Poll: 71 Percent of Americans Say Founding Fathers Would be Disappointed

Posted on July 4, 2013 by Father Maney

As the United States celebrates its independence, a new survey reveals most Americans believe the nation’s founding fathers would not agree with the way the Constitution is being followed today and would be disappointed with how the country has turned out.

The poll, released Thursday by Gallup, showed that 71 percent of Americans think the signers of the Declaration of Independence would not be happy with America today—down from a high of 54 percent who said they would be pleased in 2001.

“Older Americans, those living in the Midwest, conservatives, and Republicans are relatively less likely to say the signers would be pleased than their counterparts,” the poll revealed.

According to Gallup, the political implications of these results suggest Republicans’ and conservatives’ growing disenchantment with a Democratic president.

Only 27 percent of those surveyed said the founding fathers would be pleased by the way the United States has turned out.

However, 237 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed, a whopping 85 percent of Americans say they are “extremely” or “very proud” to be American.

Republicans and people who live in the South were slightly more likely than Americans living in the East, West, and those who identified as Democrats to say they are proud.

The survey is based on telephone interviews conducted between June 1-4 and June 20-24, randomly sampling 1,529 and 2,048 adults, respectively. Participants lived in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

I agree with the majority in this instance. I am proud to be an American but am not at all happy with the direction our country is going and the brave new world that is being created as a result. It seems to me the very foundations on which this country was established and built are being systematically dismantled by those who hate what this country originally stood for and the results are anything but pretty.

Gettysburg Hero May Get Medal of Honor 150 Years Later

Posted on July 4, 2013 by Father Maney

From Fox News.

Two Wisconsin congressmen successfully added an amendment to the annual defense bill that would pave the way for the Medal of Honor to be awarded to a Union artillery officer credited for his heroism at Gettysburg 150 years ago.

First Lt. Alfonso Cush (far left).

First Lt. Alonzo H. Cushing positioned his unit on Gettysburg’s Cemetery Ridge and endured multiple injuries during the historic Pickett’s Charge, Hope Landsem, a second class cadet at the U.S. Military Academy, wrote in the Wall Street Journal

She writes, “In the ensuing Confederate infantry assault that came to be known as Pickett’s Charge, Cushing was shot twice, the second bullet tearing through his stomach and groin. The wounded officer kept up the fight, clutching his intestines as he commanded the artillery battery. Then Cushing was hit a third time, struck in the mouth by a bullet that exited at the base of his skull. The defenders of Cemetery Ridge eventually repulsed the Confederate advance, a pivotal moment in the Union victory that turned the tide of the Civil War.”

Cushing was from Delafield, Wis., and it was indeed two Wisconsin representatives who pushed for the amendment.

“When it comes to honoring war heroes, it is never too late to do the right thing,” Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., said.

Quite so (unless you are a Confederate sympathizer). Read it all.

Rare Letters from Father of US Navy Surface in South Carolina

Posted on July 4, 2013 by Father Maney

From Fox News.

When John Paul Jones famously said “I have not yet begun to fight,” he certainly had begun to write as evidenced by letters from the American naval hero that recently surfaced at the Charleston Library Society.

The library has 11 letters totaling 13 pages by the famous Revolutionary War captain many consider the father of the United States Navy.

The letters were written in 1777, two years before Jones is credited with making the defiant taunt in the fight between his ship, the Bonhomme Richard, and the HMS Serapis during the war. They were donated to the library in the 1830s but resurfaced only recently.

“They had completely fallen out of institutional memory,” said Rob Salvo, the library’s assistant librarian.

The letters provide a rare glimpse at correspondence between Jones and officials of the fledgling government as the nation tried to build a Navy. Many are addressed to Joseph Hewes, then secretary of the Navy. One was written to Benjamin Franklin, in France at the time, and inquires about the possibility of getting French-built ships.