To meet Fire with Fire

Greensboro, North Carolina – When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them…

There have been times throughout history when the schoolyard bullies grow up and take control of nations. And those bullies start to push those that are weaker than they are around. Sometimes they roll over without a fight, like some nations practically did in World War II, other times they fight tooth and nail until they drive the invaders or king or armies or whatever or whoever it is on top of them off until they can stand up and take their own place in the world again, like the Germans did two thousand years ago when the Empire of Rome thought it would expand its border that way, and found that they could hold only the ground they stood on, and not even that was very secure.

The weaker resisting against oppression has been around since the dawn of history. We can be very certain Able did not sit down and whine when Cain came after him in the field. When the Persians attempted to march through the pass of Thermopylae, to put of Greece under its heel, three hundred Spartans stood them off and killed thousands.

But Able died, and the Spartans lost the battle. In Adolf’s Hitler’s Germany, the theologian Dietrich Bonheoffer and a small group of dedicated men attempted to assassinate and bring down Hitler himself with the aid of some of nation’s highest men. The bombs failed to go off, or when they did, they failed to work properly. The group was discovered and broken up. Bonheoffer was hung.

There were at least small attempt at overthrowing the Russians Reds as they came to power, but those to broke down and collapsed. But the attempted coups against Nero worked. In fact, the coups were so well that year that Rome had four emperors. Resistance worked quite well for Alfred the Great, as he fought against the Danes, and there were quite effective resistance movements in World War II.

To be continued.

Andrew C. Abbott