Is it time?
I have been re-reading David McCullough's most detailed, painstaking, journal-and-letter quoting John Adams and have, page by page, been marveling at the likes of Mr. Adams, Thomas Jefferson, the painfully-flawed but brilliant Ben Franklin, as well as the other men and women (and the women did have their role, even if society limited them with what we hope are long-gone prejudices) who contributed so much to who we are today.
I'm re-reading the book because I'm thinking about both what happened in the Middle East yesterday and anticipating the PBS special about John and Abigail Adams in the next days: believe it or not, these events are connected.
As I reflect on the Hammas win; on our current Christian, Conservative, Hammas-Like Leaders; their equally aggressive, mindless followers; and on how both these leaders and followers daily subvert our Constitution, I thought it may be a good idea to revisit that critical moment in history leading to this country - that moment where these fantastic, insightful, hardworking, selfless, long-gone-yet-long-remembered people collectively said, "Okay - that's it: we've utterly had enough and we're not taking any more."
Therefore, with a hat-tip to Julien and a sly wink in the background, I thought it would be good to visit a portion of the Declaration of Independence; the full text of which is linked HERE, to a server at a law school in Indiana.
There are only two thoughts that really intrude on me at this point.
One is that we can continue the above document with, ". . . American Progressives, with the current Administration as it stands . . ." and really have to change little in the list of insults that finally caused the break from the British Crown.
The other thought is more of a question. Namely, "How much longer will it take for any progressive leaders to step forth, not only noting the Patriotic resonances with the past, but also noting legitimate grievances today and subsequently acting as strong leaders to take decisive action toward ending the abuses the Christians, the Republicans, and the current Administration, daily, perpetuate with the aid of corporate media and financial interests?"
We had such men and women as a part of our past - and they were the men and women our history books today laud as our great founders and leaders.
Is there not one person with such stature today?
Or did America finally run out of heros?
Is it time we found one?
And, finally, to close the rather large circle I have drawn: amazing that so many people, whether here or whether in the Palestinian Territories, will vote anger and theology over self-improvement. What does it take to move a people - an entire nation - beyond such self-defeating choices towards real progress; progress of the type that people like Adams and Jefferson did, in fact, achieve?
|
I'm re-reading the book because I'm thinking about both what happened in the Middle East yesterday and anticipating the PBS special about John and Abigail Adams in the next days: believe it or not, these events are connected.
As I reflect on the Hammas win; on our current Christian, Conservative, Hammas-Like Leaders; their equally aggressive, mindless followers; and on how both these leaders and followers daily subvert our Constitution, I thought it may be a good idea to revisit that critical moment in history leading to this country - that moment where these fantastic, insightful, hardworking, selfless, long-gone-yet-long-remembered people collectively said, "Okay - that's it: we've utterly had enough and we're not taking any more."
Therefore, with a hat-tip to Julien and a sly wink in the background, I thought it would be good to visit a portion of the Declaration of Independence; the full text of which is linked HERE, to a server at a law school in Indiana.
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of . . .
There are only two thoughts that really intrude on me at this point.
One is that we can continue the above document with, ". . . American Progressives, with the current Administration as it stands . . ." and really have to change little in the list of insults that finally caused the break from the British Crown.
The other thought is more of a question. Namely, "How much longer will it take for any progressive leaders to step forth, not only noting the Patriotic resonances with the past, but also noting legitimate grievances today and subsequently acting as strong leaders to take decisive action toward ending the abuses the Christians, the Republicans, and the current Administration, daily, perpetuate with the aid of corporate media and financial interests?"
We had such men and women as a part of our past - and they were the men and women our history books today laud as our great founders and leaders.
Is there not one person with such stature today?
Or did America finally run out of heros?
Is it time we found one?
And, finally, to close the rather large circle I have drawn: amazing that so many people, whether here or whether in the Palestinian Territories, will vote anger and theology over self-improvement. What does it take to move a people - an entire nation - beyond such self-defeating choices towards real progress; progress of the type that people like Adams and Jefferson did, in fact, achieve?
