After 80 hours of coach rail travel, including three hours of stopovers, four and half hours of on-track delays, and surviving off peanut butter and cyclist training gel pillows for the last leg I reached North Carolina. On the way I learned three things; Montana is freaking huge, all the wrong people are breeding in greater numbers then the right people, and sleep is not a reliable result of boredom; insanity is. The train is a great place for introspection and idle chatter. Even I was not crazy enough to bring up the topic of politics while trapped in the belly of a great metal snake with people all ready under considerable mental stress. Like explosives and toxic smells some things are more dangerous in confined spaces. I came to realize, sharing political opinion has become a prospect with considerable risks. As I already had relatively irresponsible cargo with me I chose not accept those risks in that venue.
That is not to say the Cavalry entered enemy territory incognito. I wore my full ACU style urban-night camouflage fatigues for most of the trip. Now that I am here in North Carolina enjoying 80 degree October weather I am sadly out of uniform. I need to stitch up a patch on the pants. I have acquired new shoes; the Chuck T’s which were for riding did not hold up to the pedestrian life to which I was relegated. I am going to a left leaning Episcopalian church. Though I have not cut my hair I don’t so much Rawk the Hawk anymore. And none of my protest shirts are being worn. I am finding it hard to suppress the dialect I had so easily avoided in my youth. In short, I am becoming someone the locals will trust.
I am fed and I am sheltered and I am now on the business side of the country. Not too far north of here is the Capital. That infernal nest of traitors and cowards; if you, dear reader, can tell me which group should be judged more harshly by justice and history I would be must appreciative. In this state is the headquarters of the mercenary cowards. The brown shirts of Black Water. To the south lies my home state, so long mired in the swamps of infamy and corruption. Florida; though I may malign her, I can never deny her. And across the Gulf from my birthplace on Davis Island is another city I once called home. A city left to drown in filth. The Federally maintained and managed levees failed in New Orleans but it was the state and local officials fault for not responding quickly enough to a disaster the federal government was supposed to have already prevented. I think this was the point where outrage became pure rage. It began when a carpet-bagging Texan in my home state gave a few Electoral College votes to his brother without regard for the will of the people. It grew when the Supreme Court legitimized that crime. It is now out of control. A cornered rodent with the full force our military and of corporate armies at his disposal; I wish I could stop thinking about it.
Though I am now among less people likely to agree with me now, those I am around are more likely to be able to do something about it should the need arise. No offence to my friends on the other side of the world but there are more armed progressives here on the front then there are out there on the left coast. It is an acceptable action. The Cavalry has not compromised its strategy merely changed its tactics. Recruit and charge was not a viable plan but at least I can say I tried. I accepted the mockery and took the challenge. Asymmetrical economic warfare was also a bust in this case as I could not maintain it for long nor could I as one person create an economic blip. (It would really only take about 5% of the total work force or 15% of one essential field like truckers, nurses, or teachers to go on strike for about two weeks and the corporations would surrender like the Democrats in the halls of congress) Here I will do what so many corporations have paid me to do. Here I will observe and report. The rebellion will not rise from the left coast. It will come from here in the south where the progressives are out numbered and are therefore smart enough to be armed. I hope this consideration proves unnecessary but if it’s not I am firm in my belief that this is where I need to be.
Keep the torches lit and your powder dry Freedom Loving Americans. Let’s all hope for a clean and effective vote next year and be ready if something happens to prevent it. They are bullies plain and simple. They will not try and force us if they fear they may have to fight us. Accept your duty as an American and be ready to bring that fight.