Fresh Thoughts on Real Food

I would like to share this newsletter I received from the Shank family a.k.a. Your Family Farmer regarding the Hershberger case. I am just so sad at what our government is doing to farmers and to consumers.

 

Fresh Thoughts On Real Food
5/25/2013

Vernon Hershberger with his wife and children.  Our government says: this family is criminal!  God says: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness;”  Isaiah 5:20

Vernon Hershberger with his wife and children.
Our government says: this family is criminal!
God says: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness;”  Isaiah 5:20

hgh

 

The Hangman

Quick. Pinch me. This is America right?

Just when we think all history-making events have occurred in, well, history, something comes along that blows all. History happens in front of us!  We pinch ourselves. Here’s what is happening even as I write. This is serious.

Vernon Hershberger, an Amish raw milk famer from Wisconsin and father of ten, is in trial right now for selling healthy food to his neighbors. If he loses, he may face over two years in prison and be stuck with crushing fines. Can you believe it? I’m not making this up. A peace-loving Amish man who has never hurt anyone is facing jail time for selling raw milk. And he only sold to his private food co-op cow share members!

This is too close to home! It’s not our family now…but if they can do this to Vernon and his family, what guarantee do we have that our day is not coming!  After all, the FDA has openly declared as one of their 2020 objectives to make raw milk illegal in more states and they are funding states initiatives to get it done. (Pssst, hey, five million federal funding for your state budget in 2013 but you must work with us to make raw milk look bad.) Here is what one writer had to say about the atrocity of it all on Monday.

“Vernon Hershberger is Wisconsin’s best-known accused criminal. Like Jesse James, Butch Cassidy, Pancho Villa, Billy the Kid, and plenty of others, Hershberger has developed an “outlaw mystique.” People are flocking to Baraboo, Wisconsin to witness his trial, which begins today.

But Hershberger hasn’t killed anyone. He hasn’t even robbed anyone. His alleged crime: Milking cows and selling the milk – without cooking it first.

Actually, it isn’t Vernon Hershberger who is supposed to cook the milk. It’s the big corporate distributors, who own the commercial pasteurization systems. Hershberger is supposed to sell only to them – not to his neighbors. Guess who wrote THAT law?”  read full story

But really, why are we surprised? We were warned. Michael Schmidt (featured in the documentary Milk War) has warned us of the steady steppings of tyranny. (Michael is an Ontario raw milk farmer who is the most intelligent, classy farmer that I have ever met anywhere. He directs classical orchestra in his barn!).

Michael is intensely sensitive to encroaching tyranny. To understand why, you must know that Michael is a recent (1983) immigrant from Germany. His parents lived through Hitler’s reign of terror. Michael was born 9 years after Hitler’s death and as a boy he’d ask his parents how they ever allowed their freedoms to be taken away by the Third Reich. His parents would sadly reply that it happened so subtly. By the time the common people realized what was happening, it was too late.  Michael’s resolve and mission is to warn us before it is too late. He has been warning!

The seducing apathy that drugs us who are not yet personally strangled by government over-reach is this: We hear about these things…we know they are real…we believe they are real… yet they seem so unreal that we go into a sort of denial. I know I do. It can’t happen here! We look out our windows…the sun is shining, the grass is green, the birds are chirping and life is normal. (I guess the birds chirped in the green grass and the sun shone around the slave markets of 1850 and at the ovens of Auschwitz in 1943 too!)

We go into denial and into sit-back-do-nothing-because-it-isn’t-me mode because we are not sure exactly what to do. How can we make a difference? Someone will do something. I mean, this is America the land of the free and the brave right?

Right. But remember, the only way the free stay free is if the brave stay brave. If we lose our freedom it is because we lost our bravery first.  In the early stages of tyranny, all it takes is enough brave people to stand up and say NO! or maybe sit down and say NO!  Think: Rosa Parks…Vernon Hershberger. Think: the Quakers and the Underground Railroad. Brave Americans.

Maurice Ogden’s classic “The Hangman” comes to mind as I soberly contemplate the growing list of farmers and families who feel the cold, heavy hand of “the hangman” on their shoulders. It is always someone else. How many times have I sighed with nervous relief that was not me? It will never be me.

Delusion.  Denial.  Apathy.  Too late.

Folks! We must wake up and know that Vernon is not alone in feeling the hangman’s hand. Even if he escapes this time, this will not be the end nor will Vernon be the last. The Shanks at The Family Cow may be next. The form of attack may be different but the motive and end result will be the same.

Or… you and your family may be next.

There have been numerous instances recently where armed food police/militia have raided civilian homes in search and destroy missions of “illegal foods” (read, local, non-processed, non-industrial food)  In some cases swat team style have held families mothers and children at gunpoint for hours while they raided and destroyed their family’s entire supply of stored food.

What are the answers to this urgent Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Food Rights crisis? How can we help? We can’t all go to Vernon’s Trial. We can’t all be Vernon’s customers and support their family through purchases. Most of us can’t even volunteer to milk Vernon’s cows if he does go to jail or while his family is tied up wrangling government red tape and stress.  So what can we do?  What can brave moms and dads do to make a difference…to help more farmers than just Vernon? What can brave Americans do to help our whole community of connected raw milk farms and families?

Here is the best thing I know you can do. Link up with the Farm To Consumer Legal Defense Fund. (FTCLDF) I know of nothing better to advise you. There is power in numbers. There is hope when we all work together! There is liberty in linking arms for a higher truth and justice. The fine people at FTCLDF make this very thing their life’s work. They are in Wisconsin right now at Vernon’s side. Mark McAfee, David Gumpert, Joel Salatin, and Liz Reitzig are all there too supporting the FTCLDF team advising and defending Vernon. Do your research… there is no better or more effective organization out there protecting farms and moms.

Maybe you think you can’t afford to join the FTCLDF for Vernon. But please do it for us. Our family may be next. I’m dead serious. We have a foreboding sense of urgency. If you cannot do it for us either, we do understand. But please, join at least for yourself and for your children.

The hangman takes one at a time!

Soberly ~ Your Farmers,
Edwin and Dawn Shank & Family
www.yourfamilyfarmer.com

 

THE HANGMAN
By Maurice Ogden

Into our town the hangman came,
smelling of gold and blood and flame.
He paced our bricks with a different air,
and built his frame on the courthouse square.

The scaffold stood by the courthouse side,
only as wide as the door was wide
with a frame as tall, or a little more,
than the capping sill of the courthouse door.

And we wondered whenever we had the time,
Who the criminal? What the crime?
The hangman judged with the yellow twist
of knotted hemp in his busy fist.

And innocent though we were with dread,
we passed those eyes of buckshot lead.
Till one cried, “Hangman, who is he,
for whom you raised the gallows-tree?”

Then a twinkle grew in his buckshot eye
and he gave a riddle instead of reply.
“He who serves me best,” said he
“Shall earn the rope on the gallows-tree.”

And he stepped down and laid his hand
on a man who came from another land.
And we breathed again, for another’s grief
at the hangman’s hand, was our relief.

And the gallows frame on the courthouse lawn
by tomorrow’s sun would be struck and gone.
So we gave him way and no one spoke
out of respect for his hangman’s cloak.

The next day’s sun looked mildly down
on roof and street in our quiet town;
and stark and black in the morning air
the gallows-tree on the courthouse square.

And the hangman stood at his usual stand
with the yellow hemp in his busy hand.
With his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike,
and his air so knowing and business-like.

And we cried, “Hangman, have you not done,
yesterday with the alien one?”
Then we fell silent and stood amazed.
“Oh, not for him was the gallows raised.”

He laughed a laugh as he looked at us,
“Do you think I’ve gone to all this fuss,
To hang one man? That’s the thing I do
To stretch the rope when the rope is new.”

Above our silence a voice cried “Shame!”
And into our midst the hangman came;
to that mans place, “Do you hold,” said he,
“With him that was meat for the gallows-tree?”

He laid his hand on that one’s arm
and we shrank back in quick alarm.
We gave him way, and no one spoke,
out of fear of the hangman’s cloak.

That night we saw with dread surprise
the hangman’s scaffold had grown in size.
Fed by the blood beneath the chute,
the gallows-tree had taken root.

Now as wide, or a little more
than the steps that led to the courthouse door.
As tall as the writing, or nearly as tall,
half way up on the courthouse wall.

The third he took, we had all heard tell,
was a usurer…, an infidel.
And “What” said the hangman, “Have you to do
with the gallows-bound…, and he a Jew?”

And we cried out, “Is this one he
who has served you well and faithfully?”
The hangman smiled, “It’s a clever scheme
to try the strength of the gallows beam.”

The fourth man’s dark accusing song
had scratched our comfort hard and long.
“And what concern,” he gave us back,
“Have you … for the doomed and black?”

The fifth, the sixth, and we cried again,
“Hangman, hangman, is this the man?”
“It’s a trick”, said he, “that we hangman know
for easing the trap when the trap springs slow.”

And so we ceased and asked no more
as the hangman tallied his bloody score.
And sun by sun, and night by night
the gallows grew to monstrous height.

The wings of the scaffold opened wide
until they covered the square from side to side.
And the monster cross beam looking down,
cast its shadow across the town.

Then through the town the hangman came
and called through the empty streets…my name.
I looked at the gallows soaring tall
and thought … there’s no one left at all

for hanging … and so he called to me
to help take down the gallows-tree.
And I went out with right good hope
to the hangman’s tree and the hangman’s rope.

He smiled at me as I came down
to the courthouse square…through the silent town.
Supple and stretched in his busy hand,
was the yellow twist of hempen strand.

He whistled his tune as he tried the trap
and it sprang down with a ready snap.
Then with a smile of awful command,
He laid his hand upon my hand.

“You tricked me Hangman.” I shouted then,
“That your scaffold was built for other men,
and I’m no henchman of yours.” I cried.
“You lied to me Hangman, foully lied.”

Then a twinkle grew in his buckshot eye,
“Lied to you…tricked you?” He said “Not I…
for I answered straight and told you true.
The scaffold was raised for none but you.”

“For who has served more faithfully?
With your coward’s hope.” said He,
“And where are the others that might have stood
side by your side, in the common good?”

“Dead!” I answered, and amiably
“Murdered,” the Hangman corrected me.
“First the alien … then the Jew.
I did no more than you let me do.”

Beneath the beam that blocked the sky
none before stood so alone as I.
The Hangman then strapped me…with no voice there
to cry “Stay!” …for me in the empty square.

“…I did no more than you let me do.”

 

Read More about the case:
Author David Gumpert’s Blog
Vernon’s Family and Trial Site
Raw Milk Food Terrorism

Harrison Bergeron is upon us with the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities

I remember reading “Harrison Bergeron” in high school and I loved it then. Not like I wanted it to come true, but it was a cool story. You can read it HERE.

If the US ratifies the UN CRPD we could be living in a version of Kurt Vonnegut’s 1961 dystopian short story where “we are all finally equal.” Umm, no thanks.

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And, there is even a movie called 2081 and it looks really well done!

Seriously, you should read more about this terrible and extremely scary treaty HERE. Then call your representatives and tell them they are violating their oath of office (to uphold the Constitution) if they vote for it.

Overruled Movie is a MUST SEE!

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child Treaty is THE most CRITICAL issue at stake today. I should have posted this in my post yesterday about CPS taking a baby after the parents sought a second opinion from a doctor about a (non-emergency) surgery. I found a really shocking movie about parental rights in America. It’s FREE. If you watch nothing else I recommend, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE watch this.

Watch it HERE.

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Parental Rights are being eroded. Parentalrights.org is fighting for the rights of parents to raise their children as they see fit. Parents all over America are losing their rights and don’t even know it. If you care about your rights as a parent, please share this video with your family and friends. Featuring three reenactments based on real cases, “Overruled” is a shocking 35-minute docudrama that exposes how the rights of parents in America are being eroded and what you can do to turn the tide.

Here’s how you can help:
1. Sign the petition at http://www.ParentalRights.org
2. Tell others about http://www.overruledmovie.com
3. Write your local paper
4. Contact your Congressman
5. Make a donation at http://www.ParentalRights.org

CPS can take your baby for getting a second medical opinion?!?

Well, another example of the police state in the news. Read the story from parentalrights.org HERE
Here’s the short version of the story: Parents were told their five month old baby needed a surgery (for a heart murmer – NOT an urgent issue). Parents take baby directly to second hospital for second opinion. The next day, police and CPS come to their home and take baby away from parents for “severe neglect” and with no warrant to enter the home.

The scary thing is that this is NOT an isolated incident.

HERE is another story, this time of a newborn baby being taken away from the parents, again with NO EMERGENCY, no allegation of abuse or anything like that. It seems that the issue was that the hospital staff was pissed that parents were questioning their procedures or maybe that the parents wanted to have the baby at home (the disagreement was about immunizations at birth). The baby was born in an ambulance in the parking lot of the hospital, but had intended to have a home birth. Sorry, but I can’t find the link to this article – I will come back and edit when I find the link

HERE is the story of a high school student put into foster care (without even notifying the parents) by a school worker. The “abuse” alleged was because the parents took the child to church three times a week and the social worker thought that was too much. Sorry, but I can’t find the link to this article either – I will come back and edit when I find the link

HERE is footage of political science professor and MSNBC host essentially saying, “Your kids belong to us.”

HERE is a very informative article written by Nancy Schaefer: “The Corrupt Business of Child Protective Services”
The recommendations at the end are really excellent and here are the closing remarks:

On my desk are scores of cases of exhausted families and terrified children. It has been beyond me to turn my back on these suffering, crying, and beaten down individuals. We are mistreating the most innocent. Child Protective Services have become an adult centered business to the detriment of children. No longer is judgment based on what the child needs or who the child wants to be or with whom, or what is really best for the whole family; it is some adult or bureaucrat who makes the decisions, based often on just hearsay, without ever consulting a family member, or just what is convenient, profitable, or less troublesome for the social workers.

I have witnessed such injustice and harm brought to so many families that I am not sure if I even believe reform of the system is possible! The system cannot be trusted. It does not serve the people. It obliterates families and children simply because it has the power to do so.

Children deserve better. Families deserve better. It’s time to pull back the curtain and set our children and families free.

Opting Out, Nullification, & the Tenth Amendment

Citizens “opting out” and Nullification based on the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution is an issue that’s been on my mind for some time. Personal freedom and liberty are such hot topics right now in the wake of so many tragedies where the people are literally begging the federal government to “do something!” I don’t claim to be an expert on nullification, but I’m learning as much as I can as quickly as I can. THIS ARTICLE is a great place to start learning about nullification. I’d like to gather some resources here on my little blog that either explain the Constitutional basis for telling the federal government to “butt out” or news articles giving examples of states currently doing it.

My home state of Kansas signed a law making it a felony for state agents to in any way enforce a federal restriction on guns. From the article:

The second amendment to the constitution of the United States reserves to the people, individually, the right to keep and bear arms as that right was understood at the time that Kansas was admitted to statehood in 1861, and the guaranty of that right is a matter of contract between the state and people of Kansas and the United States as of the time that the compact with the United States was agreed upon and adopted by Kansas in 1859 and the United States in 1861.

State and local agents would be prevented from enforcing any acts or actions that are “null, void and unenforceable in the state of Kansas.”  Based off this text, the state of Kansas would not be allowed to participate in any federal gun control measures that restrict the individual right to keep and bear arms as understood in 1861.   

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Another issue I find especially troubling is DRONES. The pics throughout this post are all of surveillance drones. The surveillance state is growing. The next step in the destruction of the Fourth Amendment continues with the invasion of drones in US airspace. Recent reports show that as many as 30,000 drones could be patrolling US airspace in the coming years. You can track nullification legislation for drones HERE.

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Washington State and Colorado State have now legalized marijuana. I am not suggesting that anybody go out and smoke marijuana, but I also don’t think it’s any of the government’s business. In fact, I would be hard-pressed to think of ANY justification for the federal government to regulate A PLANT!!! You can track other states opting out of the ban on marijuana HERE.

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Click HERE to track states who are passing legislation to nullify the NDAA, which authorizes unconstitutional arrests without due process, i.e. government-sanctioned kidnapping. The link goes to the Tenth Amendment Center’s legislative tracking page, where you can track legislative nullification on other issues like FOOD (i.e. freedom to sell raw milk), TSA, and OBAMACARE.

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Here are a few resources for more info on Tenth Amendment Nullification and liberty:

The Tenth Amendment Center

Foundation for a Free Society

Free State Project (New Hampshire)

Walking to Freedom Forum

Live Free Now Radio

And, this is not really about nullification, but it’s still really cool:

A 3-minute video explanation of Ron Paul’s foreign policy

To read more of my articles on Nullification & Opting Out, click HERE.

To read more of my articles on the Politics of Prepping, click HERE