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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: 2008-07-04 14:34:47 by X-15
Keywords: None
Views: 2963
Comments: 93
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. 
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 7.
#4. To: X-15 (#0)
The last embers died in 1865.
The last embers died in 1865. Sir, I shall consume one, no two, more Grain Belt Premiums before I (maybe) come back and address this post! ;-)
This country has been involved in two major wars in its own interest. The first one, The Revolutionary War, Americans won. The second one, The Civil War, Americans lost. The Civil War was the dying gasp of Americans wanting to be free. Since 1865, Americans have not had the stomach nor the will to defy this government. One foreign war after another has been our fate.
The first one, The Revolutionary War, Americans won. The second one, The Civil War, Americans lost. The Civil War was the dying gasp of Americans wanting to be free. Since 1865, Americans have not had the stomach nor the will to defy this government. One foreign war after another has been our fate. All of that being said, would you not agree with me that there are at least 1,000,000 Americans left willing to wage and win a last minute overthrow of the illegal shadow government. Especially if the majority of military families side with America? ;-)
#8. To: Rotara (#7)
NO.... Something is lacking. There is NO leader, no cohesion, no glue. Ron Paul decided he was not the man.
The other day I saw this black police seargant in a convenience store and struck up a convo with him about driver's license checkpoints in a number of cities, and the constitutionality or lack thereof, of such checkpoints. the convo shifted and i told him about the ABC news report outlining how homeland security admits working with pastors throughout murika to prepare for martial law, and told him about the 400 million dollar contract for halliburton detainment camps. he had not heard of either story but it did not surprise him. he then talked about the phony iraq war, attempted war on iran, and then to my shock he mentioned the 'one world order'/(!!) I then bit the bullet and asked him about 911 being an inside job, and he said, nothing this govt does would suprise him. WOW. he said, yes he's a cop and does his job, but is still a man, and he doesnt approve of the NWO, and he said that the cops know about the NWO. unbelievable. and in the end, i said, well all i can do is thank you for being awake. and i reminded him, that he and his cohorts are going to be told that they are the enforcement arm of the NWO when the time comes. he said he hoped he'd be retired by then. i'm still shocked by this random conversation and what it revealed. i admit i found the conversation hopeful.
I couldn't disagree more. I've been ripping the Bush administration since its early days via letters to the editors of the local fish wrap. I could always count on the same idiot with a poor son fighting for freedom (democracy, baseball, mom, and apple pie) being the the first to ring my phone in his outrage over my treasonous opposition to the Decider.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestDoes the fiery spirit of 1776 still burn?
#5. To: Cynicom (#4)
Does the fiery spirit of 1776 still burn?
#6. To: Rotara (#5)
before I (maybe) come back and address this post! ;-)
#7. To: Cynicom (#6)
This country has been involved in two major wars in its own interest.
Replies to Comment # 7. All of that being said, would you not agree with me that there are at least 1,000,000 Americans left willing to wage and win a last minute overthrow of the illegal shadow government.
#42. To: Rotara, Cynicom, christine, original_intent, twentytwelve, psusa, james deffenbach, jethro_tull, lodwick (#7)
#46. To: Rotara (#7)
All of that being said, would you not agree with me that there are at least 1,000,000 Americans left willing to wage and win a last minute overthrow of the illegal shadow government. Especially if the majority of military families side with America? ;-)
End Trace Mode for Comment # 7.