By Major Van Harl USAF Ret
Wisconsin –-(Ammoland.com)- As a child I attended a three room grade school in a small Scottish village. I learned about Scotland’s history and its constant struggles with the English. Scotland was absorbed by England into Great Britain back in the early 1700s.
Many in Scotland alleged that greedy Scottish Nationals sold out the country to the English for a few bags of gold.
Part of my grade school education was to instill a dislike, if not hatred of the English because of their never-ending oppression of Scotland down through history. I knew who Robert the Bruce and William Wallace were long before Mel Gibson and the movie Braveheart came out.
I was an American kid living in the village of Innellan, Scotland. The Scottish kids did not really like us “ugly” American kids, but I felt sorry for the English kids who lived in my village that had to attend the local school. They were the butt of the jokes and took more harassment than the “Yank” students.
One of the things I remember was walking past the council housing everyday on my way to school. Council housing is what we would call public subsidized housing (or the “projects”) in the US. Subsidized public housing in some parts of the US is the ghetto, and in some parts of Scotland’s larger towns and cities the council housing is also their ghetto.
Now if you fail to be politically correct you might wonder why there would be ghetto style communities in Scotland. Everyone knows that ghetto housing is for those minority people (except perhaps Mississippi). You can pick which minority comes to mind depending on what state or what country you are living in.
Scotland is 96% white, so surely there would be no need for so much council / public housing. How can you have a ghetto population if almost everyone in a country is from the same cultural and DNA driven background?
The DNA is not the issue, the culture is, and in Scotland their current culture was formed by a long ago political culture that sadly shaped present day Scotland.
There are two types of governments: extractive where a group sets itself up to control a people / country under their own rules that allow them to extract or take what they want regardless of what the masses want, or there is inclusive, where the people put into power their own selected leaders who are placed in a position of trust to guide and benefit the body of humans who appointed / elected them into office.
England for hundreds of years has been an extractive government and has used this style of government to subjugate and exploit many countries, to include its neighbor to the north, Scotland. Because of this Scotland has over 200 years, become a social welfare state that cannot make ends meet without England doing much of the heavy lifting.
Don’t get me wrong the Scots do a lot of heavy lifting in time of war for the British Empire, but it usually means dying for the very Queen and government that continues to extract from Scotland.
Council housing is a by-product of the welfare state that has developed in Scotland—ghettos in a majority land housing members of the majority. Scotland is voting on a referendum on 18 Sep 2014 to separate from Great Britain and become a stand-alone nation, beholden to no one.
Scotland was once a mighty manufacturing and ship building nation, but no more. They now have North Sea oil and believe this will be the catalyst to their becoming an independent nation that can hold its own in the European Union. The problem is the oil is only projected to last another 30-35 years. How do you cut off complete ties with England, build a new government, build a new military, support the needs and desires of your nation, come up with your own money (England will not let you keep the Pound) and not let anything negative happen to the beloved welfare state?
The answer is you cannot.
As a person who still always turns to the sound of bagpipes playing, I want nothing but the best for Scotland. In my heart I truly understand their passion and desire to rid themselves of the English. If you do break away and form a new and free nation, this will mean the chance to develop a constitution, something you do not have now.
New constitutions get written every year somewhere in the world, and the one thing they always leave out is a right to keep and bear arms. A free Scotland that means to stay free needs a US style second amendment.
Islamic led war is coming to Europe and if you are a small nation whose closest neighbor you have turned your back on, do not expect the Royal Navy to ride to the sound of your guns, as their own country is fighting for its life. Culloden was a downward spiral. It must not be forgotten or repeated. Scotland, if you are going to be a nation be a nation not Mississippi.
Major Van Harl USAF Ret.[email protected]
About Major Van Harl USAF Ret.:Major Van E. Harl USAF Ret., a career Police Officer in the U.S. Air Force was born in Burlington, Iowa, USA, in 1955. He was the Deputy Chief of police at two Air Force Bases and the Commander of Law Enforcement Operations at another. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army Infantry School. A retired Colorado Ranger and currently is an Auxiliary Police Officer with the Cudahy PD in Milwaukee County, WI. His efforts now are directed at church campus safely and security training. He believes “evil hates organization.” [email protected]
If you’re gonna pick on Mississippi, you might first want to learn to spell five-letter words.