Sunday July 5, 2009, 3:24 am
Are you an agitator? You know, one of those people who won't leave well enough alone, who's always questioning authority and trying to stir things up.

If so, the Powers That Be detest you -- you ... you ... "agitator!" They spit the term out as a pejorative to brand anyone who dares to challenge the established order. "Oh," they scoff, "our people didn't mind living next to that toxic waste dump until those environmental agitators got them upset." Corporate chieftains routinely wail that "our workers were perfectly happy until those union agitators started messing with their minds."

In each case, the message is that America would be a fine country if only we could get rid of those pesky troublemakers who get the hoi polloi agitated about one thing or another.

Bovine excrement. Were it not for agitators, we wouldn't even have an America. The Fourth of July would be just another hot day, we'd be singing "God Save the Queen," and our government officials would be wearing white-powdered wigs.

Agitators created America, and it's their feisty spirit and outright rebelliousness that we celebrate on our national holiday. I don't merely refer to the Founders, either. Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, James Madison, Ben Franklin and the rest certainly were derring-do agitators when they wrote the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, creating the framework for a democratic republic. But they didn't actually create much democracy. In the first presidential election, only 4 percent of the people were even eligible to vote. No women allowed, no African Americans, no American Indians and no one who was landless.

So, on the Fourth, it's neither the documents of democracy that we celebrate nor the authors of the documents. Rather, it's the intervening two-plus centuries of ordinary American agitators who have struggled mightily against formidable odds to democratize those documents.

America's great rebellion didn't end with the British surrender at Yorktown. It was only getting started -- and the rebellion has moved through such great forces of agitation as the abolitionists and suffragists, Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass, the Populists and the Wobblies, Fighting Bob La Follette and Huey Long, the Square Deal and New Deal, Mother Jones and Woodie Guthrie, Rachel Carson and Ralph Nader, Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez -- and on into today's continuing fight for economic fairness, social justice and equal opportunity for all.

Without agitators battling in politics, on the job, in the marketplace, for the environment, on Wall Street, in education, for civil liberties and rights, and all across our society, democratic progress doesn't just stall, it falls back.

The Powers That Be -- especially America's overarching corporate and political forces (often the same) -- give lip service to democracy, but tend toward plutocracy, autocracy and kleptocracy. They prefer (and often demand) that We the People be passive consumers of their economic and political policies. Don't rock the boat, stay in your place, go along to get along -- be quiet, they urge.

Be quiet? Holy Thomas Paine! How could freedom-loving, democratic citizens shrink into quietude, especially when the Powers That Be feel so entitled to run roughshod over us? Even a dead fish can go with the flow. We've got to be livelier than that.

July Fourth is a time to enjoy fireworks, flags, hotdogs, ballgames and such -- but it's also a time to remember who we are: agitators!

It's not easy to stand against powerful interests. Sometimes it's lonely, and you get to feeling like the guy B.B. King sings about: "No one likes you but your momma, and she might be jiving you, too." It's not easy, but having those who dare to stand up is essential if our country is ever to achieve our ideals of fairness, justice and opportunity for all.

And when the establishment derisively assails you as an agitator, remember this: The agitator is the center post in the washing machine that gets the dirt out.

Post July 4th?...Hope YOU had a good one!...

Sunday July 5, 2009, 4:57 am
Yes David the "Ham-Burgers" were burned , and the" Hot dogs", are very Hot! had to waterboard them in servitude
and the" Brave "are all recovering from beer poison
Tell you what ,! Iraqi, and Afghan meat is no good, next year we have to try the Iranian one, they say its juicy!!!
Peace be with you! Namaste

Sunday July 5, 2009, 5:10 am
noted with pleasure

Sunday July 5, 2009, 10:14 am
Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men
who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors,
and tortured before they died.

Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.
Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army;
another had two sons captured.

Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or
hardships of the Revolutionary War..

They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes,
and their sacred honor.

What kind of men were they?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists.
Eleven were merchants,
nine were farmers and large plantation owners;
men of means, well educated,
but they signed the Declaration of Independence
knowing full well that the penalty would be death if
they were captured.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and
trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the
British Navy. He sold his home and properties to
pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British
that he was forced to move his family almost constantly.
He served in the Congress without pay, and his family
was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him,
and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer,
Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that
the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson
home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General
George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed,
and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed.
The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying.
Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill
were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests
and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his
children vanished.
So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and
silently thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for the price they paid.

Remember: freedom is never free!

Sunday July 5, 2009, 10:27 am
Well said Blue! freedom has always a price and the pursue of happiness has also a price!
Namastè

Sunday July 5, 2009, 12:13 pm
Thank you Blue!

Sunday July 5, 2009, 2:22 pm
To sort out the truth and the false information in "The Price they paid"( the essay "Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?)

Go to snopes.com http://www.snopes.com/history/american/pricepaid.asp

Sunday July 5, 2009, 8:09 pm
Great post as usual,David! We are getting lax in our fighting spirit.Yes,it does come with a price,but what of the alternative? If our forefathers did not act as they did where would we be today?

Sunday July 5, 2009, 10:05 pm
I admire your writing and thank you for the news you bring us, David.

I am so pleased to have found Care2 and all the people gathered here becasue you really CARE.

Thanks for this suggestion - Aggitate for Change! I like the idea.

Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world - it is the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Thatcher

Monday July 6, 2009, 3:46 am
Thanks David,Huda,Blue.We hop independence for all the people they fight for

Monday July 6, 2009, 9:11 am
THANKS, BLUE, DAVID AND ALL THAT POST ABOUT THESE ISSUES. HOWEVER YOU LOOK AT THEM, THEY KEEP US INFORMED AND ON TOP OF IMPORTANT ISSUES !!
AND POSTS OF THESE TYPES CAN ALWAYS BE SEARCHED DEEPER IF BOTHERED BY ANY OF THEM OR EVEN IF ONE AGREES WITH THEM:-)