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Title: Does the fiery spirit of 1776 still burn?
Source:
St. Petersburg Times
URL Source: http://www.sptimes.com/News/070401/ ... ns/Does_the_fiery_spirit.shtml
Published: Jul 4, 2001
Author: Howard Troxler
Post Date: 2009-07-03 10:05:41 by X-15
Keywords: freedom, guns, resistance
Views: 222
Comments: 19
Today we celebrate our right to overthrow the government. There is no pussyfooting around this fact. It is the central meaning of Independence Day. Today's firecrackers are reminders of the bloody war we were willing to fight against the British to win freedom. Bang. We can try to rename today's holiday the more innocuous "Fourth of July." We can outlaw firecrackers on the grounds of nuisance and fire hazard and you'll-put-somebody's-eye-out. But so far nobody has been able to rewrite the Declaration of Independence itself, and the words of that document are crystal clear. Today is a spiritual, passionate, angry, violent holiday for a modern society that is squeamish about every one of those adjectives. If you get a chance today, you should read the actual words of the Declaration. Read the whole thing. It's even better out loud. Imagine you are really fed up while you're reading it. When you get to the list of abuses by King George III, you will get angrier and angrier. I still do. 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. Endowed by their Creator! Were the Framers deftly sidestepping the word "God," or in their day did they simply assume that one word was synonymous with the other? Either way is fine -- the point is that we have inherent rights that can never be taken away. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. There's the Big Idea. Government gets its authority from the consent of the people. It is one of the most important political things anybody ever said, except maybe for the next sentence . . . 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... And that is the gist of it. The people give the government its power. If the government becomes tyrannical, the people have the right to cast it off. This does not mean that the Framers intended us to start a revolution every time we got ticked off. It does not bestow any moral authority on kooks and extremists. In fact, Jefferson and his editors stressed just the opposite: government should not be changed for "light and transient causes." 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. Legally speaking, do you know how much weight the Declaration of Independence carries today? None. Zippo. The Constitution is the sole basis of our government. Yet the Constitution would not have been possible without the Declaration -- it is the "new Guard." An opinion survey this week said 66 percent of us do not believe Americans would be as willing to call for a revolution today as they were 225 years ago. But are we really so puny? We have glorified the Revolution over the past two and a quarter centuries. The truth is it was a controversial and divisive time. A lot of colonists wanted the King to win. They were willing to live under tyranny for a little extra security. Do you think they magically grew a better crop of human beings in the 1700s? Or did Americans of that era rise to the occasion, just as they did in a Civil War, in a terrible Depression, in two 20th-century wars against global evil? In our modern life we are fat and happy and safe and selfish. The question for today is whether in that comfort and selfishness, an essential American idea has been extinguished, or is just sleeping. Poster Comment: 
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#1. To: X-15 (#0)
great post!
The smooth criminal transition from Bush/Cheney to Obama
Just try it. Ten "informants" will snitch on you and the Gestapo will be inside your house in a flash.
I'm actually surprised it's that many. Had a poll been available in 1774, it would be even higher.
Someone here on the forum a few days ago, suggested a poll to see how many FAVOR a revolution. Anyone know how much Drudge charges for a poll???????????
Sheesh, I'm not happy, safe or selfish.
Drudge wouldn't touch that with a 10' pole. He'd rather discuss Michael Jackson's never ending funeral arrangements.
If they had said, ...fat, dumb and unhappy,...I would qualify.
Any other suggestions????? Of course, we could always...do nothing... Thats what got us here. Took a long time, but we has arrived.
I hear O'boingo is planning on putting all of us 4umers on His Miracle Kenyan Diet Plan soon. I think around Fall.
Pray for political leadership, and when it arises, support it. That would mean beating down the socialist slugs who attack them as they express themselves. I can't think of the congresswoman who is telling the census folks to stick it, but those that attack her are our enemy. ID the scum, isolate them and boot them out of any comfort zone they're in
Roots, berries and cheap gin?
No, that would be luxurious. I'm thinking more along the lines of a mouthful of sawdust bread in one of His open-air Freedom & Liberty Camps.
Remember that olde Southern Senator a few years ago with the comment.... "Thars a whol lotta consummin goin out thar"... Also recall the farmer and his odle mule. He figgered the mule was costin him to much in feed. So he cut the mules feed with sawdust, more and more each week. Finally he got the mule on just sawdust, and THEN THE DAMNED MULE UP AND DIED?????? There is moral there somewhere.
Jethro, you know you are long past that solution.
Invest in sawdust futures.
Esso... I had hopes for you not being a gold bug, and now you turn out to be a sawdust bug. Damn.
Under Obama, farmers will get a new tax based on the potential income derived from the mules' labor output. A mule will be determined to have a lifespan of 40 years with year 'round use, so the tax will be pretty steep.
_________________________________________________________________________ Well, they want to lock me up for future crimes..I MIGHT COMMIT... When they can read my mind, I will be in deep trouble.
What nonsense. 200 years ago the general public was intelligent. Now the general public are dummies that want to be slaves as long as the rulers tell they have freedom.
#2. To: X-15 (#0)
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...
#3. To: X-15 (#0)
An opinion survey this week said 66 percent of us do not believe Americans would be as willing to call for a revolution today as they were 225 years ago.
#4. To: Jethro Tull, All (#3)
#5. To: X-15 (#0)
In our modern life we are fat and happy and safe and selfish.
Mike Flaherty: Yeah, it's been there a long time. I wish I knew which corner.
My Man Godfrey (1936)
#6. To: Cynicom (#4)
#7. To: Esso (#5)
#8. To: Jethro Tull (#6)
Drudge wouldn't touch that with a 10' pole.
#9. To: Cynicom (#7)
Mike Flaherty: Yeah, it's been there a long time. I wish I knew which corner.
My Man Godfrey (1936)
#10. To: Cynicom (#8)
Any other suggestions?????
#11. To: Esso (#9)
Miracle Kenyan Diet Plan
#12. To: Jethro Tull (#11)
(Edited)
Mike Flaherty: Yeah, it's been there a long time. I wish I knew which corner.
My Man Godfrey (1936)
#13. To: Esso, Jethro Tull, christine (#9)
I hear O'boingo is planning on putting all of us 4umers on His Miracle Kenyan Diet Plan soon. I think around Fall.
#14. To: Jethro Tull (#10)
Pray for political leadership
#15. To: Cynicom (#13)
There is moral there somewhere.
Mike Flaherty: Yeah, it's been there a long time. I wish I knew which corner.
My Man Godfrey (1936)
#16. To: Esso (#15)
Invest in sawdust futures.
#17. To: Cynicom (#13)
"This man is Jesus,” shouted one man, spilling his Guinness as Barack Obama began his inaugural address. “When will he come to Kenya to save us?”
-Schweizerische Schuetzenzeitung (Swiss Shooting Federation) April, 1941
#18. To: X-15 (#17)
Under Obama, farmers will get a new tax based on the potential income derived from the mules' labor output
#19. To: X-15 (#0)
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