It’s happening!
Not here!
This can’t happen here!
The call. THAT call. The terror in the woman’s voice.
“THEY’RE HERE! PLEASE HELP US! GOD HELP US!”
You know that no matter how fast you drive over these roads – roads you know like the back of your hand, you’re going to be too late! You know her, God, you know her. You know her husband, and you’ve known them for years. The desperation in her voice, the sheer terror. And the screams as you hear the door to their house crash open, the shouts to “get down on the floor, get down on the floor!”
The phone goes dead. Oh God, I am not going to make it in time! You press harder on the gas pedal, but you know it is already too late.
This isn’t some random person. This is someone you know; not a close friend, but someone who grew up in your community. They seemed like a really nice couple. He was a little strange, always wearing that camouflage jacket and talking about the government. You know the type, the “tin foil hat people”, the “conspiracy theorists”. Well, you had always just chalked it up to PTSD from all those tours over there. But when they really needed you, you were not able to help. You were all the way on the other side of the county. Your county. And they needed you!
The screams are still ringing in your ears; I’m going to be too late! Desperate thoughts stream through your head. Just let it be a home invasion, just a robbery, take the money and go, leave them alone, they are good people.
But in your gut, you know that is not what is going to happen. Not here. Not now. THEY have finally come to your community, and you were not ready. Why had you not seen this coming? The couple on the other end of that phone had seen it coming and had tried to warn you, but you would not listen. Why didn’t you listen? You keep saying to yourself that this happens in other places – not here, not here! This is something that occurs over there: Europe, South America, Mexico, not here! Now you know that it has arrived and you were not ready; you had not done your job!
With the telephone screams still ringing in your ears, you yell at yourself, “This is my job – NO — this is who I am! I have been like this my whole life, I don’t know any other way!” All your life you stood up to the bullies, the bad people; you came to the rescue. You were John Wayne, Superman, Rambo, and you were everybody’s friend and protector. But where were you tonight? Why weren’t you there to help?
Why, why, why, were you not there?
Why were you not better prepared?
It’s too late; they’re gone. The black vehicles with the heavily armed masked men are gone. You were too late to stop them.
Too late!
Evidence that they were here is scattered all around you – the broken door, the overturned furniture, the smashed plates. Too late and unprepared, you think, “This doesn’t happen here, this can’t happen, not here!” The terrified neighbors are peeking out from behind closed curtains staring at you, accusingly; you let them down, YOU LET THEM DOWN!
On the floor is a smashed picture frame, with the couple staring back at you, their eyes asking why you weren’t listening when they told you THEY would be coming. Why didn’t you listen? You ask yourself – what was that quote he kept telling you? Something he had read once; something that he thought would happen again in our lifetime, something that scared him. Now you know what he meant, and now it scares you. How did it go again? Oh yeah, something about different groups of people disappearing and nobody saying anything; what was that last line . . . “When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.” Has it come to that, is it true?
God help us if it is.
What was the other thing he would say when he saw you on the streets making your rounds?
“We took an oath, we took an oath.”
Yeah you took one, but did you really? Did you think about what you were saying, or did you just mouth the words; did you truly mean it?
He said something about being an Oath Keeper and his oath wasn’t done. You knew he meant it when he said his oath expired when he died.
Did it expire tonight?
You hear those cries for help again ringing in your ears. Oh God, you swore an oath, YOU SWORE AN OATH!
Is it too late? Can you stop this from happening again? You must. You do not want to hear those screams and cries for help again, only to find they have been taken by THEM, joining the ranks of the DISAPPEARED.
You look into the eyes of your neighbors, your friends, the citizens of your county who put their trust in you, and you think to yourself, I’m a County Sheriff. I took an OATH, and I will not let this happen again not in my county.
NOT ON MY WATCH!
As a military veteran, I’m fully aware of what my constitutional duties are and hold the Bill of Rights up as the very keystone to that oath. All bets are off for elected officials choosing to ignore these established guarantees. It’s for this reason that we’re different from Europe and South America. Your story is extreme, but I do understand the warning. We must always remain vigilant in defense of liberty.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/13WxF2jA1YTk0vKlqhx6mAVjo6IDOiDLy6eGvoicw4DE/edit
Oath of Office
An Oath of Office is required for any natural person to hold an office in all “official” positions in civil society. It is the “glue” that binds the office to the person. The president of the United States, for instance, is NOT “the President of the United States” until that person takes the oath of office. The election is not the act or the event that makes that person “the President”. It is the oath that that person takes that binds the office to the person. But this is not the end of the oath. On the contrary, the oath must be kept, moment to moment, act after act, if the office is to remain bound to the person. The moment that the oath is broken, the person has vacated the office they once held. This happens even if the trappings of the office remain. The office is gone if the oath is broken, even if the robe is still worn, the badge is still worn, the gavel is still held, or the seat and desk of the office is still occupied. All these things are the trappings of the office, not the office itself. The oath is the binding factor in the presence or non-presence of an officer, not the badges, uniforms, robes or gavels. Those things do not define the presence of the office in that person. But who knows when an oath is broken? The office holder SHOULD know. And God, the creator, the One, the Grand Observer, call it what you will, also knows, in the moment the oath is broken. In that moment of taking the oath, the same witness that the oath itself is sworn to, knows the oath is taken. And in the moment the oath is broken, the same witness knows it is broken as well, and the office is removed, though the trappings of office remain. Every officer in every office everywhere who has sworn an oath to obtain the binding of that office to their person carries the responsibility of maintaining that oath and the binding of that office. Any act by that person that breaks the oath is no longer an official act. It can’t be, because the oath is broken, so to is the binding of the office to the person acting. There are no exceptions. Breaking the oath of office in order to “get the job done” or to “follow orders” is a deliberate vacation of the office itself by the person who is “doing the job” or “following the orders”. Oaths of office are not an inconvenience to be set aside because there is a job to do or an order to follow. Rationalizing the oath away does not allow an official to act officially and against the oath at the same time. The office disappears from that person in the moment the oath is broken, and it is not kept simply by the presence of jobs or orders or badges or robes. Any act by any person that, without the office would be considered criminal, is not protected by the office if the act breaks the oath of office. The act is still criminal, even though the crime is committed in what appears to be, at first glance, an “official” act. It is not official. Office depends on the oath and the keeping of the oath to exist. It evaporates and disappears like a ghost the moment the oath is broken. Unless this relationship between the person, the oath, and the office is understood by all, especially the oath taker, tyranny and “official crimes” will be committed with impunity. Unless this relationship, and the solemn nature of it is recognised by all concerned, it will be trampled along with the people and places and freedoms of the victims of the oath breakers. Breaking an oath of office is breaking the office itself and is the breaking of civility, justice, freedom, and equality. If you hold an office, you must completely understand the oath, and you must be guided by it in every act you perform in that office, or your office will leave you unheard and unnoticed. You will not be official even if you still wear the uniform, badge, or robes. It is your maintenance of your oath that makes you official and keeps you official. Otherwise, you are the servant of tyranny, one job, one order, one inconvenience at a time.