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Read other letters about this article
To quote you...
"They were somewhat ahead of their time in that regard and I like to think that is part of what has made America so succesful as a nation. Ben Franklin never shrugged his shoulders and dismissed slavery as the work of a "few bad apples" so he could forget about it and sleep well when he went to bed at night. He argued passionately for abolition of slavery even at the Constitutional convention, even though he was at that time in the minority and died without seeing his efforts bear any fruit. He never gave up his ideals. He was an American."
First of all, don't lecture me about Jesus. You'll lose. Secondly, don't use our founding Father's as a intellectual argument when it fits you because they also believed vehmently in a "GOD FEARING COUNTRY" which, by and large, liberals don't even believe in. One trip to the ACLU trying to strip the Ten Commandments off of Government buildings will attest to that. They believed in a God fearing people that had FREEDOM to WORSHIP and SHOW THEIR FAITH in PUBLIC without fear of retribution or imprisonment. Today, we let kid's shave their hair, wear degrading T-Shirts to school, suck face in the hallway, have out of wedlock births, but then the kids can't say a 1 minute prayer before class. If you THINK this is what our founding Fathers wanted you'd be WRONG. So, If you want to discuss their ideals - discuss them all. Not one singular piece of it because it fits your current argument. You have to take it in context, all of their thoughts. But your right, Ben Franklin framed a constitution that said "all men are created equal" and he struggled with a newly formed government that coined that phrase, yet still held people as slaves. As a God fearing Christian he obviously had a point.
What I am concerned about is this polarization between the left and right, and publications like Salon who obviously have an agenda in trying to shape our nations politics (as most news organizations do) at the cost of American lives. They can report it, just do it another way. A way that let's me see all of my former comrades in arms come home.
