It has become a too familiar and ugly story. Two punks using a shotgun shoot and kill a man and woman here in Kern County because the couple “disrespected” the two punks. Given the environment where such barbaric murders occur, where punks like these are gang members and on this basis alone believe it should command respect from others reminds me of the evil Bob Ewell in To Kill A Mockingbird. He was an ignorant drunkard, a parasite living on the dole and using the money for booze instead of taking care of his children, but he had one thing going for him that he believed gave him the right to respect: He was a Caucasian! No matter what his shortcomings, no matter the dreadful living conditions and his sloth and ignorant, profane drunkenness, by god he was white! And by god he demanded respect for that!

Ewell was white trash, and he knew he was white trash. He could never hold his head up among decent Caucasian citizens like Atticus Finch. He could threaten and bully, but he knew he was white trash. Ah, but by god he was white! And because of this accident of birth he believed this made him superior to Negroes, and by god they at least had better show him his “due” deference and respect because by god he was white and they had damned well better show him deference and respect on this basis alone or else!

The civilized mind cringes and recoils at this kind of attitude of the evil Ewell; but it is the same attitude of those like the two punks that gunned down that couple, and wherever gangs of hoodlums, punks have no other claim to “respect” but on this basis alone they will use their guns to exact vengeance on those that do now bow and scrape to them.

It seems all my life I have been witness to the kind of bullying that demands deference on the basis of things like that of the ignorant Bob Ewell’s bigotry and the equally ignorant and bigoted punks with guns. I’ve experienced having my own life threatened by those like Ewell and the punks with guns whatever their ethnicity. There have been times when I have had to meet such threatening punks with my own gun in hand, so I understand full well the mentality of those like Ewell and the punks that have no other claim to “respect” than the color of their skin or their being able to gun down those that do not show them “respect.”

But gentle reader, so it has been throughout all of human history; and even now we live with bullies in the White House, Congress, and Supreme Court that cannot but remind me of Michael Corleone telling Kay she was being naïve not to realize politicians were no different than those like his father, that the “business” of politicians was akin to the “business” his father and he were in. As Hyman Roth was to tell Michael, “This is the business we chose, this is the business we are in.” And so it has been with politics throughout human history where politicians choose the “business” they are in.

There is no real difference between organized crime and a government given to organized tyranny and robbery through taxation without representation, stealing and extorting money from We the People, taking away people’s homes when they cannot pay taxes, condemning private property to give it to others for profit, encouraging the invasion of illegal aliens for slave labor, passing laws that punish the poor and further enrich the wealthy and so much more; the difference is only a matter of degree at best, but not a difference of kind as Michael Corleone realized and tried to point out to Kay.

Ah, but politicians demand “respect,” they demand what they believe to be their due deference by we the Great Unwashed or by god they will make us pay for this lack of respect! It is enough to make honest people vomit, this use of the term “honorable” used by politicians of each other! What is the basis of such “honor” but that of the same kind we see in the film among the Mafioso’s. And when one of these self-righteously proclaims dealing drugs must be kept away from the schools and kept among the “coloreds” because “they are only animals anyway” don’t you hear the echo of the same sentiment from those in our government refusing to secure our borders, that are dedicated to making criminals of all Americans, treating We the People as nothing but animals, the sheep to be sheared to benefit only the wealthy and those in power?

What I have personally witnessed and experienced of gangs from childhood on, my adult tenure in Watts, East San Jose and elsewhere is that a gang gives barbarians a sense of superiority through power, not on the basis of any self worth. To be able to disdain all laws of a civilized society, to bully the poor and defenseless by using guns against the innocent and those unable or unprepared to defend themselves is the ignoble “badge” of the bully. But what is this but a description of bullying politicians that use elected office as a license to steal from and plunder law abiding citizens? And We the People seem every bit as defenseless in the face of such bullies as we would be facing any gang members guns in hand.

As a lifelong supporter of our Second Amendment and the NRA I know from experience the importance of the armed, law abiding citizen. And not being naïve like Kay I know We the People have more to fear from the organized tyranny and robbery of those with the power to tax and destroy, the power to pass punitive legislation against ordinary American citizens than from organized crime. And while entire cities are being held prisoner to street gangs demanding “respect” our entire nation is being held prisoner to a government that is no less corrupt demanding “respect.”

Certainly those in government are educated, they wear the apparel of civilized persons and speak correct English, and unlike the ignorant, bigoted Ewell and his kin of whatever color know and observe the proprieties at dinner and cocktail parties. But these savages, as barbaric in their own way as any illiterate and ignorant gang member differ only in ignoring the laws with impunity, without any accountability by not taking a gun in their hands demanding our money and respect. They let others like lawyers and various police agencies do the dirty work for them.

Neither Los Angeles, Miami, nor Bakersfield can survive the tyranny of gangs taking over entire neighborhoods and cities. But a civilized America cannot long endure being bullied by tyrants of whatever stripe, whether the gangs in our cities or the gangs in our government. Nor can a world long endure such tyrannical bullies.

“They should have stopped Hitler at Munich.” That is the hindsight refrain. Certainly the world is held hostage to the “musket worshippers” whether those of Iran, North Korea or elsewhere. And it is going to take force to face down the bullies, the musket worshippers. But here in America we are going to have to do better than the present Caesar and his legions if there is to be any hope for a satisfactory solution, a leadership that puts the interests of America and Americans before their own or any others. And it is going to take a leadership that does not mimic The Godfather and his Mafia. Otherwise, we can expect an increase in the barbarians with guns in their hands demanding “respect” because like Michael Corleone they realize there is no difference between his father’s “business” and that of our government.

Just to consider the human and material costs of the present ongoing wars and be told there is no money for the problems here in America, the problems of infrastructure, health, securing our borders, jobs and housing is the voice of lunatics! But to allow greed and avarice to do their usual dirty work in our government is not only bad for “business,” but with America facing so many threats from so many quarters it is sheer lunacy threatening our very existence as a nation!