Any American knows how the end of that sentence goes. We’ve spent our lives pledging ourselves to an ideal that we are free and OMG this country is the best as no other country is as free as The United States of America.
Was that ever true though?
Honestly. Think outside your race, culture, gender and religion and tell me. Have ALL Americans been free all this time?
The answer has always been no.
Unless you are a white man, you are not free. You have never been free, and you will never be free.
“Yes, but our founding fathers….” Are dead. Leave them that way, because if you think that they would approve of anything that’s been going on, not just now, not just this year, but for decades, then you have been brainwashed into the white man way of thinking.
Our founding fathers cannot help us now. Our founding fathers WOULD not help us now.
They would look at this country and be amazed. Not because of our progress, but because of the lack of it.
Words are spoken, words are written and some of those words are made law. But none of them mean anything because we just keep acting and doing as we always have. We’re now using religion, the very thing our precious founding fathers ran away from Britain for, to make the laws, or to unmake laws.
What’s worse is that it isn’t even real religion, but a pretend take on what some would like the religion to actually say because they’re not educated enough to understand the very basics of life. Or even the man written book they claim to worship and quote -wrongly I may add- from.
We’ve allowed a handful of citizens to hoard all that is precious to us.
Another handful to tell us how much our time is worth, with or without a degree -not that it matters, most cannot afford a full degree even with grants and scholarships.
And yet another handful that makes sure we’re not healthy enough to fight.
We are poor.
We are uneducated
We are too sick to fight.
That’s not what the founding fathers had in mind. It’s not the country they imagined if they thought much into the future. It’s not what they had hoped.
We cannot erase the past just because it is unpleasant. We cannot erase the past because it makes certain citizens look bad. But a handful of citizens try, and a handful of them succeed. And the rest say nothing. Do nothing.
Because we are tired, and sick. But we’re becoming educated even against the hopes of a handful of citizens. We are able to put the truth out there to stick somewhere forever. At least until Skynet becomes reality. We don’t even really need the hostile artificial intelligence, most of our citizens already fit that sigma nicely. So sorry computers, we’ve already beaten you to that one.
The founding fathers were not perfect. Nearly half of them were slaveholders and all of them profited from the system of slavery in the United States. The nation they created ensured that the rights of white, property-owning men were protected, but it would take almost 200 years to ensure that more Americans were provided those same protections.
Many of the founders were unsure if succeeding generations would be up to the task of protecting the liberty they had successfully secured. When Benjamin Franklin was asked after signing the Constitution if they had created a monarchy or a republic, Franklin replied: “A republic, if you can keep it.”
They were quite young when they helped create the Country. George Washington was 43 years old when he accepted command of the American Army during the war. Thomas Jefferson was 33 years old when he wrote the Declaration of Independence. John Adams was 40 years old when he argued for American independence. James Madison was 36 years old when he was at the Constitutional Convention. John Jay was 43 years old when he became the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Alexander Hamilton was 33 years old when he was made Secretary of the Treasury. The oldest was Benjamin Franklin who was 70 years old at the Second Continental Congress.
Some of us were taught that they were largely in agreement and are often referred to as a single entity that all worked together to create one American nation. In reality, they had extremely different views on all sorts of issues, including the role of the federal government, the issue of slavery, and how radical or moderate the American Revolution should be. At times, these differences of opinion destroyed friendships and threatened to pull the country apart.
There were many who contributed to the founding of the United States, these seven are considered by most as the founding fathers: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison.. They all played key roles in the securing of American independence from Great Britain and in the creation of the government of the United States of America. But there are dozens of others who played smaller but valuable roles. George Mason, Patrick Henry, John Hancock, John Marshall, and Samuel Adams are some of those, just to name a few. There were 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence and 39 signers of the United States Constitution. In addition to men, women also played important roles, such as Abigail Adams and Mercy Otis Warren.
Look at that. You learned something. You empowered yourself and learned something. Granted, like most of everything you learned in your school years, you’ll probably won’t remember much if any of it and that’s okay. If it comes up, you may at least remember where the information is and can go back to it to refresh yourself.
How do we become free? How do we become equal? And why do we continue to let other people’s religion (read fake Christianity) rule us when there is suppose to be a Separation of Church and State?? When will people stop throwing out that freedom isn’t free?
Until next time, when thinking about the US, remember that people who are not of your race, religion, culture or gender are always effected differently than you are. It’s called privilege. Check yours always and try to see a different view before reacting. Something shouldn’t have to happen to you before you realize there’s a problem.
Information on the founding fathers was pulled from Battlefields.org. Yep, pretty much copied and pasted.
Cheshire Anthropology 