In 1776 a fellow named Thomas Paine wrote an essay entitled "Common Sense" which became a rallying cry for the founders of this nation.
We started to re-read it yesterday and found that Mr. Paine’s words, with very slight updating, remain very much descriptive of current events. Let us start this commentary with a fairly lengthy quote from Mr. Paine’s effort.
"It hath been reported of the late Mr. Pelham [a former Prime Minister of England]...that on his being attacked in the house of commons, on the score, that his measures were only of a temporary kind, replied, ‘They will last my time.’(sic) Should a thought so fatal and unmanly possess the colonies in the present contest, the name of ancestors will be remembered by future generations with detestation.
"...‘Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected, even to the end of time, by the proceedings now."
We could not read those words without thinking about present day politicians. Surely "lasting my time" is the 18th century version of "kicking the can down the road."
The signers of the Declaration of Independence closed that document with the words, "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."
Today’s version would more likely omit reference to Divine Providence and Honor. The pledge would be to make every effort to get re-elected - the new application of lasting "my time" - and to promising someone else’s fortune to be distributed to favored voters who contribute to that successful effort.
Nationally we have defined ourselves in this, the greatest nation in the world, as so poverty stricken that nearly half the population is freed from financial support of our national government. This while immigration from other countries is a national crisis!
Locally we have declared the presence of a handful of men playing a game so important to the city that we have taken on municipal debt to the tune of a billion dollars to make sure they do continue to do just that.
The country is on an economic and moral precipice and the number of men and women in a position of leadership who consider the next election to be "long range thinking" is disastrous. We can’t help but wonder what Thomas Paine - and the signers of the Declaration of Independence - would think if they could survey this nation now.
Are there no leaders capable of pledging Life and Fortune for the good of the country? Has oratorical skill really replaced Honor? Are there no leaders capable of seeing that we have accelerated the approach to this dangerous precipice as we have increasingly and forcibly eliminated Divine Providence from the national conscience?
And at least as importantly, are there voters who are capable of or willing to demand these traits in those who represent them?
Ultimately, Paine makes this comment. "...until independence is declared, the Continent will feel itself like a man who continues putting off some unpleasant business from day to day, yet knows it must be done, hates to set about it, wishes it over, and is continually haunted with the thoughts of its necessity."
Couldn’t we substitute "the president and the congress" for the word "Continent" and still make sense today?
Where, oh where, is our modern Thomas Paine?
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