Walt Whitman's cardboard butterfly.

A classic Jackie Robinson collectible.

Whether or not you like baseball or poetry, whether or not you think America is a racist country or the birthplace of Constitutional Liberty, Jackie Robinson and Walt Whitman are distinctly American. They represent the real America. A country where it is still possible for one man - or woman - to overcome institutionalized hatred and bigotry through his/her own efforts. A country whose greatest poet didn't whine. He used words - no multimedia advantages for him - to sing and paint the experience of human triumph.

But is there a connection between these men and the unique Second Amendment guarantee of the US Constitution? Jackie's and Walt's stories say yes.

Jackie's ancestors were slaves. To understand the connection ask yourself how they were enslaved? How were they freed? They certainly didn't vote to be enslaved. And no slave has the ability to vote him/herself free. What makes the difference between slavery and freedom is the ability to defend oneself. Jackie's ancestors simply did not have raw brute force on their side. They were defeated by better armed agents of evil.

They were freed by brute force.

Just as baseball and poetry are parts of life so is brute force. Of all the differences between Jackie and his ancestors, the most distinctive, from a political point of view, is that Jackie had the right - although he may not have used it - to shoot any person who tried to enslave him. His ancestors could beg, step and fetch. They could not pick up an AK-47 and say, "You'll rape my wife and enslave my children over my dead body. You want my gun? Come and take it."

After hundreds of years of slavery, brute force was finally on his side.

Walt Whitman, who was passionately opposed to slavery, created something that America must regain to survive: a triumphant spirit. It was a spirit that reflected the original intention of the Second Amendment.

The right to keep and bear arms was not inscribed into the Constitution to protect or encourage hunting. It's almost insulting to the Founders to argue that along with freedom of the press, freedom of religion, the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure, they'd throw in something about hunting. The purpose of the Second Amendment is to recognize each citizen's right to arm him/herself against tyranny. Its purpose was to put brute force on the side of the individual citizen. The Second Amendment is anti-government. So is the entire Bill of Rights.

Walt Whitman's poetry - try to find poetry of joy and triumph in today's anti-gun, pro-government world - was inspired by the joy of freedom. In Walt Whitman's world there was no Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms because you did not need permission to drink, smoke or defend yourself. You were considered competent, moral and ethical until you proved otherwise. Joy and triumph were your birthright. You did not have to get a license for "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

The Declaration of Independence was written by armed people. That heritage of being armed and being triumphant was passed on to Walt Whitman as George Washington knew it would, when he said, "I am a soldier so that my son can be a farmer so that his son can be a poet."

Washington understood the connection between the virtuous use of brute force against evil and the joy it frees everyone to create.

Walt Whitman, Jackie Robinson, you, and I are the beneficiaries. But if you lose your right to keep and bear arms, you lose your right to defend you and yours against evil. Whitman's joy and Jackie's triumph were possible because brute force was on their side. Had it not been, Jackie would have been a slave in the fields and Walt would have found no joy to write about.

Slaves do not have a right to keep and bear arms.

When people have to get a license to defend themselves, joy and triumph are at the mercy of a bureaucrat.

Just as Jackie Robinson did not have to get a license to play baseball, just as poets today are not licensed, so should you not have to get permission to triumph over evil.