Free-Dumb
3 Themes About Independence Day They’re Forgetting To Teach
For any of your friends, acquaintances or colleagues who don’t quite jive-with, or get, my urban slang for freedom in today’s email subject…
I will be publishing a much longer piece this week which will dive deeper into it.
I don’t want there to be any uncertainty about where I see the USA heading, if certain levels of historical perspective aren’t grasped or valued.
For today, however, I’ll just stick with this ONE thought:
Contrary to what isn’t taught in school…
King George III, representing the Crown, did not have unanimous support, of his British subjects, for the heavy-handed governance of the colonies.
Yes, even an ever-increasing percentage of common folk on his side of the pond disagreed with his “works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.” [excerpt from The Declaration of Independence]
In short, in my lingo:
A smattering of Brits were getting pissed off at their king’s treatment of these renegade patriots. More and more Brits — more than Parliament cared to acknowledge — started to smell virtue in this odd, far-off concept called Independence.
Of course, before it got too out of control on his own soil, King George’s representatives signed the Treaty of Paris on September 3rd 1783. The rest is history, as they say.
If you have loved ones in your life who just don’t seem to be gelling with the following principles [a hat tip to Tom Woods]…
local self-government;
secession;
strict construction of the constitution.
…please have them read the very paper today’s date represents. My friend Tim Knight reads it every year. His highlights are in bold here…
Or, if they’re more likely to learn through Hollywood, ask them to watch THE PATRIOT (trailer below); a 2000 movie starting Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger.
I think The Patriot does a damn good job showing, in graphic detail, why Washington, Franklin, Jefferson and others were willing to risk ‘life, liberty and limb’ to fight the actions directed by the Powers That Be, in Britain, at that time in history.
“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”
– Thomas Jefferson