A few posts back, I quoted a statement by Thomas Carlyle. Perhaps you’ll remember that he was a Scottish philosopher, writer, essayist, historian, and teacher. Here’s another quote from Carlyle that I think you’ll like:
“Show me the man you honor, and I will show you the kind of man you are, for it shows me what your ideal of manhood is, and what kind of man you long to be.”
Now that’s a very nice statement, but I don’t think I can actually live up to it! Because the men I honor are the Founding Fathers of our nation, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Patrick Henry, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin. They are my ideals, but I can’t live up to their example.
“I cannot live without books, “ Jefferson admitted to John Adams. He sold his vast library of books to Congress to replace the Congressional Library which had burned in the war of 1812.
While George Washington was laboring away trying to convince the soldiers under his command to be vigilant and courageous, he was joined in camp by a patriotic writer named Thomas Paine. Paine had written a booklet, “Common Sense”, that gave men more insight into the blessings of freedom and liberty.
OK. After the shenanigans in Iowa, and the politician sounding more like politicians than like real Americans, I am more convinced than ever that we need a businessman at the head of the country, rather than more politicians.
The Founding Fathers must have believed a democracy was the way to go, if what they gave us with the United States of America is really a democracy. No on both counts.
As a member of the National Speakers Association, I was pleased to make a personal acquaintance with Charlie “Tremendous” Jones at one of our meetings. He was a large speaking presence. During his presentation he actually picked on me!
My wife has been asking me what I want to do now that I’m retired. The other night I woke up at about 2 or 2:30 with a thought on my mind. It seemed important to me at that time in my groggy condition. So what did I do? I got out of bed, went into my office, found a scrap of paper and a pencil and wrote down my thought.
I always think it’s interesting that George Washington solemnly stated that it would be unwise to have political parties. He thought we should all be Americans and want what’s best for America. Little did he know that Americans disagreed on that score more than on the weather.
It’s interesting how much emphasis and importance all of the Founders put in the idea of Freedom and Liberty. They even warned us to take good care of the things they left for us.