On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress passed a “Resolution for Independence” declaring “That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.”
…. Some [dictator] may hereafter arise, who laying hold of popular disquietudes, may collect together the desperate and the discontented, and by assuming to themselves the powers of government, may sweep away the liberties of the continent like a deluge.”
Sounds like Paine envisioned TFG; talk about prescience!
Rise up Ye all to save Our Nation by voting in Great and Lawful Numbers of Free Women and Men bound in togetherness so that this Nation Shall Persevere and shall Go Forth in salutation to preserve Reproductive Health, Rules for Sound Musket safety, Preservation of Climate Cleanliness and Gayety-- so help us all as Hebrews, Catholics and Others!
Thank you sincerely! We have to respond to the attack on OUR democracy by voting to preserve it! Please go to the website of brilliant and effective Harvard students who are, and will be, engaged in nonpartisan voter registration and turnout all the way to November 2024 and please give them your helping hand to support their good work at www.turnup.us/ Thank you
Thank you. I would suggest that you figure out to whom you are sending the postcards and wait until it is closer to the election as it would seem to me that it is much too early now UNLESS you really know these folks and you are trying to get them to contribute $$$ to your favorite candidate?
American should be greatly indebted to Thomas Paine, an English immigrant for its role in inducing common sense and fighting against the excesses of the British. During the Revolution and Confederation periods, Thomas Paine was widely regarded as the founder of America.
Yet, today, he isn't recognized or given much appreciation as among the founding fathers of America.
He was a lobbyist, craftsman, political scientist, visionary, and a political philosopher. He dedicated his personal work to founding America and suggested practical ideas.
Thomas Paine fought against East Indian Company which was economically powerful.
Remember, that this was the force behind the British control of American colonies.
Established in 1600, I had read that the East Indian Company was a private entity whose main aim was to formed and spread the presence of British in the modern-day Africa which was a part of the Indian Spice Trade. Remember that Portugal and Spain had monopolised that trade in that region, and thus, it wanted to counter its presence.
The East Indian Company sourced its slave labor from the West and East Africa and hold them in Indonesia, India, and Atlantic Ocean's Island of St. Hellena. Its slave labor was highly skilled so as to manage its territories well.
You should also know that the East Indian Company had its own army in 1800s, estimated to be more than that of Britain which was merely 95000. I can likened this Company to the present Russian PMCs which are politically and economically empowered to "colonize" some war-torn countries.
To buy tea from India and take them to America, it sold opium to China, although the opposition vehemently opposed that move. It as well source revenues from land tax to finance its colonialism in America.
Thank you for this post. Most Americans have no idea what you are referring to. Our rebellion was more than political principles. It was about getting out from under the abusive capitalism of the time. We don't bow to kings now. But we still bow to big business.
East India Company sounds a lot like the lightly regulated, protected and subsidized Amazons and Exxons of today. I am searching for the word...AHA! It's oligarchs. And some of them are searching for a king to be their instrument of further subjugation.
The day this nation frees itself from the dominance and cruelty of huge businesses is the day we will fulfill the dreams of Paine and Company.
Musk, Bezos, Walton, Koch, Murdoch, Leo, Thomas and Alito and more - these are the "Lords" who still trickle down on today's peasants.
Nicely put and an excellent observation, Bill. I am old enough to remember when there were small businesses and local department stores downtown. We had a wonderful small grocery with an excellent meat counter in our neighborhood within walking distance. I see lots of people lamenting the loss of these things while they buy from Amazon, Dollar Store, etc.. and before that Walmart. We do our level best to give our money to locals although there are a few, mostly restaurants on our black list because they have made their support for the regressive party of death obvious. As for the 4th, it is a holiday which I have begun to despise because it has become an excuse to ignore pleas about fireworks and make it sound like WWIII. Had the dog in his thunder jacket and also had to give him half a sedative.
Let's not forget the (mis)adventures of Standard Oil, United Fruit Company, et al in Mexico and Latin America. In his book "War Is a Racket", decorated Marine Smedley Butler characterized himself as muscle for them, saying "In short I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism." The rot goes deep, sigh.
I'm glad you brought up Smedley Butler. Every American should be taught the story of General Smedley Butler. A courageous and devoted hero and patriot who committed himself in service to the U.S. Not only did he receive the ultimate recognition for a soldier's bravery and sacrifice--the Medal of Honor-- but he actually was a two-time recipient of the MoH, and he survived the related combat experiences. After service, he could have rested on his many well-deserved laurels; gone on the appearances and talk circuits; and become a multi-millionaire; but, instead, he remained committed to his principles of service to his country and its citizens. He went on to tell the American people about the financial corporations who were responsible for U.S. invasions in multiple countries, especially in Central America, in his 1933 book "War is a Racket."
In his declarations about war, General Butler wrote, "I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested."
General Butler shared his own military pension with the widows and orphans of fellow Marines who were killed or disabled in service. And his good deeds to people and our nation just go on and on.
Why can't we find an American with his level of character, ability, and devotion to service to be President of the U.S.? In our heart of hearts, we know why: because our nation is controlled by corporate interests. Instead of Smedley Butler, we've ended up with Jeffrey Epstein and all the weak politicians and celebrities who enjoyed their free access to underage girls through Epstein. Woe is us until we're brave enough to stop the corruption.
Bezos is not the worst of the lot, for sure. But J. Horowitz's comment sums it up well. Jeff's former wife sets a better example of billionaire behavior.
Maybe not bad, but at least tone deaf. His $500M yacht and space tourism, as well as Amazon's treatment of workers, are evidence. These people never have enough.
Don’t we teach Thomas Paine any more? I know we seem at best vague on the Enlightenment (it’s not about religion; God was just keeping the planets spinning; the French Revolution was the result of Paine and the Encyclopedists and learning Asian and African cultures, all the result of Renaissance thinkers like Galileo). But Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, etc., knew a thing or two. Those nasty men read books and figured some things out about how to make real what they liked about what they had read.
(Here Professor Richardson may want to polish my thinking, but after a year of history and literature of 18th century France, plus a wonderful biography of Lafayette (who knew that George Washington thought of him as a son? that Monroe visited him in the dungeon where the Prussians put him as he had to flee after 1789?), must get the French in here on a day when they are having riots and fires. We need to congratulate them and thank them on 14 July.)
Remember thinkers and social change agents are often ignored, mistreated, and underappreciated. Those who take credit are what the society don't deserve.
Thank you for this link. I went there and found this: "Our research has shown that good K-12 civic education must give students a comprehensive working knowledge of our systems of government, a commitment to service, awareness of various ways in which citizens participate in civic life, and skills to think critically and take informed action about matters that are important in our communities and society." To think critically. That's one of the critical parts. What I've found is that many are affected with confirmation bias and can't get beyond the lie that "the election was stolen." "Beliefs based on feelings are immune to facts." - John Stuart Mill "The Subjection of Women," 1869,
...which is why I am so glad to long retired as a school librarian and teacher. Frankly, I am surprised that anyone wants to do either in the current environment.
Immune to facts is what is expressed on the fb pages of Rosendale & Daines in MT. Rosendale went so far as to thank "President T" for the Coursts rulings. Challenged with chapter & verse directly from Extreme Court writings replies were' you didn't read it" posting about the small paragraph exempting Military academies from factoring in race. Replies such as "there is no racial disparity in this Country, all my black friends say so." Support JOn Tester running for democracy
Yes! And the teaching of Civics requires an imaginative and creative instructor who can instill in their students the desire to treat and learn the subject matter more than a required course…from K-12 for only those who have learned and appreciated the necessity of an honest government by and for the people can future generations prosper with the guidance of honest officials rather than those who seek elected office only to further their financial standing and solidify their lust for power no matter the cost to “we the people”.
I feel grateful to have been born and educated through public schools in Southern California. We were taught the truth about Thomas Paine, Slavery, the Civil War... All of it, in elementary school!
As a retired teacher, I still remember, and deeply admire, the teachers who could pose the hard questions that made young minds reflect and dig deeper, often against their own strong inclinations to stay in the moment and just "have fun". I, too, can not imagine them sacrificing economic opportunity just to stay in work environments, today, where support and appreciation for what they do so skillfully, is not only lacking, but remains downright threatening to honest intellectual inquiry and thought. DeSnts has crowned himself king of education, of history, of law, of the spoken and written word. Others are following suit. The problem has metastasized. It sure seems that we need a 21st C Rebellion. I regret that this is beyond my own boomer imagination. I do remain absolutely convinced that the Republican Party and SCOTUS remain dangerously complicit accessories to the assault on precious democratic norms.
Now we need to spread that from MA to the other states. Had 3 recent Tufts grads in my backyard pool yesterday. Two work in DC, one on The Hill (for D Senator Cantwell), the other on immigration. The 3rd is in Tufts Medical School.
His founding spirit was ignited by his desire to experiment by virtue of being a scientist. Thomas Paine, a part from being a inventor and patenter of the iron bridge, took his experimental sense of urge and curiosity to the realm of politics. He borrowed from his knowledge of quantitative measures to solve the mystery surrounding economy, welfare, and finance. While in legislative voting Thamas Paine applied the elementary theory of game, he "prophesised" the now widespread use of public opinion sampling. He as well expounded how demographics often influence election and representation.
True. Although I was speaking of people who solve practical, physical problems as a regular part of their work - field scientists, mechanics, hardware engineers. Intellectual problems - which were my own field as a software engineer - are not the same thing.
They can as well lend their background knowledge with regard to methods, processes-tested and proven strategies. Thanks for your time and I welcome you to subscribe to my newsletter.
While that is all true, and also true that Paine's lack of recognition is somewhat a result of his perpetual financial destitution, it is also true that he was super-radical, and in the long run not so "sensible," as the popular excerpts of his tract. McCullough's John Adams bio and others describe in detail that Paine was an ultra-eloquent, super-radical version of a Sam Adams or Lech Wałęsa: in case of revolution, break glass...but not before or after.
"The people of America understand their rights better than their politics. They have a clear idea of their object, but are greatly deficient in comprehending the means." This was his political thought, but evidence suggest that he was sometimes a complete opposite of what he represented and that it was him who didn't understood politics nor the means. During his old age, he had already beem disowned by some fellow Americans and that when he died, there were no mourners in his funeral with the exception of two blacks, an American Quacker, and a French woman alongside his 2 sons.
They both were radicals, Adams with action and Paine with words. Without Paine's writings, one wonders what would have happened. Would the colonists have been moved to make the great leap to independence?
And, my understanding is that Paine only had an 8th grade education, just like D.C. Stephenson who led the Indiana Ku Klux Klan in the 1920's. What a contrast between the two. It could be that the absence of television was a blessing in disguise. My understanding is that today's children's brains are now wired differently from ours owing to their familiarity with electronics. But, as is well documented in Egan's "A Fever in the Heartland," some things haven't changed. Bigots then, bigots now.
Paine was more radical. Adams at least served in the CC and was a leader. Paine was one-man army, a firebrand and his politics, on-the-whole, were not practical; his personal life an utter disaster. He was highly-skilled and useful in exactly the role he performed; not much beyond that.
Nice piece of history! Economic enterprises were generally used to expand political / economic power. French, Dutch, Italians, Spanish, Portuguese etc. Economic and political power were hugely intertwined. USA minor example. Banana republics. The biggest thing which came out of the American and French revolutions were new and amplified statements of high-minded principles which... in due course... undermined their own internal injustices. Civil Rights in the USA one good example. Political and economic rights for women. Then of course, there's "sex", work in progress. And check the history of divorce rates. Who could get educated. World on the move!
The Spaniards and Portuguese opened America to the rest of the world and began to open up their minds about the rights-politically, economically, social welfare, and so on.
I never would have thought that about the Spanish and Portuguese conquests and colonisations on the Americas and Asia trade empires. Thanks to disease, near-genocides in the Americas.
Disease helped, but before disease there were already problems, including massacres. The newcomers from Europe already felt entitled and took what they wanted. Where a civilized people might have helped their neighbors dealing with rampant disease, these people chose to look on it as god's way of making the land available for their taking.
In my high school, (and for me, later in college), we studied the kind of history that Edwin Kiptoo Ngetich has brought our attention to: the linkage between the various trade ambitions of the European nations. I learned from my family and the people I grew up with what it means to be indigenous on this continent.
Not all of the Europeans were colonizers in the way that the English were: most simply wanted to control and enrich themselves on the resources and produce of the places they found, establishing the kind of trade connections Edwin mentioned. Never mind the needs and lives of the people and cultures they encountered.
The English were different, and sought to recreate the English aristocratic hierarchy on lands they assumed a right to. Our story is incomplete without the recognition of the role America played in international trade, and without acknowledging the immense debt this country still owes to the people they eagerly displaced.
I'll say the same thing here that I did above under Frank's pose: If you haven't already, get the book "1491" by Charles C. Mann. It is a real eye-opener.
I don't think that about the Portuguese or the Spanish, both of whom did nothing to open minds. They were after extraction and trade just like everyone else often using slave labor. However, it wasn't just Europeans engaging in a large slave trade. The Ottomans did as well, mainly from eastern Europe and east Africa. The key difference between the two was race.
I have a real problem viewing the presence of Europeans in the Americas as a blessing in disguise. Harassing the indigenous community is making it sound like practically nothing except that it was often genocide and absolutely stolen land.
That 18th century readers were literate and intelligent enough to understand and be moved by this still powerful political tract is a sobering thought. Could the same be said of readers in the 21st century America?
What I find absolutely amazing about Thomas Paine is the limited amount of formal education that he had. The same is true for D.C. Stephenson, the man who led the Ku Klux Klan expand into the Midwest in the 1920's. If you haven't read it yet, Timothy Egan's book "A Fever in the Heartland" is simply an absolute must-read. My takeaway? MAGA is the grandchild of KKK. Same genetic makeup.
I just started reading "A Fever in the Heartland," after someone here recommended it. Must have been you, Richard! This morning I had to read a few sentences aloud to my husband; the narrative was about Stephenson, but it could just as easily been about tfg.
Ellen, "Fever" is an amazing book. There are parts where I am certain you will come to tears. There is nothing original in TFG. He is simply D.C. Stephenson redux. DeSantis, though, has taken it a step further. Stephenson said: "I did not sell the Klan in Indiana on hatreds. I sold it on Americanism." That is, Anglo-Saxon Protestantism. Racist and theocratic to the core, just like now, except that some Catholics have joined "the cause."
Thank for outlining for us the work of the infamous East Indian Company. I read recently a history of British Empire and its violence. Just finished a book on the plague which has loads of info on economic activity of several countries, empires, cities, and trading companies including slaving, tea, and opium.
I have seen the name of the book. I think I will read 📚 it. Thanks for the information. You may as well if possible subscribe to my newsletter and engage with my private community.
The World the Plague Made. It's a bit of a slog but is full of interesting information. Now I am reading one called Pathogenesis; A History of the World in Eight Plagues. It is not a slog and mentions a lot of the books I have already read. Lots of emphasis on the findings of ancient DNA.
They mostly hold them because East Indian Company was involved in commercial undertakings in the American soil. So, slaves were a source of labor for them to conquer both politically and economically America.
Thomas Paine's economic philosophy is fascinating. During the Evolutionary period, while in England he was considered as a failure, in America he rose to eternal stardom thanks to his lofty ideals of advocating for the security of natural rights and properties. He became a prominent pamphleteer, but at the same time, he sought wealth, with a belief that a successful business is a sign of God's blessings. Paine argued that, amid the American Revolution, that independence is a culmination of common sense, natural rights, and interests. He boldly said that men are a part of the society so as to help in meeting the needs of others. Interestingly, for him, a government is created out of a man's wickedness. It a bad omen for the corruption or a fall of a man. Inequality is a systemic endemic arising from the men's surrender of their properties to safeguard the interests of the others.
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Spot on, Mary! I imagine heads across the USA (and farther afield) snapping up as they read this quote….that’s EXACTLY what came to my mind in the moment. What is also scary to me is that there are so many parroting TFG’s stated goals—-thinking of you, Ron DeSantis (and others, sadly, too numerous to list). Just a reminder, all these many years later, that we ALL need to keep paying attention, no matter how much you’d prefer just to coast along instead (I get it, I really do, but no coasting please!).
Mike, I feel a little guilt along with a great big sense of gratitude that I'm living in a country that makes it possible for me, a retiree, to never really need to worry about healthcare. My son-in-law in Austin, TX, got saddled with a $50K bill from the anestheologist, who happened not to be in his health care plan, when my young grandson had an emergency apendectomy. I had an emergency surgery last year for a left frontal lobe brain bleed and the only thing I had to pay for was five days of the crappy hospital food: 80,€.
Wow... Sure, I heard the stories, but I never really thought they were true. In that respect, I am also really glad to live in Europe. I was left with the same bill as you after two weeks in the hospital with meningitis. And yes, the hospital food in Germany is kinda crappy ;) But seriously: such a situation as your son-in-law's is outrageous. Basically, he's left with the choice to either go into financial ruin, or let his child die. But no, say the Republicans, we cannot have universal health care, because that, of course, is "socialism"...
From the portions of Paine's writing I've read, TFG is the type of person our founding fathers were most concerned about: a person as crooked as they are charismatic. I've been a public educator for over three decades and we have not helped enough students read and understand at a level commensurate with Paine's writings. (It's not all on the teachers; unchecked capitalism and society and neighborhoods and families own plenty of culpability too).
The end result is an electorate that is too easily duped, bamboozled, and hornswoggled. "Religious Liberty" --for one- has morphed for many into religious zealotry turning separation of church and state into an amalgamation of White Christian church and state.
James, I get into this argument with my ChristoFascist friends all the time. They can never answer why their religion is more important than mine in a manner that is at all reasoned.
The trouble is, that a key element in post-Jesus Christianity has always been spreading the religion as far as possible by any means available. I mean no disrespect to actual followers of Jesus, who emphasized kindness to everyone.
Unfortunately, they are in a cult of magical thinking; therefore, reason is dismissed in the same way sports team fanatics root for their team while denigrating their opponents.
Biologically, when they defend their religion against any direct attack, they get a cortisol shot from their amygdala as if they were protecting their child from a bear. Instead, perhaps, ask them why our founding fathers--in their grace and equity-ineptitude--wanted a separation of church and state.
It's astonishing how many have been and still are so vulnerable to Trump. For the rest of us he's an obvious danger, a poison. The problem is in the people because there is bound to be more "Trumps", conmen taking advantage. We see that now. Trump is showing how much vulnerability there is out here. But the question is what to do about this.. how to overcome it. The power hungry, money hungry elites have combined with the angry resentful easily duped common folks..that are it seems mostly white Christian nationalists. We have arrived at an advanced state of this after looking the other way.
I've said this before: when the Nazis took over the churches (all but a very few), they became the Christian Nationalist Church. The church secretaries looked through the membership records to cull out the "Baptized" who had converted to Christianity and helped send them to the death camps. The church I belong to was the only opposition church in the entire area. One of the Bergkirche church council members, an attorney, worked tirelessly to save the lives of their neighbors. Hans Buttersack died in Dachau, leaving behind six children. It takes courage and conviction to care that much for one's fellow human being. Every time I walk into the community room, dedicated to him, I thank him. Look him up if you're interested in what some brave everyday people not so long ago did to make a dent in the horror of complicity in the Christian National Church -
To me that's materialism as a form of self-identity, which--IMHO--has a basis in the palpable; whereas, religious extremists are enmeshed in magical thinking. They are mere minions in a cult. That said, enough minions on the same page can be a dangerously powerful miasma capable of much disruption.
The cars ( and such) don't do it. It takes awhile to realize that, but some never do. Maybe it's fear of death. Some never grow up, never mature, wanting to be parented, to be taken care of. But heavens, not by the government-which has become "the other"- not us. That feeling if it spreads is fatal ( for us all): the government is the enemy. Thus authoritarian leaders rise. In Russia the religious leader is in cahoots with the authoritarian leaders (Putin & co.). Here at least half of us would not buy this ( thankfully)-- but half of us (or less?) would.
Religion has failed us, not that it does not have good aspects, but it's been corrupted. Where are the religious here leaders now? What side are they on? People go to religion because they cannot face reality, not knowing, and religion gives a sureness, a knowing of sorts while taking the real freedom away- of really knowing that we do not know and should deal ( accept) with the ultimate mystery, and concentrate on community here and now.
I retired from teaching 21 years ago, and Paine’s words were included in the American literature anthology I used. We discussed in class the power of his words and their historical significance. I admit now, it was history to me. Never did I think we would be in the situation his words so clearly present. Reading all of this group’s collective wisdom, I say it’s time to do as that brave man on the doomed plane on 9/11 said: “Let’s roll!”
“A government of our own is our natural right: And when a man seriously reflects on the precariousness of human affairs, he will become convinced, that it is infinitely wiser and safer, to form a constitution of our own in a cool deliberate manner, while we have it in our power, than to trust such an interesting event to time and chance."
Also “We have it in our power,” Paine wrote, “to begin the world over again.”
Not that we are not limited and defined by history and physical circumstances, but WE get to explore and create a new relationship to those circumstances, to define in aggregate what the rules of our society should best be, and to attempt to make our system work. Many seem to believe that all the important questions are already settled, and while we build upon our legacy, we, the living, get to decide, for better or worse, what is right for us. That seems to me to be the most precious part of the American Experiment.
The Extreme Court is a prime example of the claim that all the important questions are already answered and that we shouldn't tinker ourselves. It's rubbish of course, a smokescreen put up by those heavily invested in less egalitarian ways of doing things. Methinks today's "Conservatives" would find very nasty things to say about Tom Paine's thinking, were they to encounter it unattributed.
The Extreme Court, aka SCROTUS (R for Republican, as someone said in Robert Hubbell's comments over the weekend), is attempting its own coup. We still have an opportunity to overcome it with enough voters and also enough noise, but mostly enough voters. Work, friends, the time is NOW.
We have seen the Trump-MAGA script many times before played by a variety of different actors. It never ends well until it ends. Which is like saying, it's a great relief when appendicitis in over.
I had this same similar thought. The current iteration of the Republican Party and six Supreme Court Justices who are tools of the party. They are the dictator.
My thoughts exactly, Mary. Today's Letters from and American reminds me yet again how important our historians are. They remind us on what principles we stand and where those came from. Constitutional law -- this is where it came from and why it matters.
The link supplied by Richard Sutherland leads to a brief history of Thomas Paine. I'm dismayed, (but not surprised), that the demise of Thomas Paine most likely came down by the hands of the original American Christian Nationalist. As scary as it was and still is, some things never change unless we somehow find a way to change the hearts and minds of those around us who are stuck in their ignorance. Education is indeed the cure. Right now, we are still in the throws of the longest war ever waged when it comes to retaining our Democracy. Books are being banned. The teaching of critical thinking is being quashed. Human rights are being taken away. Votes are being bought and stolen. Big business is making itself the ruling class... and much much more of this kind of thing is happening right before our very eyes! We The People Need to Not Only VOTE, but Lobby Aggressively FOR DEMOCRACY!!!
People like Trump are a through-line in human history. The freedom to make your own life is terrifying to some, and the need to help those who fail in the attempt is divisive. The combination of those who want to be told what to do, those who have failed, and those who do not want to help others creates a powerful coalition with the common desire for a savior to solve their problems. There will always be opportunists who come along who offer simplistic solutions that satisfy the basic desire of all these people: a trouble-free life for me, and to hell with thee.
Or, "I alone can fix it". or, "I am your vengeance". Or, I am the only candidate who recognizes the forgotten. All of Trump's campaign lines are naked appeals to these people. He wasn't the first, and he won't be the last.
Payne was vociferously radical, almost too so, happy only with those who agreed with him, nearly got himself executed in the French Revolution. He was also what we might otherwise call "a difficult personality"... just the same, or because, hugely inspirational and influential.
Frank, out of principle, he refused to vote for hanging the king, which put his own life in danger. Had he stayed in America, I suspect there might be more awareness of his influence. But his contemporaries begrudged his leaving- to join France in her rebellion- and deliberately excluded him from the canon because of it.
BTW... Thomas Jefferson was also considered a difficult personality by many who knew him. Plus there's the conundrum that he was a slave owner who, in his writings, hoped for the end of slavery, but in his lifetime and in death released only one slave, an elderly man (historians speculate on why that particular man- it is a mystery). He never freed his own children by Sally Hemings, who were slaves by law, and not acknowledged by him, though they held privileged positions on his plantation.
His sons by Sally eventually simply left, riding away without papers. After at least 3 generations of genetic input from white slaveholders, they looked white (people gossiped about how much like Jefferson they looked) and simply passed into freedom. Yet we still honor Jefferson (well, HCR and I don't, but you get the drift). He wrote a good line, but lived a less than honorable life.
No problem, i think it was also a matter of alliances in the French assembly. This was the opening stages of "the revolution eating its own children" as radical views opened up eventually into a lethal chasm - it didnt help for Louis to have attempted to flee the country and join a counter revolution, he left behind documents making it pretty clear what his intentions were. I thought to indicate "difficult" people do play critical roles in change, maybe not enough. Thanks for the additional history!
I learned something of the French revolution, but have tended to avoid it ever since. I agree with your assessment: "...the opening stages of "the revolution eating its own children" as radical views opened up eventually into a lethal chasm..." (This is one reason I cringe when I see people wanting to meet violence with violence without a clear sense of what the consequences would be. We can't be effective against something unless we have a clear idea of how to replace it with something that works better, or makes the existing way of doing things work better.
I do think you have a point that those individuals who play critical roles in change are often difficult people in one way or another. We don't get perfect, and these people are the ones who put all of themselves into what they are doing. That often leaves their shortcomings exposed. If we're smart, we recognize when that's ok, and when it is not. Generally there is some of each.
This, like many things is a continuum. I honestly do not get why people criticize Biden for his speaking style because it is not "dynamic" enough for them. Personally I think the way he is what we need. Trump was "dynamic" and look where that went.
Mary, when I came upon these words, II felt a chill flow through my veins. I read them again and again and now feel a stinging in my eyes. It is terrifying; this is Us against Us.
" . . . some [dictator] may hereafter arise, who laying hold of popular disquietudes, may collect together the desperate and the discontented, and by assuming to themselves the powers of government, may sweep away the liberties of the continent like a deluge.” A prescient warning about today's Supreme Court and its controller.
Yes, that sentence -- how startling to read. I was interested in “dictator” being bracketed in HCR’s post (typically an edit that aims to add clarity and/or avoid extraneous info), and I wondered what word Paine had used. Here’s Paine’s phrase I’m finding online: “If we omit it now, some Massanello may hereafter arise...” And the explanation of “Massanello”: Thomas Angelo, aka Massanello and also spelled Masaniello, was a fisherman in Naples who in 1647, after “spiriting up [about 1,000] of his countrymen in the public market place against the oppression of the Spaniards, to whom the place was then subject, prompted them to revolt and, in the space of a day, became king.” Hark the sound of history rhyming.
This quote: "Paine rejected the idea that any man could be born to rule others, and he ridiculed the idea that an island should try to govern a continent. 'Where…is the King of America?'" made me wonder if we ditched the king but canonized a wealthy ruling class as indispensable.
Ed Nuhfer: Sorry that my single word post, ". . . if . . .", was not clear. In my view, the American economic oligarchy that "replaced" the king has been a definite reality since the founding of the country. Until recently, its leaders have been able to disguise their oligarchy as "democracy."
Democracy has seemed to play cat and mouse with plutocracy and authoritarianism in this country, with both ebbing and flowing. The working class seemed to enjoy noticeably more celebration in my mid-20th Century youth than today, and the ultra-rich less popular and dominant. The middle class was expanding in numbers and influence.
Minorities and women were more openly oppressed, but that was improving, and in some ways, improves to this day; despite more vociferous recent opposition.
I recall that Carter also spoke of "plutocracy", all of which is true. Carter was an earnest and intelligent president, but not so skilled as a TV game-show host. I doubt that Lincoln would have made it far in our entertainment media dominated society.
Ed, you would then forget men such as Lincoln and Garfield who rose to leadership through character and "calling"....without being wealthy but enduring great hardships. Both chose to educate themselves, encouraged by their mothers when they were young.
Both were shot during their presidences. by men with mental struggles...with Garfield enduring a long death period at the hand of a terrible physician.
Hardly. A wealthy class does not have to function as an indispensable ruling class. TR and FDR are shining examples of that fact. However, the perpetuation of ruling class family lineage in our U.S. Senate compares with that of the English House of Lords, the latter created without pretense of anything other than to perpetuate a ruling class. Here, the research shows that the two parties perpetuate it. https://act.represent.us/sign/problempoll-fba.
Perhaps the research on actual representation compared with the claims of representation is more revealing than allusions to a few presidents.
How many children today know about these few existentially important days in our history? How many would recognize the name Thomas Paine or the title of his pamphlet? Is Paine's Common Sense taught anywhere these days? It's an interesting title. Do we still share in common as a people an understanding of what is real, what is true, what is sensible? If we have lost that shared sense, what can we do to recover it?
Betsy Smith: Sadly, it's not just children who don't know about our history. And no, we don't " . . . share a common understanding of what is real, what is true, what is sensible." In terms of recovering it, did it ever really exist?
Maybe the lesson is that there are flawed people who nonetheless have ideas worth considering from time to time. The message is the message, the person is not the message?
I was taught a very sanitized version of American History in the school system I attended. I had a voracious interest in history (fed by my Dad, who was an amateur historian) and I knew more about both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War than most of my classmates. "Common Sense" as written by Thomas Paine was extra credit reading at some point, but not part of the general curriculum.
We don’t even have a shared sense that, even in our diversity, we have shared desires for equality, justice, and the pursuit of happiness. We won’t get anywhere if we do not accept that, first and foremost, we share the same human condition.
I do not include, for the most part, the 1% who live in a reality that most of us cannot comprehend.
I retired from teaching 21 years ago, and Thomas Paine’s words were in the American literature anthology I used. I taught and discussed his powerful words, but I never thought I’d be living them! This morning’s quotation used by Heather just leaps off my iPad. So many of the words of you here add power. Thinking of 9/11, “Let’s roll!”
“We have it in our power,” Paine wrote, “to begin the world over again.”
And now it is in our collective power to remake America to meet the goals of the Declaration of Independence. This includes retaking rights torn away and those not yet fully gained.
The Rule of Law is the basis of our nation's character, it is the fount from which all else ensues. We are now embroiled in a new test of this basic concept due to some "men" challenging the validity of our laws, and holding a deep interest of making themselves, and others of their ilk, into the "Nobles" of yesteryears long passed. It is up to those of us still holding strong faith in the rule of law to insure it remains the law of our land. Today is our Lexington and Concord, our time to reaffirm that The Law rules over men. What we do now will mark the future of our democracy.
Sadly, there is no collective "we" to accomplish this crucial task. To our detriment, and possible destruction, "laws," just like "facts" are subject to a wide range of interpretations.
True, but perhaps there are ways to improve and deepen the national conversation. As humans we are linked by share needs and complimentary differences; our diverse interests, observations, and occupations. I am certain we can do a better job of reconciling diverse agendas and promoting good faith negotiation.
The Law, as understood by educated Englishmen, was rooted in the Law of Nature, as discussed in Christopher St. Germain's well-known legal classic "Doctor and Student":
Thomas Paine "newly arrived immigrant"...what a great reminder of how immigrants have led the way! And still they will put our yearnings into words if we just relax and accept their presence!
Annie, your comment is so true and so saddens me...We are the home of the "free" (of conscience) and land of the "brave" (the ones who have survived and thrived in spite of us).
Well, as a person of faith, I have to say, we have been given so much.....in what ways have we shown our thankfulness....NOT AS WE SHOULD towards our fellow humans!!!
Tell me.....who does it harm to help and encourage our fellow Americans to receive financial help to acquire an excellent education? REALLY!? They will be returning the investment through their employment, purchasing homes and cars, paying taxes....etc. What is wrong with that? Republicans, Democrats, Independents....all.....would be helped and encouraged.
Thank you, Emily. As long as there are people like you in the world, there is hope. I think the day will come when our culture will truly begin the return to living with the earth and each other in sustainable ways. Perhaps it already has, but we are in that position that feels endless, and can't see it yet. Or maybe we can, but aren't yet sure that is what it is. I hope to live long enough to see that happen. (I promised my dog when I got her that I would do my best to outlive her. I think I can do that. Beyond that, well, that's why I am so optimistic about all the young people who are already taking on the next steps.
“We have it in our power,” Paine wrote, “to begin the world over again.” Is this what we need to do? I'm frightened of it because we are relatively secure at the moment But the greedy sociopaths have risen to the top, again.
I have learned these events before, but I need reminding. The narrative put forth in this post is so clear, it’s almost as if I’m learning it again for the first time, if that makes any sense.
In addition to looking back at our history for all it may tell us about our current troubles, this is also an ideal time to think about how America's children are doing. It's a big subject; how is Climate Change Affecting our Children and what about their mental health and gun violence. GUN VIOLENCE! Let's take a few minutes to read a bit about 'Childhood’s Greatest Danger: The Data on Kids and Gun Violence' that appeared in December, 2022 on the front page of The New York Times.
'Gun violence recently surpassed car accidents as the leading cause of death for American children.'
'The gun-death rate for children is nearly five in every 100,000. It was flat for more than a decade starting in 2000, and most years fewer than three in every 100,000 children were killed by guns. In 2014, the rate began to creep up, and by 2020 guns became the leading killer.'
'Last year was a particularly violent one: 3,597 children died by gunfire, according to provisional statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The death rate from guns was the highest it has been in more than 20 years. While the statistics for this year are incomplete, it is clear that the carnage has not receded.'
'No group of American children has been spared, but some have fared far worse. Last year, nearly two-thirds of gun deaths involving children — 2,279 — were homicides. Since 2018, they have increased by more than 73 percent. Most homicides involved Black children, who make up a small share of all children but shoulder the burden of gun violence more than any others, a disparity that is growing sharply.'
'The number of children who die by suicide with a gun has also risen to a historical high over the last decade. Last year, suicides made up nearly 30 percent of child gun deaths — 1,078. Unlike homicides, suicides disproportionately involve white children, mostly teenage boys. A decade ago, the number of white children who killed themselves with a gun totaled around 500 annually; in three of the last five years, that figure has surpassed 700.'
'The share of gun suicides for Black and Hispanic children has been growing, too. Still, in America, among children who die by gunfire, Black and Hispanic children are more likely to be killed by others, and white children are more likely to kill themselves.'
'Researchers who study gun violence say that it is difficult to explain exactly why gun deaths among children have risen so quickly, but most emphasize that the increased availability of guns — especially handguns, which tend to be used in homicides and suicides and also tend to be stored less safely than some other types of guns — has most likely played a role.'
'What is clear is that the United States is an extreme outlier when it comes to gun fatalities among children. When researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation recently compared a set of similarly large and wealthy nations, they found that among this group, the United States accounted for 46 percent of the child population but 97 percent of all child gun deaths.'
'There is no comprehensive data describing the nature of each fatal shooting in America — say, the number of children who died in circumstances related to domestic violence or gang-related fights or accidental shootings. The C.D.C. collects information on the gender and race of each child shot and killed. The Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit organization that has tracked deaths and injuries related to gun violence since 2014, compiles location and other data for thousands of fatal shootings.
David Hemenway, a professor of health policy at Harvard University and co-director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, said that gun-ownership rates and other factors may explain some of the demographic differences in how children die by gunfire, but more data is needed to answer the question definitively.'
'Overall, he said, he worried that the proliferation of guns in America would lead to more and more deaths among children. “Where there are more guns around, there’s more death,” he said. “It’s just so easy when you get in arguments, when you rob somebody — if you have a gun, it’s so much easier to kill.”
'Black boys are now eight times as likely as other children to die by gunfire.'
'The recent spike in gun deaths for Black children builds on a continuing phenomenon in which some children are exposed to much more violence than others. While guns became the leading cause of death for American children only recently, they have been the leading cause of death among Black children for at least two decades.'
'One pattern is consistent: Poor neighborhoods and those with a high population of Black residents, whether in cities or suburbs, are more likely to suffer from gun violence than others. Children growing up in poor neighborhoods in the Houston metro area are twice as likely to be shot and killed as other children there. In the Chicago area, the child gun-death rate in poor neighborhoods is 7.5 times as high as in others. In the St. Louis area, it’s 10 times as high.'
'Gun violence is rising all over the United States, but children in big cities are more than three times as likely to be killed as children in small towns.' (NewYorkTimes) See gifted link below.
Thank you Fern McBride for highlighting the importance of caring for our most vulnerable population- children. Gun violence and Poverty disproportionately and adversely affect people of color and our laws and social structures. There is no catching up without recognition and intervention. Our courts are abandoning or reversing affirmative action, voter equality laws and separation of church and state, and a woman’s autonomy and right to choose. And more. Work to do.
Irenie, there are connections to be made between the number of black children that are dying as a result of gun violence, the number of guns now owned in America, along with the Republicans being no shows concerning gun regulations, instead, they are loosening them. Yes white children are killing themselves at an increased rate but, still, far less then the deaths of minority children. We know the population many Republican representatives and MAGAs want to see reduced.
So true, Fern. These statistics and tragedies are not new. Racism, Poverty and ineffective or unenforced gun laws are major contributors. Again: Racism and Poverty. Do repubs or SCOTUS care?
No, they don't care one bit, some of them are glad that tragedies like that are happening. They are really that evil and filled with pure hate. Some of the Rethug Congress critters are even that evil and oh so corrupt.
Thank you, Barbara. As we learn the facts, dig for them, we understand the far-right more clearly and how to defeat them. The war that many Republicans are waging is not only against democracy but on minorities, more directly -- more lethally than we realized -- and these are the facts that all Americans need to know. Calling them 'thugs, hardly covers all 'they' are about. Is there a genocidal aspect to the radical, right-wing agenda? Most of those dark robes on SCOTUS are beginning to look like a 'polite alternative' to those white, hooded ones.
In my opinion, i think all of these high numbers of deaths would have been lower if Donald TUMP and his MAGAT Rethugs had never been elected in 2016. The Extreme court would not have been loaded with corrupt Judges either. It makes me sick to think about how much better off we would have been if HRC had been elected instead of an incompetent, raging, corrupt criminal, Donald TUMP. He is the worst thing to happen to our nation in it's 200 plus years of existence. That is my opinion on the whole thing... His lying and his calls for violence emboldened his followers to commit violence and innocent lives were lost on account of it. The riots and insurrection on JAN 6 are a prime example. Charlottesville, VA in 2017 are another...
Trump, his imitators, and the Fox-types preach racist and hatred. Their desire is power, not Democracy. Evil money supports and rewards their actions and sins of omission. SCOTUS fits in well.
I agree, they are all egomaniacs and narcissistic blowhards that really are worth nothing to anyone but their own selfish lust for total power and domination. These kind of people need to be eliminated.
Yes, we can attribute the increase in overt and accepted racism to tfg and repubs. But not the beginning. In recent nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Before and after. Think of fascist countries, Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, the list goes on, then and now. And USA. When I was younger I couldn’t understand how “good” people could stand by and watch the terror and violence. Burn books, March and salute Hitler. And turn in their neighbors. The evil knows no nationality or religion. The libraries are full of books that document and predict and teach. Here in America we are banning books. Turning in neighbors and physicians. Now. Not just in Florida. And in recent history. McCarthy. Our courts. Texas. But because many of us recognize this Fascism and try to stop it, Maybe there is hope for us. Maybe.
And then there are those who want to prohibit teaching what they call Critical Race Theory, because it is designed to make white children feel bad. Like the threat of getting shot in school or at the store or library or church or birthday party or the beach doesn't make them feel bad?
I think this excuse for prohibiting the teaching of critical race theory, for example, is bs. I was taught American history, as it was in the 60s and 70s (memorizing dates and such) and have been interested in history since. However, I never remember feeling “bad” about it. First, I was a kid and like most kids the world had nothing to do with me, and second, it was what happened in the past—I had nothing to do with that.
MLMinET, I saw a meme on Facebook that said (along with iconic historical photograph) "So now, the kids who threw rocks at Ruby Bridges are now trying to prevent their children from learning that they threw rocks at Ruby Bridges"
A Rethuglican propagandist "re-coded" (his word) Critical Race Theory to mean "criticism of racism theory". We can't allow our children to think poorly of racism. That would undermine white supremacy and wreck the businesses for luxury yachts and private planes, which are absolutely necessary for buying supreme court justices.
Erasing History is like a fire destroying what we know and see. We are left with the ashes. And doubt… the leaders of any state or school that bans CRT and any book of initials don’t care about education or feelings. They want to erase history. So we don’t know. I graduated from high school in 1964, California. I knew about the Holocaust as family knowledge. I learned about Japanese Internment in college. Not part of high school history. Ignorance is part of today’s curriculum in many states. And public funding of private and charter and religious schools means that a school can teach anything. Or not. And exclude anyone.
Thank-you Fern, for bringing this difficult topic to this forum. Too many of us live insulated lives, cut off from the challenges and realities of most of America. In my work with juvenile delinquents I am sad to say I have been to too many funerals - some by gun violence, most by overdose. The latest was last week, a brilliant young woman I had real hope for was found dead in a hotel room.
The trick is to feel and be engaged, not remain ignorant, pretend it's not happening, or, worst of all, make up rationales as to why it is inevitable.
Agree….then I pause and think on some laws that have been passed and enforced that actually excluded equality and justice for all. So, I think, we must carefully & thoughtfully take care to choose those (sometimes “the people”) who canonize the laws and enforce them. Sigh, it’s enough to give me a headache…..
This makes me think of the lyric by Dylan “you were right from your side, and I was right from mine”. When “the people” have opposing views/beliefs of what is “right”—some who won’t tolerate any compromise—it makes it all the more critical “who” gets to create those laws (ha, cue the power struggles!). A conundrum to be sure! I’ve mentioned before, but I see “us” as a spinning top….lean too far one way or the other, and we topple. A bit of “wobble” is good, I think, because it means more voices are included in the spin.
We must continue to educate ourselves from many sources rather than just listening and following friends. We must study the past as well as make ourselves aware of present conditions here in the US as well as throughout the world. We rely too much on the idea that we lead the world.
China is everywhere, working hard everyday....all over the world. We can sit on our hands if we want to and pretend we will always be the greatest but we are fooling ourselves.
We must care for and educate ALL OF OUR CITIZENRY! We cannot be slack! We will pay the price for the work we choose to do here or pay the price for the work we give away. Those who do the work....ARE PAID WELL WITH OPPORTUNITIES FOR CONTINUED EDUCATION will be the winners! ( I include our immigrant population)
Wealth is futile ..... it will evaporate if it is not put to good use for building our future....keeping our citizens healthy and employed and EDUCATED
Emily, yes, I think Americans have a pretty high opinion of ourselves….sometimes deserved and mostly not! I think, perhaps, it is because we are such a large country and most do not travel widely—heck, it’s a tall order just to travel around literally our whole continent (well, a big chunk of it anyway). Is it any wonder that we (mostly) don’t know about or pay attention to other countries in the world, when we don’t even educate ourselves about OUR own true history. You are right, education is key, as is curiosity and engagement.
Important to remember “the adoption of the Lee Resolution marked the delegates’ ultimate conviction that a nation should rest not on the arbitrary rule of a single man and his hand-picked advisors, but on the rule of law.” Thanks for the reminders Dr. Richardson
Thomas Paine is perhaps the most unsung and most theoretically pure of the Founding Fathers. His life was one of contradictions and paradoxes, illuminated by his pioneering and piercing writings that lit the fuse that would shortly thereafter spark on the storied green fields of Concord, described so wonderfully by Longfellow---"By the rude bridge that arched the flood, their flags to April's wind unfurled, there the embattled farmers stood and fired the shot heard round the world"
He was a common man of uncommon wisdom. A corset maker who had to fight to cross the Atlantic, a born radical if there ever was one, whose unlikely friendship with the patrician yet battle tested George Washington sparked the very initiating pulse of the idea that became America.
He was the author of the first American best seller, "Common Sense", stirring his countrymen to revolution. And when a year later that stirring saw so many American casualties, and military setbacks reflected in the burning of Charlestown and the retreat from New York, he penned "The Crisis" to steel his new Country's steadfastness at the most dire of times, to hang on just long enough to ever so slowly, turn the tide. While we rightly venerate the familiar names of that era, Washington, Adams, Hamilton, Jefferson, Lafayette, et. al., we should not forget that without Thomas Paine, those venerable names would just be letters logged onto a crushing imperial power's journal.
Even today, do not those steeling words ring true?---
"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country, but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."
Another clear look, Dr. Richardson, thank you as always! And yet...If the prohibition on crossing the Appalachians had held, what might be different today?
@Craig You make an important point, one dear to my heart. However, you mistake my meaning - in this case I meant "free" in the sense of "did not require to be paid for to be possessed"
It's interesting, isn't it, how many different connotations there are to these words like "free", "paid", "bought", "possessed" that take up so much space in the world - at least the world of discourse!
JJ, although I have no definitive source, I suspect that most if not all native Americans did not have a notion of "ownership" of the land they occupied. I believe that they perceived themselves as part of the land upon which they trod and hunted, working in kind of "partnership" with the land. As such it likely didn't compute to them when white settlers wanted to "pay" something to "buy" the land which they inhabited.
Roght on, Craig! Those whe were here then were driven out of the east, then out of Ohio, then out of Illinois and so on and on and on, all for nought but poverty and ill treatment.
So, what I think I'm hearing here is that whether or not any kind of monetary/trade interaction took place, & whether there was a capitalist understanding of "ownership" on both sides of what really wasn't a sales agreement, those thousands of miles of land were stolen from the people who lived on it. I'm sure there are many stronger terms than "stolen" that could justifiably be applied. Very interested in hearing your thoughts on this.
Barry Lopez, in a wonderful book titled The Rediscovery of North America, asks us to ponder how different history might be had Europeans come to this land to "inquire" rather than to "acquire."
Mimi, this is something I have pondered all my life. Thank you for bringing it up. Some of the earliest European colonists regarded indigenous people as neighbors, asked permission to settle, and had good relations. Indigenous people had a rich intellectual life that was highly respected by educated settlers, who often wrote about it. This respect carried over into later relations, but the increasing numbers of settlers with other interests overcame those early beginnings, and so indigenous people's were made to seem something they weren't in order to justify their removal or destruction. Of course they fought back: wouldn't we, if someone came to our communities with the intent to eject us and take over, ripping up the land in the name of greed?
Only in recent years has it come to be seen that indigenous peoples still retain the old knowledge of how to manage the land, and that they are the best people to take on the task of returning our damaged lands to a healthy state. We are starting to pay attention to their ways of food production and to emulate it, too. Small beginnings, but they have the knowledge and skills, where they have been permitted to retain it. They can teach us how to do things to mitigate and survive the coming changes due to climate change, if we will pay attention.
I live between those worlds, as I always had to, but as I age, I lean more toward my indigenous roots. I wish it hadn't taken so long for this "American" culture to make room for us.
We have imprisoned our indigenous peoples from day one! And they are still imprisoned on reservations, in abject poverty. We did that and there is no narrative that can change that!
Wow! If anyone - besides me - would benefit from a condensed history of the events which led to the creation and signing of our Declaration of Independence, this is it.
Thank you professor for bringing Thomas Paine into “LETTERS” today. Here are just three of his quotes – check out more on google or your browser. Paine is such a prolific writer!
“The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.”
― Thomas Paine, A Letter Addressed to the Abbe Raynal on the Affairs of North America
“These are the times that try men's souls.”
― Thomas Paine, The American Crisis
“Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.”
Unfortunately, HCR misses the original independence resolution of May 1776, written by John Adams, in which Congress voted to "totally suppress" royal government
Oh, I don't think she missed it. It just wasn't part of today's story. She did mention that by that time, a number of the colonies had already written their own desires to severe relations with England. Suppressing royal government is slightly different.
I will suggest that a "desire" to sever relations with England is different from actually doing so.
South Carolina (and no other colony) jumped the gun in March 1776, setting up an independent government, but South Carolina still resisted a formal declaration of independence.
John, I get the point you're making, and glad you brought up the detail about South Carolina. It is truly a place of it's own. Not sure that anything you are saying is in disagreement with what I wrote, though.
I believe Heather has made that observation before, in her explorations with us into the development of American politics. Not positive and can't give you a specific reference: I have been reading Heather's LFAA since the beginning (going on 4 years) and she has covered a lot of ground in that time, generally focusing on history as it illuminates what is happening today. The picture emerges over time, and it's terrific when someone adds detail to the discussion. This isn't a competition, unlike some college seminars. I'm so glad.
I also catch Heather's video talks on Facebook, either live or on video. SOMEWHERE in there is a more detailed treatment of the runup to the Declaration of Independence, including the process of writing the Declaration, (in which I also learned that I am not the only one who is not a fan of Jefferson, but that is another story, which I'm sure will re-emerge in time).
I love all this: it's like going back to grad school for history, with seminar with some of the folks here and other forums, and reading following Heather's citations, and book recommendations from my fellow "students". I studied history and poly-sci as an undergrad (and art and theater and science), but my masters was in science, and that was my career, though I've kept my nose in both history and politics.
Lost out on going for a PhD because a tick bit me and won. But I muddled through treatment, kept working, and eventually my brain kicked back in. So here I am on the other side of 80, still learning. I miss the piece of paper mostly because I'd have liked to teach, but also because I like the idea of my kids calling me Dr. Mom (they came up with that).
Oops, mentioning Jefferson is a hot button for me. Part of my fascination with history is assessing the remaining documentary snippets to gain insight into the mindset and moral character of people who made Important Decisions. For example James Wilson and John Rutledge with the unhappy compromise that made the Constitution possible.
Jefferson seems to have been a "trimmer" or successful junior (Virginia) Establishment man. He bit back his personal moral convictions to get along seamlessly with the Virginia planters who backed him politically.
With his wife on her deathbed, Jefferson promised to never marry again. Then, in France, he sent for two teenage slaves who had come to him from his wife's family.
The boy was trained as a cook, and the girl was to become a maid to his daughter.
And then young Sally Hemings arrived in Paris, bearing an unmistakable resemblance to her half-sister, Jefferson's deceased wife.
Her brother would stay in France, a free man, but Sally agreed to go back to Virginia as Jefferson's slave with the understanding that their children would be free.
Jefferson's mentor, George Wythe, had a wife who was barren, so Wythe was never able to have a son. In his final years, Chancellor Wythe lived alone, with two freed slaves, a sister (housekeeper) and brother (gardener). There was also an eight-year-old mulatto boy whom Wythe was teaching Latin and Greek. Wythe made Jefferson the guardian of the boy in his will, but when Wythe's great-nephew (who was being cut off as heir) poisoned Wythe, the boy died, also.
Thank you for publishing this excellent and very timely detail on the origins and elements of the confrontation between the capable and fed-up colonists and their then reigning King of England; ... elements that did, inevitably, lead to the declaration of Independence and the American Revolution. The more of this historic detail we have available to us over the next 15 or so months, the better equipped "We the People..." will be to defend our democracy and our Constitution against the new Monarchists faction - working through their powerful, well-financed and carefully designed propaganda system - that has now taken control of the U.S. Congress and the national Republican party. More of your letters on this topic, please.
Spot on, Jerry….”the new Monarchists faction”, as you say. It seems to me they are also partnering with the theocrats/Dominionists by incorporating/espousing Christian nationalist ideas/values (sigh, what part of the 1st Amendment don’t they understand?).
All of it. I think their definition of "free exercise" of religion is more along the lines of "ours is best and must be applied to all of the country and none of the other religions or belief structures are right."
Thank you so much for sharing Paine’s words.
…. Some [dictator] may hereafter arise, who laying hold of popular disquietudes, may collect together the desperate and the discontented, and by assuming to themselves the powers of government, may sweep away the liberties of the continent like a deluge.”
Sounds like Paine envisioned TFG; talk about prescience!
Rise up Ye all to save Our Nation by voting in Great and Lawful Numbers of Free Women and Men bound in togetherness so that this Nation Shall Persevere and shall Go Forth in salutation to preserve Reproductive Health, Rules for Sound Musket safety, Preservation of Climate Cleanliness and Gayety-- so help us all as Hebrews, Catholics and Others!
Ira, I appreciate your post that is a testament to the aspirational, albeit flawed, American experiment we honor every July 4th.
Thank you sincerely! We have to respond to the attack on OUR democracy by voting to preserve it! Please go to the website of brilliant and effective Harvard students who are, and will be, engaged in nonpartisan voter registration and turnout all the way to November 2024 and please give them your helping hand to support their good work at www.turnup.us/ Thank you
Just got my first hundred GOTV postcards and lists of Democratic voters.
Thank you. I would suggest that you figure out to whom you are sending the postcards and wait until it is closer to the election as it would seem to me that it is much too early now UNLESS you really know these folks and you are trying to get them to contribute $$$ to your favorite candidate?
They are for a primary that is coming up shortly. It’s all in another state.
Affirmative on that. what's that oft used expression "less than perfect union" to cover the qualifications.
Or used to I’m not very happy at ALL
I be with ye, Ira. And I march as a proud "Other". Argh!!!
Likewise, Bill!
Hear Hear, Ira!
Love this!
Absolutely. To be utterly 21st century: by voting in Great and Lawful Numbers of Free Women and Men *and other Persons*
Huzzah!!!
Three cheers for your common sense.
Many thanks Geirge
American should be greatly indebted to Thomas Paine, an English immigrant for its role in inducing common sense and fighting against the excesses of the British. During the Revolution and Confederation periods, Thomas Paine was widely regarded as the founder of America.
Yet, today, he isn't recognized or given much appreciation as among the founding fathers of America.
He was a lobbyist, craftsman, political scientist, visionary, and a political philosopher. He dedicated his personal work to founding America and suggested practical ideas.
Thomas Paine fought against East Indian Company which was economically powerful.
Remember, that this was the force behind the British control of American colonies.
Established in 1600, I had read that the East Indian Company was a private entity whose main aim was to formed and spread the presence of British in the modern-day Africa which was a part of the Indian Spice Trade. Remember that Portugal and Spain had monopolised that trade in that region, and thus, it wanted to counter its presence.
The East Indian Company sourced its slave labor from the West and East Africa and hold them in Indonesia, India, and Atlantic Ocean's Island of St. Hellena. Its slave labor was highly skilled so as to manage its territories well.
You should also know that the East Indian Company had its own army in 1800s, estimated to be more than that of Britain which was merely 95000. I can likened this Company to the present Russian PMCs which are politically and economically empowered to "colonize" some war-torn countries.
To buy tea from India and take them to America, it sold opium to China, although the opposition vehemently opposed that move. It as well source revenues from land tax to finance its colonialism in America.
Thank you for this post. Most Americans have no idea what you are referring to. Our rebellion was more than political principles. It was about getting out from under the abusive capitalism of the time. We don't bow to kings now. But we still bow to big business.
East India Company sounds a lot like the lightly regulated, protected and subsidized Amazons and Exxons of today. I am searching for the word...AHA! It's oligarchs. And some of them are searching for a king to be their instrument of further subjugation.
The day this nation frees itself from the dominance and cruelty of huge businesses is the day we will fulfill the dreams of Paine and Company.
Musk, Bezos, Walton, Koch, Murdoch, Leo, Thomas and Alito and more - these are the "Lords" who still trickle down on today's peasants.
The East India Company is a representation of how a country can be economically deprived when it is intertwined with political system.
Nicely put and an excellent observation, Bill. I am old enough to remember when there were small businesses and local department stores downtown. We had a wonderful small grocery with an excellent meat counter in our neighborhood within walking distance. I see lots of people lamenting the loss of these things while they buy from Amazon, Dollar Store, etc.. and before that Walmart. We do our level best to give our money to locals although there are a few, mostly restaurants on our black list because they have made their support for the regressive party of death obvious. As for the 4th, it is a holiday which I have begun to despise because it has become an excuse to ignore pleas about fireworks and make it sound like WWIII. Had the dog in his thunder jacket and also had to give him half a sedative.
Let's not forget the (mis)adventures of Standard Oil, United Fruit Company, et al in Mexico and Latin America. In his book "War Is a Racket", decorated Marine Smedley Butler characterized himself as muscle for them, saying "In short I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism." The rot goes deep, sigh.
I'm glad you brought up Smedley Butler. Every American should be taught the story of General Smedley Butler. A courageous and devoted hero and patriot who committed himself in service to the U.S. Not only did he receive the ultimate recognition for a soldier's bravery and sacrifice--the Medal of Honor-- but he actually was a two-time recipient of the MoH, and he survived the related combat experiences. After service, he could have rested on his many well-deserved laurels; gone on the appearances and talk circuits; and become a multi-millionaire; but, instead, he remained committed to his principles of service to his country and its citizens. He went on to tell the American people about the financial corporations who were responsible for U.S. invasions in multiple countries, especially in Central America, in his 1933 book "War is a Racket."
In his declarations about war, General Butler wrote, "I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested."
General Butler shared his own military pension with the widows and orphans of fellow Marines who were killed or disabled in service. And his good deeds to people and our nation just go on and on.
Why can't we find an American with his level of character, ability, and devotion to service to be President of the U.S.? In our heart of hearts, we know why: because our nation is controlled by corporate interests. Instead of Smedley Butler, we've ended up with Jeffrey Epstein and all the weak politicians and celebrities who enjoyed their free access to underage girls through Epstein. Woe is us until we're brave enough to stop the corruption.
Bill, Bezos does own the Washington Post and leaves them alone and is a big contributor to NPR. Just fyi.
Also, for a long while he was raised by a single mother, who, eventually married a Cuban guy in Florida.
All in all, I might put Bezos in the rich category, but, maybe not the bad guy category.
Lastly, when his English major wife who was really into books suggested they build an on line presence for books, well, he did listen.
Everyone should be so lucky in marriage.
Bezos is not the worst of the lot, for sure. But J. Horowitz's comment sums it up well. Jeff's former wife sets a better example of billionaire behavior.
completely agree Bill.
Yep.
Maybe not bad, but at least tone deaf. His $500M yacht and space tourism, as well as Amazon's treatment of workers, are evidence. These people never have enough.
Don’t we teach Thomas Paine any more? I know we seem at best vague on the Enlightenment (it’s not about religion; God was just keeping the planets spinning; the French Revolution was the result of Paine and the Encyclopedists and learning Asian and African cultures, all the result of Renaissance thinkers like Galileo). But Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, etc., knew a thing or two. Those nasty men read books and figured some things out about how to make real what they liked about what they had read.
(Here Professor Richardson may want to polish my thinking, but after a year of history and literature of 18th century France, plus a wonderful biography of Lafayette (who knew that George Washington thought of him as a son? that Monroe visited him in the dungeon where the Prussians put him as he had to flee after 1789?), must get the French in here on a day when they are having riots and fires. We need to congratulate them and thank them on 14 July.)
One doesn't have to wonder what they want to trickle down onto underlings (yellow fluid). S/
Ah, more historical insight... what too many Americans don't know/understand. American history.
Remember thinkers and social change agents are often ignored, mistreated, and underappreciated. Those who take credit are what the society don't deserve.
Thank you for this link. I went there and found this: "Our research has shown that good K-12 civic education must give students a comprehensive working knowledge of our systems of government, a commitment to service, awareness of various ways in which citizens participate in civic life, and skills to think critically and take informed action about matters that are important in our communities and society." To think critically. That's one of the critical parts. What I've found is that many are affected with confirmation bias and can't get beyond the lie that "the election was stolen." "Beliefs based on feelings are immune to facts." - John Stuart Mill "The Subjection of Women," 1869,
Ans yet, history teachers and librarians are being muzzled.
Which is why they are being muzzled. Because to teach what is, rather than what is wished for by some, is threatening to them.
Now we know first hand what Fascism looks like and does.
...which is why I am so glad to long retired as a school librarian and teacher. Frankly, I am surprised that anyone wants to do either in the current environment.
Immune to facts is what is expressed on the fb pages of Rosendale & Daines in MT. Rosendale went so far as to thank "President T" for the Coursts rulings. Challenged with chapter & verse directly from Extreme Court writings replies were' you didn't read it" posting about the small paragraph exempting Military academies from factoring in race. Replies such as "there is no racial disparity in this Country, all my black friends say so." Support JOn Tester running for democracy
Yes! And the teaching of Civics requires an imaginative and creative instructor who can instill in their students the desire to treat and learn the subject matter more than a required course…from K-12 for only those who have learned and appreciated the necessity of an honest government by and for the people can future generations prosper with the guidance of honest officials rather than those who seek elected office only to further their financial standing and solidify their lust for power no matter the cost to “we the people”.
I feel grateful to have been born and educated through public schools in Southern California. We were taught the truth about Thomas Paine, Slavery, the Civil War... All of it, in elementary school!
As a retired teacher, I still remember, and deeply admire, the teachers who could pose the hard questions that made young minds reflect and dig deeper, often against their own strong inclinations to stay in the moment and just "have fun". I, too, can not imagine them sacrificing economic opportunity just to stay in work environments, today, where support and appreciation for what they do so skillfully, is not only lacking, but remains downright threatening to honest intellectual inquiry and thought. DeSnts has crowned himself king of education, of history, of law, of the spoken and written word. Others are following suit. The problem has metastasized. It sure seems that we need a 21st C Rebellion. I regret that this is beyond my own boomer imagination. I do remain absolutely convinced that the Republican Party and SCOTUS remain dangerously complicit accessories to the assault on precious democratic norms.
So informative 📰
Now we need to spread that from MA to the other states. Had 3 recent Tufts grads in my backyard pool yesterday. Two work in DC, one on The Hill (for D Senator Cantwell), the other on immigration. The 3rd is in Tufts Medical School.
❤ these young people.
His founding spirit was ignited by his desire to experiment by virtue of being a scientist. Thomas Paine, a part from being a inventor and patenter of the iron bridge, took his experimental sense of urge and curiosity to the realm of politics. He borrowed from his knowledge of quantitative measures to solve the mystery surrounding economy, welfare, and finance. While in legislative voting Thamas Paine applied the elementary theory of game, he "prophesised" the now widespread use of public opinion sampling. He as well expounded how demographics often influence election and representation.
Engineer's inventive mind applied to politics and society!
Those who have background in scientific subjects can really solve problems that politicians often project themselves as the problem solvers.
True. Although I was speaking of people who solve practical, physical problems as a regular part of their work - field scientists, mechanics, hardware engineers. Intellectual problems - which were my own field as a software engineer - are not the same thing.
They can as well lend their background knowledge with regard to methods, processes-tested and proven strategies. Thanks for your time and I welcome you to subscribe to my newsletter.
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While that is all true, and also true that Paine's lack of recognition is somewhat a result of his perpetual financial destitution, it is also true that he was super-radical, and in the long run not so "sensible," as the popular excerpts of his tract. McCullough's John Adams bio and others describe in detail that Paine was an ultra-eloquent, super-radical version of a Sam Adams or Lech Wałęsa: in case of revolution, break glass...but not before or after.
"The people of America understand their rights better than their politics. They have a clear idea of their object, but are greatly deficient in comprehending the means." This was his political thought, but evidence suggest that he was sometimes a complete opposite of what he represented and that it was him who didn't understood politics nor the means. During his old age, he had already beem disowned by some fellow Americans and that when he died, there were no mourners in his funeral with the exception of two blacks, an American Quacker, and a French woman alongside his 2 sons.
A mallard?
Likely. Those who stand for the best of the society are likely to receive backlash from the same society.
🥲
More radical than Sam Adams?? Guess I thought Sam was just the rebel-rouser
They both were radicals, Adams with action and Paine with words. Without Paine's writings, one wonders what would have happened. Would the colonists have been moved to make the great leap to independence?
Richard,
It sure is a good thing that the Colonists could read. His Common Sense is long and filled with words modern Americans cannot read.
Today? Nobody would read it.
And, my understanding is that Paine only had an 8th grade education, just like D.C. Stephenson who led the Indiana Ku Klux Klan in the 1920's. What a contrast between the two. It could be that the absence of television was a blessing in disguise. My understanding is that today's children's brains are now wired differently from ours owing to their familiarity with electronics. But, as is well documented in Egan's "A Fever in the Heartland," some things haven't changed. Bigots then, bigots now.
Paine was more radical. Adams at least served in the CC and was a leader. Paine was one-man army, a firebrand and his politics, on-the-whole, were not practical; his personal life an utter disaster. He was highly-skilled and useful in exactly the role he performed; not much beyond that.
Most Americans seem to think Sam Adams is just a beer!
He seemed to be a real Paine in the *ss--
Ahhh... YEP! I posted on that side of Paine.
Nice piece of history! Economic enterprises were generally used to expand political / economic power. French, Dutch, Italians, Spanish, Portuguese etc. Economic and political power were hugely intertwined. USA minor example. Banana republics. The biggest thing which came out of the American and French revolutions were new and amplified statements of high-minded principles which... in due course... undermined their own internal injustices. Civil Rights in the USA one good example. Political and economic rights for women. Then of course, there's "sex", work in progress. And check the history of divorce rates. Who could get educated. World on the move!
The Spaniards and Portuguese opened America to the rest of the world and began to open up their minds about the rights-politically, economically, social welfare, and so on.
I never would have thought that about the Spanish and Portuguese conquests and colonisations on the Americas and Asia trade empires. Thanks to disease, near-genocides in the Americas.
Disease helped, but before disease there were already problems, including massacres. The newcomers from Europe already felt entitled and took what they wanted. Where a civilized people might have helped their neighbors dealing with rampant disease, these people chose to look on it as god's way of making the land available for their taking.
In my high school, (and for me, later in college), we studied the kind of history that Edwin Kiptoo Ngetich has brought our attention to: the linkage between the various trade ambitions of the European nations. I learned from my family and the people I grew up with what it means to be indigenous on this continent.
Not all of the Europeans were colonizers in the way that the English were: most simply wanted to control and enrich themselves on the resources and produce of the places they found, establishing the kind of trade connections Edwin mentioned. Never mind the needs and lives of the people and cultures they encountered.
The English were different, and sought to recreate the English aristocratic hierarchy on lands they assumed a right to. Our story is incomplete without the recognition of the role America played in international trade, and without acknowledging the immense debt this country still owes to the people they eagerly displaced.
I'll say the same thing here that I did above under Frank's pose: If you haven't already, get the book "1491" by Charles C. Mann. It is a real eye-opener.
I don't think that about the Portuguese or the Spanish, both of whom did nothing to open minds. They were after extraction and trade just like everyone else often using slave labor. However, it wasn't just Europeans engaging in a large slave trade. The Ottomans did as well, mainly from eastern Europe and east Africa. The key difference between the two was race.
Yes slavery was endemic to ancient and not so ancient economies across the globe. By and large inequality was the name of the game.
If you haven't already, get the book "1491" by Charles C. Mann. It is a real eye-opener.
Their presence turned out to be a blessing in disguise despite harassing the indigenous community.
Thanks for your engaging replies
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I have a real problem viewing the presence of Europeans in the Americas as a blessing in disguise. Harassing the indigenous community is making it sound like practically nothing except that it was often genocide and absolutely stolen land.
Thank you for sharing. There is so much I really don't know about American history. I find it all interesting and like learning it.
Under Heather's aegis, you've come to the "right place" :)
Welcome @BC. I will be sharing more of American history and thank you for making this community lively.
Here's a copy of Thomas Paine's remarkable document- https://americainclass.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Common-Sense-_-Full-Text.pdf-
That 18th century readers were literate and intelligent enough to understand and be moved by this still powerful political tract is a sobering thought. Could the same be said of readers in the 21st century America?
What I find absolutely amazing about Thomas Paine is the limited amount of formal education that he had. The same is true for D.C. Stephenson, the man who led the Ku Klux Klan expand into the Midwest in the 1920's. If you haven't read it yet, Timothy Egan's book "A Fever in the Heartland" is simply an absolute must-read. My takeaway? MAGA is the grandchild of KKK. Same genetic makeup.
I just started reading "A Fever in the Heartland," after someone here recommended it. Must have been you, Richard! This morning I had to read a few sentences aloud to my husband; the narrative was about Stephenson, but it could just as easily been about tfg.
Ellen, "Fever" is an amazing book. There are parts where I am certain you will come to tears. There is nothing original in TFG. He is simply D.C. Stephenson redux. DeSantis, though, has taken it a step further. Stephenson said: "I did not sell the Klan in Indiana on hatreds. I sold it on Americanism." That is, Anglo-Saxon Protestantism. Racist and theocratic to the core, just like now, except that some Catholics have joined "the cause."
Wooow! I will read 📚 this resource today. Thanks Rochard and welcome to my private thread chat
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imagine that...an newly immigrant giving guidance to the Colonists. What would the anti- immigration MAGA say about Paine!
There are many notable individuals in America whose parents or themselves were immigrants. Talk of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos with immigrants, and so on.
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Thank for outlining for us the work of the infamous East Indian Company. I read recently a history of British Empire and its violence. Just finished a book on the plague which has loads of info on economic activity of several countries, empires, cities, and trading companies including slaving, tea, and opium.
I have seen the name of the book. I think I will read 📚 it. Thanks for the information. You may as well if possible subscribe to my newsletter and engage with my private community.
What is the title? I'm always interested in books about the Plague!
The World the Plague Made. It's a bit of a slog but is full of interesting information. Now I am reading one called Pathogenesis; A History of the World in Eight Plagues. It is not a slog and mentions a lot of the books I have already read. Lots of emphasis on the findings of ancient DNA.
I will read it.
Sold them/ hold them?
They mostly hold them because East Indian Company was involved in commercial undertakings in the American soil. So, slaves were a source of labor for them to conquer both politically and economically America.
ECONOMIC PHILOSOPHY OF THOMAS PAINE
Thomas Paine's economic philosophy is fascinating. During the Evolutionary period, while in England he was considered as a failure, in America he rose to eternal stardom thanks to his lofty ideals of advocating for the security of natural rights and properties. He became a prominent pamphleteer, but at the same time, he sought wealth, with a belief that a successful business is a sign of God's blessings. Paine argued that, amid the American Revolution, that independence is a culmination of common sense, natural rights, and interests. He boldly said that men are a part of the society so as to help in meeting the needs of others. Interestingly, for him, a government is created out of a man's wickedness. It a bad omen for the corruption or a fall of a man. Inequality is a systemic endemic arising from the men's surrender of their properties to safeguard the interests of the others.
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Spot on, Mary! I imagine heads across the USA (and farther afield) snapping up as they read this quote….that’s EXACTLY what came to my mind in the moment. What is also scary to me is that there are so many parroting TFG’s stated goals—-thinking of you, Ron DeSantis (and others, sadly, too numerous to list). Just a reminder, all these many years later, that we ALL need to keep paying attention, no matter how much you’d prefer just to coast along instead (I get it, I really do, but no coasting please!).
Mary Hardt! We must have been writing our comments at the same time!
And I, here in Germany, was about to write the same...
We are in desperate times.
I was about to write the same, too (and also in Germany)…
Mike, I feel a little guilt along with a great big sense of gratitude that I'm living in a country that makes it possible for me, a retiree, to never really need to worry about healthcare. My son-in-law in Austin, TX, got saddled with a $50K bill from the anestheologist, who happened not to be in his health care plan, when my young grandson had an emergency apendectomy. I had an emergency surgery last year for a left frontal lobe brain bleed and the only thing I had to pay for was five days of the crappy hospital food: 80,€.
Wow... Sure, I heard the stories, but I never really thought they were true. In that respect, I am also really glad to live in Europe. I was left with the same bill as you after two weeks in the hospital with meningitis. And yes, the hospital food in Germany is kinda crappy ;) But seriously: such a situation as your son-in-law's is outrageous. Basically, he's left with the choice to either go into financial ruin, or let his child die. But no, say the Republicans, we cannot have universal health care, because that, of course, is "socialism"...
From the portions of Paine's writing I've read, TFG is the type of person our founding fathers were most concerned about: a person as crooked as they are charismatic. I've been a public educator for over three decades and we have not helped enough students read and understand at a level commensurate with Paine's writings. (It's not all on the teachers; unchecked capitalism and society and neighborhoods and families own plenty of culpability too).
The end result is an electorate that is too easily duped, bamboozled, and hornswoggled. "Religious Liberty" --for one- has morphed for many into religious zealotry turning separation of church and state into an amalgamation of White Christian church and state.
James, I get into this argument with my ChristoFascist friends all the time. They can never answer why their religion is more important than mine in a manner that is at all reasoned.
The trouble is, that a key element in post-Jesus Christianity has always been spreading the religion as far as possible by any means available. I mean no disrespect to actual followers of Jesus, who emphasized kindness to everyone.
Unfortunately, they are in a cult of magical thinking; therefore, reason is dismissed in the same way sports team fanatics root for their team while denigrating their opponents.
Biologically, when they defend their religion against any direct attack, they get a cortisol shot from their amygdala as if they were protecting their child from a bear. Instead, perhaps, ask them why our founding fathers--in their grace and equity-ineptitude--wanted a separation of church and state.
Good luck, in an almost guaranteed losing battle.
I’d call it “not winning”. Their minds are closed and neural pathways have been altered.
It's astonishing how many have been and still are so vulnerable to Trump. For the rest of us he's an obvious danger, a poison. The problem is in the people because there is bound to be more "Trumps", conmen taking advantage. We see that now. Trump is showing how much vulnerability there is out here. But the question is what to do about this.. how to overcome it. The power hungry, money hungry elites have combined with the angry resentful easily duped common folks..that are it seems mostly white Christian nationalists. We have arrived at an advanced state of this after looking the other way.
I've said this before: when the Nazis took over the churches (all but a very few), they became the Christian Nationalist Church. The church secretaries looked through the membership records to cull out the "Baptized" who had converted to Christianity and helped send them to the death camps. The church I belong to was the only opposition church in the entire area. One of the Bergkirche church council members, an attorney, worked tirelessly to save the lives of their neighbors. Hans Buttersack died in Dachau, leaving behind six children. It takes courage and conviction to care that much for one's fellow human being. Every time I walk into the community room, dedicated to him, I thank him. Look him up if you're interested in what some brave everyday people not so long ago did to make a dent in the horror of complicity in the Christian National Church -
yes, not so long ago.
Don't get me started about religion.
For some people, their cars are their religion... it's a wide field.
Better cars than guns.
To me that's materialism as a form of self-identity, which--IMHO--has a basis in the palpable; whereas, religious extremists are enmeshed in magical thinking. They are mere minions in a cult. That said, enough minions on the same page can be a dangerously powerful miasma capable of much disruption.
Or their money is their religion.
The cars ( and such) don't do it. It takes awhile to realize that, but some never do. Maybe it's fear of death. Some never grow up, never mature, wanting to be parented, to be taken care of. But heavens, not by the government-which has become "the other"- not us. That feeling if it spreads is fatal ( for us all): the government is the enemy. Thus authoritarian leaders rise. In Russia the religious leader is in cahoots with the authoritarian leaders (Putin & co.). Here at least half of us would not buy this ( thankfully)-- but half of us (or less?) would.
Religion has failed us, not that it does not have good aspects, but it's been corrupted. Where are the religious here leaders now? What side are they on? People go to religion because they cannot face reality, not knowing, and religion gives a sureness, a knowing of sorts while taking the real freedom away- of really knowing that we do not know and should deal ( accept) with the ultimate mystery, and concentrate on community here and now.
I worked in Special Ed & for some education is NOT a family value.❤️
I retired from teaching 21 years ago, and Paine’s words were included in the American literature anthology I used. We discussed in class the power of his words and their historical significance. I admit now, it was history to me. Never did I think we would be in the situation his words so clearly present. Reading all of this group’s collective wisdom, I say it’s time to do as that brave man on the doomed plane on 9/11 said: “Let’s roll!”
The rest of it is equally wise:
“A government of our own is our natural right: And when a man seriously reflects on the precariousness of human affairs, he will become convinced, that it is infinitely wiser and safer, to form a constitution of our own in a cool deliberate manner, while we have it in our power, than to trust such an interesting event to time and chance."
HCR has found some nuggets.
Also “We have it in our power,” Paine wrote, “to begin the world over again.”
Not that we are not limited and defined by history and physical circumstances, but WE get to explore and create a new relationship to those circumstances, to define in aggregate what the rules of our society should best be, and to attempt to make our system work. Many seem to believe that all the important questions are already settled, and while we build upon our legacy, we, the living, get to decide, for better or worse, what is right for us. That seems to me to be the most precious part of the American Experiment.
Except when the Extreme Court takes it upon itself to do it?
The Extreme Court is a prime example of the claim that all the important questions are already answered and that we shouldn't tinker ourselves. It's rubbish of course, a smokescreen put up by those heavily invested in less egalitarian ways of doing things. Methinks today's "Conservatives" would find very nasty things to say about Tom Paine's thinking, were they to encounter it unattributed.
Try posting to R critter's fb pages & see the bonker replies!
The Extreme Court, aka SCROTUS (R for Republican, as someone said in Robert Hubbell's comments over the weekend), is attempting its own coup. We still have an opportunity to overcome it with enough voters and also enough noise, but mostly enough voters. Work, friends, the time is NOW.
Everyone Vote!!!
Well said, Mary....a perfectly apt quote from Paine....
I also was drawn to this section of the post and thought of TFG.
We have seen the Trump-MAGA script many times before played by a variety of different actors. It never ends well until it ends. Which is like saying, it's a great relief when appendicitis in over.
You beat me to it Mary! I came here to write the exact same comment.
You know what they say about how great minds think alike! ;-)
I had this same similar thought. The current iteration of the Republican Party and six Supreme Court Justices who are tools of the party. They are the dictator.
My thoughts exactly, Mary. Today's Letters from and American reminds me yet again how important our historians are. They remind us on what principles we stand and where those came from. Constitutional law -- this is where it came from and why it matters.
Abso-f***ing-lutely!!!!!!!
Thomas Paine was amazingly influential with his writings. What happened to him? It's kinda sad yet fascinating. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/2698/thomas-paine
The link supplied by Richard Sutherland leads to a brief history of Thomas Paine. I'm dismayed, (but not surprised), that the demise of Thomas Paine most likely came down by the hands of the original American Christian Nationalist. As scary as it was and still is, some things never change unless we somehow find a way to change the hearts and minds of those around us who are stuck in their ignorance. Education is indeed the cure. Right now, we are still in the throws of the longest war ever waged when it comes to retaining our Democracy. Books are being banned. The teaching of critical thinking is being quashed. Human rights are being taken away. Votes are being bought and stolen. Big business is making itself the ruling class... and much much more of this kind of thing is happening right before our very eyes! We The People Need to Not Only VOTE, but Lobby Aggressively FOR DEMOCRACY!!!
People like Trump are a through-line in human history. The freedom to make your own life is terrifying to some, and the need to help those who fail in the attempt is divisive. The combination of those who want to be told what to do, those who have failed, and those who do not want to help others creates a powerful coalition with the common desire for a savior to solve their problems. There will always be opportunists who come along who offer simplistic solutions that satisfy the basic desire of all these people: a trouble-free life for me, and to hell with thee.
Or, "I alone can fix it". or, "I am your vengeance". Or, I am the only candidate who recognizes the forgotten. All of Trump's campaign lines are naked appeals to these people. He wasn't the first, and he won't be the last.
Payne was vociferously radical, almost too so, happy only with those who agreed with him, nearly got himself executed in the French Revolution. He was also what we might otherwise call "a difficult personality"... just the same, or because, hugely inspirational and influential.
Frank, out of principle, he refused to vote for hanging the king, which put his own life in danger. Had he stayed in America, I suspect there might be more awareness of his influence. But his contemporaries begrudged his leaving- to join France in her rebellion- and deliberately excluded him from the canon because of it.
BTW... Thomas Jefferson was also considered a difficult personality by many who knew him. Plus there's the conundrum that he was a slave owner who, in his writings, hoped for the end of slavery, but in his lifetime and in death released only one slave, an elderly man (historians speculate on why that particular man- it is a mystery). He never freed his own children by Sally Hemings, who were slaves by law, and not acknowledged by him, though they held privileged positions on his plantation.
His sons by Sally eventually simply left, riding away without papers. After at least 3 generations of genetic input from white slaveholders, they looked white (people gossiped about how much like Jefferson they looked) and simply passed into freedom. Yet we still honor Jefferson (well, HCR and I don't, but you get the drift). He wrote a good line, but lived a less than honorable life.
No problem, i think it was also a matter of alliances in the French assembly. This was the opening stages of "the revolution eating its own children" as radical views opened up eventually into a lethal chasm - it didnt help for Louis to have attempted to flee the country and join a counter revolution, he left behind documents making it pretty clear what his intentions were. I thought to indicate "difficult" people do play critical roles in change, maybe not enough. Thanks for the additional history!
I learned something of the French revolution, but have tended to avoid it ever since. I agree with your assessment: "...the opening stages of "the revolution eating its own children" as radical views opened up eventually into a lethal chasm..." (This is one reason I cringe when I see people wanting to meet violence with violence without a clear sense of what the consequences would be. We can't be effective against something unless we have a clear idea of how to replace it with something that works better, or makes the existing way of doing things work better.
I do think you have a point that those individuals who play critical roles in change are often difficult people in one way or another. We don't get perfect, and these people are the ones who put all of themselves into what they are doing. That often leaves their shortcomings exposed. If we're smart, we recognize when that's ok, and when it is not. Generally there is some of each.
This, like many things is a continuum. I honestly do not get why people criticize Biden for his speaking style because it is not "dynamic" enough for them. Personally I think the way he is what we need. Trump was "dynamic" and look where that went.
Mary, when I came upon these words, II felt a chill flow through my veins. I read them again and again and now feel a stinging in my eyes. It is terrifying; this is Us against Us.
" . . . some [dictator] may hereafter arise, who laying hold of popular disquietudes, may collect together the desperate and the discontented, and by assuming to themselves the powers of government, may sweep away the liberties of the continent like a deluge.” A prescient warning about today's Supreme Court and its controller.
SCOTUS are changing the LAWS to create their own KING.
Exactly so, Joanne. I know that something is afoot when my cold war era veteran friends are jumping on the pro-Russia boat.
Yes, that sentence -- how startling to read. I was interested in “dictator” being bracketed in HCR’s post (typically an edit that aims to add clarity and/or avoid extraneous info), and I wondered what word Paine had used. Here’s Paine’s phrase I’m finding online: “If we omit it now, some Massanello may hereafter arise...” And the explanation of “Massanello”: Thomas Angelo, aka Massanello and also spelled Masaniello, was a fisherman in Naples who in 1647, after “spiriting up [about 1,000] of his countrymen in the public market place against the oppression of the Spaniards, to whom the place was then subject, prompted them to revolt and, in the space of a day, became king.” Hark the sound of history rhyming.
RWOliver--WOW! Thanks so much for the additional info!
Love these history lessons delivered by Heather.
This quote: "Paine rejected the idea that any man could be born to rule others, and he ridiculed the idea that an island should try to govern a continent. 'Where…is the King of America?'" made me wonder if we ditched the king but canonized a wealthy ruling class as indispensable.
" . . . if . . ."?
Consider the affirmations of "Citizens United." Consider Jimmy Carter's evaluation that we are an oligarchy rather than a democracy.
Ed Nuhfer: Sorry that my single word post, ". . . if . . .", was not clear. In my view, the American economic oligarchy that "replaced" the king has been a definite reality since the founding of the country. Until recently, its leaders have been able to disguise their oligarchy as "democracy."
Democracy has seemed to play cat and mouse with plutocracy and authoritarianism in this country, with both ebbing and flowing. The working class seemed to enjoy noticeably more celebration in my mid-20th Century youth than today, and the ultra-rich less popular and dominant. The middle class was expanding in numbers and influence.
Minorities and women were more openly oppressed, but that was improving, and in some ways, improves to this day; despite more vociferous recent opposition.
I recall that Carter also spoke of "plutocracy", all of which is true. Carter was an earnest and intelligent president, but not so skilled as a TV game-show host. I doubt that Lincoln would have made it far in our entertainment media dominated society.
Fox would run hour-long features about Lincoln’s incompetence.
Ed, you would then forget men such as Lincoln and Garfield who rose to leadership through character and "calling"....without being wealthy but enduring great hardships. Both chose to educate themselves, encouraged by their mothers when they were young.
Both were shot during their presidences. by men with mental struggles...with Garfield enduring a long death period at the hand of a terrible physician.
Hardly. A wealthy class does not have to function as an indispensable ruling class. TR and FDR are shining examples of that fact. However, the perpetuation of ruling class family lineage in our U.S. Senate compares with that of the English House of Lords, the latter created without pretense of anything other than to perpetuate a ruling class. Here, the research shows that the two parties perpetuate it. https://act.represent.us/sign/problempoll-fba.
Perhaps the research on actual representation compared with the claims of representation is more revealing than allusions to a few presidents.
Thank you, Ed. I agree
How many children today know about these few existentially important days in our history? How many would recognize the name Thomas Paine or the title of his pamphlet? Is Paine's Common Sense taught anywhere these days? It's an interesting title. Do we still share in common as a people an understanding of what is real, what is true, what is sensible? If we have lost that shared sense, what can we do to recover it?
Betsy Smith: Sadly, it's not just children who don't know about our history. And no, we don't " . . . share a common understanding of what is real, what is true, what is sensible." In terms of recovering it, did it ever really exist?
Maybe the lesson is that there are flawed people who nonetheless have ideas worth considering from time to time. The message is the message, the person is not the message?
I was taught a very sanitized version of American History in the school system I attended. I had a voracious interest in history (fed by my Dad, who was an amateur historian) and I knew more about both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War than most of my classmates. "Common Sense" as written by Thomas Paine was extra credit reading at some point, but not part of the general curriculum.
We don’t even have a shared sense that, even in our diversity, we have shared desires for equality, justice, and the pursuit of happiness. We won’t get anywhere if we do not accept that, first and foremost, we share the same human condition.
I do not include, for the most part, the 1% who live in a reality that most of us cannot comprehend.
I retired from teaching 21 years ago, and Thomas Paine’s words were in the American literature anthology I used. I taught and discussed his powerful words, but I never thought I’d be living them! This morning’s quotation used by Heather just leaps off my iPad. So many of the words of you here add power. Thinking of 9/11, “Let’s roll!”
Thanks for the link to CIRCLE. Much needed info. Much needed action, especially today.
“We have it in our power,” Paine wrote, “to begin the world over again.”
And now it is in our collective power to remake America to meet the goals of the Declaration of Independence. This includes retaking rights torn away and those not yet fully gained.
The Rule of Law is the basis of our nation's character, it is the fount from which all else ensues. We are now embroiled in a new test of this basic concept due to some "men" challenging the validity of our laws, and holding a deep interest of making themselves, and others of their ilk, into the "Nobles" of yesteryears long passed. It is up to those of us still holding strong faith in the rule of law to insure it remains the law of our land. Today is our Lexington and Concord, our time to reaffirm that The Law rules over men. What we do now will mark the future of our democracy.
Sadly, there is no collective "we" to accomplish this crucial task. To our detriment, and possible destruction, "laws," just like "facts" are subject to a wide range of interpretations.
True, but perhaps there are ways to improve and deepen the national conversation. As humans we are linked by share needs and complimentary differences; our diverse interests, observations, and occupations. I am certain we can do a better job of reconciling diverse agendas and promoting good faith negotiation.
The Law, as understood by educated Englishmen, was rooted in the Law of Nature, as discussed in Christopher St. Germain's well-known legal classic "Doctor and Student":
https://lonang.com/library/reference/stgermain-doctor-and-student/
Thomas Paine "newly arrived immigrant"...what a great reminder of how immigrants have led the way! And still they will put our yearnings into words if we just relax and accept their presence!
I would like to point out the Iroquois Confederacy, which was studied and incorporated by the founding fathers.
They also incorporated their homelands, forcing the Iroquois nations to move west, ultimately leaving them with scraps of land and ruptured lives.
Annie, your comment is so true and so saddens me...We are the home of the "free" (of conscience) and land of the "brave" (the ones who have survived and thrived in spite of us).
Well, as a person of faith, I have to say, we have been given so much.....in what ways have we shown our thankfulness....NOT AS WE SHOULD towards our fellow humans!!!
Tell me.....who does it harm to help and encourage our fellow Americans to receive financial help to acquire an excellent education? REALLY!? They will be returning the investment through their employment, purchasing homes and cars, paying taxes....etc. What is wrong with that? Republicans, Democrats, Independents....all.....would be helped and encouraged.
Thank you, Emily. As long as there are people like you in the world, there is hope. I think the day will come when our culture will truly begin the return to living with the earth and each other in sustainable ways. Perhaps it already has, but we are in that position that feels endless, and can't see it yet. Or maybe we can, but aren't yet sure that is what it is. I hope to live long enough to see that happen. (I promised my dog when I got her that I would do my best to outlive her. I think I can do that. Beyond that, well, that's why I am so optimistic about all the young people who are already taking on the next steps.
Yes, still fighting for their land back today, and for their right to be free from taxation, and to conduct their commerce as they want to do.
Exactly!
Thank you for this history lesson, especially for the words of Thomas Paine.
“We have it in our power,” Paine wrote, “to begin the world over again.” Is this what we need to do? I'm frightened of it because we are relatively secure at the moment But the greedy sociopaths have risen to the top, again.
I have learned these events before, but I need reminding. The narrative put forth in this post is so clear, it’s almost as if I’m learning it again for the first time, if that makes any sense.
In addition to looking back at our history for all it may tell us about our current troubles, this is also an ideal time to think about how America's children are doing. It's a big subject; how is Climate Change Affecting our Children and what about their mental health and gun violence. GUN VIOLENCE! Let's take a few minutes to read a bit about 'Childhood’s Greatest Danger: The Data on Kids and Gun Violence' that appeared in December, 2022 on the front page of The New York Times.
'Gun violence recently surpassed car accidents as the leading cause of death for American children.'
'The gun-death rate for children is nearly five in every 100,000. It was flat for more than a decade starting in 2000, and most years fewer than three in every 100,000 children were killed by guns. In 2014, the rate began to creep up, and by 2020 guns became the leading killer.'
'Last year was a particularly violent one: 3,597 children died by gunfire, according to provisional statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The death rate from guns was the highest it has been in more than 20 years. While the statistics for this year are incomplete, it is clear that the carnage has not receded.'
'No group of American children has been spared, but some have fared far worse. Last year, nearly two-thirds of gun deaths involving children — 2,279 — were homicides. Since 2018, they have increased by more than 73 percent. Most homicides involved Black children, who make up a small share of all children but shoulder the burden of gun violence more than any others, a disparity that is growing sharply.'
'The number of children who die by suicide with a gun has also risen to a historical high over the last decade. Last year, suicides made up nearly 30 percent of child gun deaths — 1,078. Unlike homicides, suicides disproportionately involve white children, mostly teenage boys. A decade ago, the number of white children who killed themselves with a gun totaled around 500 annually; in three of the last five years, that figure has surpassed 700.'
'The share of gun suicides for Black and Hispanic children has been growing, too. Still, in America, among children who die by gunfire, Black and Hispanic children are more likely to be killed by others, and white children are more likely to kill themselves.'
'Researchers who study gun violence say that it is difficult to explain exactly why gun deaths among children have risen so quickly, but most emphasize that the increased availability of guns — especially handguns, which tend to be used in homicides and suicides and also tend to be stored less safely than some other types of guns — has most likely played a role.'
'What is clear is that the United States is an extreme outlier when it comes to gun fatalities among children. When researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation recently compared a set of similarly large and wealthy nations, they found that among this group, the United States accounted for 46 percent of the child population but 97 percent of all child gun deaths.'
'There is no comprehensive data describing the nature of each fatal shooting in America — say, the number of children who died in circumstances related to domestic violence or gang-related fights or accidental shootings. The C.D.C. collects information on the gender and race of each child shot and killed. The Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit organization that has tracked deaths and injuries related to gun violence since 2014, compiles location and other data for thousands of fatal shootings.
David Hemenway, a professor of health policy at Harvard University and co-director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, said that gun-ownership rates and other factors may explain some of the demographic differences in how children die by gunfire, but more data is needed to answer the question definitively.'
'Overall, he said, he worried that the proliferation of guns in America would lead to more and more deaths among children. “Where there are more guns around, there’s more death,” he said. “It’s just so easy when you get in arguments, when you rob somebody — if you have a gun, it’s so much easier to kill.”
'Black boys are now eight times as likely as other children to die by gunfire.'
'The recent spike in gun deaths for Black children builds on a continuing phenomenon in which some children are exposed to much more violence than others. While guns became the leading cause of death for American children only recently, they have been the leading cause of death among Black children for at least two decades.'
'One pattern is consistent: Poor neighborhoods and those with a high population of Black residents, whether in cities or suburbs, are more likely to suffer from gun violence than others. Children growing up in poor neighborhoods in the Houston metro area are twice as likely to be shot and killed as other children there. In the Chicago area, the child gun-death rate in poor neighborhoods is 7.5 times as high as in others. In the St. Louis area, it’s 10 times as high.'
'Gun violence is rising all over the United States, but children in big cities are more than three times as likely to be killed as children in small towns.' (NewYorkTimes) See gifted link below.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/12/14/magazine/gun-violence-children-data-statistics.html?unlocked_article_code=rNNhm6TXfUtyEd2SGZjbOIONCKZTL6xaa1fWC06bQ2qCSQw9RLLnhV6iq91m58j7T4G-LW1D0Y0CsrVYybkFdXhy8RZV9U_NAHwYg_TvHR1HXTeOPo1lpNdNTCq2MmvIPaXyhvwzXPAyw0PRCKR6hdkv4H_3Z4zcyYJmdeJFi_GkNmgzUoI7QfqZ8t8bIOIwCWL4hzRCyZCjP1jvh8ldNll1emtgvBLiZ9eB6YYS7XLW5l6VCtGwKM25xKSQxr4a9Pn4hKpvbdmOngw74E_-JrgewQKc-pr1ZtyXsVGUvicUQ4dPzL32THChP6sCQQOUC-Da6KmQ5zlMI8lO39EzOe_4HtMtu-VCAf-dW3w9DBh89OB2J2gmyt7Qcb_jxIrU&smid=url-share
Thank you Fern McBride for highlighting the importance of caring for our most vulnerable population- children. Gun violence and Poverty disproportionately and adversely affect people of color and our laws and social structures. There is no catching up without recognition and intervention. Our courts are abandoning or reversing affirmative action, voter equality laws and separation of church and state, and a woman’s autonomy and right to choose. And more. Work to do.
Irenie, there are connections to be made between the number of black children that are dying as a result of gun violence, the number of guns now owned in America, along with the Republicans being no shows concerning gun regulations, instead, they are loosening them. Yes white children are killing themselves at an increased rate but, still, far less then the deaths of minority children. We know the population many Republican representatives and MAGAs want to see reduced.
So true, Fern. These statistics and tragedies are not new. Racism, Poverty and ineffective or unenforced gun laws are major contributors. Again: Racism and Poverty. Do repubs or SCOTUS care?
It's more deliberate on their part, Irenie.
No, they don't care one bit, some of them are glad that tragedies like that are happening. They are really that evil and filled with pure hate. Some of the Rethug Congress critters are even that evil and oh so corrupt.
Yes, they care. The trouble is, they're in favor of it.
Irenie--Why would they care?
Joanne, a rhetorical “question “ but what makes us human! Language is powerful. What makes us human? Inhumane?
Fern, it’s hard to “like” your post, but you do a great service in sharing this sad, sobering information. Thank you.
Thank you, Barbara. As we learn the facts, dig for them, we understand the far-right more clearly and how to defeat them. The war that many Republicans are waging is not only against democracy but on minorities, more directly -- more lethally than we realized -- and these are the facts that all Americans need to know. Calling them 'thugs, hardly covers all 'they' are about. Is there a genocidal aspect to the radical, right-wing agenda? Most of those dark robes on SCOTUS are beginning to look like a 'polite alternative' to those white, hooded ones.
Agreed, Fern. Those robes are more akin to those white bedsheets than they have been for a century.
In my opinion, i think all of these high numbers of deaths would have been lower if Donald TUMP and his MAGAT Rethugs had never been elected in 2016. The Extreme court would not have been loaded with corrupt Judges either. It makes me sick to think about how much better off we would have been if HRC had been elected instead of an incompetent, raging, corrupt criminal, Donald TUMP. He is the worst thing to happen to our nation in it's 200 plus years of existence. That is my opinion on the whole thing... His lying and his calls for violence emboldened his followers to commit violence and innocent lives were lost on account of it. The riots and insurrection on JAN 6 are a prime example. Charlottesville, VA in 2017 are another...
Trump, his imitators, and the Fox-types preach racist and hatred. Their desire is power, not Democracy. Evil money supports and rewards their actions and sins of omission. SCOTUS fits in well.
I agree, they are all egomaniacs and narcissistic blowhards that really are worth nothing to anyone but their own selfish lust for total power and domination. These kind of people need to be eliminated.
He is exactly what Paine warned against, exactly….
Yes, we can attribute the increase in overt and accepted racism to tfg and repubs. But not the beginning. In recent nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Before and after. Think of fascist countries, Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, the list goes on, then and now. And USA. When I was younger I couldn’t understand how “good” people could stand by and watch the terror and violence. Burn books, March and salute Hitler. And turn in their neighbors. The evil knows no nationality or religion. The libraries are full of books that document and predict and teach. Here in America we are banning books. Turning in neighbors and physicians. Now. Not just in Florida. And in recent history. McCarthy. Our courts. Texas. But because many of us recognize this Fascism and try to stop it, Maybe there is hope for us. Maybe.
😘
And then there are those who want to prohibit teaching what they call Critical Race Theory, because it is designed to make white children feel bad. Like the threat of getting shot in school or at the store or library or church or birthday party or the beach doesn't make them feel bad?
I think this excuse for prohibiting the teaching of critical race theory, for example, is bs. I was taught American history, as it was in the 60s and 70s (memorizing dates and such) and have been interested in history since. However, I never remember feeling “bad” about it. First, I was a kid and like most kids the world had nothing to do with me, and second, it was what happened in the past—I had nothing to do with that.
MLMinET, I saw a meme on Facebook that said (along with iconic historical photograph) "So now, the kids who threw rocks at Ruby Bridges are now trying to prevent their children from learning that they threw rocks at Ruby Bridges"
Oh, absolutely it is BS. We hear that in Florida all the time, though.
A Rethuglican propagandist "re-coded" (his word) Critical Race Theory to mean "criticism of racism theory". We can't allow our children to think poorly of racism. That would undermine white supremacy and wreck the businesses for luxury yachts and private planes, which are absolutely necessary for buying supreme court justices.
Erasing History is like a fire destroying what we know and see. We are left with the ashes. And doubt… the leaders of any state or school that bans CRT and any book of initials don’t care about education or feelings. They want to erase history. So we don’t know. I graduated from high school in 1964, California. I knew about the Holocaust as family knowledge. I learned about Japanese Internment in college. Not part of high school history. Ignorance is part of today’s curriculum in many states. And public funding of private and charter and religious schools means that a school can teach anything. Or not. And exclude anyone.
So tragically true . . .
Thank-you Fern, for bringing this difficult topic to this forum. Too many of us live insulated lives, cut off from the challenges and realities of most of America. In my work with juvenile delinquents I am sad to say I have been to too many funerals - some by gun violence, most by overdose. The latest was last week, a brilliant young woman I had real hope for was found dead in a hotel room.
The trick is to feel and be engaged, not remain ignorant, pretend it's not happening, or, worst of all, make up rationales as to why it is inevitable.
"The LAW IS KING." So cleanly stated. Thank you, Professor for quoting Paine this evening.
Agree….then I pause and think on some laws that have been passed and enforced that actually excluded equality and justice for all. So, I think, we must carefully & thoughtfully take care to choose those (sometimes “the people”) who canonize the laws and enforce them. Sigh, it’s enough to give me a headache…..
A lot depends on to whom the law applies, who gets to create and define it, and who it serves: of the people, by the people, for the people.
This makes me think of the lyric by Dylan “you were right from your side, and I was right from mine”. When “the people” have opposing views/beliefs of what is “right”—some who won’t tolerate any compromise—it makes it all the more critical “who” gets to create those laws (ha, cue the power struggles!). A conundrum to be sure! I’ve mentioned before, but I see “us” as a spinning top….lean too far one way or the other, and we topple. A bit of “wobble” is good, I think, because it means more voices are included in the spin.
We must continue to educate ourselves from many sources rather than just listening and following friends. We must study the past as well as make ourselves aware of present conditions here in the US as well as throughout the world. We rely too much on the idea that we lead the world.
China is everywhere, working hard everyday....all over the world. We can sit on our hands if we want to and pretend we will always be the greatest but we are fooling ourselves.
We must care for and educate ALL OF OUR CITIZENRY! We cannot be slack! We will pay the price for the work we choose to do here or pay the price for the work we give away. Those who do the work....ARE PAID WELL WITH OPPORTUNITIES FOR CONTINUED EDUCATION will be the winners! ( I include our immigrant population)
Wealth is futile ..... it will evaporate if it is not put to good use for building our future....keeping our citizens healthy and employed and EDUCATED
THANK YOU HEATHER!!!!
Emily, yes, I think Americans have a pretty high opinion of ourselves….sometimes deserved and mostly not! I think, perhaps, it is because we are such a large country and most do not travel widely—heck, it’s a tall order just to travel around literally our whole continent (well, a big chunk of it anyway). Is it any wonder that we (mostly) don’t know about or pay attention to other countries in the world, when we don’t even educate ourselves about OUR own true history. You are right, education is key, as is curiosity and engagement.
"The law is king" was good constitutional doctrine, going back in England for hundreds of years.
Important to remember “the adoption of the Lee Resolution marked the delegates’ ultimate conviction that a nation should rest not on the arbitrary rule of a single man and his hand-picked advisors, but on the rule of law.” Thanks for the reminders Dr. Richardson
Or a single Supreme Court with its hand-picked obedient-to-their-leader justices.
Evening to All!
Thomas Paine is perhaps the most unsung and most theoretically pure of the Founding Fathers. His life was one of contradictions and paradoxes, illuminated by his pioneering and piercing writings that lit the fuse that would shortly thereafter spark on the storied green fields of Concord, described so wonderfully by Longfellow---"By the rude bridge that arched the flood, their flags to April's wind unfurled, there the embattled farmers stood and fired the shot heard round the world"
He was a common man of uncommon wisdom. A corset maker who had to fight to cross the Atlantic, a born radical if there ever was one, whose unlikely friendship with the patrician yet battle tested George Washington sparked the very initiating pulse of the idea that became America.
He was the author of the first American best seller, "Common Sense", stirring his countrymen to revolution. And when a year later that stirring saw so many American casualties, and military setbacks reflected in the burning of Charlestown and the retreat from New York, he penned "The Crisis" to steel his new Country's steadfastness at the most dire of times, to hang on just long enough to ever so slowly, turn the tide. While we rightly venerate the familiar names of that era, Washington, Adams, Hamilton, Jefferson, Lafayette, et. al., we should not forget that without Thomas Paine, those venerable names would just be letters logged onto a crushing imperial power's journal.
Even today, do not those steeling words ring true?---
"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country, but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."
Another clear look, Dr. Richardson, thank you as always! And yet...If the prohibition on crossing the Appalachians had held, what might be different today?
That is, if you care to speculate what direction the country would have gone in without those thousands of miles of free land.
The land was hardly free, but occupied by people who had been here since the last Ice Age at least.
@Craig You make an important point, one dear to my heart. However, you mistake my meaning - in this case I meant "free" in the sense of "did not require to be paid for to be possessed"
Land for which the native inhabitants have paid dearly for from the first encounter through today...
It's interesting, isn't it, how many different connotations there are to these words like "free", "paid", "bought", "possessed" that take up so much space in the world - at least the world of discourse!
JJ, although I have no definitive source, I suspect that most if not all native Americans did not have a notion of "ownership" of the land they occupied. I believe that they perceived themselves as part of the land upon which they trod and hunted, working in kind of "partnership" with the land. As such it likely didn't compute to them when white settlers wanted to "pay" something to "buy" the land which they inhabited.
Roght on, Craig! Those whe were here then were driven out of the east, then out of Ohio, then out of Illinois and so on and on and on, all for nought but poverty and ill treatment.
So, what I think I'm hearing here is that whether or not any kind of monetary/trade interaction took place, & whether there was a capitalist understanding of "ownership" on both sides of what really wasn't a sales agreement, those thousands of miles of land were stolen from the people who lived on it. I'm sure there are many stronger terms than "stolen" that could justifiably be applied. Very interested in hearing your thoughts on this.
Barry Lopez, in a wonderful book titled The Rediscovery of North America, asks us to ponder how different history might be had Europeans come to this land to "inquire" rather than to "acquire."
Mimi, this is something I have pondered all my life. Thank you for bringing it up. Some of the earliest European colonists regarded indigenous people as neighbors, asked permission to settle, and had good relations. Indigenous people had a rich intellectual life that was highly respected by educated settlers, who often wrote about it. This respect carried over into later relations, but the increasing numbers of settlers with other interests overcame those early beginnings, and so indigenous people's were made to seem something they weren't in order to justify their removal or destruction. Of course they fought back: wouldn't we, if someone came to our communities with the intent to eject us and take over, ripping up the land in the name of greed?
Only in recent years has it come to be seen that indigenous peoples still retain the old knowledge of how to manage the land, and that they are the best people to take on the task of returning our damaged lands to a healthy state. We are starting to pay attention to their ways of food production and to emulate it, too. Small beginnings, but they have the knowledge and skills, where they have been permitted to retain it. They can teach us how to do things to mitigate and survive the coming changes due to climate change, if we will pay attention.
I live between those worlds, as I always had to, but as I age, I lean more toward my indigenous roots. I wish it hadn't taken so long for this "American" culture to make room for us.
We have imprisoned our indigenous peoples from day one! And they are still imprisoned on reservations, in abject poverty. We did that and there is no narrative that can change that!
Wow! If anyone - besides me - would benefit from a condensed history of the events which led to the creation and signing of our Declaration of Independence, this is it.
Thank you Heather!
Thank you professor for bringing Thomas Paine into “LETTERS” today. Here are just three of his quotes – check out more on google or your browser. Paine is such a prolific writer!
“The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.”
― Thomas Paine, A Letter Addressed to the Abbe Raynal on the Affairs of North America
“These are the times that try men's souls.”
― Thomas Paine, The American Crisis
“Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.”
― thomas paine, Rights of Man
Thomas Paine - such a thoughtful and articulate and courageous guy.
Unfortunately, HCR misses the original independence resolution of May 1776, written by John Adams, in which Congress voted to "totally suppress" royal government
Oh, I don't think she missed it. It just wasn't part of today's story. She did mention that by that time, a number of the colonies had already written their own desires to severe relations with England. Suppressing royal government is slightly different.
Annie Stratton, I hope you're right, but I suspect that today's story misses an essential point, as I just explained in this post:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-2-2023/comment/18063173
I will suggest that a "desire" to sever relations with England is different from actually doing so.
South Carolina (and no other colony) jumped the gun in March 1776, setting up an independent government, but South Carolina still resisted a formal declaration of independence.
John, I get the point you're making, and glad you brought up the detail about South Carolina. It is truly a place of it's own. Not sure that anything you are saying is in disagreement with what I wrote, though.
I believe Heather has made that observation before, in her explorations with us into the development of American politics. Not positive and can't give you a specific reference: I have been reading Heather's LFAA since the beginning (going on 4 years) and she has covered a lot of ground in that time, generally focusing on history as it illuminates what is happening today. The picture emerges over time, and it's terrific when someone adds detail to the discussion. This isn't a competition, unlike some college seminars. I'm so glad.
I also catch Heather's video talks on Facebook, either live or on video. SOMEWHERE in there is a more detailed treatment of the runup to the Declaration of Independence, including the process of writing the Declaration, (in which I also learned that I am not the only one who is not a fan of Jefferson, but that is another story, which I'm sure will re-emerge in time).
I love all this: it's like going back to grad school for history, with seminar with some of the folks here and other forums, and reading following Heather's citations, and book recommendations from my fellow "students". I studied history and poly-sci as an undergrad (and art and theater and science), but my masters was in science, and that was my career, though I've kept my nose in both history and politics.
Lost out on going for a PhD because a tick bit me and won. But I muddled through treatment, kept working, and eventually my brain kicked back in. So here I am on the other side of 80, still learning. I miss the piece of paper mostly because I'd have liked to teach, but also because I like the idea of my kids calling me Dr. Mom (they came up with that).
Oops, mentioning Jefferson is a hot button for me. Part of my fascination with history is assessing the remaining documentary snippets to gain insight into the mindset and moral character of people who made Important Decisions. For example James Wilson and John Rutledge with the unhappy compromise that made the Constitution possible.
Jefferson seems to have been a "trimmer" or successful junior (Virginia) Establishment man. He bit back his personal moral convictions to get along seamlessly with the Virginia planters who backed him politically.
With his wife on her deathbed, Jefferson promised to never marry again. Then, in France, he sent for two teenage slaves who had come to him from his wife's family.
The boy was trained as a cook, and the girl was to become a maid to his daughter.
And then young Sally Hemings arrived in Paris, bearing an unmistakable resemblance to her half-sister, Jefferson's deceased wife.
Her brother would stay in France, a free man, but Sally agreed to go back to Virginia as Jefferson's slave with the understanding that their children would be free.
Jefferson's mentor, George Wythe, had a wife who was barren, so Wythe was never able to have a son. In his final years, Chancellor Wythe lived alone, with two freed slaves, a sister (housekeeper) and brother (gardener). There was also an eight-year-old mulatto boy whom Wythe was teaching Latin and Greek. Wythe made Jefferson the guardian of the boy in his will, but when Wythe's great-nephew (who was being cut off as heir) poisoned Wythe, the boy died, also.
Thank you for publishing this excellent and very timely detail on the origins and elements of the confrontation between the capable and fed-up colonists and their then reigning King of England; ... elements that did, inevitably, lead to the declaration of Independence and the American Revolution. The more of this historic detail we have available to us over the next 15 or so months, the better equipped "We the People..." will be to defend our democracy and our Constitution against the new Monarchists faction - working through their powerful, well-financed and carefully designed propaganda system - that has now taken control of the U.S. Congress and the national Republican party. More of your letters on this topic, please.
Spot on, Jerry….”the new Monarchists faction”, as you say. It seems to me they are also partnering with the theocrats/Dominionists by incorporating/espousing Christian nationalist ideas/values (sigh, what part of the 1st Amendment don’t they understand?).
All of it. I think their definition of "free exercise" of religion is more along the lines of "ours is best and must be applied to all of the country and none of the other religions or belief structures are right."
And SCOTUS
There is no better argument than Paine’s against what Trump and his ilk are trying to do today.
Except for the argument promulgated by his True Believers.