I think it is about time for us to show our true colors. Most of you reading the Budgeteer already know me. I've been around with a sharpened saber for more than 50 years, writing, dissecting and devouring perceived political hopefuls, some who actually made the grade, and fortunately, I haven't made too many enemies along the way.
It has been an uphill battle to say the least, and the campaigns continue on with new faces, but the same old, same old challenges persist. It seems, however, we are getting more and more polarized these days, and I'm beginning to wonder if we have to stop for a moment and smell the roses.
America didn't just happen. America is a culmination of true grit coupled with a stamina designed to make things happen. For example, there was Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790). He was a printer and was America's first postmaster general. He conducted research on static electricity, though somewhat misguided. He was an educational reformer and a true patriot of freedom. One of his friends and a founding father was Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826). Jefferson, our third president, was an accomplished politician, philosopher, scientist, scholar, attorney and horticulturist. He invented several objects including the swivel chair and a copying device. He also was a wine-maker and he invented a wooden plow for farmers. (It never caught on.)
As America developed, people like Robert Fulton (1765-1815) changed history. He invented the steamboat, but before that he was a portrait painter. It was Fulton's steamboat that opened up America's waterways and a whole new world for American pioneers eager to fend for themselves as disciples of freedom. During that same time frame, a gentleman by the name of Eli Whitney (1765-1825) invented the cotton gin, separating the seeds from cotton fibers. Because of that invention, America became a major exporter of cotton instead of an importer and a whole new industry was born in America.
Then there was Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791-1872) who was also a portrait painter. He later invented the magnetic telegraph and the information revolution began in America. Morse conceived a series of dots and dashes to represent letters in the alphabet, and a miracle occurred connecting distant communities together in a flash. It was truly a miracle.
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This list of American inventors and their accomplishments could fill the paper, so I am going to summarize. Elias Howe (1819-1867) invented the sewing machine, but it was his competitor Isaac Merritt Singer (1811-1875) whose marketing genius made his machine more inviting.
"My God, it talks!" exclaimed the emperor of Brazil as he witnessed Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) demonstrate the telephone in 1876. When you use your cell phone today, think of that remarkable time in history, "My God, it talks!"
We all know that Thomas Edison (1847-1931) invented the light bulb in 1879, but there is more to this story. True, Bell invented the telephone, but it was Edison who invented the transmitter that made communications possible over long distances. And it was Edison's generating stations, switches, plugs and miles of wire that connected the world, both in sight and sound, in the years to come.
I could go on but it is time to make my point.
America didn't just happen. America is a composite of people with imagination, determination and a willingness to take a chance. We need to focus on this once in awhile just to get a feel of our country, the wonder of it all and the importance of our freedom that made things happen for the good of mankind. Being an American is something very special indeed.
