Brushfire of Freedom
The Irritable Pundit
Hello all,
My column comes out after Independence day (as they are published Mondays), and rather than miss it by a day, we'll just be way early and do it now.
I'd like to hit a slightly different point than most. I believe Independence day is amazingly relative today, more-so than ever before. I can hear your inner dialogue.. "Blah blah, more than EVER before? Please"
Yup. For the meaning of Independence itself has almost been forgotten.
Example: According to that bastion of consistently liberal explanations, "Wiki
pedia", Independence is " ...a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory." Note that Wiki puts the state as having the primary condition, and the people as exercising self-government within the confines of the state.
Liberal claptrap.
The preamble to the constitution does not say, "We the states", it says "we the people", as in American parlance it is "we the people" who declared our independence, formed a union and removed ourselves from tyranny. This was not an accident of verbiage, it was intentional. Our founders were fierce individualists, with a keen sense of self-reliance and a fanatical opposition to the runaway powers of an over-reaching state.
Which sadly is exactly what we are seeing in our beloved country today. Look around, what do you see? Wage controls, price controls, government rationed healthcare, impenetrable regulations and unaccountable bureaucracies, unconstitutional power-grabs and incomprehensible central planning. Our economy is in shambles and our government grabs more, and more, and more. The power, the money, and the choices they take come from you. In the truest meaning of our founders, they are taking our independence.
George Washington would be ashamed of the city that bears his name.
Thomas Jefferson would be loading a pistol while talking about watering the tree of liberty.
Benjamin Franklin would be hitting on a scullery maid but he would have much to say in the morning.
What can I say? Benjamin was the original Pimp of Philadelphia. He would get around to condemning today's pretenders eventually, but he was a randy old geezer first and foremost. His priorities were:
1) Women
2) Women
3) Science
4) Women
5) Liberty, freedom, and Independence!
And if he had time? More women. If the rumors of the number of his illegitimate children (here and abroad) are even half right, his direct decedents could easily control Rhode Island's elections. And they would be of all races, colors and creeds. In fact, when asked if he preferred blondes, brunettes or redheads, his response was "All cats are gray in the dark".
C'mon! Whats not to love about that man?
In truth, perhaps more than Washington or Jefferson, Franklin was the epitome of what independence actually was (if not its most powerful proponent). He lived his life his own way, travelled around the world chasing science and learning (and a few skirts). As the forces lined against the colonists, he would come to fight ferociously, using his extraordinary intellect against the powers that tried to take his freedom away. Franklin fought against a tyranny that wanted to limit what he was and what he could be.
This Independence day, remember our freedoms and our founders and especially remember Franklin. In his honor, make a resolution to be who you want to be, to be all you dream you can be.
And maybe give your significant other a scandalous little squeeze in public.
Franklin would have liked that.
See you next week!
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