Thoughts on The Gadsden Flag by Benjamin Franklin, from @KingMakerFT on Twitter

 I see the renowned Gadsden “Don’t Tread on Me” rattlesnake flag is in the news. Let’s remove all doubt about what that flag meant to our Founding Fathers. Here is Benjamin Franklin discussing its symbolism: 

Was I wrong, Sir, in thinking this a strong picture of the temper and conduct of America? The poison of her teeth is the necessary means of digesting her food, and at the same time is certain destruction to her enemies.” 

“This may be understood to intimate that those things which are destructive to our enemies, may be to us not only harmless, but absolutely necessary to our existence. I confess I was wholly at a loss what to make of the rattles, … 

…till I went back and counted them and found them just thirteen, exactly the number of the Colonies united in America; and I recollected too that this was the only part of the Snake which increased in numbers. 

“The Rattle-Snake is solitary, and associates with her kind only when it is necessary for their preservation. In winter, the warmth of a number together will preserve their lives, while singly, they would probably perish. 

“The power of fascination attributed to her, by a generous construction, may be understood to mean, that those who consider the liberty and blessings which America affords, and once come over to her, never afterwards leave her, but spend their lives with her. 

“The power of fascination attributed to her, by a generous construction, may be understood to mean, that those who consider the liberty and blessings which America affords, and once come over to her, never afterwards leave her, but spend their lives with her. 

“She strongly resembles America in this, that she is beautiful in youth and her beauty increaseth with her age, "her tongue also is blue and forked as the lightning, and her abode is among impenetrable rocks." 

• • •

Thirteen heroes

 Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David Espinoza, 20, of Rio Bravo, Tex.

Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole Gee, 23, of Roseville, Calif. Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, 31, of Utah Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, 23, of Corryton, Tenn. Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, of Indio, Calif. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, 20, Jackson, Wyo. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20, of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, 20, of Norco, Calif. Marine Corps Cpl. Daegan William-Tyeler Page, 23, of Omaha Marine Corps Sgt. Johanny Rosario, 25, Lawrence, Mass. Marine Corps Cpl. Humberto Sanchez, 22, Logansport, Ind. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, 20, of Wentzville, Mo. Navy Hospital Corpsman Max Soviak, 22, of Berlin Heights, Ohio

The difference between lawyers and business people.

Received in email from a friend.

As an attorney, I hesitated to forward this as it can be an indictment against my profession.  But I believe there is much truth to the article below.  Very thought provoking.  Lawyers are adversarial and are trained to try to win at all costs.  It may work in litigation but does not work well when governing our nation.  Trying to win at any costs creates the polarization and hatred that now fills our country and leaves no room for common sense or legitimate debate.

 

Every Democrat presidential nominee since 1984 went to law school, although Gore did not graduate.  Joe Biden (no surprise) was at the bottom of his class.  Every Democrat vice presidential nominee since 1976, except for Lloyd Bentsen, went to law school.  Barack Obama was a lawyer.  Michelle Obama was a lawyer.  Hillary Clinton was a lawyer.  Bill Clinton was a lawyer.  John Edwards is a lawyer.  Elizabeth Edwards was a lawyer.  Look at leaders of the Democrat Party in Congress: Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer is a lawyer.  Former Senator Harry Reid was a lawyer.

 

The Republican Party is different.  President Trump was a businessman.  Presidents Bush 1 and 2 were businessmen.  Vice President Cheney was a businessman.  President Eisenhower was a 5 star General.  The leaders of the Republican Revolution: Newt Gingrich was a history professor.  Tom Delay was an exterminator.  Dick Armey was an economist.  Ex-House Minority Leader John Boehner was a plastics manufacturer.  The former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is a heart surgeon.  Who was the last Republican president who was a lawyer?  Gerald Ford, who left office 31 years ago and who barely won the Republican nomination as a sitting president, running against actor Ronald Reagan in 1976.  The Republican Party is made up of real people doing real work, who are often the targets of lawyers.  This is very interesting. I had never thought about it this way before.

 

The Democrat Party is made up of lawyers.  Democrats mock and scorn men who create wealth, like Trump, Bush, and Cheney, or who heal the sick like Frist, or who immerse themselves in history like Gingrich.  The Lawyers Party sees these sorts of people, who provide goods and services that people want, as the enemies of America.  And so, in the eyes of the Lawyers Party, we have seen the procession of official enemies grow.  Against whom do Hillary and Obama rail?  Pharmaceutical companies, oil companies, hospitals, manufacturers, fast food restaurant chains, large retail businesses, bankers, and anyone producing anything of value in our nation.

 

This is the natural consequence of viewing everything through the eyes of lawyers.  Lawyers solve problems by successfully representing their clients, which, in this case should be the American people.  Lawyers seek to have new laws passed, they seek to win lawsuits, they press appellate courts to overturn precedent, and lawyers always parse language to favor their side.  Confined to the narrow practice of law, that is fine.  But it is an awful way to govern a great nation.

 

When politicians, as lawyers, begin to view some Americans as clients and other Americans as opposing parties, then the role of the legal system in our life becomes all-consuming.  Some Americans become adverse parties of our very government.  We are not all litigants in some vast social class-action suit.  We are citizens of a republic that promises us a great deal of freedom from laws, from courts, and from lawyers.

 

Today, we are drowning in laws.  We are contorted by judicial decisions.  We are driven to distraction by omnipresent lawyers in all parts of our once private lives.  America has a place for laws and lawyers, but that place is modest and reasonable, not vast, and unchecked.  When the most important decision for our next president is whom, he will appoint to the Supreme Court, the role of lawyers and the law in America is too big.  When House Democrats sue America to hamstring our efforts to learn what our enemies are planning to do to us, then the role of litigation in America has become crushing.

 

Perhaps Americans will understand that change cannot be brought to our nation by those lawyers who already largely dictate American society and business.  Perhaps Americans will see that hope does not come from the mouths of lawyers but from personal dreams nourished by hard work.  Perhaps Americans will embrace the truth that more lawyers with more power will only make our problems worse.

 

The United States has 5% of the world's population and 66% of the world's lawyers!  Tort or legal reform legislation has been introduced in congress several times in the last several years to limit punitive damages in ridiculous lawsuits such as spilling hot coffee on yourself and suing the establishment that sold it to you and to limit punitive damages in huge medical malpractice lawsuits.  This legislation has been blocked from even being voted on by the Democrat Party.  When you see that 97% of the political contributions from the American Trial Lawyers Association go to the Democrat Party, then you realize who is responsible for our medical and product costs being so high