Years ago in high school U.S. History…..we read a variety of writings by our Founding Fathers. We read the story of Johnny Tremaine…some things by those Adams brothers, “the Committees of Coorespondence”, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and of course the words of George Washington.
“Common Sense” by Thomas Paine was accorded some extra credit points, but was not required reading. At 16 years of age back in the 50’s…heady reading like “Common Sense” was scanned quickly enough to get the major points and then it was back to watching Fess Parker as “Davy Crockett – King of the Wild Frontier”. ” Wild Bill Hickok”, “Palladin” and of course ” Maverick”. “Time for Beanie” was still interesting secretly as was watching Lloyd Thaxton on “Dance Party”, Wink Martindale at POP and the highlight of them all: “American Bandstand” with the best dancers Bob & Justine and host Dick Clark.
The new “Tea Party” seems to be harking back to the spirit of Thomas Paine and those halcyon days of truth and simple, not so naive – excellence in politics. Thomas Paine was late to the party – of American Independence. But he caught up quickly! What Paine captured was the essential image of what freedom could represent:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine
The 58 page pamphlet produced in 1776, after the events of Lexington in April of 1775 tells a story that grasps the very essence of “the colonies” and their trials and tribulations against a very irate monarch. Paine had come to America in 1774….but Paine immediately understood what was going on. “Common Sense” read some 55 years after the first reading is an amazing eye opener. In an open letter to the Quaker Church, in the Appendix……Paine faces the ultimate conundrum of amazingly mixing religion with politics.
“Common Sense” is just as relevant today as it was in 1776. Oddly, the same issues are being addressed including – Israel. Paine was able to somehow capture the entire issue of “Freedom and Independence” and what that might mean – including illegal immigration, race and the impact to our American way of life. Paine mentions how important the French & Indian War was and how that impacted our drive for Independence from Britain.You can go to www.doverpublications.com and ask for ISBN O-486-28602-4 for a per copy price of $1.50. It is called a Dover-Thrift- Edition.
This publication should be read by every person over 50 and be required reading for those wanting to vote in this country. Hey, we still remember “American Bandstand”; Bob & Justine – but as much as they might have affected our lives – Thomas Paine did more! It will take approximately two hours and 15 minutes to read it thoroughly. But then that would take a little “Common Sense”!
Teachers should require all their high school seniors to read and be thoroughly tested on this before they graduate.
Which Adams brothers?
LOL, I guess the Winships think John and Samuel were brothers… although I doubt they read anything by Samuel…
You are both sooooo stupid!
From David McCullough, John Adams, the middle brother was Peter and the youngest Elihu, who died of illness during the siege of Boston in 1775.
Back to Santa Ana schooling.
Yeah right Stan. The Winships remember reading stuff by John and Peter and Elihu Adams. That’s even weirder than my theory.
Comrade Vern, they stated: “We read the story of Johnny Tremaine…some things by those Adams brothers”………..
The Winships did not say that they “remember reading stuff by John and Peter and Elihu Adams.”……… you egg head.
I think you should convert to the Mexicanism with your knowledge of the Spanish language and let intelligent people, like I, to talk about the American history.
Well, Stan, one of these days the Winships will come back and explain what the hell they meant. But, you cabbage head, even in your quote it says “We read … some things BY those Adams brothers.” I know English is only your first language, but that means they think they remember reading something written by…
I don’t know, I’ve started to come up with an alternative theory of what Adams brothers the Winships read. Now I’m starting to think Gomez and Fester? Of course in that case they should have spelled Addams with two D’s
Please be advised that Winships are highly intellectual people and are using super high level of English higher than your middle-school level so you can’t just read their writings…… Winships must be studied and interpreted.
So let me help you comrade Vern:
1) Statement: “We read the story of Johnny Tremaine” means that Winships read story [OF] Johnny Tremaine, in other words Johnny Tremaine’s story — written by Johnny Tremaine.
2) Statement: “………” means the contents of the story, same as bla, bla, bla.
3) Statement: “some things by those Adams brothers” means that some action was taken [BY] those Adams brothers with in that story [OF] Johnny Tremaine.
Your Spanish my be good comrade Vern, but your English literatim skills sucks.
Please take note of it egg head!
I don’t think Gomez and Fester were brother. Fester was somebody’s uncle.
In any case I don’t think they did a lot of political writing.
Apropos: didn’t Peter and Elihu collaborate on some sort of Colonial Cookbook?
Paine was instrumental in our founding, no doubt. Problem is, he, like so many others of his era, have been mythologized and simplified by succeeding generations. Paine is worthy of admiration and certainly worth reading, but would the Winships, or Glenn Beck, agree with THESE Paine sentiments?;
“All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit. ”
“Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be true. ”
“He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.”
“He who is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death.” (this one goes out to all the Iraq War supporters)
“War involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen circumstances that no human wisdom can calculate the end; it has but one thing certain, and that is to increase taxes.”
Guess which country’s taxes will be increasing soon?
Beautiful Paine quotes, anon. Other interesting facts:
John Adams couldn’t stand him, and called him something like “the most dangerous man alive,” because of his fervent belief in direct democracy. (Adams, wisely mistrustful of the mass’ intelligence and instincts, pushed for the complex representative democracy we have today, with all its checks and balances against – among other things – the tyranny of the mob.)
During OUR Revolution, Irish-born British Parliamentarian Edmund Burke, the father of conservatism, enthusiastically backed our fight for independence from Britain, because he didn’t think his country (Britain) should be over-extending itself as an Empire and fighting against Americans’ self-determination. So at that point he and Tom Paine were allies.
But a few years later when the French overthrew their monarchy in THAT bloody revolution, Paine and Burke violently disagreed in a series of books and pamphlets attacking each other. Paine, considering himself a “citizen of the world” and fervently believing in democratic revolution everywhere, embraced the French revolution wholeheartedly, and hurried off to France to be part of it. Burke foresaw nothing but trouble for France, contending in his conservative way that change needs to be gradual and organic, and longtime traditions and institutions (like the monarchy) can’t be just suddenly uprooted. And history, as much as all of us love Tom Paine, showed Edmund Burke to be correct.
As Paine soon found out. At first embraced as a revolutionary hero by the French radicals, his first faux pas was voting AGAINST beheading the imprisoned king. (Paine was ahead of his time, even ahead of OUR time, by being against both capital punishment and slavery.) Soon he found himself rotting away in a French prison, for a few years. He was bitter for the rest of his life toward President George Washington, who he believed could have got him freed much earlier than he did.
Paine’s final & most controversial book was “The Age of Reason,” a vitriolic (and often hilarious) attack on organized religion and biblical literalism. THIS was far too radical for most of his old American friends, and got him pretty much shunned from society for the rest of his life. Samuel Adams in particular, a real holy roller (who in stark contrast with his cousin John had originally thought the world of Paine) cut all ties with him. Even Paine’s best friend Tom Jefferson, who was President at the time, explained sadly to Paine that he couldn’t be seen with him now, even though he agreed with everything Paine had written about religion. Paine drank himself to a lonely death.
All off the top of my head. I wonder if the Winships or Stanley knew any of that? We’re talking one of my favorite eras, and one of my favorite writers.
Good stuff, Vern. I guess the Glenn Becks of the world just choose to ignore “The Age of Reason” side of Paine.
Obviously Paine was a Liberal and Socialists which has been historically proven that any socialism, including religious one, is oppressive, bloody and destructive. Name one socialistic country which is superior to the Adams’ stile of USA representative system prior to Carter, Clinton and Obama.
FYI, if the German democracy had Electoral College as we do then democratically elected Hitler would be rejected.
Adams was right that people [can’t] be trusted.
Take blogging, give them a little power and every blogger will assert his personal fascistic rules.
If the same power would be given to all individuals to run the state it would be same as MAO,s cultural revolution of 60s, an upheaval of the unprecedented proportions.
Thanks God for Adams!
Socialism is government ownership of the means of production. Paine never advocated for that. Neither has Carter, Clinton, or Obama.
From where did you got your idea?
I was born, educated and lived 22 years in it. I know Marxism/Leninism doctrine from the beginning to the end.
Why was Clinton living in Prague in communist family huh?….. when only 1 out of 20 families were communist.
Cartet’s Habitat for Humanity is socialism! Ordering 55 mile speed limit is socialism.
Obama mandatory Health care is socialism
Since you are anon and obviously a communist, I will not spend too much time with you.
If Paine same as Jefferson were in disagreement with Adams then they were socialist. [emphases added]
How many schools are named Jefferson and how many Adams?……. Huh?
From Wikipedia;
“Socialism is an economic and political theory advocating public (that means the government, Stanley) or common ownership and cooperative management of the means of production and allocation of resources.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism
Again, Paine never advocated for that. Neither has Carter, Clinton or Obama.
Mandatory healthcare is not socialism. You’re just buying into the latest fashionable use of the word Socialism, which has little relationship to reality.
As I stated in my prior comment, I will not argue with you about what you do not know, especially when you are living in the paranoid state of the anonymity.
P.S. Tom Paine – the original BLOGGER!
*It took a while to have you guys get on track. Thanks Stanley…you are the best. Name
calling any of the founding fathers is a effort in futility. Guessing what “they” thought and
when “they” thought it is total suppostion without basis. One simple question: When was
the last time that any of you read “Common Sense” from cover to cover in one sitting?
Whether Aaron Burr was a Vice President or a traitor…who is to know? We were not there –
any of us. What is most important was the great incite and clarity that was observed at the
time…..by the likes of Thomas Paine and so many others…willing to pledge their lives,
property and sacred honor to a noble cause. They were unique in a major way…in that
they actually had something to lose rather than just jacking their jaws and hoping to
ursurp the leavings of a crushed and broken system. Today, the Tories are still there..
be they Republicans or Democrats. The Freedom loving too……defending the 2nd Amendment, as well as elements of the first Amendment; Freedom of Speech and Religion.
Everything in our Constitution and Bill of Rights was brought forward by responding to the wrongs of a terrible British Monarch and his totally corrupt Mercantile System! The progeny
of those people are still with us….which must be constantly re-identified and responded to.
rw
“The progeny of those people are still with us….which must be constantly re-identified and responded to”……. So now you know, comrade Vern, why I must re-identify, socialists, liberals, progressives, green, red, bolsheviks, environmentalists and you.
“Guessing what “they” thought and when “they” thought it is total suppostion without basis.”
That’s just completely untrue. We don’t have to “guess”. We have what they wrote, and what they said, and what they did, that form a rather complete picture of the Founders. You pretend that only the mythological aspects of these people are what we can know about them. But if anyone wants to take the time to read some history in-depth (something the overwhelming percentage of Americans choose not to do), one will find a much more complicated and nuanced picture of the Founders than what we’re taught in school.