Think About It

JFK wrote a book called “Profiles in Courage” about politicians who had taken unpopular stances in Congress for the good of the people. It won the Pulitzer Prize. The book would be much easier to write these days—a cover and hundreds of blank pages.

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Consider the fact that the population of our country was around 2 million two hundred years ago. Yet, we had statesmen, men with intimate knowledge and brilliant ideas regarding how the country should be governed. Forget their religion. Forget their politics. Forget their sexual mores. I’m talking about taking a new country into a world full of enemies, educating the population on democratic responsibilities by living as examples. They worked in congress without pay, considering public service a sacred duty. The risked their lives to serve others. Here is a brief historical account of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence: 

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. 

They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. What kind of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated, but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured. Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags. Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward. Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton. At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt. Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months. John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. 

Those who escaped death during the war went on to build a nation, men like Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Franklin etc. Name me one statesman in our congress today their equal. And we have 300 million not 2 million people to pick from. This society has come to honor and cultivate politics before public service, self-interest before responsibility, and self-indulgence before reason. We can know this simply by looking at the people we’ve elected. We are getting the representation we deserve because we have cultivated not just a me-first attitude, but a me-only attitude regarding government. We have forgotten JFK’s inaugral statement – “Ask not what your country can do for you, but rather what you can do for your country.” Hell, we have a whole group of people who by the admission of their spokespeople want no government at all, but at the same time want all the service government provides for free. 

Think about these things when you go to the polls, if you even go, in November. Educate yourselves on people and policies that do the best for the most citizens and let’s quit voting for idiots simply because it requires less work and less thought.