My Time at an Anti-Government Summer Camp

[icymist]

his afternoon I learned that an armed militia group has occupied a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon. As I peruse twitter and read about the militants’ calls for all true patriots to bring their guns and join them, I am reminded of the summers I spent as a teen at a small camp in the midwest in the early 2000s. We didn’t drill or shoot guns—the camp was held at state parks, and I suspect that wasn’t permitted—and the camp was ostensibly about teaching young people how “true” constitutional principles and Christian religion, not about creating a paramilitary force. Still, every time something like this happens I am taken back to those summers and that camp.

It was at that camp that I learned about the ostensibly unlawful federal control of much of the U.S. land mass. We talked about the possibility of declaring your individual land sovereign territory, and personally seceding from the U.S. We learned about individuals who had done just that, and about the government’s unlawful attempts to collect property taxes from these sovereign citizens. It was clear that the camp leaders and speakers were inspired by the ostensible “patriotism” of these individuals, whether or not they personally took this path themselves.

- See more at: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2016/01/my-time-at-an-anti-government-summer-camp.html?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Pan%20Patheos%20010815%20(1)&utm_content=&spMailingID=50422569&spUserID=OTkxMjI4ODc3NzkS1&spJobID=841117350&spReportId=ODQxMTE3MzUwS0#sthash.Qg3m7xSN.dpuf

[mikehiggins]

1. Most kids I know who went to sleep-away summer camp

and there weren't a lot of them (I come from a poor neighborhood) mostly came home knowing how to masturbate. Oh, and start a fire with sticks. Probably found the first thing more useful.