The word "militia" tends to come with a nasty connotation; it is a stigmatized moniker with an invariable tie to fundamentalist civil war rebels and brutal marauding in isolated locations, far from the reach of reasonable law and order.
The United States Constitution was created on the principle that each man can protect himself and his home with his own form of autonomous enforcement, according to the second amendment. But back then, the weapons and the ideology were far less terrifying than those of modern American militias.
Since the presidency's political shift, a great number of armed, extremist anti-government societies have resurfaced, their members fearing governmental sympathy for Islam and a sudden prohibition of firearms. Though well within their constitutional right to assemble peacefully, many of these groups have threatened to carry out violent acts of legal resistance and domestic terrorism.
Though not truly on the front line of American dilemma, some of these groups are becoming impatient for political change and radical action. Though mostly anti-federal government, these groups present a clear and present domestic enemy to the law, and many citizens not involved in the argument fear the dangerous side effects of crossfire.
The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are keeping close tabs on the most extreme militias, but they still fear a militia's violent reaction to a constitutional "threat" and the possibility of a solo act from a self-righteous rogue, grown tired of waiting for physical action to a political problem.
The problem is clear, but there is no democratic solution. Extremist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan and Neo-Nazis, have been able to exist for years, so long as their ideologies remain inside the walls of their respective secret societies, and so long as their opinions do not manifest themselves physically.
Unfortunately, an obvious but still dormant threat does not warrant legal intervention, and the only plausible solution for bystanders is to rely on the integrity of local and national law enforcement to protect us from our neighbors.
To paint these groups in a collectively negative light would be an injustice, and lumping any two groups of differing ideologies is unfair. Many of the groups are benevolent citizens, sincerely concerned for the safety of their community and aiding in disasters when emergency personnel are shorthanded.
State militias, such as the New York Naval Militia, are state government subordinates that serve as local military authority and state-commissioned security.
The difference, though, is each group's respective aim.
The extremist militiamen believe that the principles of the revolutionary Minutemen justify their cause, as several individual militiamen have taken direct action under the pretext of saving the United States from invisible tyranny.
Striving for an unrealistic goal, many of these groups will rest only when local sheriffs become the highest form of government and the federal government rescinds their supposed rampant tyranny.
Though we are not targets, these rising tensions shove violent revolution into the realm of plausibility, and we can only pray that political differences will never come to a head between neighbors on American soil.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
