OK, that wasn’t so hard. While I know I started off this blog with a long, Dennis Milleresque type rant, that’s not all I want it to be about. I’d like The Foggy Dew to be funny and entertaining as well as thought provoking.
Don’t know how I’m going to do that yet, but this whole thing is a work in progress. That said, until something better comes along, I’m going to continue my line of thought from yesterday.
I subscribe to no particular political ideology. I’ve been a newspaper reporter, a group of people – with the exception of Fox News and CBN – everyone knows are total left-wing liberals if not, in fact, parlor pinks. But before that I was a member of that most humble brother(and sister)hood, the Marine Corps, and we all know that every member of the military is just a jackboot away from a party meeting with Benito and Adolf.
To quote Ferris Bueller: “A person should not believe in an ism - he should believe in himself. I quote John Lennon: ‘I don't believe in Beatles - I just believe in me.’ A good point there. Of course, he was the Walrus. I could be the Walrus - I'd still have to bum rides off of people.”
(After searching for that quote, I also noticed it’s kinda popular in the ‘sphere. Oh well, good writers borrow, great writers steal outright.)
People are so caught up today in -isms and labels it makes it impossible for you to have an honest disagreement with someone. Labels have made it impossible for politicians to compromise because we live in an age of absolutism (see, another ‘-ism). And, God forbid, you accidently listen to someone and decide, “Hey, maybe they’ve got a good point there,” and change you mind. You’d be kissing off any chance of ever getting elected again.
Looking back over the history of the United States you begin to wonder what happened to all the great leaders. “All we have to fear…” and “We choose to go to the moon…” have been replaced with “I did not have sex with that woman…” and “I’m the decider…”
Where are the men and women today who are willing to risk it all for something they believe in? Are you?
Is anyone today willing to “mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our Sacred Honor.” (Yeah, that pesky document again.)
We often forget, 232 years into our republic, this country — this experiment in democracy — was founded in bloody revolution. The fight then was a long and difficult struggle. A battle to literally rip the 13 colonies away from Great Britain. Like the first settlers to set foot in the undiscovered country of North Carolina and Massachusetts, the founders left everything behind when they revolted against their king.
And, let’s be clear, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Ben Franklin and all the rest were risking their lives and committing treason when they stood up for what they believed in.
For these men there were no retractions on the news and, perhaps, some community service to apologize for offending the George III. If the Revolution failed the 56 names on the Declaration of Independence would have quickly appeared on headstones (if they were lucky) after they swung from the gallows.
For example, from the inspiration of our namesake, check out the section on the signatories.
What’s happened to the legacy of that treason that created this country? Washington, who said, “Our cause is noble, it is the cause of mankind,” would be stunned at how we’ve trashed the dream.
Remember the Keep America Beautiful ads? Just imagine Rembrandt Peale’s portrait of Washington with tears running down his face.
If Washington and the other founders could see the United States today, they’d be searching for a meeting room and, for good measure, having the air conditioning turned off.
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