Howard Deam, meet Thomas Paine
Howard Dean, meet Thomas Paine
by Donald Sensing
Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean on Iraq: “The idea that we are going to win this war is an idea that unfortunately is just plain wrong.”
How might American pre-Revolution pamphleteer Thomas Paine have responded?
‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered … The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. We have it in our power to begin the world over again. Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself – that is my doctrine. He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection.
If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.
As incisive as Tom Paine was, he never envisioned a thing called Islamism, else he never would have said, “Every religion is good that teaches man to be good; and I know of none that instructs him to be bad.”
Even so, he knew the nature of the threat Islamism presents today: “Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law.”
Funny how a man dead 196 years seems to understand the stakes of the war and the nature of our enemy better than a living, former presidential candidate.
Note: all the Paine quotes are authentic, but I have compiled them as above into a sort of mini-speech.
Jenny Hatch