Tim Cowan

Julian

Thomas Paine served the Revolutionary Founders and Colonial Citizens well as they went about throwing off an autocrat. Citizens should read Common Sense and the Crisis Papers to remind themselves what Colonists had in mind as they put their lives and fortunes on the line for Liberty.

Ultimately, free speech, free press, the right to assemble, due process under law and checks and balances in government were the fundamentals in their view of the future for All People. Also, among those expectations, the right to pursue happiness, unfettered by systemic constraints.

Paine said, “One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings, is that nature disproves it, otherwise she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule, by giving mankind an ass for a lion.” “Most wise men in their private sentiments have ever treated hereditary right with contempt; yet it is one of those evils which when once established is not easily removed: many submit from fear, others from superstition, and the more powerful part shares with the king the plunder of the rest.”

Citizens of The United States of America disallowed this kind of servitude nearly 250 years ago. In that time, we have pushed forward the basic premise that all people are created equal but have failed to remove the systemic ceilings preventing some from achieving that equality. Let’s continue working in a positive direction. We are so much better when we all have freedom to improve ourselves and promote the common good.