July 2 2005

Well gang, We have another Fourth of July coming up. Once again we will celebrate the "Spirit of 76" and the beginning of that wonderful experiment that we now call the United States of America.
For the first time in history a nation was born that dedicated itself to the proposition "that all men are created equal", and that their creator endowed these individuals with the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The key to the whole thing, of course, is the word "individual" and the expression "all men". Not some king who has "Divine Rights", or some Duke or Earl or Baron who has rights that he has inherited, or perhaps seized with a sword and the swords of a few of his friends.
No, this nation was designed to ensure that the least of us received certain inalienable rights.
We have fought several wars for those rights, and while we don’t have to worry about Kings and Dukes and so on, we do have to worry about corporations. You know, Captains of Industry.
Today there are corporations that have more power than a lot of the nations of the world. And you know what they say; "if you don’t use it, you lose it". So it’s only natural for corporations to use all the power that they’ve got. It’s also only natural that they will use their power, primarily, to get more power, until things get out of balance and we find ourselves dealing with a run-a-way train.
When the corporations wind up with too much power the only weapon the individuals of the country have to slow them down, is the vote.
And the vote has to be made to work somehow, because if it doesn’t, the only alternative to the vote is to take it to the streets.
Have a jolly Fourth of July gang. Go on out there and pursue a little happiness for yourself.
Who knows? By Monday, it might still be legal.