Lock and Load, Rock and Roll!

By Gary Wood
© October 13, 2007

Can you hear John Wayne saying these words, lock and load, in his 1949 movie, The Sands of Iwo Jima, as a way to signal his men to get ready for either battle or drinking? Quite literally it stems from locking back the bolt on a rifle before loading the ammunition. It has become synonymous with getting ready for action. You may hear in a VFW hall as the patrons prepare to slam a drink, you may hear in among a group of college students preparing to cheer their football team on, you may also hear it combined with two other words, rock and roll. Lock and load, rock and roll is now the battle cry for get ready, let’s go!

Most of the time, outside of a military engagement, this battle cry is used in recreational or business settings. In this setting it loses some of the militaristic flare while maintaining its meaning as a call to immediate action. Whether that action is a sales team about ready to hit the sales floor before the doors open or that group of college students is about to enter the stadium once the gates open it is somehow endearing. A part of the term was made famous with the members of United Flight 93 being heard to say, “Let’s roll!”

Are you ready to really lock and load? The political campaign time-frame is continual today. It seems someone is always out stumping for votes and funds for their campaigns. For most voting eligible people it makes it hard to stay engaged in the process, to remain ready for action. After so many commercials, far too many road signs which always seem to be there anymore and too many of the events billed as debates there is numbness to it all. We see evidence of this each year when voter turnout figures are released and fewer are taking their duties to heart and actually going to the polls and casting their ballot.

Some of the reason for not being locked and loaded come Election Day is the feeling our vote simply does not count. Another reason is a real frustration with the quality of the candidates. There is also a feeling of confusion or lack of information regarding ballot initiatives or referendums and who among us really know much of anything about all those judges on the ballot anyway? This frustration has reached a point there are two things happening this year which we will look at.

First, there is a small but steady murmuring of those saying it is time to boycott the elections. This sounds like a pretty good idea if you’re tired of the way things are going and you don’t know what to do about it. However, the plutocratic oligarchy running this country really could not care less if some voters boycott. As long as all voters don’t participate in a boycott the fewer that vote simply means the fewer they must convince to cast a vote their way. There is not a single person in the Democratic or Republican National Committee that truly cares if you go to the polls as long as there are enough of their party numbers to gain a majority among the number of votes cast. Most of the two-party leadership is more than happy to have you unload and unlock your barrel.

Second, and this one is the more exciting of the two, there are voices of reason and honesty coming from both sides of the two-party process. Perhaps, waiting in the wings is a third-party champion ready to also make some sense once the Presidential Primary scam, or season, is completed. Voters really need to pay attention to the many candidates from all parties at the local and state level to insure they can identify these voices of reason. At the Presidential Campaign level you must truly be prepared for action, you have to lock and load, then rock and roll! The media and the mainstream party heads, the oligarchy, will not help you find these champions of liberty and freedom. If you are waiting to hear from the latest political talking heads don’t hold your breath, you will not be living come Election Day if you do.

Yet, there is a revolution going on and if the troops fighting in this revolution do not win the primary battle the fight will continue. Like many revolutionaries of old these groups of fighters are highly educated, enlightened, and tired of their country going in the wrong direction under bad leadership. The frustrations of the past election cycles, the frustration with the poor stewardship of people’s trust, the failure to live up to the oath of office taken by those who’ve won the votes of the past, and the oppressive nature of daily life for far too many of us has finally moved a growing number to action. You can find these campaigners in newly formed third-party organizations like the Constitutionalist Party. You can find them on the Democratic side working with candidates Kucinich and Gravel.

Today I was fortunate enough to actually lock and load, rock and roll with a highly educated, extremely passionate group of revolutionaries that took over four corners of a busy downtown intersection in Salt Lake City, UT. We weren’t armed with rifles, thank goodness we have not reached that point yet, and we can still win this war with our voices...our votes still count! We were armed with signs for our selected leader, from of all places the Republican Party? Yes, but from the Republican Liberty Caucus, the voice within the party that has been squelched far too long, those who know the value of liberty and freedom, of limited Federal government, of fiscal responsibility with a monetary system based on real value, of limited and indirect taxation, of a foreign policy that embraces the world without preemptively forcing the world to embrace us, and the importance of having decisions made flowing from the people, the community, the state, and lastly the federal levels.

We stood with our large signs touting the slogans; Ron Paul: Hope for America, Ron Paul Revolution, Ron Paul for President 2008, and more. For an entire block leading to the corner large signs could be seen by drivers and then they entered our gauntlet of smiles and waves, signs moving, voices cheering, and the horns of the cars would honk as people would shout and cheer back. The movement is growing, not merely the Ron Paul Revolution but the entire revolution of people once again engaged in learning and casting an intelligent vote for the BEST candidate, not simply the least of the worst the two-party oligarchy regurgitates for us.

Grab on to your Internet connection, Google, MSN, Yahoo or Ask the search engines for information about all the candidates. Study the voting records, philosophies, beliefs and backgrounds of each and every candidate daring to ask you for your vote. Follow the money trail; dig in to the real people as the information is out there just waiting for your mind to apply critical thinking to what you find. Like no other year in recent memory the election year of 2008 gives us the best opportunity to begin to demand our country back and actually have success!

It’s time; Lock and load! Rock and Roll!