An Allusion to Watering the Tree of Liberty

- IT IS TIME TO WATER THE TREE OF LIBERTY!

- Written on a sign carried by a protester outside of the townhall meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on August 11, 2009, where President Barack Obama was scheduled to appear to discuss health care reform.

The protester, standing outside the venue in New Hampshire, was armed with a loaded gun, strapped low on his right leg.

According to New Hampshire law, being strapped at the event did not break any laws. It is legal to carry a loaded weapon in plain sight.

The real and imagined concerns of some citizens, who fear what the country, their country, America, has or may become, with a movement of citizens questioning and petitioning the nation's court system, challenging the legitimacy of the nation's first elected African American president, has made for very raw nerves among some elements in American society.

Much of the fear and apprehension for what was referred to as change began when then Senator Obama tossed his hat into the proverbial ring to run for president of the United States.

On November 4, 2008, he won the office of the presidency by close to 9 million votes, with 365 electoral votes, 95 more votes than the 270 electoral votes required for the win.

It was reported that the day after the election of President Barack Hussein Obama, on Wednesday, November 5, 2008, gun sales and ammunition began flying off the shelves, with gun store owners and dealers saying they have been unable to keep stock on their shelves since that date.

Much of the nation's gun and ammunition buying spree was spurred by the belief that there would be curtailment of American citizens' ability to purchase guns, a belief that fueled anxiety over the constitutionally protected 2nd Amendment right to bear arms.

Some even believe/believed that the Obama administration would put some apparatus in place to go door to door to confiscate guns from gun owners.

According to a recently published book, The President's Secret Service, by Robert Kessler, former President George W. Bush received 3,000 realistic threats a year. The author states threats against President Obama have increased 400%.

At the urging of members of his campaign, then candidate Senator Barack Obama requested and was granted a Secret Service detail early on in his campaign in 2008, the earliest assignment ever provided since the Secret Service began protecting candidates after the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy in June 1968.

Over the months since the election and the inauguration of President Obama in January 2009, as tempers have flared, in some instances, fueled by disinformation, not to be confused with misinformation, an element of panic has set in within segments of the American population.

The past few months have spawned a number of totally false rumors regarding the content of the current bills circulating in the legislature as Congress tackles health care reform, with members hosting townhall meetings across the country to clarify information and answer questions.

Congressional representatives, in many instances, have been met by angry attendees, some angered due to real concerns about their existing health care insurance, others disturbed due to patently false, ugly rumors, among those talk of plans to euthanize senior citizens and nonexistent death panels, with many efforts by elected officials at the townhall meetings, attempting to speak to counter the falsehoods, being drowned out by the crowd.

Republican Right Wing Conservative and former presidential candidate Alan Keyes, who challenges the citizenship of the President, filing suit in court to challenge the legitimacy of the Obama presidency, the man who lost the Illinois senate race to Barack Obama, has stated that it is necessary to stop President Obama before its too late.

Mr. Keyes has not been alone, among elements within the Right Wing conservative movement, in issuing that lament.

As I watched video of the protester in New Hampshire yesterday, pondering the violent history of America's past, as he stood with his gun strapped low on his right side, holding his sign with both hands, I couldn't help but reflect on the paraphrased quote regarding martyrdom, as attributed to Thomas Jefferson, that was printed on the protester's sign, wondering what could have happened if anyone had decided to use that gun.

Also at NowPublic :

Justice Needs to Remove that Blindfold

A Long, Hot Summer of Hate

Right Wing Racism on the Rise