Truth Lives Here
“Stripped Of My God-Given Right To Arm Myself,
The Only Defensive Posture I Had Left Was To
Lie Prostrate On The Ground And Wait To Die”
The Only Defensive Posture I Had Left Was To
Lie Prostrate On The Ground And Wait To Die”
Oliver Darcy, TheBlaze — “My name is First Lieutenant Patrick Cook of the 49th Transportation Battalion, Fort Hood, Texas, and this past Wednesday I found myself trapped in an enclosed room with fourteen of my fellow Soldiers, one of whom was barricading the door against a madman with a .45 pistol when he was fatally shot.”That’s the way a letter detailing a soldier’s experience during last week’s Fort Hood massacre begins.
The letter, which Cook posted to Facebook Monday night, provides the gripping and tragic account of Sgt. First Class Daniel Ferguson’s final moments in which he sacrificed himself to save his fellow soldiers.
“Through what I can only describe as a miracle, he somehow found enough strength to continue pushing against that door until the shooter gave up and went elsewhere, at which time he collapsed,” Cook wrote. “Nearly a week later, I can still taste his blood in my mouth from when I and my comrades breathed into his lungs for 20 long minutes while we waited for a response from the authorities. This Soldier’s name was Sergeant First Class Daniel Ferguson, and his sacrifice loaned me the rest of my life to tell this story.”
Cook then used the letter to call for the repeal of regulations that disarm military personnel on military bases.
“But I write to you today not to memorialize this brave Soldier, nor to tell a war story about how we made the best of a losing situation, but to express the part of that story that some in high positions of power clearly do not want told: I knew this was going to happen,” he wrote. “I had been saying for five years that Fort Hood was a tinderbox of another massacre waiting to happen. It had to happen, because our betters failed to learn the obvious lesson of five years ago. Worse yet, I know it will happen again. More will die, more will be wounded, more families will be torn apart, needlessly. It happened again, and will happen again, because Fort Hood is a gun free zone.”
“When the first shots rang out, my hand reached to my belt for something that wasn’t there. Something that could have put a stop to the bloodshed, could have made it merely an ‘ugly incident’ instead of the horrific massacre that I will surely remember as the darkest twenty minutes of my life,” the letter continued. “Stripped of my God-given Right to arm myself, the only defensive posture I had left was to lie prostrate on the ground, and wait to die. As the shooter kicked at the door, I remember telling myself, ‘oh well, this is it.’ It is beneath human dignity to experience the utter helplessness I felt that day. I cannot abide the thought that anyone should ever feel that again.”
“At the point blank range at which this shooting occurred, anyone with an M9 and some basic instruction could have ended the mayhem as quickly as it began,” he wrote. “An MP by trade and a CHL holder, I am convinced that concealed weapons would have stopped it, but openly carried side-arms, like the ones carried in a law enforcement capacity, could have prevented it entirely. Instead, many more died because of the fatally misguided restrictions on the carrying of arms, which obviously the madman did not respect.”
“I shall conclude by restating my warning. This will happen again, and again until we learn the lesson that suppressing the bearing of arms doesn’t prevent horrific crimes, it invites them. To those of you who hold elected office, if you hear nothing else I have told you, hear this: you have the power to stop the next massacre from happening,” the letter said. “You have an opportunity to restore the sacred Right to bear arms, which has been either stripped entirely or unjustly relegated to the poor substitute of a probationary, government-issued privilege. For God’s sake, do the right thing.”
Cook’s letter was read by Christopher Coleman, a member of the Texas Army National Guard, during a Texas State Senate hearing Monday.
Ft Hood Survivor Letter Read To Committee
Patrick Cook's (survivor of second Ft Hood shooting) call for less restrictive gun law legislation in TX and on military bases. His plea was read off on 4-7-14 at the discussion committee for open carry handguns special meeting in Austin TX.
Cook could not immediately be reached for comment. His father, however, was reached by phone and commended Ferguson’s actions as heroic.
Since being posted online, Cook’s letter has been shared hundreds of times on Facebook.
» Full Article
» OliverDarcy | Article Archive
» TheBlaze
About the Author
Oliver Darcy is the daytime weekend editor at TheBlaze. Previously, he served as the senior reporter at Campus Reform, where in 2012 he helped increased web traffic 33 times that of the previous year. Darcy's work has been published in hundreds of national and international news outlets, including CNN, FOX News, the Drudge Report and The Huffington Post. He has also been a television guest on several national news programs. Follow him on Twitter: @oliverdarcy
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Radical Hispanic Organization
Known As ‘The Race’
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Aaron Klein, Jerusalem Bureau Chief, WND — The recipient of a $30 million grant as part of President Obama’s “promise zone” initiative is an affiliate of the radical National Council of La Raza, WND has learned.A group called the Youth Policy Institute, or YPI, was approved by the Obama administration as the lead agency for Los Angeles when the city was selected by the White House and Department of Education two years ago to receive “promise zone” grants.
With little fanfare, YPI was awarded a $30 million grant in January 2012 as the “promise zone” recipient for Los Angeles.
The organization is slated to receive potentially tens or even hundreds of millions more, with the “promise zone” program pledging up to $500 million in grants over 10 years to help revitalize central Los Angeles neighborhoods.
Promise Zone is Obama’s signature education and anti-poverty program aimed at transforming schools and communities “into vibrant centers of opportunity and excellence.”
Unreported by the news media is that the Youth Policy Institute is an affiliate of the National Council of La Raza, or NCLR.
La Raza, which means “The Race, supports amnesty for illegal aliens. Among its affiliates are chapters of the radical MEChA – Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán or Chicano Student Movement of Aztlán – which promotes the “Reconquista” movement. The movement calls for the “liberation” of Aztlan, the mythical ancestral home of the Aztecs, which MEChA regard as Colorado, California, Arizona, Texas, Utah, New Mexico and parts of Oregon.
La Raza is directly tied to the White House. Cecilia Munoz, former senior vice president of La Raza, now serves as director of the White House Domestic Policy Council with specific focus on immigration issues.
La Raza itself highlighted its relationship with YPI in a press release in January boasting about the Obama administration grant.
“NCLR Affiliate Helps Secure Critical Investments for Struggling Los Angeles Communities,” read the title of the La Raza press release.
The release stated: “As part of an initiative to increase economic activity and expand opportunities in impoverished areas throughout the country, President Obama awarded a federal Promise Zone designation to the city of Los Angeles and their lead partner, the Youth Policy Institute, an NCLR (National Council of La Raza) Affiliate.”
According to the release, the central Los Angeles neighborhoods to receive the grant “include many predominantly Latino areas.”
YPI is funded by La Raza, while YPI utilizes La Raza to finance AmeriCorps members working in eight Los Angeles schools. AmeriCorps is a national service organization.
There is also a relationship between La Raza and YPI charter schools, with scores of La Raza fellows teaching in the charter schools.
The National Council of La Raza advocates “comprehensive immigration reform,” calling for “the 12 million undocumented people in our country to come forward, obtain legal status, learn English, and assume the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.”
Former La Raza president Raul Yzaguirre reportedly declared in the 1990s that U.S. English, an organization dedicated to adopting the English language as the official language U.S. language, “is to Hispanics as the Ku Klux Klan is to blacks.”
The Obama administration’s “promise zone” grant to YPI first came under scrutiny last month when the Daily Caller broke the story the organization failed to disclose in IRS forms it spent $140,000 lobbying the White House and other federal agencies.
The extensive Daily Caller piece did not mention YPI’s ties to La Raza.
The Daily Caller revealed YPI’s executive director, Dixon Slingerland, served as a financial bundler for Obama’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, raising nearly $750,000. His name also popped up on White House visitor logs a dozen times since 2009, the Daily Caller reported.
The report comes amid concern from some Los Angeles politicians about the transparency of the “promise zone” selection process and questions as to how YPI was chosen as the official L.A. recipient. » Full Article
With research by Brenda J. Elliott.
About the Author
Aaron Klein is WND's senior staff reporter and Jerusalem bureau chief. He also hosts "Aaron Klein Investigative Radio" on New York's WABC Radio. Follow Aaron on Twitter and Facebook.
» Aaron Klein | Article Archive
» WND
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