Speaker calls UN communist
A lecturer called the United Nations “communist” and continually referred to them as the “New World Order” at a Students of the Second Amendment speech last Friday.
About 25 people attended Bliss Tew’s lecture, “Why the U.N. is Hostile to Armed Citizens.”
However, students might have gotten more than they expected when Tew spoke about everything from the extensive history of the United Nations and its founders to denouncing President Bush’s involvement in the Middle East.
“We are facing a conspiracy,” Tew said.
Bliss Tew is a coordinator for the John Birch Society, a political activist organization whose goals include protecting the Constitution, limiting government power and ousting the United Nations, according to www.jbs.org.
“If you increase government powers, you decrease freedom,” Tew said. “As you increase freedom, you decrease government power.”
Although Tew spoke on the U.N.’s hostility toward armed citizens, he spent more time arguing the U.N.’s connection with communism. He also dedicated much of his speech to the generally libertarian John Birch Society and why the audience should join.
“Communism is anything but dead,” Tew said.
About halfway into the lecture John Wangsgaard tried to yell out a question, interrupting the speaker. Tew informed him it was not a question-and-answer session, but a lecture. Just as Tew finished his speech, Wangsgaard interrupted again, demanding Tew to take questions.
“It is standard protocol at public meetings for the speaker to entertain questions,” Wangsgaard said. “What do you have to hide?”
Tew said, “I don’t have anything to hide.”
He then told Wangsgaard that it’s “standard rudeness” to interrupt while someone is speaking, but gave up fighting and opened the floor for questions.
“Where does the John Birch Society stand as far as income tax?” Wangsgaard said.
Tew said, “We feel that income tax is a major infringement on our rights. We think that we need to pay our income tax to stay out of prison.”
After the speech, Wangsgaard, a USU alumnus and a strong supporter of the right to bear arms, said he was disappointed with the Students of the Second Amendments’ choice of a lecturer from the John Birch Society.
“I think they are fanatics. They see conspiracies in everything. They see the communist movement as one monolithic movement with incredible power and coordination and I think history has proven them wrong,” Wangsgaard said.
John Huntzinger, a graduate student in biology, is the president of Students of the Second Amendment.
“I did want him [Tew] to cover the background of the United Nations because it was organized by people you would not call patriots,” Huntzinger said.
Huntzinger said he wanted Tew to speak more on U.N. hostility toward small arms.
Students of the Second Amendment is a club that discusses issues on the Second Amendment, provides educational and safety courses for firearms and provides shooting sport activities and competitions. Students can find more information on the club at www.usu.edu/2ndAmendment.
-joelfeathers@cc.usu.edu