"I don't have enough time" Syndrome
"I don't
have enough time" Syndrome
by Angel Shamaya
Director, KeepAndBearArms.com
We've all used the statement "I don't have
enough time" at one time or another. Some people use it as a
mantra--a regularly repeated statement which magically aides Avoidance.
Let's address the reality of the issue from a few different perspectives and see
if we can yield some new and different thinking. At issue is not whether
or not we will reclaim America; the question is how quickly we can do it.
Because the "I don't have enough time" phenomenon seems to be such a
convenient out for so many gun owners, somebody needs to say something.
Might as well be me, and might as well be now.
First, let's nail down some facts.
- Each of us has 24 hours in each day.
If you know how I can get more, please let me know.
- Each of us has things we "have to"
do. They include family obligations, eating, sleeping, bathing, and
earning a living.
- Each of us has choices on a menu of how to
invest our extra time. (Notice I didn't say "spend"; when
you spend something, it is gone. Investing time produces a yield, just
like when you invest money.)
- Each of us has priorities on how we choose
to invest our precious extra time.
These are the facts. Irrefutable,
non-negotiable, unarguable.
What really comes to bear on the "I don't
have enough time" excuse, then, is a set of priorities. We each
prioritize differently, and we each make our own choices about what comes first
on our menu of options.
Some gun owners invest 14 hours each week
shooting, reloading, calculating ballistics, cleaning their guns, reading up on
the latest guns being manufactured, et cetera. I use the term
"invest" here because there most certainly is a yield. Improved
skill, refined ability to hit your target, keeping up with reloads, staying
abreast of new developments, and, perhaps most importantly, FUN. All of
these are worthy yields, and each of them has its place.
And some gun owners do none of the above but
have a gun or two and some ammo tucked away for a rainy day. They find
themselves consumed by life's agenda and set aside no time to help out the folks
who defend Liberty. Their priorities are not wrong; they are just
different.
When I was 14 or so, every summer morning while
other kids were sleeping, I was up before sunrise, enthusiastically making my
way to the fields where my grandmother's next casserole awaited me. Most
summer-laden teenagers prioritized sleeping until noon; by noon I was showered,
and my food was cleaned and in the freezer. Neither of our priorities were
wrong; they were simply different.
Today, we are seeing widespread signs that our
children are being deprived the same menu option to hunt that I was granted in
my youth. We are also seeing rapes and murders in cities and states where
good, lawful, peaceable, long-suffering gun owners are now "not
allowed" to defend their own bodies from malicious predatory attacks by
armed and dangerous criminals; they are being told by law to submit to such
attacks and are left to deal with the emotional and physical scars--if they are
allowed to live. And we are seeing "leaders" in this country
telling us we should register our guns when we all know by simple research that
every registration throughout history had led to confiscation--no
exceptions. In short, we have problems--concerns that will not go away if
left unchecked.
It is true that more people--Defenders of
Liberty--are needed to win back our America. Tens of thousands of us are
working regularly, most of us daily, to stop the assault on our rights.
And we require assistance--help from freedom-loving citizens in our
mutually-beneficial cause.
So how could we prioritize a bit more time to
assure our own and future generations can live in a free America? What
menu options could we shift around a bit in our busy lives to find some extra
time to pitch in for the cause of freedom? How can we help, and do more?
"Glad you asked," he wrote to
himself, praying someone was really listening. "Let me tell you where
I DO NOT WASTE TIME."
- Television comes on when I want to check the
spin the newswhores are putting on my rights. I don't waste one
second, ever, watching some dimwit sitcom void of any redeeming social or
moral value. It has been rumored that the average American sits in
front of a television set 4 hours a day. What they are putting into
their minds that is more important than America is beyond me. Our
priorities are just different.
If I thought I could contribute to the restoration of the American Republic
by listening to a bunch of socialists and communists speak to me through
their daily broadcasts of mental clutter, I would bow to the altar of the TV
Gods and pay homage to the morons on TV.
- It has been suggested that some people sit
at their computers for hours playing games. While there are most
certainly some games that increase mental acuity and physical mastery, many
of them are merely for entertainment value. How endless hours of
entertainment are more important than American Freedom is puzzling.
Ponderous.
If I thought that devoting my time to mastering electronic games would
rescue America, I would be striving for a National Championship at the
Nintendo finals.
- Reading is something I do a great deal of,
every day. 98% of what I read is online, and I limit what I read to
things that will forward our Mission or
further my knowledge of something that will forward our Mission. The
exception comes regarding humor. I do make sure to access a few BRIEF
things that make me laugh. I do this because I find laughter most
useful in my bid to stay balanced so I can get more work done. I no
longer read fiction unless it is related in some way to the emancipation of
America, and then only sparingly. Reading a "romance novel"
(or whatever marketing title now given to stories of phony lives of
make-believe people) has no place in my life. How people can value
reading someone else's fantasies as more worthy than investing time
liberating our country is beyond me. I prioritize my nation over
mental masturbation.
If I believed reading "love" stories would make the communists in
America stop harming my brothers and sisters with their misguided,
treasonous gun laws, I would read each new novel that came out and build web
sites to promote the same.
- Watching sports is something I might
remember to do at a Super Bowl or a World Series, but I usually
forget. There are people who just read that line and reduced their
respect for me by half. They believe that sports are the ultimate
thing to get "into", that the quarterback of the day is God II,
and that knowing every sports score and statistic since before they were
born is an attribute that will get them into the Pearly Gates. How
they can believe sports are of greater import than stopping the
legistraitors who are making the work of rapists and murderers easier is
beyond me; we just have different priorities. I prioritize the safety
of our citizens above the latest touchdown, homerun, or 3 pt. shot at the
buzzer.
If I thought watching guys pat each others' butts on national television
while they beat the snot out of each other to carry a ball back and forth
across a field would save my country, I would watch faithfully, every day,
memorize every stat I could find, and probably join a few clubs devoted to
promoting sports.
- I am aware of other things our citizens
prize above the safety and future viability of the United States of
America. Chit chat for hours over the latest gossip about so-and-so,
banter back and forth through email about this or that, scouring the web for
the latest blah blah blah, reading up on Idol #79843, study of the latest
gadget to help make yada-yada easier, etc. etc., ad nauseum.
If I thought any of these things would help save this country from the
tyrants who are deeply, personally committed to developing America into a
Police State, I assure you; I would be sucking them all up like the vast
majority of Americans seem to be doing.
But these time investments are only serving to
further engulf America into an abyss from which the only return is civil war.
If we who work for Freedom had to do this all
by ourselves, we would. But we will succeed much faster when the members
of the Sleeping Class wake up and pitch in.
The big question is: how can we let people know
it's time to divert some time away from their "important" activities
and get them to help us save this country? If you have some ideas, please
let's hear them in a Forum.
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
~~ Edmund Burke
Angel Shamaya is the Executive
Director of KeepAndBearArms.com, an internet grassroots organization dedicated
to stopping the assault on American Liberty being perpetrated by political
tyrants, self-proclaimed television gurus, misguided mothers, history-ignorant
sheeple, and the general lack of understanding of the fundamental right to Keep
And Bear Arms. Reprint permission granted provided attribution is given
including the following link: http://www.KeepAndBearArms.com
