Jerry Fix is confused and angry.
Fix, a North Peorian, sees American auto makers being destroyed by a free enterprise system that allows foreign autos to be sold here.
Fix, 80, is also upset that America, in his humble view, is being held hostage by foreign oil.
Fix is not one of those Americans who just sits and carps about these issues. He has an answer. 
“The only thing that can turn things around is a militia,” Fix said.
He wants to shut off American docks to the delivery of auto imports and keep domestic oil here at the point of gun muzzles carried by citizens.
Before you get any ideas, Fix is not a wild-eyed loon. He is, by all appearances, simply an American who feels the change President Obama promised is not coming fast enough. Obama said that the change “we can believe in” had to come from us. This is the change Fix believes in. 
“I hate seeing what’s happening to this country,” Fix said. “We’re at the mercy of the Chinese.”
He said GM is being destroyed by imports. I asked why, if that is the case, Ford is doing so well.
“I don’t know,” he said.
What Fix said he does know is that he advocates Peorians doing their part by taking their guns and surrounding foreign auto dealers to deny delivery of any new foreign cars.
Can you imagine BMW of Peoria, on Pioneer Parkway, with pistol-packing and Winchester-toting Peorians blocking the entrance? Fix can. Well, he can if Peorians are willing to rise up and do something like their forefathers did in the Revolutionary War.
“We need to utilize the Second Amendment to block the intrusion of foreign cars from the countries we have huge trade deficits with,” Fix said.
It seemed to me advocating change with guns is akin to a violent overthrow of the free enterprise system, and shortly thereafter, the government.
Fix says “No.”
“I advocate using force, not violence. Under the threat of a gun, I don’t think a truck driver would try to go through,” Fix said. “An armed militia could stop autos from leaving the docks.”
Asked how this force would be prevented from turning into violence, Fix sat silent. 
Asked who would control the militias and prevent violence, Fix said it should be ex-military men.
Fix said he feels a show of force, minus violence, would be sufficient to meet the goal in every city around the country.
“A militia is a tool the American people have a right to use to accomplish a mission, namely, saving millions of American jobs. Detroit is going under,” he said.
And, this is where Fix gets confused.
He said Americans have a potent tool in militias, but are not using it.
“I don’t know why no one else is suggesting this. I don’t understand it,” Fix said.
“People walk right past an American auto dealer and buy a Toyota, then drive it to their job here in America. I don’t understand. A lot of people have to feel the same way I do, but they don’t say anything.”
Fix said his idea is extreme, but its time has come.
“This country’s in a crisis. We are headed to the bottom. It’s time for action by the people,” Fix said.
“Militias could attract millions of unemployed people.”
Fix said he suspects many older people would agree with him.
“I can’t be the only one,” he said.
“What I suggest is bold, but it’s past time for bold action.”
I asked him how many people in Peoria he imagined were ready to block auto dealership driveways with their guns.
“I know of one,” he said, smiling.
Fix can be confident about one thing.
He said that if his idea gathers traction, he will need the help of the press in telling the story. If Fix and any followers take up arms at Peoria auto dealerships, they can rest assured there will be press coverage.
And, it won’t take any force.