SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, APRIL 17, 1994 -- A callup of the constitutional militia for Bexar and surrounding counties has been set for Hwy 151 at the entrance to Sea World at 6:00 AM on April 19, 1994. According to Jon Roland, one of the people who issued the callup under the aegis of the Texas Militia Correspondence Committee, "April 19 is the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord, when, in 1775, British troops sent to confiscate colonial arms were met by the colonial militia, who fired the 'shot heard 'round the world' that started the American War of Independence."
"The Framers of the U.S. Constitution envisioned that the militia, which consists of all able-bodied citizens, plus any other citizens who wish to volunteer, would be the mainstay of defense of the nation, much as it is in Switzerland, which has a very small army but where everyone receives military training and is organized to respond to emergencies of all kinds", said Roland. "The Framers also wanted the militia kept ready to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution against abuses by government officials, as one of the checks on excessive governmental power, and as a bulwark against tyranny."
"Unfortunately," said Roland, "the militia has been allowed to fall in disuse, and power has become concentrated in the national government and in a huge defense establishment, which now threatens the liberties of the people in ways they were once threatened by foreign countries."
"It is time to revive the constitutional militia," said Roland. "To do that, since there is no initiative coming from state government, we have decided to have the militia start calling up itself. It can do that in the absence of a callup by the Governor or the President. Obviously, without official backing, we won't get everyone to come to the muster, but even if we only get a few, this thing can grow from year to year as public awareness grows."
"It is important to realize," Roland said, "that the National Guard is not the militia. It is organized as part of the Army, and as such, while being part of the militia, as all able-bodied citizens are, it is not the whole of it. It is the rest of it that needs to be organized, for such purposes as civil defense, disaster control, crime control, and other civic purposes."
"Unfortunately," added Roland, "Federal authorities have decided to oppose this effort, and are doing everything they can to prevent us from meeting."
Roland explained that he and other organizers made every effort to reach out to local, state and National Guard officials to join in helping make this effort succeed, by providing speakers and instructors. "At first they seemed supportive of the idea, but then suddenly the support was cut off and turned to opposition", Roland said.
The meeting was first planned to meet in Olmos Park, but then organizers were told that the area selected "was not an area that could be reserved, and therefore meeting there would not be permitted." When the plan was changed to meet in San Pedro Park, which was founded under a charter that does not allow restrictions on access, the City of San Antonio invoked its Ordinance 79328, which was motivated by youth gang violence and forbids the carrying of firearms in public parks, and told the organizers that they would be arrested if they met with their firearms.
Roland commented, "Well, if they are going to arrest anyone carrying a firearm in a public park, they aren't doing their jobs, because scores of people carry firearms in Olmos Park every day at the San Antonio Gun Club, which is on park grounds. What we are doing has a lot more civic value than guys shooting skeet. This is selective enforcement."
"We then decided to move the meeting site to Hwy 151, at the entrance to Sea World," said Roland, "because we need a large open area on public land. This unfinished expressway makes a good place to train. It has a gravel surface that won't get soggy if it rains."
When asked to cite examples of how this effort is being opposed by federal authorities, Roland said, "On Monday, April 11, a male voice called the office where I was working in the Tower Life Building, and asked the receptionist in which office I work. She told him. Two days later, someone entered the office in the middle of the night and stole my computer. They knew exactly which one it was. It was not an ordinary burglary. There were plenty of other things in that and other offices that could have been taken that were more valuable. It shows the classic M.O. of a federal 'black bag' operation. It also shows their incompetence. They failed to take the power supply. They don't seem to know that computers need electricity to run."
Roland went on, "On Friday, members of the San Antonio Police Department visited the office to 'look for explosives'. It was not a real search. Clearly just harassment. They mentioned that they had received an 'intelligence briefing' on Roland which portrayed him as some kind of 'mad bomber'."
"Clearly," Roland said, "they have begun the classic pattern of trying to demonize and discredit a leader of a dissident group by spreading disinformation about him". Roland added, "I am really upset that they couldn't come up with something more original. No one who knows anything about me is going to believe nonsense like that. The last time I had anything to do with explosives was when I was ten years old and set off some firecrackers under a can."
"Now, if they had claimed that I am some kind of space alien, they might have gotten somewhere. A few of my friends could believe that," he chuckled. "If they're going to tell lies about me," Roland said, "at least let's have some that are entertaining and imaginative."
Roland went on to mention that this is not the first such effort. "Militia units have assembled before here in Texas. They march in holiday parades, stage historical reinactments, and do other useful things. This is just one more effort of the same kind."
When asked what might have prompted federal authorities to try to orchestrate this kind of opposition, Roland said, "Well, we have done several things lately that might have gotten their attention. First, we're not just doing this locally. I put out a call over the Internet to the entire United States to do this kind of thing everywhere, to make Militia Day a national holiday. Apparently, there are groups all over the country doing similar things, independently, but in concert."
The second thing he did that might have aroused their attention, Roland said, was to post and email excerpts of a book called Votescam: The Stealing of America, by James and Kenneth Collier, to people and news organizations all around the world, over the Internet. The excerpts indicate that most computerized elections in the United States can be rigged whenever the Powers That Be wish to do so, and that Attorney General Janet Reno participated in the coverup of one such rigged election in Florida.
The third thing he did, Roland said, was to spread the word over the Internet about a federal agent who disclosed in an overheard conversation that the massacre of the Branch Davidians at Mount Carmel on April 19, 1993, was intentional. "The reasons were budgetary, according to this agent," said Roland. "The siege was becoming too costly for them, so they decided to cut their costs by cutting off the lives of the Davidians." Roland added, "this source indicated, though not clearly, that federal agents lied to Attorney General Janet Reno about the plan they intended to carry out. The plan they presented to her was not the real plan."
"So the question is," Roland said, "why is she now participating in the coverup?"
"I have been a very bad boy", chuckled Roland. "They probably wanted my computer to try to find out where I'm getting my information. When they discover it's not on the computer, I expect them to bring it back."[1]
Roland said that he has long been functioning as a freelance investigative journalist, and this kind of thing is not unusual. "It is sad," he said, "that we now live in a police state and not in a constitutional republic. If we are going to solve our common problems, it is going to take all of us working together. Members of the Shadow Government can't survive unless they return to constitutional governance and engage the people in common action."
"We're not trying to start a revolution," Roland concluded. "We're trying to prevent one. The only way to do that is to make it unnecessary. This nation can't afford a revolution. There is too much at stake."