John Adams, and our Founding Fathers

I'm just reading about our founding fathers. I'm amazed everyday, with the more I read. My grandfather worked in the shipyards during WWII, bucking rivets on ships to go out and fight for our freedom. My dad was just a boy. He was born in 1932, so he was just 10 in 1942. They lived in New Orleans, LA. My grandfather bucked rivets, a very hard job, and my grandmother also worked in the shipyards, so that my dad could study art in high school. It's just like John Adams was quoted as saying in the 5,000 Year Leap.

"The science of government is my duty to study, more than all other sciences; the art of legislation and administration and negotiation ought to take [the] place of, indeed to exclude, in a manner, all other arts. I must study politics and war, that my sons may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain."

My dad wanted to study art, but instead he went to work in a factory so that I could study art in college. I had that freedom. Did I appreciate it? Not really. I took it for granted. I dropped out of college. I was tired of going to school. My dad had earned a comfortable living for us, and I took it for granted. We weren't rich, but we were comfortable. We didn't have to struggle any more.

But the good thing is that I couldn't find a job, so I joined the military. In the military I found patriotism. But even with patriotism, you may not be totally awake. What good does patriotism do you if your eyes are closed to what is going on around you? I still just voted Republican and sent them off and didn't watch dog them. I am part of the problem in that respect.

It's like being a Christian and not being able to answer why you're a Christian. I want small government. They don't have a right to be in our back pockets. I learned in school that we aren't supposed to be taxed unless we have a say in it. That doesn't mean when we turn our backs, you do it anyway. That's like when we tell our kids to do something, and they say, "Yes, momma, we hear you." And then when we turn our backs they do what they want to do in spite of what we told them to do. I got news for you Congress. We elected you to do what WE want you to do. You ran on a platform of ideas. If you turn around and do something different, that makes you a LIAR. That doesn't make you disingenuous. It makes you a big fat LIAR. Anybody else would be taken to court for breaking a contract. I believe a vote is a contract. If I vote for a REPUBLICAN and they turn coat and start acting like a Democrat, or in today's vernacular, a RINO, they broke my trust, they broke the contract of my vote. I should be able to sue them. I shouldn't have to wait for 4-6 years to kick them out of office.

I'm awake now, but is it too late? My dad would have gone to Korea had it not been for losing his eye in a motorcycle accident at the age of 15. I'm the first in my family to serve in the military. My nephew, my brother's son, is active duty Navy as I write this. His first duty station was aboard a ship that was sent to Haiti to help with clean up. Can you imagine? I don't know if he went ashore or not, I haven't spoken to him yet. I served during the cold war, but serving is serving. Had I let those Russian submarines through our defenses, y'all would be speaking Russian now, and Russia may not have fallen. And believe me, I'd be in Leavenworth, had Russia not gotten through, for treason. Funny, how that's not happening in Washington now, with them trying to throw our country away. In my eyes, it's the same thing.

I'm not anti-government. We need government. We just need small government. And we don't need 50 individual states doing whatever they please. I'm also reading the Federalist Papers. That would make 49 more opportunities for wars. There are 20 states that share a border with our northern and southern neighbor....I just counted. That's 20 chances to have little disagreements that could flare up into wars. With a union, there are 30 other states to cool them down because they aren't involved. That's what he was talking about. We just don't want BIG government regulating the heck out of our every movement. Telling us we can't feed hot dogs to children because we aren't smart enough to cut the rings in half. Or we aren't smart enough to wait until a cup of McDonald's coffee cools a bit before taking a sip, so they have to put WARNING, HOT on the top. DUH! Did you know the milk now has an allergy label, warning, contains milk? Who would go to buy milk, expecting something else?

So, whoever is trying to sow the seeds of "the right tea party movement wants no government" or "we need 50 individual states and not a central government" is probably from the left trying to bring on anarchy so that the socialists can take over and save us from anarchy. Then everything would be peachy and we would just praise them for saving us.

Wouldn't that be grand?

Lori Ann Smith