Awhile ago, I bought a book called Speeches That Changed the World. It's a neat book and this morning I read something that I thought many of you would enjoy. It is an excerpt from Thomas Jefferson's 1801 inaugural address (the entire speech is a must read for all Americans).
Here is an excerpt that I found especially relevant to our current situation in relation to how our country's government is behaving.
"Let us, then, with courage and confidence pursue our own Federal and Republican principles, our attachment to union and representative government. Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe; too high-minded to endure the degradations of the others; possessing a chosen country, with room enough for our descendants to the thousandth and thousandth generation; entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisitions of our own industry, to honour and confidence from our fellow-citizens, resulting not from birth, but from our actions and their sense of them; enlightened by a benign religion, professed indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man; acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter - with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow citizens - a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labour the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities."
I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.
Happy Anniversary
7 years ago
6 comments:
Wow! I guess it's really easy to be a jerk when you are anonymous. Wonder what else they do when they are "Anonymous".
Hey "anonymous'..seriously, what kind of coward publishes a comment like that and then doesn't own up to it? Who does that, except someone who is unhappy and looking to make others as miserable as themself? Why don't you do something productive with your time?? Get a life.
I like how anonymous has plenty of time to read and criticize another person's blog. The one who needs to get a life is obvious.
That was so good.
Lately when I watch anything (even on fox) it seems like all everyone's doing is talking trash about everyone else. I'm getting so sick of it.
I wish they would talk about more government issues and stop smearing. It seems so juvenile!
Anyways, those are some of mu thoughts. :)
It is amazing to read and think about our founding fathers thoughts and writings, they seem to me to be extremley vizionary and sensitive to their previous life and times in Europe,it is easy to believe their thoughts and sincere search for truth was rewarded by God. There is simply to much evidence to ignore/deny, these ponderings are like a cold drink of water on a hot day and times. father in Canada.
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