Saturday, June 20, 2009

The American Legacy in the World

"[Our] principles [are] founded on the immovable basis of equal right and reason." --Thomas Jefferson to James Sullivan, 1797. ME 9:379

"An equal application of law to every condition of man is fundamental." --Thomas Jefferson to George Hay, 1807. ME 11:341

"A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate." --Thomas Jefferson: Rights of British America, 1774. ME 1:209, Papers 1:134

"Nothing... is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man." --Thomas Jefferson to John Cartwright, 1824. ME 16:48

"The Declaration of Independence... [is the] declaratory charter of our rights, and of the rights of man." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Adams Wells, 1819. ME 15:200

"Truth is certainly a branch of morality, and a very important one to society." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Law, 1814. ME 14:139

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same." -- Ronald Reagan



"It's not productive, given the history of U.S.-Iranian relations, to be seen as meddling." -- Barack Obama to the World, 2009


So, in case you wondered what we stand for:

We stand for not meddling with brutal, fascist, theocracies and the way they treat their people, since it might make even more disagreeable the conversations we might have to have with them

And we stand for this, because we chose this, freely. Last November.

3 comments:

Pastorius said...

"We won."
Barack Obama, 2009

revereridesagain said...

Like some woman said to me this morning, "meddling" in Iran might start a wa-wah. Well, yes, standing up for the inalienable rights of man will do that upon occasion...

One such occasion being April 19, 1775.

But they seem to have forgotten that around here.

Epaminondas said...

Stating who we are and what we believe in will only start a war if the other side starts.

Those same people who were revolted by american support of thugs such as Pinochet, and clamored for condemnation of same, now justify the United States of we don't meddle.

What's the difference?

The Chileans were NEVER going to harm us, and were not our enemies.

MORAL COWARDICE powers their justifications