Thomas Jefferson May Have Been a Flawed Man, but his Descendant, Lucian K. Truscott IV, Never Learned the Value of the Teachable Moment

Editor in Chief, DL Mullan
Thomas Jefferson / History / Memorial
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Thomas Jefferson like many people from our past were caught up in a whirlwind of circumstances they did not know how to get out of and no matter what they did, could not control. Instead of realizing the pressure people were under during their eras, modern views are to dissect, destroy, and delete the past based on value judgements of today.

The past is to learn from. It is our history and our disagreements with the people, places, or ideals of that history should make us better people. The past is the present's teachable moment. 

Thomas Jefferson was a man, an imperfect man, whose ideals were overshadowed by the gravity of his time. Instead of holding him to that higher standard, it was he who tasked us in the present to fulfill his idealism. He knew that he was trapped by the time he lived in. 

What possible understanding do you, Lucian K. Truscott IV, have about living in such a time as he? None.

Have you ever considered that if Thomas Jefferson freed his slaves without financial support, an education, or political will at their backs that his slaves would have been worse off, even murdered? Of course not, because we have never had to make those types of decisions. 

To tear down statutes in anger or ignorance is nothing more than juvenile tantrums of an ill-informed lynch mob mentality. What is the difference in owning slaves when you are in the modern era a slave to the rage mob? Thomas Jefferson was just as much a slave to his generation as he was a slave owner. The lynch mobs in our streets are mental slaves to organizations telling them that they are the modern slave owners trying to whip the populace into conformity.

I am against any form of modern ineptness denigrating our historical figures because most of the outcry is hype. 

Thomas Jefferson did write: “all men are created equal,” but we forget to comprehend that it is our responsibility to pursue it. That ideal was not his to give. He said it was endowed to us by our creator and we are our creator. We created our past. We create our present. We create our future. 

He provided the outline. America has spent the last 244 years crawling our way up to behold that sentiment in mind and spirit. If we have not fully achieved his realization for America, then how can we be in the position to judge him by it? 

What ignorance you wrote that really caught my attention was: "A tour of Monticello these days will tell you that it was designed by Jefferson and built by the people he enslaved..."

Not everyone in your family's employ was a slave who worked at Monticello, my family did as well: 

Richard Sorrels
(5th Great Grandfather)
Thomas Jefferson's Monticello
Richard Sorrells was a general laborer at Monticello. He worked for Thomas Jefferson from 1769 until his death in 1773.

I have noted on my 1776 Patriot Project page. 

If you also read down the list, I have a Confederate in my past too, but unlike you I don't make the past about personal feelings of guilt or shame. I am not an ungrateful person. I view history in the context it was meant to be encapsulated: frozen, studied, and understood. 

The points in the past are the growth spurts and sputterings of a grand experiment in self-governance. Your op-ed proves America still has miles to go to fulfill our own Declaration of Independence because you judge the past with a Post Modernist flare of deconstruction. 

I view our Declaration of Independence as a challenge to be meet every moment of every day. 

That is the difference between you and I. You are caught up in the embarrassment of what you cannot change. I am using challenging times as a teachable moment. 

The Thomas Jefferson and the other historical monuments must stay. Otherwise we too are as guilty as those who preceded us. I shall not live in such regretful recompense for something I am not responsible for, but evermore hope to teach that every day we can be the betterment of ourselves and others.

Be your better self and end this foolishness. 

Source: NY Times,

Declaration of Independence of the United States of America

Editor in Chief, DL Mullan 
Declaration of Independence / July 4th
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IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. 

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. 

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

---

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:

Column 1
Georgia:
   Button Gwinnett
   Lyman Hall
   George Walton

Column 2
North Carolina:
   William Hooper
   Joseph Hewes
   John Penn
South Carolina:
   Edward Rutledge
   Thomas Heyward, Jr.
   Thomas Lynch, Jr.
   Arthur Middleton

Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

Column 4
Pennsylvania:
   Robert Morris
   Benjamin Rush
   Benjamin Franklin
   John Morton
   George Clymer
   James Smith
   George Taylor
   James Wilson
   George Ross
Delaware:
   Caesar Rodney
   George Read
   Thomas McKean

Column 5
New York:
   William Floyd
   Philip Livingston
   Francis Lewis
   Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
   Richard Stockton
   John Witherspoon
   Francis Hopkinson
   John Hart
   Abraham Clark

Column 6
New Hampshire:
   Josiah Bartlett
   William Whipple
Massachusetts:
   Samuel Adams
   John Adams
   Robert Treat Paine
   Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
   Stephen Hopkins
   William Ellery
Connecticut:
   Roger Sherman
   Samuel Huntington
   William Williams
   Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
   Matthew Thornton


Source: Our Documents

CNN, Shill-Journalism, and the Security State

Staff Writer, DL Mullan

News / Propaganda

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CNN has outdid itself this time. In a panel, discussing NSA breaches of protocol, decency, and the law, Jake Tapper makes a stunning assessment: "I think the American people, honestly, want security over freedom."

If you are on crack, maybe. In this video, we can see that not only did Jake Tapper of CNN make this statement but the other commentators agree: "Security over Freedom." 

Wow. Some people live in a black hole of their own design. Only uninformed talking heads would agree with this egregious statement. Talk about government propaganda coming out of the mouths of so-called journalists. 

This report isn't news. It is not even responsible. How can these people possibly be still employed? 

Within a few minutes of researching this topic, one can find the Founding Father's commentary about security versus freedom:

"Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin

"Can the liberties of a nation be sure when we remove their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people, that these liberties are a gift from God? Thomas Jefferson

The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government." Patrick Henry 

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves." William Pitt in the House of Commons November 18, 1783

If you read further on the Spirit of America Liberty Quotes page you will also discover the meaning of the Second Amendment and the plight of our Revolutionary War heroes. 

What you see on television is what you deserve unless the People stand up against it:

If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty.... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.
Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334 (C.J. Boyd, Ed., 1950)

So let good Americans resist CNN, Jake Tapper, and his cronies. It is time to rebel against this type of shill-journalism, take back our airways, and fire those individuals on the air who do not understand the basics of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, or Bill of Rights.

It's time to stop the madness.

Source: Spirit of America Liberty Quotes, Security over Freedom

The United Nations: Changing Your Attitude for a More Sustainable Future

Staff Writer, DL Mullan

Government / Education

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The new standards in the educational curriculum, which began decades ago and manifested in No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Common Core, are changing history, facts, and the next generation's attitude about government, rights, and citizenship.

And as a parent, you are not going to like it.

Do you want to know the reason for the attacks on our freedoms, rights, and Constitution? Then look no further than the United Nations' (UNESCO) sustainability religious dogma. It's not just to destroy your city, state with unattainable redistribution standards with lies of social justice and climate change (i.e., global warming scam); it's to decimate the next generation's ability to see right from wrong. 

The educational standards are brainwashing children into believing some horrendous ideas. To the United Nations, education is not about facts but persuading children to believe that facts are irrelevant to the collective. Global citizens need to be supple and pliant to the requirements of global interests, international law, and government control.

Say what?

The United States has become the battle ground against encroaching collectivist indoctrination. This cult believes that: government is in charge of you, your children, and your property. The United Nations model strips away any idea of individual thought or determination. The state controls where you will be in life in this post modern, post capitalist societal framework of do as we say and do as you are told.

Freedom of thought is now a thing of the past. Real critical thinking is an abomination. If you question the collective, then there must be something wrong with your attitude. Re-education, anyone? Because our educational system is full of propaganda from the United Nations at the blessing and drive of our government. 

Why wouldn't a government push for the servitude of its people? This nation was built on the servitude of its government, but the United Nations seeks to reverse that trend by making the willful individualist equated with terrorism. Have you notice how many "lone wolves" it takes to undermine the Second Amendment? How EVERYONE must give up their guns because of one person's evil deed? It makes you think.

Just for starters, some will believe that people who question the hive mentality are conspiracy theorists instead of free thinkers. The attitude adjustment has been going on for years. So let the history lesson begin: 

Michael Chapman: Censored Heritage

Go on, watch the video...

If you would like more information about how the educational system in the United States is being subverted, please read the free e-book: The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America, which Charolette Thomas Iserbyt is referenced in the above presentation.

Even I was astonished at the misinformation and disinformation, I received in my K-12 education. See how well your education and that of your children's stacks up against United States of America's Founding Fathers' philosophy.

For more information about the curriculum, watch this video reviewing educational books for elementary school children and the tenets of Common Core: Education or Indoctrination?

Source: TRANSFORMATIONAL EDUCATION: The New Mission of Schools,
Arizonans Against Common Core