This too is true: in an early skirmish in the American triumph for independence, with the colonists surrounded by the greatest naval armada ever assembled and multitudes of brilliantly trained Tory troops, the colonists were under fire and a group of the ladies who had supported them from the rear made their charge to the front lines.
As they stood besides the men they loved to fight for the dream they shared, one brave woman, with her husband wounded and dying, with his blood on her dress while his hope still lived in her heart, stood up to the cannon and fired at the Redcoats, alongside the men. That day, the Americans retreated, but in the end she suffered the sadness of losing a lover, tempered by her triumph, of building a country.
For those of us who stand today with the true vision of Washington and Jefferson, Madison and Paine, with our great papers in the dock for treason, with opponents holding majority views labelled as enemies of the state, with superstructures of secrecy attacking democratic institutions of open debate, we have reached our Valley Forge.
When Thomas Paine wrote that the sun has never shined on a greater cause than ours, that we have the power to remake the world again, and that Americans in his age gave birth to the seed time of continental union, honor and faith, he was addressing the soul of the world while he rallied the colonists to the cause.
Paine's words spread like wildfire not only throughout the thirteen colonies, read directly by a full 20% of the Americans of his time, but to England and Ireland, then Paris, ultimately everywhere. Common Sense was one of the great bestsellers in history and Paine, who never had money and was often broke, made a small fortune, which he then donated in full to the cause of the colonists.
As the war for independence began in earnest, Paine often travelled with Washington and his troops, and in the darkest hours, he pulled out his pen, mounted his horse, and stormed to Philadelphia to the printers as he feverishly worked to rally the soldiers and inspire the people, who often read his words and signed up for the battle. This fight of Paine and the Founders began at Lexington and Concord, triumphed at Yorktown, swept aside the monarchs of Europe, challenged dictators, communists, and fascists in the far corners of the world and continues to this day, even in our Nation's Capital.
James Madison warned us of the dangers of factionalism, national divisions fomented by rabid partisans, interest groups plundering the common good in the name of narrow greed, and attacks on our liberty at home by those who maliciously create fear from sources that originate abroad. As Paine would say, the common sense of it is clear: we are stronger united, weaker divided, more powerful when we stand together, more vulnerable when we are divided apart. And what of our "war president" today?
Ben Franklin warned us that we will all hang together, or we will all hang separately, while the acolytes of the supersecret state today almost seem to be saying that we should all be hanging each other. The common sense of it is clear: after 9-11 our Congress stood as one in front of our Capitol singing God Bless America together, while the words "United We Stand" carried with banners and flags across the land.
And what of our "wartime President"? Why does he show such contempt for the very notion of national unity cherished by our Founding Fathers and carried with our flag to the top of Mount Suribachi and the beaches of Normandy?
The reason that George Washington has a monument that towers upward so high one can imagine it is reaching towards the hand of God, with a view seen by every President who looks beyond the White House gates, is not merely that he was a great general and our first and greatest President, but that he knew the single most timeless truth about America and all we stand for, which is this:
Given the opportunity to have the presidency for life, with a totality of power that not even the most vainglorious partisan would dare to dream of today, George Washington surrendered his power and retired to private life. This timeless giant of a man knew that the genius of America was that power was not to be inherited from royal families, or seized by force of arms, or expanded by resort to division and fear, or held by the clenched fist of a single hand against everything the colonists fought for.
The common sense of this, too, is clear: our Presidents do not rule a fearful or docile people to maximize their own power, they lead a brave and courageous people, and know that their greatest triumph is not enhancing power for themselves, but sharing power with other branches of government in our American republic, and transferring power to worthy successors in a stronger and more united country.
Thomas Jefferson prayed our America will be, forever, a bastion of democracy based on a national spirit of civic respect, a national debate leading to informed consent of the governed, resulting in policies so good and wise they would appeal to what he called the decent opinion of mankind. The common sense of this is clear.
Is there not something terribly, terribly wrong when our debate has degenerated to such extremes that those who professionally inform the country, the Congress, and the Courts are labelled as traitors and threatened with jail?
Is there not something tragically wrong when a majority of the world-wide community of free men and women, who comprise Jefferson's decent opinion, are angry at, fearful of, and opposed to an American President's policies they believe as dangerous to them, as the terrorists we should be united together to defeat and destroy?
When Thomas Paine rallied the nation in crisis, coming to the aid of the continental army in its darkest hours, he said that we Americans are more than summer soldiers and sunshine patriots.
What would Paine say of sending our troops to war without the protections they need, leading to as many as 70% of casualties being preventable, then using our troops as partisan weapons even at the cost of unity behind them?
What would Paine say of secret White House meetings that plan energy policies that hurt our nation and reward profiteers with half billion dollar severance packages, while hundreds of thousands of veterans remain homeless today, unattended by the Summer Soldiers and Sunshine Patriots of our age?
What would General Washington say of practices so hostile to time honored rules of war and so alien to time honored rules of American ideals, that they create more terrorists than we can kill, and alienate more of America's friends of freedom than we can enlist to our cause?
The common sense of this is clear. What would James Madison say of a vision of America that includes only one branch of government, only one political party being invited to share in wartime decisions? What would Washington say of wartime presidents who abandon unity in favor of extreme appeals to one partisan faction, so radical and hostile that patriots are labelled enemies of the State, and described as criminals, traitors or cowards even when their chests are decorated with medals, and their personal histories are full of heroism in service to our country?
When Jefferson wrote the Declaration, the Founders wrote the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and when Madison and others wrote the Federalist Papers, they understood that Americanism deals with both the morality of the matter and the common sense of it.
When deciding what manner of government would embody the American alternative to the rule of Kings, what they gave us, was, the idea of an informed citizenry and institutions of divided power. With every single check and balance created by our Founders now under aggressive attack, current events make clear the common sense of the matter:
The carnage on the news every night, the divisions among our people, the alienation of majority opinion of freedom's friends around the world, all are inevitable and natural results when freedom is restricted, when checks and balances are attacked, when diversity of opinion is disrespected and political opponents are demeaned and slandered.
In the name of common sense, can we all agree that whether the war in Iraq was right or wrong, it would have been far better for our country, our security, our troops and our moral credibility throughout the world if the truths of our Founding Fathers, described here, were honored from the beginning of the current Administration until its end? Had our President not viewed the aftermath of 9-11 as a partisan opportunity for division, but a good faith moment for national unity, can we not agree that we would have a better and safer world for our communities, our troops and our values?
The common sense of it is clear: when we have a more democratic debate showing respect to more of our patriotic neighbors, we not only do what is right and American, we arrive at better and wiser decisions, and when we don't, we do so at great peril, with great cost.
So we spend this July 4, with words of treason and the politics of fear coming from many leaders of our land, but we should take confidence and consolation in the greater truth of our Valley Forge on this 4th of July.
We represent the goodwill and good sense of American history, the American spirit, and as measured by any means, the majority of opinion in our democratic nation and throughout the democratic world.
In The American Crisis Thomas Paine wrote that what we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly. As Washington and his troops stood at the bank of the Delaware River, about to triumphantly attack the Hessians on that Christmas Day, he read these words of Paine to his troops:
"These are the times that try men's souls. The Summer Soldier and the Sunshine Patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country, but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny like Hell is not easily conquered, yet we have this consolation with us: that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph"
Happy July 4 to all.