The battle of Athens.

[Raoul]

Here's a little history I was unaware of.

Damn, I love TN.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Athens_%281946%29

[austin7.62]

It's our claim to fame.

[dralarms]

Yea, there is a video around somewhere doing a reenactment. What we need now is more men with heart and backbone like those men had. If not I fear this once great nation may be doomed.

[Pat]

Imagine that on a nationwide scale. If folks were the same today as they were back then, I think we would have seen something on a much larger scale by now.

[gregintenn]

                                       http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103673/

Here's a decent movie about it.

[dralarms]

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-tcv0wmpjJM&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D-tcv0wmpjJM


This is the one I was thing about

[peejman]

A quick search will yield several threads on this topic.  It's some interesting local history. 

 

http://www.tngunowners.com/forums/topic/11437-battle-of-athens-another-reason-im-proud-to-be-from-tn/

 

http://www.tngunowners.com/forums/topic/47955-battle-of-athens/

[Spurholder]

I met quite a few of those vets when I was a kid (many of them worked at the local Ford dealership back in the 60's and 70's).  Great bunch of guys.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Glenn Beck has been popularizing the event recently.

I ran across it a couple years ago searching lists of historical usa insurrections and civil disturbances. Hadn't ever heard of the story before, and it is fascinating because it may be the only example of a successful USA insurrection since 1776.

I think some of the other insurrections may have been successful in certain long-term gains (the man getting gunshy of insurrections and lifting the boot a bit from people's necks) but most of them were quashed and not immediately successful.

Maybe athens was successful because conditions were similar in other counties, and county/state bosses were afraid to make an example of the athens vets and therefore encourage such insurrections to spread?

The victors write the history books. If athens had failed, perhaps the story would be about a bunch of anarchist drunk neer-do-well hillbillies rioting, arrested by righteous heroic authorities, then sent to prison for long terms.

[A.J. Holst]

What about the rest of the story? According to WIKI by the mid to late 40s the old political machine was back in office and back in business.

 

It speaks to the ignorance of the masses.

 

Let's go back to ancient Rome prior to the empire. The same senators and family dynasties were elected and re-elected by the mob...those folks had all the money and bought elections through high dollar/high profile campaigning, sponsoring games in the arena, distributing free bread...

 

In the modern day US, we have the same senators, congressmen and their designees elected and re-elected through high dollar/high profile campaigning, sponsoring new guv'mint programs and re-distributing my bread through the tax code.

 

I vote and my vote counts.

[Oh Shoot]

It wasn't a 2A issue, though, misplaced in this forum.

 

- OS

[JohnC]

I love that story of a historical moment when people got fed up with the BS and cleaned house!

http://www.tngunowners.com/forums/topic/60561-battle-of-athens/?hl=%2Bbattle+%2Bathens

I did a search and there is threads on this dating back to 2009 on the first page. :lol: