Advice from a small town girl

I’ve been thinking about the founding fathers quite a bit lately.

It seems to me that some of us practically worship those men, without really understanding them.

Before I go any farther with this line of thought, I need to say that I find the founding fathers to be a pretty impressive bunch of guys. But they weren’t gods, or even demi-gods.

I think that we like to cherry-pick from among all of the things they believed, wrote or said until we find those things that justify what is in our own self-interest.

We like to forget, or forgive, that many of the men we identify as founding fathers were slave owners, that they were property owners, lawyers, business owners, the elite of colonial society in many ways. They were generally well-educated and well-to-do.

And, amazingly enough, they didn’t always agree. Just like today. The difference is, in the interest of achieving the best of their hopes, they were willing to compromise. Today’s leaders seem to think that’s a dirty word.

Thomas Jefferson even thought the Constitution should be rewritten every so often.

No, I’m not trying to belittle George, Tom, John or Sam. Or Ben.

I’m just trying to say that the guys I think of as our real founding fathers were the guys who walked away from their farms and families, who put not just their lives but their livings on the line for the concept of liberty.

And the real reason they did this? Because they wanted a say.

They wanted to have a hand in their own destiny, and were willing to risk everything, and I mean everything, in order to achieve it.

That’s pretty simplistic, I know, and there’s not room here to justify my view of history.

What there is room for is my opinion that we, as Americans, have abrogated our responsibility as citizens.

I’m always a little disappointed, if not surprised, that ordinary citizens are rarely to be seen at town council meetings. We all have lives, after all.

Oh, wait!

Would those lives be like the ones my founding fathers walked away from? The founding fathers who didn’t have slaves or subordinates to keep things going while they were gone? Whose wives and children and elderly parents kept the home fires burning (when possible?)

I think we forget, when we speak of government with a capital G (and often with @#&#! before it) that WE ARE THE GOVERNMENT.

Which side of the aisle you sit on is not important.

Whether you are rich or poor is not important.

Whether you are an employer or an employee is not important.

What is important (and I would beg the Supreme Court to forgive me, except I’m pretty sure that they’ll never know what I’ve said) is that we are living, breathing, continuing founding fathers. And mothers. And brothers, sisters, grandparents and cousins. Not corporations.

We have a heartbeat.

We may not have millions of dollars but we have a voice.

And we have the right to be heard, without prosecution or persecution.

Whether or not you agree with either the “Tea Party” or the “Occupy” movement, you have to give them credit for participating. I respect and admire those people who are willing to risk something to try to change things for the better.

Even if they’re wrong.