The Legacy of John Brown

Prior to the civil war there was a man who saw the status quo and did something about it. John Brown raided Harper's Ferry Virginia, then a Federal Arsenal, with the intent of overthrowing a government he saw as lazy and unwilling to correct a grievous evil, i.e. the institution of slavery and the Dredd Scott decision. While I can not legally advocate the overthrow of our government by force, I do advocate the courage of John Brown. We are on the third day of a partial shutdown of our federal government. People are without jobs (people who unlike their "representatives" can not afford to be without a paycheck), our stock market which drives not only our own but the entire world's economy is sinking lower and lower, our so-called representatives and president are bickering, and we sit doing absolutely nothing about the entire affair. Documents are released showing that our tax money is going to fund an agency that spies on itself and we do nothing. However unlikely to succeed he may have been, at least John Brown stood up for what he believed in and rallied the people to his cause. It was the image of him hanging in Virginia that spurred on the election of Abraham Lincoln and started the Civil war. It was his legacy that got people in the North to have the courage to do something, whether it was write in support of abolitionism, or fight on the front lines to free the slave in the South. And though this is not a Civil War, this is a dire time, that requires the courage of John Brown. Will we answer the call and reform our government or will we allow them to trample over us and continue their path to our destruction?