Thomas Jefferson was born 280 years ago today on the 13th April 1743 in Shadswell, Virginia.
He wasn’t just a Founding Father of his nation and a revered early President, but a wonderful wordsmith, which is my primary criterion for singling anyone out to be an indigenous man or woman of the Anglosphere.
He wrote a first draft which a committee of five turned into these immortal words:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Jefferson wrote the following words himself:
“Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.”
“I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom. And to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. “
“The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.”
“In matters of style, swim with the current: in matters of principle, stand like a rock.”
While rejecting the English rule of his country of birth, he enriched the Anglosphere with his words as few men have.
An accomplished indigenous woman of the Anglosphere.
A Grand Dame of English and American Theater.
Her marriage to her first husband lasted five years till 1900, but his name survives as her married woman’s stage name to this very day.
She was very successful on London’s West end as Ophelia, Juliet and Lady Macbeth.
Mrs Pat had a physically unconsummated love affair by letter with George Bernard Shaw. She wrote to him: “Oh dear me — it’s too late to do anything but accept you and love you — but when you were quite a little boy, somebody ought to have said “HUSH” just once!”
Shaw wrote Pygmalion for her. It was Shaw’s most popular play and the inspiration for My Fair Lady. All though many people considered Campbell too old for the role, she triumphed in 1914 at the age of 49 and again in 1920 when 55 years old.
She was a regular performer in American theatre from her Broadway debut in 1900 till the age of 68 when she moved on to working briefly in movies. This included co-starring with Norma Shearer in “Riptide” and with Peter Lorre in “Crime And Punishment”.
There is a powerful historical precedent for Tulsi Gabbard’s transition from a Bernie Sanders Democrat to being one of the fiercest critics of Joe Biden’s warmongering abroad and attacks on freedom at home.
Between the 1930’s and the 1960’s, New Deal Democrat Ronald Reagan became a small government Republican and a two term President in the 1980’s. Many conservatives believe Reagan deserves to be added to Mount Rushmore.
In 2019 former Reagan Communications Director Pat Buchanan wrote an opinion peace attacking damage to the Reagan foreign policy legacy of avoiding major war entitled “Memo To Trump: Trade Bolton For Tulsi”. Buchanan quoted Gabbard’s criticism of Trump’s National Security Advisor John Bolton’s policies: “This insanity must end.” Buchanan praised her criticism as something Trump himself might have said in 2016.
Now in 2023, some people suggest Gabbard could be a great running mate for The Donald in 2024.
She has recently said:
A. that the Biden Democratic Party is “now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness.”
B. that Leftist lawmakers racialise “every issue and stoke anti-white racism.”
C. “You see the final expression of cancel culture in Islamist terrorist groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda ……”
and
D. that it breaks her heart to see people like President Biden “so readily throwing our constitution in the trash, so readily passing policies and taking stands that violate our fundamental freedoms ……“
The true holy spirit of women is in caring for others and helping people share.
Women do this most often as mothers in families, but can also do it socially and professionally when willing and allowed.
On her 109th birthday last year, I named Rosa Parks an Indigenous Woman Of The Anglosphere (IWOTA) , because, as a native speaker of English, her words showed a great command of the language which I believe did a lot of good in the world.
Today it is Rosa’s 110th birthday. To mark the occasion, I fuse her words with images of good, beautiful females I know and like and admire. One is a real woman, Deeanna Appadu, born and raised in Mauritius, and now in Australia. The other a goblin art comic and street-dwelling superhero, Shine Of The Moon. Both are women of color. In Shine’s case the color is tawny.
I brought them together once in one of Shine’s artistic homes
Geoff Fox, 4th February, 2023, Melbourne, Australia
While he is quite a flawed individual in some respects, I regard POTUS 45, Donald Trump, as easily one of the best American presidents in my lifetime. (along with Ike, JFK, RMN, and The Gipper.)
One of his strengths is that the fact that he is a family man has given him some really good and truly beautiful people working at his side.
Father Donald and daughter Ivanka at work in the Oval Office with wise words from their First Lady.
On the basis of the quality of the words and insightful thought in his Inaugural Address, on this date 6 years ago, I now name President Trump as number five in my series of Indigenous Men Of The Anglosphere.
Here is a selection of ideas from that speech:
“Today’s ceremony ……. has very special meaning, because today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another, or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the people …….
The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country …….
What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people …….
The forgotten men and women of our country, will be forgotten no longer ……..
(Our) movement (has) a crucial conviction, that a nation exists to serve its citizens …….
We share one heart, one home, and one glorious destiny …….
We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example …….
……. through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other. When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice. The Bible tells us, how good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity. We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements, but always pursue solidarity ……..
There should be no fear. We are protected, and we will always be protected ……. most importantly, we will be protected by God.
……. we must think big and dream even bigger. In America, we understand that a nation is only living as long as it is striving.
It’s time to remember that old wisdom our soldiers will never forget, that whether we are black, or brown, or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots. We all enjoy the same glorious freedoms …….
……. whether a child is born in the urban sprawl of Detroit or the windswept plains of Nebraska, they look up at the same night sky, they fill their heart with the same dreams and they are infused with the breath of life by the same almighty creator …….”
This sort of speaking is what I call Living In The Word.
If you wish to understand why such words and ideals are very important to me personally, please read “Augurs Of Freedom”, which I wrote three years ago about thoughts on Inaugural Day from three other presidents.
Recovering from trauma and restoring true greatness can only be done with love.
121 years ago, in the New Year of 1902, the young Javanese noblewoman and iconic women’s rights pioneer R.A. Kartini and her elder sister experienced a sisterhood revelation which was part of the foundation for Kartini’s greatness as an Indonesian national hero. Kartini described it like this:
“WHEN we were in Samarang {sic, the modern spelling is Semarang}, our eldest sister came over to see us, “Sister, sister,” was all that she said, when she had seen me. The arms that were thrown around me trembled, and her eyes were filled with tears. We were silent; we understood each other. At last we have found our sister.
At last, after years, we have gained her understanding and respect That gives us new courage, because at first, she was very conservative, and was opposed violently to every innovation.”
I see the same glorious beauty in Persian women of the “Women. Life. Freedom” movement in Melbourne.
Mona and Mas, Persian friends.
Is this the fourth wave of feminism, which I predict will strive to replace the self-hatred, victimhood and misandry of third wave feminism with love and fairness for all?
December the 3rd this year is the 168th anniversary of the Battle Of Eureka Stockade in 1854 on the Australian goldfields around the Victorian town of Ballarat between rebel miners fighting against an overbearing government and colonial police and military forces. According to the National Museum Of Australia website, “At least 22 diggers and six soldiers were killed.”
In a letter to the people of Victoria, the Rebels leader, Peter Lalor, wrote: “As the inhuman brutalities practised by the troops are so well known, it is unnecessary for me to repeat them. There were 34 digger casualties of which 22 died. The unusual proportion of the killed to the wounded, is owing to the butchery of the military and troopers after the surrender.”
According to Wikipedia: “The Commission of Inquiry would later find that:
“The foot police appear, as a body, to have conducted themselves with creditable temper; but assuredly, on the part of the mounted division of that force there seems to have been a needless as well as ruthless sacrifice of human life, indiscriminate of innocent or guilty, and after all resistance had disappeared with the dispersed and fleeing rioters.” “
Mark Twain wrote this about the rebellion: ” I think it may be called the finest thing in Australasian history. It was a revolution – small in size; but great politically; it was a strike for liberty, a struggle for a principle, a stand against injustice and oppression. It was (an example of) small beginnings …….. great in political results (and) epoch-making. It is another instance of a victory won by a lost battle. It adds an honorable page to history; the people know it and are proud of it. They keep (alive) the memory of the men who fell at the Eureka Stockade, and Peter Lalor has his monument.”
For me, in modern day Australia, the Saturday freedom protestors who have taken to the streets of Melbourne every week for over a year have quite a few things in common with the rebels at Eureka.
Emma La Chanteuse, pictured above at last Saturday’s protest, is a modern day rebel and freedom fighter on the streets of Melbourne.
The police violence and intimidation which is still regularly directed against citizens in modern Melbourne rarely involves the gunfire, battle and violent death seen at The Battle Of Eureka
Two days ago, the freedom movement in Melbourne demonstrated passionately on election day against the Victorian State government of Daniel Michael Andrews of the Socialist Left faction of the Australian Labor Party.
Andrews won the election. Unfair and square perhaps because of media bias, but he clearly won.
However, in the realm of ideas that serve the needs of people, the best freedom fighters in Melbourne annihilate Daniel Andrews time and time again.
Today is the 265th birthday of the creative genius, poet and artist, William Blake. So, today, I combine words from Blake with the image of another wonderful creative spirit, freedom fighter Emma La Chanteuse, who lit up the streets of Melbourne with her energy, youth and totally female, totally Aussie beauty last Saturday in ways that few people can.
(Original words by William Blake, positioned in photo by Geoff Fox.)
Emma travels Australia in her car, perhaps a modern swagwoman (Please study Australia’s unofficial national anthem,Waltzing Matilda – about a 19th century swagman (itinerant) who sometimes took what he needed as he traveled the land by foot – to understand a little more about this swagwoman concept which I am suggesting describes Emma.)
At last Saturday’s Melbourne protest march, I observed Emma seeing a man wearing rings similar to her own and walking straight up up to him to find out what connected them both.
(Original words by William Blake, positioned in photo by Geoff Fox.)
This sort of willingness to connect person to person is what Australia’s freedom movement needs to do on a much bigger scale to get electoral success.
To seek unity. Comradeship. Openly. Freely.
Lest we forget what William Blake taught us about being fully human, God Bless Emma and God Bless Freedom.
Geoff Fox, 28th November, 2022, Down Under
“Love seeks not itself to please, nor for itself hath any care, but for another gives its ease, and builds Heaven in Hell’s despair.” – William Blake.
Anastacia Ntouni is a politician who believes in freedom properly balanced with discipline in a strong compassionate social order which respects western heritage.
Civilised democracy is in her Greek DNA.
She is appalled by the way most political parties in Australia have deserted the people’s real needs.
FREEDOM, DEMOKRASI AND CIVILISED HUMANITY 