Comments on: Oak Norton Endorsements and Daily Herald Article

By: Oak storage bench

Oak storage bench — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 22:09:06 +0000

Bravo, Bros! keep going like this, more good info again.

By: Oak storage bench

Oak storage bench — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:09:06 +0000

Bravo, Bros! keep going like this, more good info again.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 01:09:29 +0000

Jefferson, Franklin and Monroe also knew Israelite history. When the Israelite people where released from Slavery and the hardships that they faced they wanted to be back in slavery. I think these men wanted to avoid the the mess that releasing the Slaves to fast might cause. They not only wanted the slaves released but they may have wanted the slaves to like and love there freedom.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 00:56:58 +0000

The pure American Constitutional Republic died in about 1800.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 00:54:37 +0000

Jefferson is to Slavery as the American people is to the Federal Reserve Bank. The Federal Reserve Bank has made us all Slaves. We do not like being Slaves but we do not want to eliminate the Federal Reserve because we would have no money or way to run our economy. The Federal Reserve is just as immoral as Slavery. It doesn't use legal tender but illegal.

By: Oak Norton

Oak Norton — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:53:22 +0000

Lewis, how do you keep your composure at church when they sing “praise to the man who communed with Jehovah?” Joseph is revered but everyone knows he wasn't perfect or a demi-god. Nobody has inferred that any of the Founders were either. What is recorded in scripture is that they were inspired and directed by God to establish the constitution to preserve agency.

By: lewisbarnavelt

lewisbarnavelt — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:14:09 +0000

Actually, Franklin owned slaves up to 1781. He was certainly conflicted over the issue since slavery was a means of economic life back then which is why Jefferson or Washington never divested themselves of them. Franklin, was extraordinarily wealthy, yet still bought and sold slaves at various times which I find troublesome. I don't care how good you are to your slaves, that is no excuse for owning someone and denying them their freedom and while Jefferson was personally kind to many of his slaves, his slave masters were not always so kind. I agree that there was a cultural shift underway, but I like to make mention from time to time that our founding fathers were not perfect men or demi-gods that some like to infer.

By: Oak Norton

Oak Norton — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:00:17 +0000

Franklin released his slaves in 1775. Jefferson educated his like very few did in his day. You can read about the great love Jefferson's slaves had for him in The Real Thomas Jefferson. I don't know much about Washington and his treatment of his slaves, but I would imagine he was good to them. I can't imagine what a difficult time they had going through a cultural shift of that nature. We probably can't appreciate what it was like so many years ago.

By: lewisbarnavelt

lewisbarnavelt — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 23:58:04 +0000

I watch Founder's Friday, but the only problem with the series is that Glenn Beck is the host and some of his historians on the show are not exactly scholarly. I watched the one about Ben Franklin and Beck asks a historian to give his opinion as to when he thinks America went wrong. Somehow the show about Ben Franklin turned into a show about socialism in America. The historian replied, "the 60's." Glenn Beck said the 1860's? (What Beck wanted hear). The historian replied, "the 1960's.) I about threw my remote at the TV. The historian self-admittedly based his opinion on his upbringing in the 1960's and his hatred for social programs as his supporting evidence. Glenn Beck, as expected, ate up the response since it didn't stray from his viewpoints.

For me, as a historian, this is not what good historians do. Historians don't answer questions about when they think America went wrong because it is a vague question of perception, and if they do answer such questions they try to bring in historical facts and connect the dots rather than personal anecdotal evidence. I realized right there that Beck only seeks like-minded historians to affirm his own viewpoints, rather than bring a variety of historians into the newsroom for a vigorous debate in front of the public. Because of this, I don't view Founder's Friday as a good source of information for those wanting to learn about history. Founders Friday mixes in facts with commentary and spin, spin, spin to a specific political agenda. For those wanting to learn about our founding fathers, I suggest reading a variety of books by a variety of scholarly authors and then develop your own commentary.

By: lewisbarnavelt

lewisbarnavelt — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 23:56:16 +0000

The biggest disappointment I have with Franklin, Jefferson, and Washington is that though they verbally argued against slavery, they still kept slaves to the end of their lives–thus the birth of American politics–where you do what I say, not what I do.