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Sorry to have been away so long, but that's how life goes. First on the agenda, some unfinished old business from last fall's election.
AND THE WINNER IS:
The much maligned "Dead White Guys" who wrote our Constitution. They foresaw the attempts of self-serving politicians to steal the popular vote, and created the Electoral College as a protection against such an eventuality (though I'm not sure they anticipated venal trial lawyers!)
The men who founded this country were unique in many ways. They were revolutionaries, but they did not seek to overthrow the social order. With the war won, the commander of the armed forces did not make himself king or dictator, but resigned and went home to his family. The counter-revolution was fought (for the most part) with words rather than arms. In the end, they sat down and created a brand new form of government. While the Constitution was born of idealism, its framers were intensely practical men who sought to guard against any foreseeable threat to their creation.
To my mind, the final victory of the Revolution was the inauguration of Thomas Jefferson. After a tie in the Electoral College (with Aaron Burr), and nearly three dozen votes in the House of Representatives, the reins of government were handed over to the opposition party. To this day, this peaceful transition of power is almost unknown in the wake of revolution. (The Mexicans did it, but it took them nearly a hundred years!)
The Founding Fathers, leery of usurpation of power by king, church, or Parliament, instituted a system of multiple checks and balances to ensure that no one branch of government could dominate the others. We have seen the wisdom of this, as partisan State judges in Florida attempted to change the election rules to aid Al Gore. Had the U.S. Supreme Court not intervened, the Florida Legislature would have (under the powers given it in Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution) selected electors of its own choosing. Either way, the result would be the same—the "Dead White Guys" got it right.
Now, on to new business.
Regular readers of this column are already familiar with one of my favorite quotations (from George Santayana):
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" The terrorists who attacked the United States on September 11, 2001, obviously didn't know their history. They saw Americans as soft, self-centered, and easily intimidated. They thought our President was a well-meaning boob whose only qualifications for office were his name and his money. They expected their assault to send us running for cover, relinquishing our role as world leader and champion of freedom. They were wrong.
Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is reputed to have said, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." Yamamoto, who had lived in the U.S. for several years, and knew the American people, was right. Less than four years later, the Japanese Empire had ceased to exist. "Remember Pearl Harbor", like "Remember the Alamo" and "Remember the Maine" before it, had become a rallying cry uniting our people against a common foe. Personal and political differences were put aside in the face of an attack on us all.
The strength of our country lies in the values we hold in common. While we may disagree with each other, all sides agree that we have the right to disagree. Our enemies see this as a sign of weakness and divisiveness, but the love of freedom is what binds Americans of all races, creeds, ethnic groups, and political pursuasions into mighty nation. Those who seek to impose their will upon us don't understand this, and that will be their undoing.
A brief postscript:
"Hero" is a word that has been grossly overused in recent years. There are, however, real heroes among us. We here at city2 would like to thank those who risked (and in too many cases, lost) their lives rescuing survivors of the bombings in New York and Washington. Our special salute goes out to those brave people who gave their lives to save others by attempting to retake hijacked aircraft. You're our kind of folks.
Cowboy
Featured Columnist & Contributing Editor
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