Thomas Paine Brings Common Sense To The New Year

Thomas Paine Brings Common Sense To The New Year

As we ring in the New Year with resolutions of making changes to better ourselves this year, we can’t help but remind you to look to the past in order to not make the same mistakes in the future.

“Common Sense” by Thomas Paine

Our nation is in a constant state of turmoil with poverty at an all-time high, our soldiers at war, we have homelessness and those who are without food, we’re overweight and dependent on a medical industry that only benefits financially from our illnesses.

Like our founding fathers and the early settlers to America, we need to become more aware of what is happening to us as a whole. We may come from many parts of the worlds but we’ve all come together for a better life. Let us not do this blindly or without knowledge of how to get back to and maintain it.

If you don’t know who Thomas Paine is, get ready for a brief look into this early American Revolutionary individual who sought to remind early American settlers of the sacrifices made to attain sovereignty and freedom from England, and challenged British rule and the royal monarchy. He was an author, a radical, an inventor, an intellectual, a revolutionary and one of the founding fathers of our great nation.

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At a time when America was beginning to settle, it seemed like its people were retorting back to English ways, be it out of fear, ignorance, or both. Thomas Paine, wrote and published a pamphlet simply titled, “Common Sense” with the goal of rallying the American people to hold steadfast to their freedom they had long fought (and died) for.

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Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense – 1776

What He Wrote Was “Common Sense”

What he wrote was in fact, just plain common sense. It called upon ALL CITIZENS to take responsibility for their lives, their nation, their people. Below is an excerpt of his work, addressing the origin and design of government in general with concise remarks on the English Constitution:

“Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.

Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.

Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him, out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others.

In order to gain a clear and just idea of the design and end of government, let us suppose a small number of persons settled in some sequestered part of the earth, unconnected with the rest; they will then represent the first peopling of any country, or of the world. In this state of natural liberty, society will be their first thought. A thousand motives will excite them thereto; the strength of one man is so unequal to his wants, and his mind so unfitted for perpetual solitude, that he is soon obliged to seek assistance and relief of another, who in his turn requires the same. Four or five united would be able to raise a tolerable dwelling in the midst of a wilderness, but one man might labour out the common period of life without accomplishing any thing; when he had felled his timber he could not remove it, nor erect it after it was removed; hunger in the mean time would urge him to quit his work, and every different want would call him a different way. Disease, nay even misfortune, would be death; for, though neither might be mortal, yet either would disable him from living, and reduce him to a state in which he might rather be said to perish than to die.

Thus necessity, like a gravitating power, would soon form our newly arrived emigrants into society, the reciprocal blessings of which would supersede, and render the obligations of law and government unnecessary while they remained perfectly just to each other; but as nothing but Heaven is impregnable to vice, it will unavoidably happen that in proportion as they surmount the first difficulties of emigration, which bound them together in a common cause, they will begin to relax in their duty and attachment to each other: and this remissness will point out the necessity of establishing some form of government to supply the defect of moral virtue.

Some convenient tree will afford them a State House, under the branches of which the whole Colony may assemble to deliberate on public matters. It is more than probable that their first laws will have the title only of Regulations and be enforced by no other penalty than public disesteem. In this first parliament every man by natural right will have a seat.

But as the Colony encreases, the public concerns will encrease likewise, and the distance at which the members may be separated, will render it too inconvenient for all of them to meet on every occasion as at first, when their number was small, their habitations near, and the public concerns few and trifling. This will point out the convenience of their consenting to leave the legislative part to be managed by a select number chosen from the whole body, who are supposed to have the same concerns at stake which those have who appointed them, and who will act in the same manner as the whole body would act were they present. If the colony continue encreasing, it will become necessary to augment the number of representatives, and that the interest of every part of the colony may be attended to, it will be found best to divide the whole into convenient parts, each part sending its proper number: and that the ELECTED might never form to themselves an interest separate from the ELECTORS, prudence will point out the propriety of having elections often: because as the ELECTED might by that means return and mix again with the general body of the ELECTORS in a few months, their fidelity to the public will be secured by the prudent reflection of not making a rod for themselves. And as this frequent interchange will establish a common interest with every part of the community, they will mutually and naturally support each other, and on this, (not on the unmeaning name of king,) depends the STRENGTH OF GOVERNMENT, AND THE HAPPINESS OF THE GOVERNED.

Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world; here too is the design and end of government, viz. Freedom and security. And however our eyes may be dazzled with show, or our ears deceived by sound; however prejudice may warp our wills, or interest darken our understanding, the simple voice of nature and reason will say, ’tis right.

I draw my idea of the form of government from a principle in nature which no art can overturn, viz. that the more simple any thing is, the less liable it is to be disordered, and the easier repaired when disordered; and with this maxim in view I offer a few remarks on the so much boasted constitution of England. That it was noble for the dark and slavish times in which it was erected, is granted. When the world was overrun with tyranny the least remove therefrom was a glorious rescue. But that it is imperfect, subject to convulsions, and incapable of producing what it seems to promise is easily demonstrated.

Absolute governments, (tho’ the disgrace of human nature) have this advantage with them, they are simple; if the people suffer, they know the head from which their suffering springs; know likewise the remedy; and are not bewildered by a variety of causes and cures. But the constitution of England is so exceedingly complex, that the nation may suffer for years together without being able to discover in which part the fault lies; some will say in one and some in another, and every political physician will advise a different medicine.

I know it is difficult to get over local or long standing prejudices, yet if we will suffer ourselves to examine the component parts of the English Constitution, we shall find them to be the base remains of two ancient tyrannies, compounded with some new Republican materials.

First. — The remains of Monarchical tyranny in the person of the King.

Secondly. — The remains of Aristocratical tyranny in the persons of the Peers.

Thirdly. — The new Republican materials, in the persons of the Commons, on whose virtue depends the freedom of England.

The two first, by being hereditary, are independent of the People; wherefore in a CONSTITUTIONAL SENSE they contribute nothing towards the freedom of the State.

To say that the constitution of England is an UNION of three powers, reciprocally CHECKING each other, is farcical; either the words have no meaning, or they are flat contradictions.

First. — That the King it not to be trusted without being looked after; or in other words, that a thirst for absolute power is the natural disease of monarchy.

Secondly. — That the Commons, by being appointed for that purpose, are either wiser or more worthy of confidence than the Crown.

But as the same constitution which gives the Commons a power to check the King by withholding the supplies, gives afterwards the King a power to check the Commons, by empowering him to reject their other bills; it again supposes that the King is wiser than those whom it has already supposed to be wiser than him. A mere absurdity!

There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of Monarchy; it first excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgment is required. The state of a king shuts him from the World, yet the business of a king requires him to know it thoroughly; wherefore the different parts, by unnaturally opposing and destroying each other, prove the whole character to be absurd and useless.

Some writers have explained the English constitution thus: the King, say they, is one, the people another; the Peers are a house in behalf of the King, the commons in behalf of the people; but this hath all the distinctions of a house divided against itself; and though the expressions be pleasantly arranged, yet when examined they appear idle and ambiguous; and it will always happen, that the nicest construction that words are capable of, when applied to the description of something which either cannot exist, or is too incomprehensible to be within the compass of description, will be words of sound only, and though they may amuse the ear, they cannot inform the mind: for this explanation includes a previous question, viz. HOW CAME THE KING BY A POWER WHICH THE PEOPLE ARE AFRAID TO TRUST, AND ALWAYS OBLIGED TO CHECK? Such a power could not be the gift of a wise people, neither can any power, WHICH NEEDS CHECKING, be from God; yet the provision which the constitution makes supposes such a power to exist.

But the provision is unequal to the task; the means either cannot or will not accomplish the end, and the whole affair is a Felo de se: for as the greater weight will always carry up the less, and as all the wheels of a machine are put in motion by one, it only remains to know which power in the constitution has the most weight, for that will govern: and tho’ the others, or a part of them, may clog, or, as the phrase is, check the rapidity of its motion, yet so long as they cannot stop it, their endeavors will be ineffectual: The first moving power will at last have its way, and what it wants in speed is supplied by time.

That the crown is this overbearing part in the English constitution needs not be mentioned, and that it derives its whole consequence merely from being the giver of places and pensions is self-evident; wherefore, though we have been wise enough to shut and lock a door against absolute Monarchy, we at the same time have been foolish enough to put the Crown in possession of the key.

The prejudice of Englishmen, in favour of their own government, by King, Lords and Commons, arises as much or more from national pride than reason. Individuals are undoubtedly safer in England than in some other countries: but the will of the king is as much the law of the land in Britain as in France, with this difference, that instead of proceeding directly from his mouth, it is handed to the people under the formidable shape of an act of parliament. For the fate of Charles the First hath only made kings more subtle — not more just.

Wherefore, laying aside all national pride and prejudice in favour of modes and forms, the plain truth is that IT IS WHOLLY OWING TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE PEOPLE, AND NOT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE GOVERNMENT that the crown is not as oppressive in England as in Turkey.

An inquiry into the CONSTITUTIONAL ERRORS in the English form of government, is at this time highly necessary; for as we are never in a proper condition of doing justice to others, while we continue under the influence of some leading partiality, so neither are we capable of doing it to ourselves while we remain fettered by any obstinate prejudice. And as a man who is attached to a prostitute is unfitted to choose or judge of a wife, so any prepossession in favour of a rotten constitution of government will disable us from discerning a good one.”

To read COMMON SENSE in its entirety, you can find it here.

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Read his other works: The Crisis, The Rights of Man, and The Age of Reason

He certainly was a radical and an intellectual. His writings are detailed and well thought out calling out “the people” to participate as a active equal members of society.

This new year brings with it the hope for change and betterment in our nation and it takes a strong, well informed people to make it happen. Look to the past to fair well in the future.

Why Don’t Americans Wear the Liberty Cap?

Why Don’t Americans Wear the Liberty Cap?

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Why Don’t Americans Wear the Liberty Cap? Learn to celebrate your independence from British Royalty and Banking tyranny by donning your “Liberty Cap”!  The identifiable symbol for many revolutions and was the key symbol in the US Army featured here.  It was prominently associated with rebellion.

This Christmas Santa Clause also Wears the Liberty Cap!

Good ol’ St Nick is also known for sporting a Red Liberty Cap.  The Original Santa Claus comes from the Siberian Shamans that use the Amenita Muscaria, a Large red fat mushroom with white polka dots.  During these periods of winter the shaman would bring these magic mushrooms to the snowed in Scandanavians.  Cabin fever was easily abated with the visions of gum drops dancing in their heads.

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Bill Murray donning the Red Liberty Cap in “Life Aquatic”

Its probable the French Revolutionaries got it from the American Revolutionaries who lead the revolt against the brutal military and banking tyranny of the British Empire and Vatican Hegemony.  In 1776, the Americans had had enough and in the ancient tradition of the Phyrgian Slaves donned Liberty Caps to represent the American Revolution with the British Royal Empire and The Holy Roman Empire!

This is a brimless, relaxed, cone shaped hat fitting the head.  Originally worn by the peoples of Phyrigia a region known as Anatolia in ancient history.  Today his region is called Asia Minor.  In 1593 Cesare Ripa wrote the book Iconologia recognizing these caps and there history.  The Phyrigian cap was worn by slaves of ancient Rome and Greece.  Later it was worn The Liberty Cap Seal of the US Senate.for ceremonial purposes.  The cap also played a part in the ceremony of the manumission slave.  Its connection to Asia Minor is tenuous.  The understanding is that the Phyrgian slaves who when freed ould again wear their traditional head wear.  Whichever it may be, the Phrygian cap was adopted and symbolised liberty to the libertarians during the Enlightenment.  The “Phrygian cap” , French for “bonnet Phrygian“,  is generally displayed as a red cap, “bonnet rouge” or Liberty Cap, “bonnet de la Liberte“.

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The Liberty Cap represents SOVEREIGNTY which means that nobody other than God is your RULER.  Sover (Super) in Latin means Above.  Reign is to Rule Over.  Or Above Rule.  Above any one else’s Ruler-ship or Monarchy.  In the American colonies the Liberty Cap was pervasive in promoting the the rebellion from Britain and birthing of a new nation under God and no other.  The Sons of Liberty in 1765 was the first annotation.  Later during the American Revolution some soldiers wore knitted red stocking caps with the occasional stitched words “LIBERTY” or “Liberty or Death” along the brim.  This style was imbued in the attire of “Jonathan” an allegorical figure of the New England tale.

Liberty Caps were generally atop a Liberty Pole during the American Revolutionary War as a symbol of Freedom.  Perhaps it was the “Dangling Carrot” ever chasing what is just out of our reach for it seems we have yet to achieve true Liberty from the evil doers of the British Royal Empire and their Banking Regime.  Many coins have the Liberty Cap positioned a loft a pole or hovering behind the head of Lady Liberty where the Limbic brain or the part of the Brain that processes the Care principle.  If we don’t care enough we will not stand up to the tyranny upon us!  On the right we also see it on the seal of the United States Senate supplanting the fasci in the center.  Very powerful symbology here.

Seal_of_New_York.svgA golden Liberty Cap appears on the seal of the State of New York the original capital of the United States of America.  The latin phrase beneath translates to “The Figure of Liberty Proper”.  Her hair is is unkempt and adorn with pearls, azure gown, sandals, cincture around the waist, fringed gules, a mantle of the last depending from the shoulders behind the feet, the dexter hand a staff adorned by a Phrygian Cap Or, a sinister arm holding and supporting the shield of the dexter chief point, a Royal Crown by her sinister foot rejected.

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A Liberty Cap also appears on the state flags of New Jersey and West Virginia.  It is predominant on the US Army Seal!  Also painted on many murals within the US Capital in Washington D.C. like the Apotheosis of George Washington and artifacts with the same for Benjamin Franklin.

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Life, Liberty And Pursuit Of All Who Threaten It Shirt

Life, Liberty And Pursuit Of All Who Threaten It Shirt

The figure here is detailed in the painting “Telegraph” in the US Senate by Constantine Brumidi personifying America wearing a Liberty Cap.  However the Liberty Cap is commonly associated with the revolution of the Americas from Great Britain it not shown worn.  Its either an isolated symbol or on top of a Liberty Pole or shaft.  The one here shows it colored as an American Flag.  Another shows it on a pole crossing a fasces.  This design is from an envelope during the American Civil War.  It was to be featured in the painting in the US Capital authorized in 1855 called the ‘Freedom triumphant in War and Peace” but was rejected by Jefferson Davis , then the Secretary of War, and demanded a Roman helmet be used in its place.

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The Liberty Caps around the world

La Liberté guidant le peupleDuring the American Revolution the only European country to aid was France.  The Liberty Cap was also used by the French Revolution that lead to teh beheading of the Royals!  I guess someone wanted some heads to roll;)  The French Revolutionary Army donned the Liberty Cap as seen here in this illustration of a Marienne.  It was documented in 1789 but hte cap became popular in the Spring of 1790.  It was worn by the Liberty Goddesses and Nation prior and became a part of the uniform of the sans-culottes.  King Louis XVI, on June 20th 1792, donned a Liberty Cap when pressed by a large crowd that had stormed the palace of Tuileries. Later the Liberty Cap was placed on the mitre of the fleeing Archbishop of Paris.

By 1793, members of the Assemblies of Paris were obligated to wear a Liberty Cap and accepted it as a national symbol placing it on the French Seal of the State of the Republic and to replace the Fleur-di-lis on milestones. The cap was definitely considered an important icon.  Here is a postcard with a large red Liberty Cap portrayed.  It is identified with more extreme revolutionaries and as been subdued during periods of stability when the French Government discouraged any uprising or disturbing the apple cart.  Under the Consulate regime the capped Liberty was replaced by a less provoking Minerva helmet as well as ALL public monuments.  Take a clue!

Pictured here is a painting called “La Liberte guidant le peuple” – Liberty Guiding the People, by Eugene Delacroix and is currently hanging in the Louvre in Paris.  Here Lady Liberty is brandishing the French tricolore Flag and wearing a red Phrygian Liberty Cap.  Inspired by the insurrection of July 1830 in Paris ending the last king of France, Charles X, forcing him to abdicate and was replaced with the “King of the French” Louis-Phillippe.

During the 2nd Republic, rebellions caused the provisory government to add a Liberty Cap on the white stripe of the French tricolore Flag in February 1848.  Then the cap disappeared again from the flag and the seal then was reestablished as a national symbol during the 3rd Republic.

The liberty cap continues to be worn by Marianne, the female illustration of the French Republic; however solely generally. Her bust, that adorns town halls of France, generally sports a rather less revolutionary jeweled headdress. She wears a awfully discreet cap on the new French brand shown higher than.

       The French National Motto              

100 Franc coin of 1989. Note the Phrygian cap as well as the motto.

A cap is visible on the 1989 one hundred monetary unit coin shown on the proper. till 2002 the cap appeared, in conjunction with the Cross of French region, on the brand of a rightist French organisation referred to as Rassemblement pour la République (RPR), the neo-Gaullist party of Jacques Chirac. the brand isn’t any longer used, maybe attributable to the pardonable tendency to ascertain it as as a unshapely parrot. (The parot’s “eye” is truly a blue, white and red decoration.)

Other Countries

Elsewhere, the Liberty cap was incorporated into the image of the late eighteenth century Irish revolutionary movement called the Society of the United Irishmen. It additionally carried over to occupant revolutions of the decennium. The cap appeared on Mexican coins through the late nineteenth century into the middle twentieth century (including the previous eight Reales coin). Today, it’s featured of the coats of arms, national flags or seals of Central American country, Central American country, Colombia, Republic of Paraguay and Cuba. In Argentina it seems not solely on the national arms and flag, however additionally those of the military and navy, on presidential flags and therefore the flags of provinces together with Corrientes, Jujuy, Mendoza and urban center. As within the US, the cap invariably appears to feature on high of a stick, instead of people’s heads.

The Phrygian Cap before it became a Liberty Cap

Before the Phrygian cap came to symbolise freedom or revolutionary fervour, it had another message within the west. it had been an emblem related to the east. so it appears to own been worn by arange of peoples within the Balkans and peninsula. Macedonian, Thracian, and Dacian military helmets all had forward inform tiptop maybe mimicking Phrygian caps.

        

The Phrygian cap may be seen on Trajan’s Column, worn by the Dacians, and on the Arch of Septimius Severus, worn by the Parthians. Roman poets routinely used the term “Phrygian” to mean Trojan. In Greek art, the Phrygian cap served to spot Paris as a Trojan – and then positively not a correct Greek. The mosaic on the correct shows mythical being sporting a Phrygian hat. The cap additionally seems on murals in an exceedingly fourth century Thracian topographic point at Kazanlak in fashionable Bulgaria.

The Phrygian cap was worn by the god Mithras – shown on the correct. He was a Saviour god within the adherent Persian tradition supported the Zoroastrian faith.Mithras was a forerunner of the Saviour-god Hebrew United Nations agency borrowed Mithras’s halo, his birthday and his temple on the Vatican Hill in Rome, however not his Phrygian hat. identical headgear conjointly options on the heads of the 3 Magi in previous depictions of them – marking them as being from the east, like this depiction (above left) from a church in pitched battle. The name Magi denotes Zoroastrian clergymen from Persia.

Liberty Cap Mountain Peak

Liberty Cap is a granite dome in Yosemite parkland, California, USA that lies at the northwestern margin of the Yosemite park. It lies adjacent, to the north of American State Fall,  on the naturalist path. It rises 1,700 feet (520 m) feet from the bottom of American state Fall to a peak elevation of 7,080 ft (2,158 m). A smaller, mesa-like dome referred to as Mount Broderick stands forthwith adjacent to cap.

Liberty Cap in Coins

Liberty Cap – Head Facing Left (1793)

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Uncirculated

Liberty Cap – Large Head Right Facing (1794)

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Uncirculated

Liberty Cap – Sm. Head Right Facing (1795-1797)

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Uncirculated

American Legend Paul Bunyan wore the Red Liberty Cap representing the freedom of the new frontier!

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On 9-11 American Resolve Is Again Remembered

On 9-11 American Resolve Is Again Remembered

On 9-11 American Resolve Is Again Remembered

We Will Always Remember 911!

 

On 9-11 American Resolve Is Again Remembered. Thirteen years ago today, America was once again reminded that the world is far from an innocent place. We lost thousands of our citizens and foreign guests to the dregs of the Earth. That day, September 11, 2001, was succeeded by two wars. After all of this, we are still standing. We are still here. We will now and forever remember those we lost, friends, family, our bravest and those who showed the world what the definition of courage is. Honor the courageous who experienced 9-11.

 

911 Remembered

 

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America has been hit by terrorism and has joined the world of countries that have experienced acts of terrorism. She has withstood the blows, has regained her composure and has come out victorious over her foes, the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Now with ISIS in the forefront we are resolved to combat this dog and put it down!

The Flags Of Our Fathers and Father’s Day

The Flags Of Our Fathers and Father’s Day

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The Flags Of Our Fathers and Father’s Day

The Star Spangled Banner!

Nothing attains greater height or is displayed, honored or treated with more importance than the American flag. No single flag is more important to our country than the US flag and when displayed in connection with other flags or displayed as part of a collection of US, state, military branch or other flags she always flies ahead, above or first at all times. Have you met her? Do you know her? She is the flag of our fathers.

O say can you see by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation.
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

The 4th Verse Sung By A Marine!

  Join Or Die!

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Join, Or Die.

From the very founding of America there has come flags that have become identified with different periods of American history.

Join, Or Die, originally a cartoon created by the very own Benjamin Franklin, a founding father, displayed a snake cut into eights with each cut marked with one of the original 13 colonies. Featured in the Pennsylvania Gazette, this icon would later become the symbology for unity within the colonies of the future United States.

 

Gadsden Flag: Don’t Tread On Me!

RHWA031_Dont-tread-On-meAs quoted in Wiki ~ The cartoon appeared along with Franklin’s editorial about the “disunited state” of the colonies, and helped make his point about the importance of colonial unity. This cartoon was used in the French and Indian War to symbolize that the colonies needed to join together with Great Britain to defeat the French and Indians.

It became a symbol of colonial freedom during the American Revolutionary War. This colonial icon did get seen on flags and pennants in its day and fueled the Revolutionary War of Independence.

The flag of our founding fathers.   In 1775 another flag gained prominence, named after American general and statesman, Christopher Gadsden, this historical American flag featuring a coiled rattlesnake and the words Don’t Tread On Me! This American revolutionary flag was also adopted by early Continental Marines as an early motto flag, along with the Moultrie Flag. Another flag of our fathers.

Another flag and amazing photograph taken during the Second World War at the summit of Mt Suribachi during the Battle Of Iwo Jima was the 2nd flag raising   Our dedication to the people of this great country is to express freely designs we feel will create a positive awareness of the subject of the 2nd Amendment and its importance as a fundamental part of our country’s history. The 2nd Amendment shirts below were created by those who appreciate our rights as Americans, the education and safe use of firearms and our inherited rights to protect and defend ourselves when needed.

 

Keep Gun And Carry On!

VSWA167 Keep Gun and Carry On

Keep Gun and Carry On

This design as quoted at VSW ~ Keep Gun And Carry On Shirt Made In America! These gun rights and 2nd Amendment shirts display a singular message: We have the Right to Bear Arms! This is a constitutional right.

When governments seek to remove the guns from law abiding citizens then tyranny is the result. We fought England in 1775 and 1812 because American’s had rights and would not succumb to a non-representing monarchy and the people of the United States will not have their rights taken away when they have the power removed from their ability to defend themselves from enemies foreign and domestic.

The blood of America is Freedom and the military, the soldier, the Sheriff whose oath has been taken preserves the peace but prevents also the governments desire to replace freedom with unchecked rule. The people of the US will not have their right to bear arms taken from them. So when when you express your opinion about gun rights remember to Keep Gun and Carry On!

 

Join Or Die!

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Sovereign Join or Die 1776

From 1775 to the present day there have been patriots. Men  and women with the roar of defiance in their hearts and the willingness not to accept for the sake of what someone told you. Things were looked at, they were analyzed, and they were often criticized and when agreement was not reached: Revolution!

 

Common Sense Club!

Common Sense Club

When the citizens of this country are left to peacefully go about their days, working, raising families, experiencing the pursuit of the American dream then calm and positive things are often the result. We were promised with the opportunity to pursue life, liberty and happiness and for those who threaten this there is life’s little equalizer: the 45 acp.

 

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit Of All Who Threaten It!

Life Liberty Bullet

 America is rich with history and as the following designs will attest each has within it its own statement, iconic references to our forefathers and their desire to not participate as a British colony but exist as its own sovereign country. There would be no crown in America. This sovereign design represents this attitude.

 

My American Gun Club!

American Gun Club

In every major American city and town are the men and women who love to work hard and play hard! They enjoy their weekends, the occasional football game, baseball game or even NASCAR race. Their weekends are filled with friends, family and guns! They shoot at pigeons, targets, deer, elk, or even at each other on occasion when the airsoft challenge is thrown down and teams line up across the battlefield and engage each other in the fields of paint!

We salute you and your gun club and the getting together of good friends in your M’Erican Social Gun Club!   These flags, American icons, extremely important messages that appear in the colors of the US Flag, its streamers, banners and pageantry of American history are our connection to our past, the history of our country and forms a bridge to our fathers.

These are the flags of our fathers!

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One Weekend a Month Two Weeks A Year

One Weekend a Month Two Weeks A Year

Comprised of two military branches, Army and Air Force, the National Guard, is certainly a reserve military force to be reckoned with. It’s state militia units are federally recognized as part of the United States’ armed forces, whether active or inactive. Citizen soldiers make up the National Guard, working civilian jobs part time and serving in the military part time as well.

Since its inception in 1636, the National Guard has been and will always be ready to mobilize its units for active duty to supplement regular armed forces during times of war or for national emergency as declared by Congress, the President or the Secretary of Defense.

National Guardsmen, Penn Station, New York City

National Guardsmen, Penn Station, New York City

There is claim that the National Guard is older than our nation itself, with over three and a half centuries of service. Our modern-day units that can are direct descendants from the Massachusetts Bay Colony Regiments formed 375 years ago, are the 101st Field Artillery Regiment, the 182nd Infantry Regiment, the 101st Engineer Battalion and the 181st Infantry.

National Guardsman of the 1st Battalion

National Guardsman of the 1st Battalion, 151st Infantry Regiment in Parun, Afghanistan

It is also accredited with having served in the Mexican-American War, the beginning of the American Civil War and the Spanish-American War. During World War I, the National Guard made up to 40% of the U.S. combat divisions in France and 19 divisions in WWII.

More recently, we have seen our National Guard’s service men and women deploy to aid in Operation Desert Storm, with over 63,000 members mobilized. They were also there to assist with peace-keeping operations in places like Somalia, Haiti, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bosnia and Kosovo as well as the handling of natural disasters (Hurricane Katrina), strikes, riots and other such massive events.

Guard’s men and women traditionally serve “One Weekend a Month, Two Weeks a Year” although certain units can serve more frequently depending on the demand of the task at hand. Pilots, navigators and aircrewmen are typical examples of those who are full time service members. A significant number of these also serve full time in AGR (Active Guard and Reserve) or ART (Air Reserve Technician or Army Reserve Technician).

 

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