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Thinking of joining the Michigan Militia Corps (MMC)
Zayl
Veteran
Figured that since I have come to trust the judgement, or at least the opinions of many of the members here regarding very non-buddhist topics, I'd post it here.
I have been pondering joining the militia that operates in my state. Years back, I was doubtful of their intentions, as they seemed to have many radicals within their ranks, at least to the groups I have spoken to in person at their own compounds. But since the election of their new commander, they seemed to have evened out in temperament and I have seen them begin training for natural and man made disaster search and rescue, as well as relief (similar in function to the National Guard's duties in such events) and they have worked alongside the Red Cross in doing so. Not only that, but I have gone to one of their camps in order to observe their combat training. And at least in my county, they seem to be much more professional than the stereotype fat lazy redneck with a shotgun militiaman. They have a working chain of command, standards for joining, a genuine care for state and citizen rights, They make it explicitly clear that they do not discriminate against Race, Creed, nationality, nor gender. And the diversity of the members I saw while observing their combat training supported this.
The reasons I wish to join are, because I earnestly wish to help others, especially in the event of a disaster or other emergency. I also firmly believe that there must be protectors of State's rights, people who will wag their finger at the federal government if they begin to overstep their bounds, and have the gumption and means to back it up. I do not wish to join the federal military for fairly obvious reasons, plus I do not like the idea of the federals owning my ass for a few tours of duty, bringing war to other nations and shattering lives there. For being largely self supplied their armaments are fairly impressive. I saw many automatics of vary designs (AK builds, M4/M16 builds) And well trained snipers/sharpshooters that function as military snipers should. A shooter and spotter working together quite well.
So what do you say? even if I joined and it turned out to not be what I thought, leaving is as simple as well... just walking away. Unlike the Federal military where you may face criminal charges for doing so. I think I would like the sense of community as well, even if it is with a Paramilitary organization.
I have been pondering joining the militia that operates in my state. Years back, I was doubtful of their intentions, as they seemed to have many radicals within their ranks, at least to the groups I have spoken to in person at their own compounds. But since the election of their new commander, they seemed to have evened out in temperament and I have seen them begin training for natural and man made disaster search and rescue, as well as relief (similar in function to the National Guard's duties in such events) and they have worked alongside the Red Cross in doing so. Not only that, but I have gone to one of their camps in order to observe their combat training. And at least in my county, they seem to be much more professional than the stereotype fat lazy redneck with a shotgun militiaman. They have a working chain of command, standards for joining, a genuine care for state and citizen rights, They make it explicitly clear that they do not discriminate against Race, Creed, nationality, nor gender. And the diversity of the members I saw while observing their combat training supported this.
The reasons I wish to join are, because I earnestly wish to help others, especially in the event of a disaster or other emergency. I also firmly believe that there must be protectors of State's rights, people who will wag their finger at the federal government if they begin to overstep their bounds, and have the gumption and means to back it up. I do not wish to join the federal military for fairly obvious reasons, plus I do not like the idea of the federals owning my ass for a few tours of duty, bringing war to other nations and shattering lives there. For being largely self supplied their armaments are fairly impressive. I saw many automatics of vary designs (AK builds, M4/M16 builds) And well trained snipers/sharpshooters that function as military snipers should. A shooter and spotter working together quite well.
So what do you say? even if I joined and it turned out to not be what I thought, leaving is as simple as well... just walking away. Unlike the Federal military where you may face criminal charges for doing so. I think I would like the sense of community as well, even if it is with a Paramilitary organization.
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Comments
May your choices be wise.
There are many upsides to placing your efforts and aspirations in non military, non potentially killing scenarios. If these are not available then by all means take this only means of being helpful. :scratch:
Who decides when the federal government has overstepped their bounds?
If it come down to crowd control, I think the police are likely better equipped and trained for it. And have the support of most of the population.
No, in my view these guys are either playing soldiers with real guns and hoping for a chance to shoot someone, or they are dangerous radicals with a dark agenda.
:screwy:
But, although you asked for our opinions, you have clearly decided already to align yourself with a group that has no legal standing and is not authorized by any recognized vote of American citizenry.
@Brian I agree. And this is a decision I am not going to make lightly. I am still mulling it over, and will do so for quite some time. They are not only about fighting. They teach survival skills and medical training. A few years back when the portion of the state I lived in was hit with an ice storm, we were left without power for over a week, in near zero and below zero temperatures, no running water, no heat, no way to get into town (everything, every single surface was coated in ice.) and little food since we lapsed in our shopping.
I and my Grandfather knew what to do. I chopped firewood, he hunted and brought back meat. But many others did not know how to handle the situation, and we had more than a few fatalities. I would much rather be prepared.
So I really don’t see any point in organizing armed resistance against the government beforehand.
But if you enjoy the heroic fantasy and like crawling in the mud; go ahead and have fun.
I am from Canada where groups with caches of weapons are investigated and arrested.
Who is going to decide who to fight?
I would ask, who other than the US military, would this group be training to fight against? Canadians? Not likely. Any other foreign invader would not even get their troops onto ships, nevermind land them on American soil before they were destroyed.
So perhaps they would fight other militias with different political or religious views.
Your government has lots of experience suppressing that kind of conflict if not a lot of success.
Why would you want to even imagine waging long drawn out war in your own home state.
People pulled from their homes never to be seen again. Drones prowling overhead shooting at combatants and civilians alike. Tanks and troops everywhere. Living the life you are imagining that you might prevent with a few thousand armed militia.
Search and rescue and disaster relief is a respectable ambition for a group of citizens. Especially Buddhist citizens.
Training for war should be left for the military under the control of a duly elected government.
Spoken like a Canadian.
guns have pretty much one purpose, and it's not to cut through the ice to save stranded people, or to patch wounds...
I see that the survival/outdoor/modern-day-ninja aspect of it is rather appealing, but you should keep in mind that you will become part of a larger machine in joining any organization, and their way of doing things will rub off on you. If most of them smoke, you will probably start smoking, if most of them drink, or if most of them cuss, or if most of them skeet shoot for fun...
Just some things to keep in mind.
Even more troublesome, every militia is closely watched and infiltrated with government agents and snitches who are ready to lie and you run the chance of being arrested along with the entire group over one bad apple. Please consider the company.
But I think guerilla warfare doesn’t take sophisticated weaponry. It just takes cruelty and imagination.
If you want to fight the government you have to be willing to kill traitors (or just kill indiscriminately) in order to destabilize government power and establish support from civil society.
I don’t think guerilla warfare is possible without terrorizing the civilian population. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Think the scenario through to the end.
But going in the woods with guns and stuff, learning first aid... It sounds like boy scouts for grown ups! It looks like a lot of fun!
As someone pointed out above, there is a middle ground and that your intention going in counts.
I don't know how serious a commitment it is, but maybe you can just go hang out with them a little to get a feel for it? Then you have a real basis to determine whether it's for you or not.
Just an idea
We tried the states the confederate model twice, with each one bringing the union a step to total destruction. Each citizen would have to abide by 50 state constitutions, and that state's penal code; each state a different monitary curency, and a multitude of indevidual states agreements to come to the others defence.
Each state with it's own taxing system, and each state with it's own brand of currency; saftey standards on semi trucks alone would have to be several books; and neither of the same standard.
these are only very few of the problems that would come around; religion, schooling, labor, and the classes of wealth would be a horrendous time of accounting. And, what of the land disputes. who do you call in to judge the dispute? or does it go to the ones who have the most guns?
Bringing Out The Dead isn't maybe the best promo for it but hey, cool movie anyway.
Someone said it on here that the MMC seems more like a boy scouts for adults, and that seems to be the case. Looking over their writings, even the MMC concedes that an attack of some sort, or any violent action is very, very unlikely. And that they are only following the "better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it" in terms of arms training and weaponry. Their survival classes also seem somewhat interesting. It seems that the MMC is a lot less serious now, and that they like to focus on aid programs, medical training, and survival training. Afterwards taking their weapons to a range just for the fun of firing big guns. This vid sums it up nicely.
I will most certainly look over everything again though, to make certain. But the MMC seems to be very far removed from any sort of insurrectionist movement.
Want to fight crime? - join the police or FBI.
Want to help in a national emergency? - join/volunteer for FEMA.
Want to help individuals in pain? - become a paramedic, or learn First Aid.
Want to learn survival skills - do a course (eg, www.weteachu.com).
Want to join a paramilitary group who hold themselves to be above the law and openly declare their potential willingness to commit treason by taking up arms against their own government, who have no accountability to anyone but themselves and are therefore highly susceptible to being controlled by charismatic nutters, who if push comes to shove will probably turn against their own members as "traitors" if things get serious and then you decide to walk away, who have no support from the public they declare themselves to protect, who have ZERO chance of defeating the well-equipped actual military, who wouldn't have enough personnel and firepower to defend a single medium-sized city let alone an entire state, and who have no logical reason to exist except as a kind of fantasy-camp for people who believe their own government to be against them (or at least potentially against them) ... join the MMC.
Surely we can have mayhem as a hobby if we justify it in the right way? Can we kill compassionately if we have to? Maybe using dum dum bullets to ensure every wound is fatal and does not lead to suffering? Buddhism is after all a religion of Peace and Peace has to be protected? (now where have I heard that before . . .) :screwy:
But seriously 10/10 for making generalizations on here, all of you should be proud in your ignorance. From the way you make it sound, we're overrun by anti-government insurrectionists with a racist agenda that are plotting the next civil war. But oh, wait, guys in the woods with guns mildly concerned about constitutional law? Oh they absolutely must be murderous psychopaths. Right? I mean right? What else could they be?
I think this forum does such a wonderful job of claiming to be open-minded, accepting, and compassionate. But you're just the same as everyone else you decry. I've had it. All religions are the exact same bullshit. Adhere to exactly what we say or the entire community condemns you. I'm just over it. I mean, going by what else I read in other threads we should all be damn monks living on a mountain. But I hardly think any of you are so holy. You see something you might not like, and bear in mind I am NOT only talking about this thread... You see something you do not like and you see it as free license to act all high and mighty and to piss all over someone else's ideals.
http://bible.cc/matthew/7-5.htm
Have you ever considered joining the military? I know lots of Buddhists would think "Oh no, you'll end up eating babies", but it's not like that.
Can I ask what you do now?
Now you don't like them.
What was the point?
And I've felt exactly like you do... That Buddhism is no different to any other religion.
But that's not quite true. It's the people who are no different to people in any other religion. I think I was expecting Buddhists to be a little more on the ball, a little more gentle, a little more wise, a little better than everyone else. And then it turned out that Buddhists are just regular folk who get it wrong sometimes and aren't perfect and do all the regular human stuff and I was a little disappointed.
But don't be disheartened with Buddhism because people are just people no matter what religion we turn to. There will always be people who disagree with us, who make us feel bad, who put us down because people get it wrong sometimes. We all do, and Buddhists are no different.
At the end of the day we're here because we want to be Buddhas, not Buddhists if you know what I mean? Like the "I like your Christ but not your Christians" I love the Buddha but the Buddhists can be a bit loopy sometimes
What I find interesting is how many of us turned away from Chritianity not because of the scripture but because of the communities we found ourselves in... But that's another topic I guess.
And for the most part around here, people are nice, the site is well moderated and things tend to be pretty friendly.
Anyway, hope this helps some
@Vinlyn Not sure, guess I was expecting more of a level-headed approach instead of an attack. Maybe I was misreading it but it seemed like a lot of toxic vehemence right out of the gate. Furthermore even though I understood most of the other posters opinions and took them to heart... well that does not mean I actually had to like them. A transition in thinking is often volatile.
@RebeccaS Thank you, and yes you are right. I just have to remember that people are people, no matter where you go. They don't get any better, but then again they don't get any worse (generally speaking) I'll keep what you have said in mind, for the future.
Bright side of this thread is though, @JamestheGiant your post re-kindled my interest in being an EMT, something I have pondered ever since I was a little kid. Though back then I just called them "Ambulance people" I never really found out where to go or what to do in order to be one, however. But I will look into it more seriously. Think I may have finally found my career path.
Let's see, if I go to a Bunco game at the Y, it's pretty much the same as the other Bunco group I go to. "Bunco" has a meaning.
If I go to a bowling league in Colorado Springs, it's just about the same as a bowling league in Virginia. "Bowling league" has a meaning.
If I go to a soup kitchen in Denver, it's pretty much the same as a soup kitchen in Washington, D.C. "Soup kitchen" has a meaning.
And of course, there's a difference between a definition and common use. But either way, when we say most such words, we pretty much know what we are getting into.
And that brings me to "militia". There's a dictionary definition, and there's the common usage. People today have a pretty good sense of what an unofficial militia is. So, we first reacted to that. Why wouldn't we? The MMC calls itself a militia. The OP made the point that it isn't anything like it used to be when it was affiliated with groups that associated with Ruby Ridge and the like. Why did they decide -- even when it became something different (if it really did) to keep the same name? This is what we reacted to. Because it's sort of like the old saying -- if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck...it's a duck.
I wish you well . . . so I feel does everyone else . . . :wave: