When Wall Street crashed in 1929 there were warning signs. 

At the time anywhere from 1-25 million Americans were in the market.  Many had borrowed the money to invest.  It was called margin investing.  Folks borrowed, then hopefully collected dividends.  Two out of every five dollars loaned by banks went to purchase stocks.  The stock was the collateral. 

As the market began to dip, and dip deeply, panic started to set in and the sell off began.  There were efforts to prop the stock market to try and keep stability in place until things calmed.  Big money came in to inspire some confidence, but it did not last.  Then real panic hit and it was done.

"The Wall Street Crash," EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2000) records it this way: According to one observer, "They hollered and screamed, they clawed at one another's collars. It was like a bunch of crazy men. Every once in a while, when Radio or Steel or Auburn would take another tumble, you'd see some poor devil collapse and fall to the floor." This was the Crash, although few could see it at the time. The Market continued its decline but never as dramatic. Thirty billion dollars had been lost -- more than twice the national debt. The nation reeled, and slipped into the depths of the Great Depression.

Contrary to stories there were not wide-spread suicides that day or the days that followed.  What followed was the Great Depression.

If you will, allow me to offer a crude visual to describe what happened. 

Imagine a very heavy metal sheet or platform with half of its mass hanging over the edge of a deep ravine.  In 1928 the prospects were bright, but Americans started to purchase things using installment plans.  Stocks were being purchased, but citizens were borrowing to do it. Each one of these examples serves as a weight on the ravine side of our platform.  

Manufacturing started to decline, prices began to fall, banks began to fail and nervousness surfaced in the form of a sell off.  Now the weight is tipping our platform.  There's no floor on that side; on that side is a deep crevasse and the weight keeps getting loaded on...soon it will be unrecoverable.

When there is an imbalance, a normally massive weight load can be toppled with a simple nudge.

I have offered a very rudementary explanation from events in the early 20th century to make one simple (though potentially frightening) point...our nation is at a tipping point.

A horrible economy is quickly becoming a black hole as social programs suck money out of the economy; jobs are going away; fewer people want to work settling for handouts; ObamaCare (an unConstitutional law - I don't care what SCOTUS...err Chief Justice John Roberts ruled) will eventually collapse health care while raising costs in the meantime; we are aborting more babies than ever, racial division is worse than at anytime since the 1960's; the 4th Amendment has been pillaged; the 2nd Amendment is now under assault.

Guns...that's the one on the list that could prove to be final straw,  or weight if you will. Imagine my crude illustration, fully loaded with all manner of weight teetering on the edge of going over the cliff.

All it takes is a nudge.  All it will take is one person who has had enough to break and do something that may or may not be foolish.  I worry it may not matter. 

There is no predicting what may take place should we come to such a moment, should someone snap and take action in the face of a government that has made a mess of our nation and is trampling our Constitution. 

I suggest we all just take a breath; step back.  I am not suggesting that we disengage.  I am stating that these are times to respond, not react.  Let's pray it does not come to it, but let's be certain that if it does, we move forward with thoughtful consideration and God on our side.