Jackie Juntti on Bastille Day

I was just about to make a minor little blog entry today, when I found this comment by Jackie Juntti dropped into yesterday’s post. I think it’s better than anything I’d have written, so without taking the time to ask Jackie (sorry, J.), I’m moving it from comment to full-fledged blog.

I had no idea until now that my old friend Jackie was Jack Case’s daughter. Jackie and I don’t agree on all things (not even on the importance of Bastille Day). But she’s always got a great spirit. And now I can see where she came by it. Anyhow, without further ado:

Claire,

I wonder how many readers know that today is BASTILLE DAY – July 14th.

Bastille Day commemorates the storming of the Bastille prison on July 14, 1789, which marked the uprising of a modern nation – A french version of our Independence Day

I remember reading Tale of Two Cities when I was in either 8th or 9th grade. It sure made an impression on me about how people CAN stand against tyranny and oppression IF they stand together and *STORM THE BASTILLE*,

We, the American people, who shout to the world that we are FREE are really a People under the cloud of DELUSION. We are no more free than those dogs chained up to a post in the back yard. Like the chained up Pit Bull, we make a lot of noise but we only have a short chain that limits how far we can move about. Is that FREEDOM? Not in my book.

Freedom to me is the way things were when I was a child and could come and go anywhere I pleased. I wasn’t restrained by markers or rules. When my folks had their Western Road Show and traveled all over the South and Midwest – when that ended and we then began the trek out West moving from one job to another (my Daddy became an electrician and worked for the REA) – I would take off in the mornings and walk from farm to farm, playing with the kids, eating lunch with them, and then towards the late afternoon I would head back to the farm my folks were working at. I did that in Minn., Wisc, South Dakota, Idaho and that was FREEDOM!!! I didn’t need a government provided mode of transportation, I had my own two feet.

Yesterday I was talking with my nutritionist about how little most folks today know of how to survive when the electricity goes off. They have moved into places that have no alternative ways to cook or heat. They have no gardens – no canned foods, no wood stoves (and most wouldn’t have a clue how to cook anything on a wood stove much less bake bread , pies, cakes), no oil lamps. I lived with all that – no indoor plumbing, no refrigeration.

For instance, right now, the phone is out here so I have no DSL or phone service. I can survive nicely without either – it is nice to have but it isn’t a necessity of my life. Granted I don’t have the wood stove here or a running stream to cool things in but I always had those when I had my own property. It is something that I always looked at when I would be purchasing a newer place to live. It used to be a joke when I lived in Washington that if power and such is lost for any time at all (we did have lengthy power outages up there in the winter) just get to Jackie’s house because she will have heat – warm food – and things to do. I actually found a peace when the power would go out. It would be QUIET. Like how I love the ‘Silence of Snow’ in winter.

So, what are you doing this Bastille Day? Will you give some thought to FREEDOM? Pick a number from one to ten – Ten being the MOST FREE, One the least. What’s your number of Freedom today in this OCCUPIED NATION we are living in? Be honest. Think HARD – name ONE thing you can do that isn’t regulated in some way by government? No, dying isn’t one as even in death there are rules and regulations and fees placed on your death. Breathing? nope – EPA and all the other environmental rules affect that too. You are still free to THINK but be careful of what you THINK and who you tell it to as that may well put you on the government terrorist list and NO-FLY list. And let us not forget the new RACIST LIST that this administration is pushing HARD.

During my discussion yesterday with my nutritionist, she suggested that I write a piece on my dreams and my vision. We always get into the most interesting conversations and she has long encouraged me to write such things, just as many others have wanted me to write my memoirs. Not sure why as my life was just an ordinary life to me, filled with lots of learning of things, people and places all over America. Not just visiting but living close to the soil – learning how farm families really lived because we would be there for a few weeks and then move on to the next place to learn more. I saw an America that was far more free and loving and RESPONSIBLE than what is out there today.

My folks were poor – really poor according to todays standards but I never felt poor in all my life. I grew up with a love and appreciation for the things that God gave for us to enjoy. I still to this day truly love to sit and watch the animals, the birds, the plant life, and I do miss those mountains in the Pacific Northwest. Those are the things that GOD set before me to enjoy and they don’t cost one cent. I never had any desire to keep up with or get ahead of *The Joneses*. I never enjoyed *shopping*. I am not a *shopper* except for those things I NEED – read that NEED and not WANT. I do not need fancy clothes or houses or cars or furniture. I am more than satisfied with those items that are practical and usable – not just to look pretty for others but off limits to the family to really ‘use’. I do not and haven’t lived *beyond my means* – just not my nature to do so.

When I take a trip I am not inclined to stop at the man made tourist spots – they really do not interest me at all. I enjoy the scenery that God made for me to use and admire. I guess that is because I am content in who I am. For the most part I have been that way all my life… a small exception here and there but overall it is true.

So, again I ask – What are you doing this BASTILLE DAY?

Many of you know that I spent my first 15 years riding and loving my Daddy’s horse, Rex. Rex was an Arabian Stallion that Daddy got as a colt and trained him to do hundreds of tricks. He was a featured part of the Western Road show my folks had. (www.jackcase.com) Arabians are a very loving and protective horse and Rex seemed to take me as his personal kid to care for since I was the child of his master. I’ve heard stories of when I was first crawling around and Rex would be staked out at some location I could be found sound asleep on the ground with Rex standing guard over me. No one except my folks could get near me at those times. Later Daddy taught me some trick riding and also rope tricks and due the talent of Rex I got to do quite a few tricks pretty good. I loved riding bareback (that World Round championship, silver mounted saddle Daddy won was too heavy for me to lift so I only used it when Daddy would put it on Rex for me. I really preferred to ride bareback as I could slide off and on, Indian style, and when the other kids who had horses and we would RIDE the dirt streets of Hawaiian Gardens, I would ride under the pepper trees and grab a limb and swing up into the tree and Rex would go like the wind to lead my chasers on a false trail.. then he would come back and stand under the tree for me to drop down on his back and off we would go – FREE.

That is being FREE – living FREE – THINKING FREE. Today, even though I do not have my own dream property – a few hundred acres with livestock, chickens, gardens and fruit trees – I live on it in my mind. I am not bound by slave thoughts – I am a free thinker and I live as free as I always did. I do not bow down to Gog and Magog. My Spirit is FREE and only God has any authority over my Spirit.

So, WHAT ARE YOU DOING THIS BASTILLE DAY????? Counting your FREEDOMS or the links in your CHAINS?

Jackie Juntti
GrassrootsGranny.com