Remiss for a proper start, I will begin with an Aesop’s Fable.  A starving wolf was on the prowl one night looking for a meal, when he chanced to meet a dog.  “Cousin Wolf!”, cried the dog.  “My goodness, I can count your ribs! Come here and let me get you something to eat!”  The hungry wolf obliged, and ate a few bowls of meat until his appetite was satiated.  The proud dog then decided to show the wolf around his property.  He first showed him his big straw filled house, several farm animals that he guarded, and finally several acres of land on which he delighted to run.  The wolf was quite impressed, until he noticed that the dog had this strange ring that went around his neck where his fur was a bit matted down.  So the wolf inquired about it.  “That?”, replied the dog, as he sheepishly gazed upon the ground.  “Well, that’s where my collar goes on during the day.  But that’s not such a bad thing, really.  See my master needs me to guard his property during the night time, but during the day he doesn’t want me to wander too far.  But for several hours on the chain, I can’t complain about the deal overall, now can I?  That meal was delicious wasn’t it?  Have you seen greener pastures?  And you wouldn’t believe how good it feels when the children scratch my belly. Have you ever had you belly scratched before?  Mr. Wolf…. Mr. Wolf!”  At that point the wolf was already walking away.  “Enjoy”, the wolf said as he returned to the dark.  “Enjoy your fat and ‘happy’ slavery.  I shall be content to be hungry in freedom.”.

So let’s talk about this big bad scary “Vaccine mandate” a la executive order from our half alive, half mentally there, fully corrupted and in no way legitimately voted in “president” of the United States.  Nothing like handing over American lives, full political control of a country we spent 20 years fighting in, and 80 billion dollars worth of weapons to the Taliban one week, only to half-coherently demand every business in America "vaccinate" their employees the next week.  Thank God twenty-one governors in this country have figured out that the guy who fake cries at one press conference then threatens to shove rosary beads down someone’s throat at another should literally be disregarded out of hand at this point.  Hey Joe, go take your pills and spend your afternoon yelling at the squirrels eating from your bird feeder!

Apparently there are a few more angry Americans out there too.  I guess striking up choruses of “F*** Joe Biden!”, at college football stadiums, is a thing now.  Obviously, I wish a more charitable expression would be chanted, but I certainly understand the sentiment at this point.  Americans are not ready to lie down.  Niether should you be.

Some perspective...

Nine years ago, the Supreme Court declared that the Federal Government could force citizens to purchase health insurance.  When the “crazy” Tea Party guy acted as the gadfly in your community, how was he responded to?  “Meh, it’s just insurance.  We all really should have it anyway…”.  Imagine if the same Gadsden flag waver would have warned you that such a precedent could lead to a tyrannical "president" demanding that all businesses in America must force a gene editing treatment into all of their employees.  To say that such a man would have been thoroughly mocked and dismissed would be an understatement.  But here we are, and as usual, the vindication is empty.

I have observed this phenomenon for 15 years now.  “Oh, Barack Obama only said he would pass the ‘Freedom of Choice Act’, so that he could get some radical feminist votes away from Hilary.  He doesn’t even have the power to advance pro-abortion legislation that radical”.  Ten years later, New York celebrated all the same spirit of the FOCA plus infanticide to a chorus of applause.  When the Supreme Court steam rolled every state’s right to decide for themselves on gay “marriage”, people would have simply called you crazy if you would have told them that only five years later, the democrats would have a “non-binary mermaid queen-king” speak at their national convention.  

Freedom is always slowly sucked away from the masses with shiny distractions aplenty to rob the gadflies of their vindication.  Just enough to keep us all fat and happy until the devolution into slavery isn’t even acknowledged anymore.   The “I told you so!”  is always robbed by a confused look from Joe six pack, heck, even from Joe Gamma male or his wife Susan iphone mom blogger, who says something like, “yeah it’s crazy… but, well, what are you gonna do?”  Followed by “Alexa, order a banana slicer from Amazon and play ‘Africa’ by Toto.  Man, how did we even get by before these awesome things?”

I know a basketball coach who loves running his players.  In fact, he loves making them do push ups, suicides, “up-downs”, planks etc… A LOT during practices.  His motto is “We can only compete to the level of our conditioning”.  When he shared that with me recently, it blew me away.  What a profoundly Aristotelian and Thomistic motto.  If I know everything there is to know about basketball, and I am a good shooter, it will mean little if I have not the stamina or mental toughness to get through a grueling game against an athletically superior team.  I cannot stay in the fight if have not practiced the virtue necessary to endure the tough times.  

I see something similar going on in our current situation.  Some of the same guys I heard last year say “Well I’m not getting the ‘vaccine’!  Hell no!” are now saying things like, “Welp, unfortunately I am running out of breathing room here.  I am getting closer to having no choice.   If this, that, and the other happen, I will have to get the shot”.  

I wonder about the conditioning of such men.  Because if you have really been paying attention over the last 18 months, you cannot say that you are just now blind-sided.  But if you absolutely refused the masks last year, if you have spent the last year and a half networking with others and developing bonds with others who share the same determination against the shot as you, if you made career changing preparations, if you stock piled food, if you prayed rosary after rosary, if you accepted the pain of your extended family ostracizing you for refusing the jab, etc… then you have probably been conditioning yourself well for this moment.  Keep it up!  If you haven't been preparing (conditioning), then you still have time to get on it!  So get on it!

A popular priest recently said, in a letter read at a local men’s retreat, “Fix it yourself”.  I think some men have been waiting around for a hero to save them.  Or in this case, to fix things for him.  After months of demoralization, I wonder if these men are now taking the attitude that they must give in because the heroes have all failed.  Trump was defeated.  His lawyers went up in flames.  Good doctors and scientists remain silenced.  Catholic diocese continue to betray our chances at applying for religious exemption as they accept money from leftist groups running “vaccine” drives out of diocesan schools.  Where are the heroes?

Well the answer is quite simple: the heroes of the world have always been the saints.  Their stories are the true super hero stories.  Who can qualify as a candidate for sainthood?  Good news… the answer is you!  So if you want freedom, embrace that you will have to go a bit hungry, you will have to say no to the collar and chain, and you will have to fix it yourself.

And guess what?  You don’t even have to do it all by yourself.  You have plenty of tools at your disposal and friends to help you fix this problem.  Here are a few examples of what you have: Grace.  The true tradition of the Church, especially as it pertains to Moral Theology.  The witness of the saints.  Twenty-one governors willing to resist these bizarre “mandates” on your behalf.  A real fraternity of GOOD men who are living the sacramental life and who want to help you.  Heck, you can even throw in the countless blunders committed by our puppet president.  

You have an arsenal, you have comrades, and your enemy has weaknesses.  Network and continue to build a parallel economy and space to live in, maintain bodily autonomy, live not by lies, and go forward with other freedom and God loving warriors such as yourself.  Will you be as fat and comfortable as you have been living in the present hallow culture?  No.  In fact, you will feel a bit hungry.  But, as Aesop told us, that’s a fair price for freedom.  

I will leave you with a conversation I had with a very involved man at a recent Arizona Life Coalition meeting.  He gave me his “why” statement.  He gave me a snapshot of how he stays motivated and keeps in the fight.  He said, “What am I going to tell my grandchildren when they ask why they have to work at Amazon with a couple of micro-chips in their hands and two face masks on, running from spot to spot all over the warehouse?”  When they ask ‘What did you do when everything changed for the worse?’."  If this man keeps up on the pace he has been on, here is the answer that I think he should give to his grandchildren (who I don't think will be working at Amazon): "I prayed, I worked, I gave up every last vice, I got involved in grassroots politics, I protested, I raised your father in virtue and I stayed close to like minded and like willed families so that he could find for himself a strong willed wife and good mother for my grandkids.”

Strap in and get ready for some of the most radical changes you may have to make in your life.  Seek the ever narrowing way.   Yes, it is a way that will get bumpy.   You will lose friends.  You may lose your job.  You may have to disregard the well intentioned, but very myopic advice of even pious priests who assure you that you have a grave reason to get the poison shot.  But if you want more, if you want a third way, if you still want freedom, then we still want you on the team.  And with God as our captain, we will get through this.  Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam.

God bless,

Gadfly