On Father's Day, Send Your Cards to Tom Instead of George

[LiberalUprising]

by Jason Miller

Our history books tell us that George Washington was the father of the abomination America has become. Many around the world, including some Americans, have written off the possibility that the United States is capable of acting with morality and sanity. Yet hope remains on the horizon for our country. Harvey Kaye's Thomas Paine and the Promise of America rekindled my fading belief in the United States as a potential home to true freedom and justice. Thomas Paine's spirit burns as an intense beacon lighting the way toward his envisioned "asylum for mankind". Paine, in contrast to Washington, is the intellectual father of an America which does not yet exist, but is still very possible.

Washington epitomized the aristocracy which has dominated our nation both socially and politically since its inception. It is time for the cultural descendents of Thomas Paine--the poor and the working class---to awaken from our slumber and lay claim to our share of the wealth and power in the United States. In so doing, we can remake this nation in the image that Paine envisaged:

When it shall be said in any country in the world, "My poor are happy; neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them; my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want,
the taxes are not oppressive; the rational world is my friend, because I am a friend of happiness": when these things can be said, then may that country boast its constitution and its government."

Something is Very Rotten in Denmark

http://sensiblyeclectic.com/news/index.php/mainsite/2006/01/02/on_father_s_day_send_your_cards_to_tom_i

[chaz4jazz]

1. You should also remember

You should study your American History more carefully. You'd know that Washington eschewed wealthy trappings and spent 7 years in the field suffering losses and trying to outwit and outfight an overwhelming force of disciplined regulars with a makeshift army. It was the desertions of the patriot soldiers that prompted Tom Paine to write his famous lines in Crisis No. 1 "These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and sunshine patriot, will, in this crisis, shrink from service of their country."

Though mighty were his words that changed some minds, Paine spent only a few days at Valley Forge (in Dec. 1777) and never served in the military.

Washington was not from aristocracy stock - he married into the aristocracy having no wealth of his own. He was an accomplished carpenter and surveyor by trade. While he and 11,000 of his patriot-soldiers, suffered horribly at Valley Forge (1777-78) personally leading his forces (unlike our current commander-in-chief and unlike the Continental Congress who spent the cold winter at their home hearths with bread, beef and mutton) Tom Paine was freeloading

"...retreat to cozy quarters in the homes of wealthy friends, first in Bordentown, New Jersey, and then in Lancaster, where he whiled away his days, eating huge dinners and drinking large amounts of liquor in convivial evening gabfests. Not until April did he get around to publishing Crisis No. 5. It bore no resemblance to the famous Crisis No. 1 written in the dark days of 1776..." Thomas Fleming

Chaz

[chaz4jazz]

2. Addendum

This is only to say that Geo. Washington should not be held responsible for what this nation has become. His idea of the presidency was to avoid the power that Geo. W. B*sh is attempting to assume.