Unpatriotic? by Groff Schroeder: October 2016
Submitted by ftcsadmin2 on Wed, 10/05/2016 - 13:32.
- Unpatriotic?
- By Groff Schroeder
- Great controversy has recently enveloped athletes who kneel in protest during America's national anthem, a song whose third verse apparently celebrates the execution of American slaves who sought freedom by escaping their owners and serving the British in the War of 1812. While regular rituals of American life honor patriotic symbols such as the American flag, American culture rarely provides similar recognition or respect to the founding documents and principles of the United States, their history, or the nation they establish - let alone the rights and freedoms they guarantee. While many Americans know the history of the American flag and national anthem, fewer appear to know the history of the US Constitution.
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- In 1773, the thirteen colonies of the "New World" in America were already chafing under British rule when the British Parliament provided a faltering British company with what might today be called “too big to fail” “corporate welfare.” Parliament's tax refund to East India Company made the company's overstock of tea cheaper than either colonist imported (taxed) tea or smuggled (untaxed) Dutch tea, transferring the tea tax burden onto the colonists. In protest, American colonists dumped 342 chests of East India Company tea into Boston Harbor.
- British Parliament responded with the “coercive acts.” The Boston Port Act closed the port of Boston until the East India Company was repaid. The Massachusetts Government Act revoked the charter of Massachusetts. The Administration of Justice Act allowed the British governor of Massachusetts to reassign the trials of royals to Great Britain. Finally, the Quartering Act required landowners in all colonies to quarter British troops on private property. In 1774, America's thirteen colonies sent 56 delegates to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, which launched a boycott on British goods and went on to create the foundations of the United States of America.
- The Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776), established the right of human beings to reject authoritarian governments. The Constitution (September 17, 1787), established American government's legislative, executive and judicial branches and their operations. Finally, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, the “Bill of Rights” (December 17, 1791), in part guarantees Freedoms of Assembly, Press, Speech, and Religion; the Rights of Due Process of Law, Equality, and Privacy; and prohibits self incrimination, cruel punishments, and unreasonable search and seizure. Almost inexplicably, the US Constitution left many Americans enslaved in the United States until 1863.
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- Since 1776, some 750,000 Americans have given their very lives in service to these ideals, the nation that created them, and the symbols that represent them. Despite this history of ultimate personal sacrifice, in Congress today, handsomely paid representatives are unconstitutionally blocking a Supreme Court nominee for personal and political gain. In addition, about 50% of the elected representatives of the People of the United States in Congress have signed contracts designed to advance another “patriotic” protest – the systematic denial of tax revenues from the United States to “starve the beast” (American government ) until it can be “drown[ed] in a bathtub.” Yet athletes who protest repeated shootings of unarmed Americans by refusing to stand for a song that apparently celebrates the murder of their enslaved ancestors are “unpatriotic?”
- Apparently it is time to move beyond symbolism and rededicate ourselves to protecting and defending what is important in America: the United States Constitution, the nation it founds, and the freedoms and rights it guarantees.
- Published in the Colorado Springs Independent on October 5, 2016 with the quotation below.
- "I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery."
- George Washington