Well, Happy Days are here Again!

Seems I've passed the anti-spam test, I'm so happy I could do headstands and back-flips! But I reckon I'll just continue on doin' what I do...for now, here's a little something to occupy your mind whilst I get my Son up and off to school:


"No country upon earth ever had it more in its power to attain
these blessings than United America. Wondrously strange, then,
and much to be regretted indeed would it be, were we to neglect
the means and to depart from the road which Providence has pointed
us to so plainly; I cannot believe it will ever come to pass."

-- George Washington (letter to Benjamin Lincoln, 29 June 1788)

Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (403)

"The citizens of the United States of America have the right to
applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an
enlarged and liberal policy worthy of imitation. All possess
alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It
is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were by
the indulgence of one class of citizens that another enjoyed
the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for happily
the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no
sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they
who live under its protection should demean themselves as good
citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support."

-- George Washington (letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport,
Rhode Island, 9 September 1790)

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett (330)

Given these two quotes from The Father of Our Country, I wonder how it is that we've gotten so far off course from what was instituted and plotted by our Founding Fathers. Do any of y'all know the real meaning of Freedom? The real cost of that Freedom so cherished by all of mankind?