BULL STREET – The art of the Con

Declaration of Independence 1776

Since medieval times, somehow or other, certain people believed that they had the God-given right to rule others. This wasn’t because they were particularly capable or that the possessed more than a modicum of common sense, it was solely based on the nepotistic belief of lineage. Lineage sucks and it creates genetic problems which is probably the reason that Europe has fought so many wars. Most of which were between blood cousins.

When the Revolutionary War was in its formative stages, the Colonialists were only after having the Rights of Englishmen, not reinventing the wheel.  As you may well remember, the rallying cry was “No Taxation without Representation.” This meant that the people only desired to vote on what was going on around them, they were not interested in changing the British Law under which they were governed. However, when the fighting started in earnest, Americans determined that there were indeed shortcomings in the British Law that might as well be rectified as long as everyone was going to all this trouble anyway. Only large landowners had any rights in the colonies and woman deemed almost lower than cattle. .

Thomas Jefferson, who had the magic pen, memorialized these thoughts:

“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…”

This was not meant to be a law; it was only a philosophy which passed on to the framers of the Constitution for delineation. This Declaration set the stage for what was to follow in literally every country that since declared for democracy. There have been great law givers before and there have been good people that wanted to do the right thing. However, we live in a jealous world where we are surrounded by both the jealous and the immoral. Those that can’t enter our gates resent everything we stand for. As the famous philosopher, Al Capone once said, men came make good deals with one another, but men carrying guns make deals that last. A way of life does not exist in a vacuum and those isolationists, who believe that the United States is an island unto itself, are still living in the dark ages. Laws create nothing but philosophy unless they are backed up with a serious intent to make them stick.

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