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Our country’s failings

By Lynn Rudmin Chong - Sanbornton | Aug 1, 2018

Aug. 2, 1776, is the day our founders signed our Declaration of Independence. “On August 2, 1776, a parchment paper copy of the Declaration was signed by 56 persons. Many of these signers were not present when the original Declaration was adopted on July 4. Signer Matthew Thornton from New Hampshire was seated in the Continental Congress in November; he asked for and received the privilege of adding his signature at that time and signed on November 4, 1776. According to legal historian Wilfred Ritz, about thirty-four delegates signed the Declaration on July 4, and the others signed on or after August 2.” (Wikipedia)

So here we are near Aug. 2, 2018, with the current president doing deals that please his ego, and threatening to shut down government if he doesn’t get his way and have that expensive wall that’s the butt of comedians’ jokes and the topic of critics who know the U.S. has thrived with our past practice of welcoming newcomers. Our grandparents and great-grands, etc. came here for work and freedom. “But let’s not let in the Mexicans,” is our sitting president’s motto, despite that these newcomers are from dangerous Honduras and Guatemala and Colombia and other countries south of our border where we fostered tyrants who were/are anti-democracy.

The complications of fleeing for one’s life don’t register with President Trump, whose willfulness gets no curbing by Republicans at the trough, sensing good deals for themselves.

So, here’s to our Declaration of Independence signers that long-ago August, and, alas, their ghosts wincing at our country’s failings now.

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