On This Fourth of July We Are Destroying Our True History

By

       Zeno Potas

     Samuel Adams once said, “A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.” He and the other framers of the Constitution understood that liberty was rare in world history and that it would be no easy task to design a system that would both maximize and preserve it. Until recently most Americans cherished this system precisely because it was uniquely equipped to accomplish those purposes. Today forces within the country are out to destroy it.

     Slavery is an undeniable fact of our history. The

costly war fought to end it is also a part of the nation's history. Neither will go away through cultural cleansing. The current trend of attempting to rewrite history by eliminating undesirable people and removing statues of Confederates and renaming buildings are just a small part of the true agenda of America's Progressive Socialists. It is a typical Communist action which became part of Soviet Unions' effort to ensure that the correct ideological and political spin was put on their history. Now it is being done here.

      The removal of statues of southern statesmen with the justification that they were pro-slavery or owned slaves (all were Democrats) does a disservice to us all. We may disagree with them but it was a different world then and it is our history as distasteful as it may be. To remain a great nation, we should be able to stand up to the truth about ourselves, not hide it because it offends some.

   

  The successful removal of these reminders will not satisfy the Progressives. It will not be the end of it but rather only the beginning. Thomas Jefferson owned slaves as did many of this country's Founders. There's a monument that bears his name -- the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. George Washington also owned slaves, and there's a monument to him, as well -- the Washington Monument in Washington. I can see a day when these will “have to” be removed along with all of the other names of the Founders on schools, bridges, and cities because they are “old white slave owners.”

      Our currency and coinage will also “have to” be re-designed. Washington on the dollar bill and the quarter, Jefferson on the two and the nickle, Andrew Jackson, the first Democrat President on the twenty, owned a mercantile business that engaged in the domestic slave trade, at times accepting slaves in exchange for dry goods, using them to pay off debts, or mortgaging them for loans. Benjamin Franklin on the hundred dollar bill also must go.

      If this type of Progressive thinking persists, our grandchildren will never know the truth about their heritage. The first great battle for the American soul was settled in the Civil War. The second battle for America's soul, initiated over a century ago, is still raging. The choice for the Founders' constitutionalism or the Progressive-liberal administrative state is yet to be fully resolved. Instead of celebrating our nation's birth on this fourth of July, American Patriots should reflect on just how far away from the Founder's principals we have strayed and resolve to bring us back to the true America that our forefathers died for.