with the notion that things are not right, and they are not getting any righter.

Telling me “time is late”, and “time is not on our side”, and - “time’s a-wastin!”

“Drive” is what will save us.

If enough of us see the future, understand the need, and make the determination “it will not be allowed to happen on our watch”, think what would happen.

We just might be able to save the ship.

That “drive” is energy, and time. Energy and time we need to put into saving this country.

“Have to go” to a wedding, instead of an Appleseed? Simply decline, and tell them to invite you to the divorce (after all, aren’t the chances better than 50-50 the precious wedding will end in divorce - so why should you risk the future of the country for such a likely hollow and, ultimately, superficial event?)…

What’s more important: A weekend with the wife? Or saving a nation?

Or, put it another way: Is your wife more important than your country? (Yes, I can hear your laughing, joking remarks - laugh all you want. When you get done, you’re still living on a ship which is sinking.)

The Time Monkey waits for no man.

Ignore him at your peril.

You’re the only one who can save the ship.

Look around. See anyone else doing it?

Except at Appleseed…

Even if the ship is sinking, there’s nothing to say you can’t have fun while you’re saving it.

Heck, even the saving of it - the bailing - offers a satisfaction that’s close to joy.

But in this case, to make the irony of it more pointed, let’s change the analogy a bit.

From a sinking ship, to a train traveling down a track.

Sure, the train is hell-bound - need I say?

Only, you don’t know it. Nor, seemingly, does anyone else on the train.

All is frolicking and jollity.

The big-screen TV is bigger than anything you’ve seen before, bigger than any you can get for your home.

The chip bowl is always filled - and is that the super bowl in progress up on that big screen?

And, say, is that Elton John, playing?

Say, this is nice - Heaven, even (only it isn’t - it’s neither Heaven nor Hell).

So the train rockets along, swaying a bit, but none of the passengers, engaged in 24/7 fun and games, seems to mind - or care.

Party. Party. Party.

Each in his own way.

The gamblers.

The drunks.

The slackers.

The slothers. (Or should I say, “men of sloth”?)

The workaholics.

The avoid-any-commitment-at-any-cost crowd (lots of them, for sure!).

Now, to keep the analogy straight and true, you’ll have to assume there are some people on the train who know “what’s what” - know where the train is destined - and don’t want to see the train to go to Hell.

So, they’re out there, turning the brake wheels, trying to first slow it down, then stop it - then replace the crew who so negligently allowed the train on the wrong track, going in the wrong direction, in the first place - and trying to get at least some of the passengers to wake up, and understand that, just because it’s the largest plasma screen they’ve ever seen, and both the Superbowl and Elton John (by the way, he’s not playing too badly!) are on-screen, the train is NOT Heaven, nor Heaven-bound, nor certainly going anywhere near it.

Because stopping the train - thousands of tons of it - is a task for more than a few - and, so far, a few is all we have.

Hence, Appleseed.

But we have fun, whenever possible, doing it.

Yes, you can have fun, saving the train.

This is 21st-century America, no point in doing it any other way.

No pain, no real sacrifice (a weekend a month looks pretty good compared with months at Valley Forge, freezing and starving).

Yep, we should be ashamed.

But again, this is 21st-century America - no need for shame, these days…

How about you? Enjoying the big TV?

Or working to save the train?

Tough choice.

I know it.

Even as I tell you, saving the train is not work. It’s not even a bother. It’s a challenge. And it’s fun.

Come out on the Appleseed Trail, and see for yourself.

Just bring a few with you - friends, relatives, co-workers, neighbors, family - you name it - I don’t care who and how you pick - just bring some with you.

That way, you have people to talk to on the way home - about the Appleseed, about how YOU did, about how THEY did.

And when you get home, you’re not alone, anymore.

You have some Appleseed friends with you.

And, sure enough, you find one Appleseed friend is better than ALL the friends you had before…