THE EFFECTIVE PATRIOT

I came across this today.  As I was feeling sorry for myself, and more than a bit overwhelemed at the effort to help other Americans see the severity of what is going on in this country.  I guess we all have our moments, when we tire, when we doubt what we can do.  Sometimes God just leads you to what you need to see or hear.  Enjoy, Lynn

THE EFFECTIVE PATRIOT
Posted by Paul Phaneuf on March 18, 2011 at 9:28pm


I wrote this on March 9th and sat on it because I found myself confronting my own human nature and the internal struggle of living up to what I know to be true. Sometimes reacting with anger is simply the way we would like to go because venting offers a type of relief. The effective patriot must cultivate a paradoxical and counterintuitive mindset.

It's not about blaming ourselves, it's about empowerment. The area of maximum effectiveness in the universe I inhabit is the attitudes and thoughts I allow in my own mind. If I change me, if I draw that line in the sand and take a stand, I change the whole world. I am powerless to enforce change in others, but I am mighty if I am willing to persuade with example and forthright and effective communication.

We change the world one person, one mind at a time and the easiest place to start is with ourselves. This is not irrelevant psychobabble; it is the real world in practice.

As I become better informed, I have more to share. As I practice tolerance, not of the victim doormat variety, but in a gentle teacher mode, I influence. I do not compel. As the old saying goes, a mind changed against its will is of the same opinion still.

The goal is to help others have that “Ah-Ha” experience. We are enablers in the sense that we want to see the smile that reflects the dawning of the light of truth. This does not happen with a bludgeon. It happens when you realize that in possessing the truth, you have the cookie and if you offer it properly, in the end, eventually, everybody wants the cookie. You don’t force feed it. You offer it. If someone isn’t ready: NEXT! You have better things to do than to pee into the wind.

Passion is a must but if we forget that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, we fail to notice when our passion is received as anger or nagging and rather than an open mind, our approach causes others to raise their defenses. Likewise, we need to accept that there are many who are entrenched in their views. Don’t waste your time. Find someone who is hungry.

Obviously, as conservatives we believe that liberals are standing in quicksand, their wagons are hauling emotional baggage, their minds are darkened by a plethora of baseless opinions disengaged from fact, and if they are among the elite, they alone can claim to be a member of the rare and pure among us who can get up from the morning throne and swear to the presence of the fragrance of lilacs as they lift their trousers.

But the ordinary run of the mill liberal is usually a misinformed but well intentioned and otherwise decent human being who just happens to be wrong. Since the mind expanding awareness of Obama’s pathologies has crept into the consciousness of the voting public, many of them have internalized a sense of unease and can smell the rot.

No one wants to be wrong. None of us part easily with our cherished beliefs, but most of us will keep one eye open to find the door that leads to a new comfort zone if our foundations are shaken.

Make no mistake about it. The liberal next door is probably one of the many sleeping Americans who have simply surrendered unwittingly to the programming of the Progressive elites and their liberal media cohorts. In the right circumstances, free from peer pressure, if offered the cookie and not the stick, they’ll sneak a nibble.

Think about it, a mind starved of truth, swallowing mental swill from the pigsty of liberalism. How can they not be hungry? How long can you eat poison and not get an upset stomach? Set it up, watch for the smile cause, baby, that nibble of the truth cookie tastes good. It satisfies.

I start with me. You start with you. We find someone hungry. We share a delicacy with them: truth, served on a platter of resolute determination, garnished with kindness, tempered with understanding. After all who among us has not overslept or pressed the snooze button more than once? I’m not talking phony Pollyanna pleasant here, but you don’t make an ally out of an enemy.

For the love of God don’t jam a funnel down their throat and unload a fifty pound bag of cookie dough in it. They WILL throw up and run like hell. Bring them along. Offer them reading, websites, social media. Try to share compelling information and insights in smaller doses.

Stay away from the deep edged fringe when you talk to someone you want to win to liberty’s cause, even if you’re convinced that you have uncovered the ultimate truth, because the uninitiated will not relate to you and will not be able to overcome their suspicion that you are a fruitcake and are a danger to the world as they perceive it. Their eyes will glaze over, they will internally shut you down, and they will back away.

And for the record, ff you tell me you don’t care about that, then you’re a jaded fool and I guarantee you’re a liability to the cause of freedom, not an asset. I am repulsed by arrogance because it plays into the enemy’s hands.

Stick to core values and principles based on our country’s Founding documents. I remember always that I am a sovereign man under God and so is the person I’m talking to even if we disagree. And offer something really radical: patience and non judgmental friendship. It’s the first step to becoming an effective Patriot.

You do it one person at a time. Steadfastly, you move on to the next. Now you’re changing the world.
 
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