"Wake up America! There are forces at work right now, which are trying to tear down this great country. To change it into something it was never intended to be. For the sake of generations yet to come, we must fight to preserve this country as it was intended to be."
I have long been fascinated with the early days of our country. In particular, the time leading up to signing the DOI, and then the time after, until the Constitution was ratified. I think this might have been the most important period in our history as it truly was "make or break" time. If we had screwed this up, our very fragile republic might have only lasted a short time, and been replaced with who knows what.
First off, our Declaration of Independence (DOI). Even though it only took Thomas Jefferson less than three weeks to write it, when the final signatures were inked on this document is still being debated. Some historians think that signing the DOI took weeks, with the final signatures being attached on July 4, 1776. Other historians don't think it was fully signed until August 2, 1776. In any event, the country adopted July 4th as the official date.
Once it is signed, then what? We have 13 states with nothing really tying them together. Then for sixteen long months, there was zero governance which held this new republic together. A Continental Congress was formed, and met in the temporary center of this new country - Philadelphia. It was there these brave and wise men hammered out the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. In 1777, it was signed into law.
Turned out the Articles of Confederation was only a half a loaf to many. It was okay for a starter, but many did not think it would stand the test of time. It was decided to finish the job by taking the Articles of Confederation as a baseline, and coming up with even a better document - a real constitution.
Again in Philadelphia, the Constitutional Convention and Ratification was convened. It begin in May of 1787, and lasted until September of the same year. It was during that time, one of the greatest documents ever conceived by mankind was born - our beloved Constitution. It was fully ratified in 1789, and has served as the basis for our governance ever since.
Who were the true American heroes back then? The list is long and distinguished. Brave men. Wise men. Men of passion and valor. Men who truly pledged to each other "their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor." Did they always agree? Of course not. But as patriots, as brothers, it was always the union which came first. They cared what was best for this new country.
One of my pet peeves which I have had now for a long, long time, is we have quit teaching true American history and civics in high school. Or what we do teach, is how bad America has been during periods of our history. If we taught real history, the young people would love it. Why? This time of our founding, with everything which was going on, is riveting stuff. Plus, if you want to dive deeper, and read more of the story behind the story of some of these great Founders, it just gets better and better.
Wake up America! There are forces at work right now, which are trying to tear this great country down. To change it into something it was never intended to be. For the sake of generations yet to come, we must fight to preserve our country as it was intended to be. As Ben Franklin warned so many years ago - "We have a Republic - if we can keep it".
A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
ReplyDeleteToo bad about the resignation of Scott Pruitt....
ReplyDeleteFor all the notoriety an mis-conceptions about his effectiveness, Pruitt has not yet killed or rolled back any significant regulations that were in place when President Donald Trump took office.
So far he’s only managed to delay a few rules that hadn’t yet taken effect.
His supporters, critics and boss have all promoted the perception that he’s repealed Obama’s environmental legacy and shredded America’s environmental rulebook—and no one has promoted that perception more energetically than Pruitt, who frequently sued Obama’s EPA when he was Oklahoma’s attorney general.
Nevertheless, that perception is wrong.
Pruitt has yet to create new regulations that would outlast his tenure or Trump’s, or to rescind any of the regulations Obama created.
He’s only been able to delay a few that were already on hold before he took office because they were mired in litigation—most notably Obama’s rules protecting wetlands from development and limiting carbon emissions from power plants.
He vowed to repeal and replace them both, but he’s barely begun those processes.
He also managed to block a few Obama proposals that had not yet taken effect—like a ban on the pesticide chlorpyrifos, which the EPA had found posed a risk to fetal brain development, and a rule requiring sewage plants to reduce toxic emissions.
While it may be impossible to imagine anyone worse than Pruitt to lead our nation’s environmental policy, plenty of individuals could be just as bad.
And as he’s shown us on numerous occasions, President Trump has a sixth sense for ferreting these people out and putting them on the executive-branch payroll.
His replacement, climate change denier and dirty coal proponent, Andrew Wheeler has more friends than enemies in Washington and seems unlikely to shoot himself in the foot or otherwise self-destruct.
In the end, that might actually make Wheeler even more dangerous than Pruitt—not less.