"I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace, that two a law firm, and that three or more become a congress." Peter Stone, Playwright, 1776, American Musical Film
June 22, 2016
By: Linda Case Gibbons
They don't make statesmen like they used to. Take the Founding Fathers, for instance. What a great group of guys!
When they got together, men like John Adams, Sam Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and George Washington, they got things done.
And it wasn't as if they didn't have other things to do. They did. They all had day jobs. They were doctors, lawyers, farmers, merchants. But they made time to risk everything they had for their country.
They started with the issue of burdensome taxation.
They gave the king a chance to change his Taxation-Without-Representation ways, and when he said, "No dice," they said, "Enough already," and sent him a letter, the Declaration of Independence.
These guys didn't let any grass grow under their feet.
First they took on the king.
In 1774 they organized resistance to the Coercive Acts. Check. Then went down the list. The Declaration of Independence. Check. Then the Revolutionary War. Check.
And they did it, as the saying goes, "Dancing backwards and in high heels."
In their case, without automobiles and air conditioning. And pizza.
So upon Benjamin Franklin's arrival at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, on September 17, 1787, it was said that tears streamed down his face as he signed the Constitution for the new nation.
This elder statesman had been involved from the beginning. He knew the significance of the moment. He knew he was signing a painstakingly crafted document, one which would be called the "most important document in American history," one which was the supreme law of the land.
Among its provisions were the qualifications for the honor of holding office in the new nation's government. He and other framers of the Constitution believed that holding office was, indeed, an honor, and indeed, a sacred trust.
How blessed was America to have this extraordinary group of men, whom destiny, and God, had placed in America, at the same time in our history.
Possessed of intelligence and brilliance, dignified and brave, they were men who were tireless in their devotion to freedom and America.
Sadly they just don't make statesmen like they used to.
Take our current Congress. This past week saw "protesters" staging a "sit in" in the House of Representatives. And they weren't run of the mill protesters. They were members of Congress.
They were boorish and rude. They streamed speeches and fund-raised on their cell phones, in violation of House rules. And they shouted and drowned out any voice but their own.
They acted like a branch of Black Lives Matter, shouting ungrammatical rhetoric, and "We shall overcome," for no good reason. Watching them, it made you wonder if any of them had ever seen the inside of a school.
Heedless of the hallowed nature of the room in which they sat, they guzzled Coke, gobbled fried chicken and scoffed down pizza, as they sat on the floor, pleased as punch with themselves, but appearing to the world like a bunch of bratty kids.
It was embarrassing to watch.
And it wasn't as if they had other things to do. They didn't. Most of them had never held a job in their lives, or created a job. And all of them weren't doing the job they were elected to do. They should have had their paychecks docked.
They said they were there to pass a gun control bill, and to honor those killed in Orlando.
They weren't.
If they had bothered to research their premise, they would have found no basis in fact. They would have learned that more gun control laws would not have stopped the Orlando nightclub massacre. Quite the contrary.
If they had bothered to research, they would be forced to admit that the laws they wanted would just take guns out of the hands of law-biding citizens. But that, of course, was their goal.
So shame, shame, shame on them, on so many levels.
But why be surprised? The president praised their behavior, so like his own, and tweeted encouragement for their little caper.
Their leader, Nancy Pelosi, cheered them on. She's the lady who said we had to pass Obamacare so we could see what was in it.
Texas Congresswoman Shirley Jackson Lee was there. She's the lady who thinks our country is 400 years old.
And "the best man for the job of Speaker of the House," Paul Ryan was there.
Once again, in his short stint as Speaker, Ryan proved he can't control anything, and he couldn't control this sit in, in the House of Representatives, unable to stop it for more than ten hours.
Like I said. They just don't make statesmen like they used to.
Hold the line, America.