"We hold these truths to be self-evident
That all men are created equal
That they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights
That among these are Life, Liberty and pursuit of Happiness"
These words were written by Thomas Jefferson, whose memory protestors now despise and desecrate. Jefferson was a brilliant and complex man and flawed as we all are. He and the other founders lived their lives in a land far distant from the great power centers in Europe and filled with independent-minded people. He was a student of the philosophical Enlightenment then taking place in England and France which generated his ideas of equality and personal freedom. But for the first time in the history of the world he and the other founders had a golden opportunity to put these ideas into actual practice. So, they took a shot at it and put on the line their "lives, fortunes and sacred honor". They won their independence and eventually the members of this somewhat disparate group were able to compromise their differences and put together an actual structure of a self-governing society, which was finally agreed to by every State involved but only after months of public debate by the citizenry.
Thomas Jefferson was a slave owner, as were 5 of our first 7 Presidents. By present day standards the act of buying and selling people to be farm hands and household servants is an abomination. Instead today we pay low wages and perhaps give room and board to imported farm and landscape workers, au pairs and nannies, who are nevertheless free to come and go as they wish. Washington and Jefferson were both uneasy about slavery, but without excusing the situation, this was the way things were if you lived in Virginia in the 18th or early 19th century. I haven't the slightest doubt that 250 years from now, if civilization doesn't meet up with some great catastrophe, all our food will be synthetic and those in that time will look back with horror on our practice of killing and eating animals. Surely, procreation will be highly controlled and it's likely our present habit of elimination of unwanted pregnancy by uterine evacuation will be considered barbaric. I could go on but, without excusing Mr. Jefferson, the point is that judging the behavior of people living in the remote past by present day moral standards is just as invalid as it will be for people in the distant future to judge us.
Jefferson's words, at the time they were written, were improperly applied. They did not include slaves, or Indians, or even women. But they have served as a blueprint or a master plan for our society ever since and step by step, often with great turmoil, we have advanced to adhere to them more perfectly. The amazing thing is that, despite the great technological and political changes that have taken place since, they apply today just as much as the day they were written. As noted by the response to the post, all of us, regardless of our political stance, accept them as true and good. They are the spirit of America, ideas that have over time been adopted in one form or another world-wide.
Let us study the history of our founders so that we are fully aware of their strengths and weaknesses but let us not desecrate the memory or the inspired ideas of these brilliant and daring men. Who they were and the inspirations they had are inseparable. Those who seek to destroy the one, will likely at the same time destroy the other.
Sent from Mail for Windows 10
