Tag: Declaration of Independence

A Different Look At The DoI

I waited awhile after the 4th for I did not want this post to crap on the celebrations taking place for our country….some more important than others.

First there was an important clause in the original writing of the DoI….it is called the “Slavery Clause”…….I wrote about the “Clause” several years ago…..https://lobotero.com/2010/02/26/the-slavery-clause-black-history-month/

More on this “Clause”…..

As a tribute to the great events that occurred 241 years ago, I wanted to recognize the importance of the unity of purpose behind supporting liberty in all of its forms. While an unequivocal statement of natural rights and the virtues of liberty, the Declaration of Independence also came close to bringing another vital aspect of liberty to the forefront of public attention. As has been addressed in multiple fascinating podcasts (Joe Janes, Robert Olwell), a censure of slavery and George III’s connection to the slave trade was in the first draft of the Declaration.

The Deleted Clause of the Declaration of Independence

There are some (I admit that I am one as well) that feel that the DoI is not a document that should be revered ……basically because it is a racist, sexist and bigoted document…..it is an important one that should be taught in its entirety.

It is painful to write about the shortcomings of the Declaration of Independence. The historic document was officially approved by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776 — a mere two days after the Lee Resolution formally declared the American colonies to be independent of the British Empire. Because the American colonists ultimately prevailed in their revolution against King George III, the document has been immortalized as one of the opening salvos in the ongoing fight for human freedom that continues to this very day. Without this seminal text, every social justice movement that has followed would never have come to pass.

Yet despite its overwhelmingly positive impact on history, the Declaration of Independence was also a product of its time — and bears some of the shortcomings of its era, including sexism, racism and prejudice against Native Americans. Here is a look at the events leading up to the creation of that document, as well as involved in its actual signing, which one must inspect for a more rounded look at this period in history:

https://www.salon.com/2019/07/04/fourth-of-julys-ugly-truth-exposed-the-declaration-of-independence-is-sexist-racist-and-prejudice/

Again I would like to stress that this is a great nation with great people and that the entire history should be taught not just the glowing items that are cherry picked…..when this is done it becomes revisionist and finally a LIE.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

04 July 2019 #2

Today the US will celebrate the day that they issued their famous Declaration of Independence….especially declaring itself free from the rules and laws of the Mother country Great Britain.

Related image

For those that do not know the words that set history in motion….

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, 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 these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript

Have a great day……and do not drink and drive…..and try not to eat too much.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

Image result for 4th of july images

Please enjoy the president’s speech and military chest thumping that the national parks will suffer for they paid for this ego boosting BS.

I shall spend the day doing what I enjoy the most…..stuff with Sue and my two canine companions, MoMo and Little Man.

Peace Out…my friends.

04 July 2019

This is a post that I never thought I would ever be writing…and yet here it is.

Today we should be celebrating the country not some politician.

The following is an op-ed in the USA Today. Most times I do not agree with this publication but on this subject I am in total agreement.

President Donald Trump’s plan to give an Independence Day televised address from the Lincoln Memorial has outraged manypundits and plenty of normal Americans, too. There has rarely been a shortage of political buncombe on July Fourth but Trump could, as usual, break all records.

For Trump’s extravaganza, the Pentagon is bringing out of mothballs some World War II-era Sherman tanks. Though the gun turrets look impressive, Allied soldiers nicknamed Sherman tanks “Ronsons” because they were death traps that “light first every time” in clashes with better built German tanks. But that painful fact, like many others, will be swept under the rug.

The Washington Post condemned Trump’s “gaudy display of military hardware that is more in keeping with a banana republic than the world’s oldest democracy.” Regrettably, the Post’s indignation over a few tanks does not extend to the fact that American troops are now fighting in 14 foreign nations. But the real problem is not the military relics; it’s exalting government power and politicians on a day meant to celebrate individual liberty. The Fourth of July in Washington has been going downhill ever since 9/11.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/07/03/individual-liberty-not-government-politicians-july-fourth-talker/1637727001/

Try reading some history and you will see that our Founders did not want this type of celebration…..and with that I can help…..

As we approach the 243rd anniversary of the founding of the American Republic, it is worth noting that personal diplomacy, often with unsavory leaders of nations whose values did not align with our own, was instrumental in the founding of this nation and has been paramount in its rise to global power and prestige. It was one thing for Thomas Jefferson to proclaim that “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 . . . a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.” It was quite another thing for that dissolution to be brought about and for that new power structure to be formed.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/07/in-defense-of-diplomacy-with-despots-from-1776-to-today/

Learn Stuff!

But It Is Hate Speech

Closing Thought–06Jul18

A couple of days ago we celebrated our independence day and did you know that is has been tagged as hate speech?

Say HUH?

The Declaration of Independence contains hate speech, according to Facebook’s algorithms. Though the social media site eventually allowed the famed historical document to be shared in full, Texas’ Liberty County Vindicator ran into trouble while posting fragments of the text on its Facebook page ahead of Independence Day. Facebook’s algorithms specifically flagged three words in a line accusing the British monarchy of endeavoring “to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages,” claiming the line violated the site’s standards on hate speech, per the BBC. “Unfortunately, [Thomas] Jefferson, like most British colonists of his day, did not hold an entirely friendly view of Native Americans,” the Vindicator‘s managing editor, Casey Stinnett, commented after the text was removed.

Stinnett wasn’t all that upset, though. “The newspaper has little grounds for complaint other than the silliness of it,” he wrote. Still, Facebook later restored the content and apologized. “We made a mistake and removed something you posted on Facebook that didn’t go against our community standards,” the company told the paper. It’s an admission surely welcomed by Christian Britschgi at Reason, who accused Facebook of “whitewashing America’s founding.” While “clearly racist,” the flagged line of text “serves as another example of the American Revolution’s mixed legacy; one that won crucial liberties for a certain segment of the population, while continuing to deny those same liberties to Native Americans and African slaves,” he writes.

Did you know today in history….1947, the AK-47 went into production…..and has been in constant production since that date…..71 years.

Just a little something to think about on this Friday to start your weekend…..

“Stupid Is As Stupid Does”

There are times when you just shake your head at the amount of stupidity that invades our society…..like on the 4th when NPR Tweeted out the DoI, 140 characters at a time and then the push back from people that did not know it was the DoI……

NPR marked the Fourth of July by tweeting the entire Declaration of Independence, but it seems some Twitter users didn’t recognize what they were reading. The AP reports the broadcaster tweeted out the words of the declaration line-by-line Tuesday. Some of the founders’ criticisms of King George III were met with angry responses from supporters of President Trump, who seemed to believe the tweets were a reference to his presidency. One tweet read, “A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.” Another said: “and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.”

A Twitter user accused NPR of condoning violence while trying to sound patriotic. The user apologized after the misunderstanding was pointed out. Another asked if the tweet was talking about the US’ current foreign agenda, asking if Americans were the tyrants. Others were under the impression NPR was trying to provoke Trump with the tweets and praised the outlet for doing so. Many, recognizing it was the Declaration of Independence, said how history is repeating itself. NPR broadcast its annual reading of the declaration for the 29th straight year on Independence Day. This is the first year the tradition has been extended to Twitter. A spokesperson says the tweets were shared by thousands of people and generated “a lively conversation.”

The Tweets fired at NPR are just amazing……read some of them for yourself…….some of the replies will just amaze you……

Apparently the DoI is no longer required reading in school…..how many of those that attacked consider themselves a “Proud American” and “Patriotic”?
Seriously?

We Are Radicals at Heart — Don’t Forget It!

241 years ago today we declared our independence from the UK……

It started with radicals and we have remained so….some do not believe it and some think that we should crawl into some sort of conserv bubble and let things progress…..for at least 50 years conservs have wanted to legislate and when they get the chance they cannot find their butts with both hands and a flashlight.

Listen closely.

A historian reminds us that to truly “make America great again” we must enhance freedom, equality and democracy, not diminish them.

Listen closely. Listen closely to Thomas Paine’s argument in Common Sense that “[w]e have it in our power to begin the world over again;” to Thomas Jefferson’s phrases in the Declaration: “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;” to the framers’ first three words of the preamble to the Constitution, “We the People.”

Listen well. Listen well to Abraham Lincoln speaking at Gettysburg in 1863: “[T]hat this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth;” to Franklin Roosevelt calling on Americans in 1941 to secure “Freedom of speech and expression… Freedom of worship… Freedom from want… Freedom from fear;” and to Martin Luther King Jr. sermonizing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963: “I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day…”

Source: We Are Radicals at Heart — Don’t Forget It | By Harvey J. Kaye | Common Dreams

A few thoughts on this day of days……

Conservs will not see it this way for they are all “patriots”and “Patriots” are not radicals….see what happens when you ignore history?

Did Someone Drop A Coma?

Today we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776….it is no secret that I do not submit to the evidence that Jefferson wrote the document…..at best he worked from notes but the ideas were NOT his…..if i had to venture a guess I would say the notes were provided by Thomas Paine……

Sorry, I digress…..there seems to be a mistake in the DoI that is just coming to light……

It’s being hailed as “the battle of the period.” Is a small spec of ink that appears on the Declaration of Independence a period or not? In a draft paper that one historian calls “a remarkably convincing piece of detective work,” Danielle Allen argues that the period found after “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” on the National Archives and Records Administration’s official transcript doesn’t appear on the original (which is now faded nearly to the point of illegibility)—or most other copies—and indicates that the list of self-evident truths ends there. That’s a “serious misunderstanding,” Allen tells the New York Times.

“That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” follows the supposed period, leading most Americans to see the essential role of governments in protecting those rights as subordinate—which is not what Thomas Jefferson intended, Allen says. She began her research two years ago, and has a slew of examples in which the period does not appear: in Jefferson’s draft, in a broadside Congress ordered on July 4, or in Congress’ official records, among others; that said, it does appear in other printings, including the 1823 copperplate that the National Archives has relied on. Writes Allen in her paper, “All the historical and textual evidence points in the direction [that it was] a comma.” A rep for the National Archives says it is now considering changes to the Declaration’s online presentation based on Allen’s research.

And now we go have a BBQ…..think it over……..have a day!

Did It Really Take Courage?

College of Political Knowledge

Subject:  Early American History

I enjoy and study the period in early US history, 1750-1820….this was a time when a lot could go wrong in the Colonies….and the merchant class was a ticking bomb waiting for the best time to assert their influence……

Today we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, but it was submitted on the 4th and finally signed on the 6th of July…..my readers are well aware that I do not worship at the alter of Jefferson…actually I firmly believe that he compiled the DoI, especially the thoughts that were offered up by Thomas Paine in “Commonsense”………he spent his time working from notes for the final draft of the DoI…….

Many students and people have commented on the extreme courage it took for the Founders to sign the document….I will agree that it took a degree of courage but it was not a blind courage of the outcome of their action……(This part ought get the fir a flying)…….in my opinion the history of Early America has been romanticized for the sake of patriotism….making more of the Founders than they were……

Do not get me wrong……I admire the men that put their names to the document but they may not be the supermen a lot of people and academics want them to be……I know you want to know just what makes me think this of our Founders, right?

In 1775 the Founders sent the Olive Branch Petition to the king and he went ballistic and called the Colonies as a rebel state…….Lexington Concord showed that the locals could take on the best military in the world and hold their own…..and then Breed’s Hill where the colonials met a large Brit military force and held its own and caused many causalities for the Brits…..the Founders felt that England’s military might not be the cohesive force that they told them they were and there was a possibility that they could fight the Crown to a draw and possible to a loss……at this point in history the English army had fought many wars and won most of them……but in replacing their losses had given them men with little training and not the tradition that we hear so much about…….and armed with this information some of the Founders, the radical ones, thought that the Colonies had a real chance of success.

All history is revisionist…..and since there are NO Founders left for us to interrogate we must depend on their writings, speeches, letters and other memorabilia left behind…..the Founders were men and being men were not infallible….regardless what academics and their works would have you believe…..

Enjoy Your 4th

Today all across the country friends and family will be coming together to celebrate the Declaration of Independence….that is what the MSM will be saying….but in reality it is about a day off, cool beer and food……so enjoy yourselves and try to relax….tomorrow we will be back to the sickness that is our political system…….

I intended to write a post on some historical thingy but figure…..why?  Readership is down this Summer and besides….it is a holiday and who wants to have to think about things seriously?

I sincerely wish everyone a good and relaxing day………..Enjoy your fun, food and family!

2011 Info Ink Book Review #1

From time to time I am given a book that someone wants my opinion on….usually it is politically motivated or historically motivated……and for the Xmas we all celebrate I was given a book entitled “Revolutionaries” by Jack Rakove….about the beginning of this great country and the events that lead to its establishment……

The official title is….”Revolutionaries:  A New History Of The Invention Of America” by Jack Rakove,  a Pulitzer prize winner…..

We all know the general story of the founding of the country….the Tea Party, Paul’s ride, Concorde, Trenton Valley Forge…on and on…..through the Constitutional battles fought…to the swearing in of our first president……this is all generic and easily taught and more easily understood….but Mr, Rakove goes much further….like any political story or history, if you will, there are always back stories that seldom get talked about….this is where “Revolutionaries” begins….

He takes the reader from the Tea Party (the physical protest, not the political movement) to the ratification of the newly penned Constitution…all the battles fought in the political arena to find and then implement the “perfect” republic.

We all know the generic history of the founding of the United States of America, but Mr. Rakove takes the reader to the back stories of the founding from the firebrand Sam Adams to the snooze fest that was Washington (the man not the city), the intelligence of John Adams and Madison and all the in-betweens, the moderates, if you will.

All in all “Revolutionaries” is an excellent look at the early days of the revolution and the country……an excellent characterization of the players in the founding of the country…the inter-actions, the arguments, the radicals, the moderates and the wimpy…..

I recommend this book to anyone that has a deep desire to learn about the founding of the country, beyone the generic…..well done Mr. Rakove…..