BOB SCHULZ RESPONDS TO TIME MAGAZINE

October 6, 2010

BOB SCHULZ RESPONDS TO TIME MAGAZINE


WTP Chairman Bob Schulz is featured in the cover story of the Oct. 11, 2010 issue of TIME magazine titled, “"Locked and Loaded: The Secret World of Extreme Militias."

What follows is Bob’s response. Please send it to as many people as you can. Thank you.

Note: Links to the TIME article and an online interview w/ Bob Schulz are at the bottom of this update.



Dear Editor:

I am featured in your cover article, written by Barton Gellman, though I cannot understand why. You have wholly mischaracterized me and the works of my Foundation, in order to shoehorn me into a piece that may work for TIME, but has no relevance to what Gellman and I discussed. The information I provided to Gellman, through more than six hours of face-to-face interviews, plus e-mails and written documentation, has been twisted and wholly taken out of context, rendering it inaccurate, misleading and libelous.

There are so many falsehoods in what was attributed to me that I cannot address them all in this letter. I will take them up with TIME management.

For the record, I have never advocated violence, I do not and have never belonged to any militia, nor do I communicate with militias or influence militias in any way that I am aware of. However, I do fully support the Constitution’s guarantee of well-regulated militias in every State. To quote the mandate of the second Amendment, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the Right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” Therefore, the absence of well-regulated Militias in every State is repugnant to the constitution.

This article serves neither the truth nor the People of this nation. While it wastes thousands of words regurgitating the intricate details of militia activities, their confrontations with government officials, and a handful of blatantly criminal acts, the article fails to address the fundamental "secret" re-invigorating the Patriot consciousness of Americans across the land.

The "secret" that the mainstream media appears to have an extreme aversion against putting forward or openly discussing, is that over many administrations, with the support of both Parties, the federal government has all but abandoned our Constitution.

As more and more People are learning daily, from largely non-mainstream media sources, it is only the Constitution that stands between the People and total tyranny and this dangerous rejection of the Constitution has put the fate of our nation and Liberty of the People at grave risk. It is this stark realization, not racial or religious bigotry, which is driving the pro-Constitution movement, the Tea Parties and likely, the citizen militias.

The larger, ugly truth is this: For decades the citizens have endured an escalating campaign of constitutional violations including undeclared wars, un-enforced immigration laws, warrantless searches and surveillance of private papers and communications, slave-like direct non-apportioned taxes on labor, a monetary currency conjured out of limitless debt, the giving and lending of public money and credit to private corporations for decidedly private purposes, the absence of a “well-regulated militia” in every State (mandated by the first thirteen words of the Second Amendment) and a privately owned central bank known as the Federal Reserve.

It is these violations of our “Charters of Freedom,” that are fueling the voices of dissent. Liberty is a force of Nature. It cannot be subdued.

Most disturbing perhaps is TIME's publication of false statements, harmful to me and the We The People Foundation For Constitutional Education, Inc., and designed to detract from our intelligent, rational and professional defense of the Constitution.

Not only does the article falsely brand me as an advocate edging "anti-government" patriots "closer to violence," Gellman and the editors at TIME, violate every principle of journalistic responsibility by failing to accurately report the substance of numerous hours of personal interviews TIME conducted with me, supported by hundreds of pages of legal and historical documentation that I provided to Gellman and TIME.

The public record I have established over three decades clearly shows that I have always advocated the use of peaceful, non-violent resistance in defense of the Constitution. Any person who has ever heard me speak, including Gellman, has heard me hold up the examples and teachings of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Our Foundation's legal research and litigation, which stretches over many years is an open book to anyone who visits the archives on our website, as Gellman indicated to me he had done. Our focus has been based squarely on the historical context, purpose and full exercise of the last of the five Rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.

Gellman knows that each of our First Amendment Petitions for Redress have cited a specific provision of the Constitution, included a factual account of violations of that provision and sought a remedy to the violation. There were nine Petitions for Redress submitted over a fourteen year period, not “hundreds” as the article states.

TIME knows our work in defense of the Constitution has always been rooted in the Rights of the People and the obligations of the Government under the last ten words of the First Amendment. Known as the accountability clause, those words guarantee the Right of the People to PEACEFULLY hold the Government accountable to the rest of the Constitution. Understandably, the Government would have the Right forever remain the “Forgotten Right.” But why TIME?

In point of fact, it is our research into the fundamental RIGHT of the People to hold their servant government accountable through the First Amendment Petition clause, and the Foundation's aggressive litigation, high-visibility protests and educational efforts that have drawn the iron fist of the IRS. However, any Right that is not enforceable is no Right.

The article's dismissive note regarding the Supreme Court's refusal to hear the Foundation's case fails to convey the critical fact, known by TIME, that the purpose of the landmark federal lawsuit was for the Supreme Court to declare - for the first time in history - the constitutional meaning of the First Amendment's Petition/Accountability clause.

That's correct. I, and other Americans who stood with me, wanted nothing more than our modern day Supreme Court to declare the legal meaning, effect and significance of the government accountability clause of the First Amendment. The Supreme Court refused to settle the “first impression” constitutional question. We provided Gellman a direct quote from the 1821 Supreme Court decision of Cohens v. Virgina, 19 U.S. 264, 265, holding it was "treason to the Constitution" for the Court to refuse to hear a case it is constitutionally required to hear. Disturbingly, TIME would have its readers believe that I was the source of the quote.

Far from being "anti-government" and advocates of violence, the very purpose of the We The People organization is to educate Americans regarding the history, meaning, effect and significance of every clause of the Constitution, including the accountability through peaceful Petition process clause of the First Amendment.

The essence of Liberty and the enjoyment of fundamental Rights is predicated upon the Rule of Law and the Right of the People to hold their (servant) government accountable. It is our Declaration of Independence which states, “to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the Governed, that whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it ….”

In denying the public an accurate portrayal of the motivations of those depicted in the article, TIME serves only to deprive the People of vital knowledge regarding a peaceful means -- perhaps the only peaceful means remaining, to restore constitutional governance carried out in decency and good order.

On March 13, 1962 while addressing the diplomatic corps of the Latin American republics, President John F. Kennedy stated, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

If TIME truly abhors the initiation of violence, as I do, it should do everything possible to help inform the American People about their possession of a fundamental Right that can be exercised to restore the Constitution through peaceful, non-violent means.

This is the legacy our Founders left us in the First Amendment Right to Petition. They even told us how to do it in the 1774 Journals of the Continental Congress (quoting):

“If money is wanted by Rulers who have in any manner oppressed the People,
they may retain it until their grievances are redressed,
and thus peaceably procure relief, without trusting to despised petitions
or disturbing the public tranquility.”
Journals of the Continental Congress (1774), 1:105-113

The website of the WTP Foundation is www.GiveMeLiberty.org. For anyone who takes the time to read our archives, dating back to 1999, our every action and Government’s every response, are fully documented.

Robert L. Schulz
Chairman and Founder
We The People Foundation for Constitutional Education, Inc.
We The People Congress, Inc.

Here is the TIME article: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2022516-4,00.html#ixzz113OYB1L5

Click here to view Bob discussing the TIME article with Gary Franchi on Reality Report https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7CLxsuCWjk