With much of "flag wavin', beer guzzlin', jee-zus fearin' Murka" getting ready to shoot off some fireworks, eat some grilled meat and get all dressed up in red, white and blue to show how much they support the troops and love this country, I was thinking about the document that we really should be celebrating, or at least remembering this weekend.
And in reading the text of the Declaration of Independence it is both sad to see how far this country has gone astray from the principles contained in the Declaration of Independence and how the authors of that document would cringe to see what has happened to the country and freedoms (not "freedomTM") they fought so hard for. At the same time, it is amusing (in a sick twisted way) to see how ignorant that `Murka is when they blindly salute the flag and spew their vile hate.
After you read the article, don't forget to click on the familiar face to the right...
3 comments:
I re-read the Declaration of Independance, and the referenced commentary (which included an excellent photo of Nadir). I agree with the DoI, but disagree with the commentary. I am glad that I didn't get born into any non-democracies on this earth, and am very glad that I and my kids were born in the US, where we have control over our lives and futures, and where generally we have no fear from our government... at least not in comparassion to other countries, and were we do have fear (anti-drug and anti-cell phone-while-driving laws, over-taxation, school vouchsers for college but not for K-12), we have only ourselves to blame, and we have the mechanisms to repair the outrage IF WE WANT TO (sadly, we don't want to).
We have ourselves to blame because we have a lawless administration, but do not move to change it.
"Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God." --Thomas Jefferson: his motto.
"The oppressed should rebel, and they will continue to rebel and raise disturbance until their civil rights are fully restored to them and all partial distinctions, exclusions and incapacitations are removed." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Religion, 1776. Papers 1:548
And as a slaveowner, he should know...
And of course, you anti-liberals will love this one:
"The advance of liberalism... [encourages] the hope that the human mind will some day get back to the freedom it enjoyed two thousand years ago." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1821. ME 15:308
And he wasn't talking about neoliberal economics, Paul. There was no such thing in 1821...
I support all of these TJ comments, and I consider myself a liberal, according to the definition of TJ's time, which certainly excluded massive govt programs and regulations, and embraced free markets; the fact and principal of such certainly existed in TJ's day. Adam Smith' Wealth of Nations was several decades old, and a major influence on the Founders who advocated individual liberties, which included free markets, private property, and protection from govt interference in commerce, except to enforce contracts.
George Bush certainly violates these principals with his Homeland Security and Patriot acts, and the many other govt programs that he supports, including various special tax breaks and handouts. Banning flag burning also violates these TJ principals.
The term "liberal" now means such things as severe and rigid social restrictions on speech, government funding restricted to govt-run K-12 schools but no such restrictions on universities, laws imposing minimum wages, confiscation of wages for social security, etc. All of these concepts also violate the term "liberal" as men like TJ understood and used the term.
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