Editor, Times-Union: In a book titled "The American Crisis," Thomas Paine stated, "those who expect to reap the blessing of liberty must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it." (What sweet irony that). This expression of belief has been embraced and quoted by Henry Hyde, Bob Barr, Ken Starr and others of the Republican side of the house judiciary panel, in an attempt to justify their action in support of Paula Jones' civil rights case - that was dismissed because of lack of merit against Bill Clinton. It is also the motto and operating principle of the Indiana and American Civil Liberties Union. (Who would have taken up her case, pro bono, if it had had merit?)
But who was Thomas Paine? He was a common man who was influential in both the American and French revolutions and became famous as a pamphleteer, in that he wrote essays of opinion anonymously, as was the case in revolutionary America, and distributed his pamphlets to the radical revolutionaries who then copied them and/or repeated them until the opinions therein reached the outermost perimeter of the country. Thomas Paine's writings energized and galvanized the revolution. One pamphlet titled "Common Sense" was so influential that George Washington made it required reading for his troops bogged down at Valley Forge. The last two paragraphs:
"Ye that tell us of harmony and reconciliation, can ye restore to us the time that is past? Can ye give to prostitution its former innocence? Neither can ye reconcile Britain and America. The last cord now is broken, the people of England are presenting addresses against us. There are injuries which nature cannot forgive; she would cease to be nature if she did. As well can the lover forgive the ravisher of his mistress, as the continent forgive the murders of Britain. ...
"O! ye that love mankind! ye that dare oppose not only the tyranny but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia and Africa have long expelled her. Europe repels her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. O! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind. ..."
Other quotes: "These are the times that try men's souls"; "He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression"; "Where there are no distinctions there can be no superiority"; "Perfect equality affords no temptation"; Such is the irresistible nature of truth that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing"; "My own mind in my own church."
Paine was so influential that John Adams said, "History is to ascribe the American Revolution to Thomas Paine."
By today's standards Paine would be considered a radically liberal, socialist, inclusionist, anti-organized religion, secular humanist. Indeed he was! So were Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, etc.
While Hyde, Barr, Starr, etc., have conveniently embraced one belief of Paine, they have ignored the premise of assumed innocence that precludes the application of the "rule of law." They have ignored what the revolutionaries fought for and Paine, Jefferson, Madison, etc., so eloquently enunciated, and established by the Bill of Rights. Liberty!
Chuck Zimmerman, Warsaw
Hospital
Editor, Times-Union: It is beyond me why you haven't taken the lead in informing the people of Kosciusko County what is going on with KCH. Many of us worked hard to contribute to the building of KCH (my husband and I included). It was set up with a 90-member board representative of every governmental unit in the county from which a 24-member work board was selected. Somewhere along the line, those two units were dismissed without ever telling them so. I know, I was one of the 90. It became a secret unit not informing or responding to the community. I can't believe these humans can't be made to tell us, the citizens, what is going on.
The fact that the buyer demands secrecy suggests something is rotten.
Please use your power of the media to stop this right where it is until they go public with the information on the sale and what actually happened to those board members. We should have a right to know.
