In a Peanuts comic strip Lucy is at her psychiatrist sidewalk shop with the sign that says: “Psychiatric help 5 cents” and “the doctor is in.” Well, of course, Charlie Brown is once again asking for help. He says: “Everything seems hopeless . . .”
Then he adds: “I’m completely depressed . . .”
So Dr. Lucy gives this advice: “Go home, and eat a jelly-bread sandwich folded over . . . five cents please.”
Charlie Brown leaves. Lucy leans back in her chair, or box, or whatever she is sitting on, she puts her feet up on her table with the sign which says the doctor is in, and then says to herself: “There are some cures you don’t learn in medical school.”
When John Adams was still a young attorney, the Boston Massacre took place. No lawyer wanted to defend the British soldiers that were accused of murder in the case. John Adams eventually learned that the whole matter would probably end with the British being found guilty. Because his cousin Sam Adams was there, John knew some of the facts. He also knew that no one would defend the soldiers.
Alexander Hamilton was a favorite of General George Washington. Few remember that Hamilton was with Washington as he crossed the Delaware and captured the Hessian fighting force at Trenton in December, 1776. Hamilton actually lit the touchholes with the flames that fired the canon at the Hessian barracks that night. James Monroe, the future President, was in charge of the charge. You remember, they won that battle and much later went on the win the Revolutionary war.
The past few days so many editorialists and commentators have touted that we have a great democracy. I must remind you once again, we, in America, do NOT have a democracy. Remember how after the Constitution was finally approved by the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Benjamin Franklin was asked “what was the result of the deliberations. What kind of government do we have?”
Benjamin Franklin did not, no he didn’t, write the first American novel. However, as a printer, he did publish the first novel in America. The first novel written in plain English was “Pamela” by Samuel Richardson. That was published in London in 1742. Benjamin Franklin brought it to America and published it himself in his printing shop in 1744.
Some say that whatever a man has decided to have placed on his tombstone says a lot about what that man considered to be of greatest importance in his life. Knowing that you would think that a man who accomplished as much in his life as did Thomas Jefferson would need a large grave marker. Or perhaps he’d need several tombstones to give the full story.
There is still some opposition to the Electoral College. Some people are advocating that it be done away with and we go to a strictly popular vote. That would move us more towards Democracy. If you’ve read any of the words of the Founding Fathers, you’ll remember that they taught that a Democracy is one of the worst types of government. It eventually results in the control by the masses and tyranny.
The story is often told about how President Abraham Lincoln felt about some of his Generals during the Civil War. Apparently someone complained to Lincoln about the drinking habits of General Ulysses S. Grant.