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| John Adams 2nd President of the United States (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) (Source) |
Posterity! You will never know, how much it cost the present Generation, to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make a good Use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the Pains to preserve it.
Some time ago, years really, I started watching the HBO mini-series, John Adams. I watched the first episode, and left it there, to sit unwatched. I'm not sure why I didn't watch the rest at the time, perhaps because I wasn't ready to watch it.
While down in Maryland, perhaps because of my visit to the White House, I started watching it again. I finished it Wednesday afternoon. The last line in the series, spoken by the marvelous actor Paul Giamatti, is that quote given above. It struck me to the very core of my being.
We live in somewhat trying times, I say somewhat because this is nothing like our Revolution, the ACW, or either of the World Wars, considerable blood might yet be shed, but it hasn't, not yet.
Those who founded this nation were imperfect, flawed, human beings, after all, humans are indeed imperfect and flawed, but they persevered and managed to create a new nation on the North American continent.
That nation is also imperfect and flawed, how can it not be, populated as it is with we humans? But it is, in my humble estimation, the best nation our species has ever produced in our long history.
Yes, there is work to be done, nothing is ever completely finished, we must continue to strive for perfection, a land where all of our citizens can thrive and be fulfilled.
Otherwise, we shame and let down, those who built the country, and those who died to preserve it.
That's all I have to say.
Too many have their own agenda with themselves in charge of everyone else Sarge, far from the ideals this country was founded with. All I can trust myself to say today........(sigh)
ReplyDeleteYup, same here.
DeleteWe are living in often mentioned "interesting times". Too bad....but that's how things are.
ReplyDeleteJohn Adams and the men of his times looks to be a rare event, looking around you can tell they are long dead and buried.
No doubt spinning in their graves as well.
DeleteI recall Heinlein's Crazy Years in the Future History Stories written between 1939 and 1950"s said:
ReplyDeleteSnip: The Crazy Years, in Heinlein’s timeline, were when rapid changes in technology, together with the disruption those changes caused in mores and economics, caused society to, well, go crazy. They ran from the past couple of decades of the 20th century into the first couple of decades of the 21st.
Interesting Times indeed.
Disruptions, they're everywhere it seems.
DeleteSo glad you finished the vid, Sarge! It is indeed a treasure - as Adams was, warts and all. Times are rough and most likely gonna get exponentially worse. We must gird ourselves to take up for our Founders; they did the hard work, can we do any less?
ReplyDeleteBoat Guy
We owe to them and to future generations.
DeleteSarge, the American experiment was as novel in its day - and history - as the Athenian democracy was in its day. Yes, were both limited institutions created by men of their times? Absolutely. But that does not take away from the magnificence of the accomplishment.
ReplyDeleteWhat does detract from it are those who cannot see and accept it for what it was and what it represents, who are bound only to their version of the truth and a utopian world that does not exist this side of death. Like many throughout history, they dream of a world that they will not have to live under but be masters of only to find that living under the system they created is a living hell.
Fools, the lot of them!
DeleteWell said, John Adams and OAFS.
ReplyDeleteConcur.
JB
👍
DeleteYes, we are flawed, but that doesn't mean we're not capable of correction, retraining, relearning, and gaining an understanding of what quotes like that really mean. I'm jaded and cynical, but I also have faith and hope, and trust in God, that despite the current leanings, we'll begin to right ourselves as a country. The current crop of socialists (who are just communists without the bloody revolution) can't maintain a foothold when the results come home to roost. Yes, it's going to be bad while their ideals falter, but eventually the good guys win.
ReplyDeleteAs low as I get sometimes, I have to agree with you. After all, God is still in the driver's seat.
DeleteA few years ago, I developed a craving. I crave clarity. There is complexity to the story that I enjoy digging into. Seeing how we started as a nation, our trajectory since founding, and where we are now, is a sad picture. The "higher criticisms" imported in the name of higher education, then the embrace of Marxism in our higher education has eroded the soul of our country. "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." I think we are seeing that played out daily, now. We are in the morass of 'every man does what is right in their own eyes'. The uncommon citizen is the one with respect for our laws and constitution, like salt in the stew. If the uncommon don't lose their saltiness, there may be hope in better times coming.
ReplyDeleteWell said STxAR! Those who presume to rule over us are in fact an immoral lot whose only "religion" is power. In their arrogance they presume to "know better" than We the People. If I may presume to be one of the "uncommoners" (as are those who regularly comment and contribute here) I can assure you -and them - of my saltiness.
DeleteBoat Guy
STxAR - Can't find any flaws in your argument. But I sense a faltering in those idiots as they really have no game plan, no idea of what to do next. After all, they produce nothing, they build nothing, they only know how to tear down. I have hope.
DeleteBG - I too am salty, there is a reckoning coming, I can feel it.
DeleteSee VDH's recent column "2024, the year of our Reckoning". Anytime you're tracking with him, you're in good company. I don't always " track" as I find his faith in the system a bit misplaced, but he is a brilliant man.
DeleteBG
Thanks for the tip, BG.
DeleteIt is sad, and kind of scary, that in these modern times the Founding Fathers would never be allowed within 10' of politics because they're not good looking enough, they're opinionated, somewhat violent in word and action, believe most secrets belong in the open, and will soundly thrash any modern media person whom they have to deal with.
ReplyDeleteThese modern times are more alike the 1920's and 1930's in a twisted combination of Western Europe and China during the Warlord Period with a dash of Sub-Saharan Africa in the 1960's. Yehaw, fun times, fuuun times.
Good point.
DeleteAs to the Adams docudrama, I think what turned me off by the 2nd episode was the extremely sloooow pacing at the first two episodes. Slow... excellent but slow. Excellent costuming, excellent debunking of the "Boston Massacre" (though I had several of those type of history teachers in school who were the type to rip the propaganda off the wound and show all sides of the issue.)
ReplyDeleteDoes the pacing get any better in later episodes?
It's never fast paced, which may have been why I dropped it the first time. But the history is very good, the people of that time become flesh and blood humans, not the stiff portraits handed down to us.
DeleteInto the cue it goes. Slow I can deal with.
ReplyDeleteThe depiction of those times is worth it. I thought it very well done.
DeleteTrue back then, True since then. Absolutely true now.
ReplyDeleteA very wise man, that Mr. Adams.
juvat
He was, we could use folks like these days!
DeleteMY favorite Founding Father!
ReplyDeleteYou chose wisely.
Delete