Word: jeffersons
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Americans over 40 might be startled by a description of the Glorious Fourth that points out the racial, sexual and social characteristics of the Founding Fathers, never mind taking a swipe or two at Jefferson. But most of today's schoolchildren would not be surprised. It is now fairly commonplace to learn American history in the context of who has oppressed, excluded or otherwise mistreated whom. All across the country, students are imbibing a version of the past and present that their parents would not recognize...
Most of the revolutionaries were wealthier, more respectable types than Paine, including, shamefully, even slave owners like Tom Jefferson. But whatever their limitations, they were all proud sons of the Enlightenment. They believed fiercely in the power of individual reason as a guide to action, which is why so many of them defied majority opinion with their radical views on God. Any 1990s-style political handler could have advised them to go to church and mouth the prayers along with everyone else, but men like Paine, Ben Franklin and John Adams were deists, holding that God had created the universe...
...first patriots, freedom of speech, even jarring, unpopular speech, was a right worth dying for. Paine upheld "the right of every man to his opinion, however different that opinion may be to mine." Franklin said, "Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as . . . publick liberty." Jefferson believed "uniformity of opinion" was no more desirable than uniformity "of face and stature." Staid George Washington warned against "the impostures of pretended patriotism...
...Jefferson's Declaration of Independence defines patriotism in an implicitly rebellious fashion. According to that precious document, we do not owe our allegiance to a government or its leaders -- and certainly not to its army or its flag -- but to each other and to our common right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness. "Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends," the Declaration states, "it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it . . ." Thus for Jefferson, dissent was not only a right but also a necessity: "I hold that a little rebellion...
...fact, dissidence ought to be regarded as one of our finest traditions and proudest exports to the world. The feminist movement began here and spread throughout the world. Our civil rights movement has inspired the downtrodden in dozens of nations, and gay rights was practically invented here. Jefferson, I daresay, would be proud...