Uh, Mr. Welch?
Did I say I had a problem with it?
History is a funny thing, especially American history.
What most people are taught is that the American Revolution was based on only the highest ideals, conducted only by people of the most impecable character, and done free of all the baggage that normally accompanies a war.
Bull****.
Don't you find it both curious AND interesting at the same time that Thomas Jefferson wrote of all men being created equal, yet held slaves? That he stated, during debates on adoption of the Declaration of Independence that he had resolved to release his slaves, but yet never did?
That George Washington said that he never wanted command of the Continental Army, but yet every day showed up in Congress wearing the same suit of clothes -- his Major's uniform from the French and Indian Wars?
That George Washington was a military bungler who almost lost the Revolution several times, yet was very likely the only person who could have held the Continental Army together for 8 years of war?
That George Washington and John Hancock were probably the two richest men in the colonies, whose wealth derived and largely depended on the British Empire, yet they fully supported independence?
That the "crushing taxes" paid by Colonists were actually substantially less than those paid by people of the same class in Britain?
That the British tax on tea, which resulted in the Boston Tea Party, actually made tea CHEAPER in the colonies?
That Benjamin Franklin, an ardent supporter of independence, had a son who was Colonial Governor of New Jersey, and when William Franklin was arrested, Ben did absolutely nothing to help his son, and in fact totally cut him off?
That John Adams, ardent supporter of the concept of the equality of men, was an incredibly imperious prick who never failed to let people know, in action and word, that he was their superior?
That John Dickinson adamantly opposed the push for independence and refused to sign the Declaration but instead of joining the British army, where he would have become an officer, he joined a Delaware militia unit and fought AGAINST the British?
The history of the Founding Fathers are full of these kinds of "psychotic fugue" examples.
Over the past 200 years we've made the mistake as a nation of deifying these people -- converting them to marble statues and have virtually ignored what they really were -- men who were just as human and just a fallable (sp?) as any one else of the time.
It's inconvenient to look at the incongruities of our Founding Fathers, because it ruptures the little mythories that we've been taught about them and their motivations.
History, even American history, is sometimes pretty damned ugly. But to ignore the real history of these men in favor of some sanitized Parson Weemsistic version of "the truth" does them a great disservice. And to be sucked into that kind of does the "suckee" an equally great disservice.
that was just for the NSA guy that is probably scanning my computer and pulling up my FBI file.I bet you think im kidding but big brother is watching for sure.
I wonder what they were thinking when they wrote the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. You would think a group of thugs wouldn't have gave a damn about other peoples rights.