March 19, 2013 — I joined 60 or 70 other Lassen County residents last Tuesday evening to attend the Lassen County TEA Party Patriots meeting held at the Pizza Factory in Susanville.

Last month, Lassen County Sheriff Dean Growdon appeared before the group, and the topic was gun control. This month Modoc County TEA Party organizer and radio pundit Doug Knox appeared to discuss Agenda 21 — a United Nation’s plan signed by the first President Bush in 1992 and further implemented through an executive order from President Clinton in 1995. Some of the TEA Party folks allege this will be the mechanism used to install the New World Order and One World Government — stripping every citizen of the world of their rights and forcing us all to live in some high-rise urban center collective far removed from our former homes here in Lassen County. Why, according to a map shown during the meeting, the Agenda 21 folks would like to ban all human habitation right here in good old Lassen County. Yeah, let’s get rid of the dams, the ranches and farms, the residences, the businesses, the people, plow up the roads and return Lassen County to its natural state — just the way it was before civilization arrived.

Of course, anyone who has even the slightest insight into plant and animal science will tell you Lassen County can never be returned to the way it was before — even if all of us willingly moved out right this minute. We’ve simply changed the landscape irreparably for all time. It can never, ever be as it was before.

And I have to wonder about the Native Americans? They were here before we got here, too. Do they get to stay or do they have to go as well? I’m guessing they’re also persona non grata, so, we must be talking about returning Lassen County to the way it was at the end of the last ice age some 10,000 years ago. Hey, best of luck on that one.

And yes, it would be so easy for our U.N.-controlled leaders at all levels of government and the New World Order folks to implement this insidious Agenda 21 once they take away all our guns and ammunition and leave us to defend ourselves against this unwitting but self-imposed tyranny with only sticks and stones and cow bones against trained soldiers with military assault rifles and pilots in F-16 fighter jets.

Now anybody who knows me even a little bit would never suspect I would be a TEA Party patriot, and they would be right. In order for this stuff to be true, the coils of conspiracy wrapped within coils of conspiracy would have to be wound so tightly I couldn’t even breathe. Call me naïve if you like — but I’m just not buying it. Sorry, I don’t believe our local elected leaders take their orders from the United Nations. And I’m not leaving my house, no matter what the proverbial “they” say.

But now that I’ve said that, I also totally support the right of these TEA Party patriots to hold their meetings, have their discussions and attempt to influence public opinion and steer the ship of state away from these developments they oppose and fear so strongly.

I believe in a free and open marketplace of ideas where all people can express their opinions, even if they seem kind of far out to me. You see, if we truly are a free people, then I must accept everyone will not see the world exactly as I do. I must respect and support their right to hold and share their opinions with anyone who will listen. And I do. I deserve the same consideration from them. That’s the American way.

I hope they continue to express themselves and put their ideas on the table for all of us to consider. In such an environment the good ideas rise to the top and gain acceptance. The bad ideas sink like a stone and will be rejected. That’s just the way it ought to be.

We all should be proud to live in a country that allows its citizens such the freedom of such discourse. How can we be a free people if we can’t say our piece?

I say — TEA Party Patriots — let’s get the discussion started! Bring it on!