Monday, February 9, 2015

Old Souls

I wish I had enjoyed history...when it wasn't!  As I read and reflect more on our predecessors and their knowledge, the old adage what goes around comes around is merely.. the truth.  We've actually become no smarter over the past two centuries. What would be smart would have been to merely learn from our democratic ( in the rawest form of the word) ancestors and try diligently to not repeat their mistakes.  Politicians today are so consumed with their written legacy and their narcissistic, arrogant ways.  I'm fearful they'll only be remembered for their stupidity and us for being complacent.
I watched a docudrama about the Roosevelts last week.  It was enlightening to say the least. Eleanor will never be remembered for her beauty but her brains should have changed small courses of history. For generations the answers to such mundane problems were/are written in the historical errors of others and their willingness to claim them and go forward.  Yet, we still continue not to listen and repeat, repeat, repeat.
Some small examples of greatness penned by Thomas Jefferson offer generational insight:


John F. Kennedy held a dinner in the White House for a group of the brightest minds in the nation at that time.  He made this statement: "This is perhaps the assembly of the most intelligence ever to gather at one time in the White House with the exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."
 
"When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe ."
-- Thomas Jefferson


"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
-- Thomas Jefferson

"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes,  a principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world."
-- Thomas Jefferson

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."
-- Thomas Jefferson


"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government."
-- Thomas Jefferson


"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms."
-- Thomas Jefferson


"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
-- Thomas Jefferson

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
-- Thomas Jefferson


"To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."
-- Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.

If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property - until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.

Hmmmmm...More reading, less talking, more learning, less loss:-(

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