Declaration’s truths remain self-evident
Posted by: Editorial Post
in The Way We See It
on July 06, 2010 
From the July 4, 2010 CSI Walworth County Sunday "The Way we see it" column:
“Independence forever!”
— John Adams, toasting the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence
As Americans celebrate Independence Day this weekend, a pause for reflection on the current threat to freedom is warranted.
History teaches that Islamist murderers are not the first terrorists we’ve been forced to fight. Barbary pirates attacked U.S. vessels in the 18th and 19th centuries, and virtually alone among nations — sound familiar? — the fledgling United States fought back and prevailed. A century ago, terrorists from Mexico, masquerading as revolutionaries, crossed our border to kill Americans. U.S. forces stopped the attacks.
Our current foe, dispersed worldwide and intent on acquiring weapons of mass destruction, is more formidable to be sure. But there is every reason to believe they will meet the same fate as the murderous pirates and the Mexican terrorists commanded by Pancho Villa, provided Americans retain the defiant spirit that motivated the Founders to issue as radical a document as the Declaration of Independence.
Islamist terrorists, while uniquely savage, are no match for the power of a free people moved by the revolutionary idea that all men are created equal.
Anchored in liberty and the knowledge that the United States remains a surpassing symbol of the superiority of democratic ideals — the bowing and scraping of our current president notwithstanding — we will prevail in this dangerous clash of cultures. And in so doing, we will remind the rest of the world that the ideals set forth so eloquently on the first Independence Day are indeed worth fighting for.
Read more on the Outlook and Perspective pages of CSI's Walworth County Sunday e-edition on pages 8A and 9A. and add your comments below.
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f. simon
said:
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... Thank you for your thoughtful reflections on American history. Wasn't it President John Adams, cited at the top of your post, that signed the Treaty of Tripoli? That treaty, signed prior to the Barbary Wars, obligated the United States of America to pay tribute in the form of goods and money to the Pasha of Tripoli. The treaty also declared that: "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,---as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen,---and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries." Certainly, by your standards, one could describe President John Adams as "bowing and scraping" during a "dangerous clash of cultures." In 1797 the Senate unanimously approved the Treaty of Tripoli. Why haven't you denounced that as an act of cowardice and treason? |
