Dylan Thomas, in his famous poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night,” was referring to  how each individual will deal with death's onrushing approach.  Each person deals with the realization that he is mortal in his own way.

With all the recent revelations, and many not so recent, about the reality of Barack Obama’s dream to fundamentally transform America, using the death of a man and the death of a country as analogous seems apt. 

Under the leadership (or perhaps diktats would be a more accurate term) of Barack Obama, our government (you know, the one that is “of the people, by the people, for the people”) seems to have decided that the “people” are now superfluous and can be ignored.  If they choose not to be ignored, they will be harassed, oppressed, threatened, and (if Lois Lerner had her way) imprisoned for their desire to speak loudly in defense of the traditions and values that made this nation the greatest and most free society that has ever existed on the planet.

So how will we, individually and collectively, respond to the approach of that “good night” marking the end of a great nation?  Speaking as an individual, I will never be silenced, nor can I be intimidated by the mouthings of a poseur in the White House, nor by any of his lackeys who populate the various executive departments.  I will never stop writing what I believe to be truth.  I might occasionally be wrong, but I will never try to communicate something untrue. 

But how about collectively?  How should we, as a nation of men and women, not children, respond to the threat of the death of our country; our way of life; and the values, hopes, dreams beliefs, and faith in what our Founders planned and built for us?

Dylan Thomas provided us an answer in the last line of his poem:

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

It is time, and past, for us to show rage at what Obama and his thugs are trying to do to us.  We are not slaves.  We are those who still believe in a government “of the people, by the people, for the people.”  We still look at America as that shining city on the hill, and we still grow misty-eyed when we hear "The Star-Spangled Banner" played (even if we admit to ourselves that it’s a really terrible piece of music).

We should not – no, actually, we must not – show bestial rage like the animals that populated the Occupy crowd.  But display civil disobedience – not violence or destruction of property or physical assaults – against the proto-fascists so favored by the Obama regime. 

Think civil disobedience would be a waste of time?  It could be that you’re right.  Of course, there have been people here and there throughout history who would disagree on that. 

Mahatma Gandhi would head the list, with Rosa Parks standing at his side.  Our own Thomas Jefferson once said: “If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.”  Bishop Desmond Tutu went even farther when he said:  “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”  And the icon of the civil rights movement, Dr. Martin Luther King, expressed the same sentiment when he said: “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”

And what is more a civil right than those expressly guaranteed in our Constitution?

It’s fair to point out that Mr. Gandhi, Ms. Parks, and Dr. King at the very least have proven that civil disobedience on a massive scale can be extremely effective.  That is the best way I can imagine to exhibit our rage.  Even the mouthpieces of the Obama administration, such as the New York Times, would have a hard time burying a headline that read, “100,000 Arrested for Disobedience.”

Now that would be a headline.

Jim Yardley is a retired financial controller and a two-tour Vietnam veteran.  He writes frequently about political idiocy, business and economic idiocy, and American cultural idiocy. Jim also blogs at http://jimyardley.wordpress.com and can be contacted directly at james.v.yardley@gmail.com.