1517, 1607, 1775, 1860, 2007: Tough Times for Establishment Types (Indulgences Come Full Circle)

[CorpGovActivist]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1517">1517: Martin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_luther">Luther penned his http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_95_Theses">eloquent dissent, decrying the quid pro quo of Papal indulgences. Did the Church use much of the money received for good works? Sure, Luther conceded. But was the practice still wrong? He concluded it was.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1607">1607: A mere 90 years later, the wave of Luther's dissent came crashing ashore and established a beachhead at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamestown_settlement">Jamestown. When I was there recently, I was struck anew - as I am during each visit - by just how fortunate we are to be descended from such plucky folks, who were unafraid to act on their dissent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1775">1775: Things came to a boil 168 years later when another dissenter, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Henry">Patrick Henry, gave his fellow members of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_House_of_Burgesses">House of Burgesses in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Williamsburg">Williamsburg something to ponder: is a lack of liberty preferable to death? Even those who disagreed vociferously with Henry found him to be a companionable drinking buddy after a session in the Burgesses: a quality still found in the finest discussion forums. When Burgess is a family middle name, it's hard not to feel a little overawed when visiting Williamsburg, as I did recently.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860">1860: The more perfect Union had a design flaw, and 85 years after the dissent of 1775, some "loud-mouthed dissenters" were no longer willing to perpetuate that design flaw or ignore it. The election of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_lincoln">Abraham Lincoln kept faith with Patrick Henry's challenge of liberty or death.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007">2007: If it's really true that there's nothing new under the sun, then I doubt that Martin Luther would be surprised to see http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2388709&mesg_id=2388709">the reaction of the Clinton camp to the suggestion that selling secular indulgences for pardons is wrong, and that the ends don't justify the means.

- Dave

[aquart]

1. And you started off so well, too.

[CorpGovActivist]

2. Sesame Street, Electric Company, Zoom...

... I had "which of these things is like the other" down pat from about the time I outgrew those programs.

Indulgences - spiritual, secular, metaphysical, or temporal - are indulgences.

- Dave

[CorpGovActivist]

3. 1963

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1963">1963: The closed-system Establishment tactics used to thwart the promse of 1860 led to the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1963">March on Washington 103 years later. Jim Crow devices like poll taxes made it "perfectly legal" to tell some voters to "mind your own business, and leave the governing to those smarter than you." With a name that begins with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King%2C_Jr.">Martin Luther, maybe it was only natural that he'd grow up to be a dissenter. With a friend like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayard_Rustin">Bayard Rustin at his side, it was only natural that the March was such a success, helping to force passace of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964">Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act">Voting Rights Act in 1965.

[CorpGovActivist]

4. 1976

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976">1976: Al http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_elections%2C_1976">Gore was elected to Congress, 13 years after the March on Washington, and in the aftermath of Vietnam and Watergate. He has spoken openly about how these experiences - including the student protests at Harvard during his undergraduate years - formed his opinions about open government. His http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_gore#Promoting_environmental_awareness">pioneering efforts to draw attention to environmental issues included holding the first Congressional hearings on greenhouse gases. Joined in Congress http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_elections%2C_1978">two years later by a certain Dick Cheney and Newt Gingrich, Gore's efforts were ridiculed, mocked, and thwarted. I first met Gore when he was a Senator, and honorary co-chair of the United States Senate Youth Program in 1990. To demonstrate the spike in greenhouse gas emissions to a rapt audience of high school seniors, he literally climbed up on a wobbly chair on a rickety riser in the Mayflower Hotel ballroom, to our nervous chatter and his bodyguard's obvious discomfort. He was also the Commencement Speaker during my class's Commencement, while attending his 25th Class Reunion. Gingrich, Cheney, and their ilk will be consigned to the wastebin of history.

[CorpGovActivist]

5. 1986

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986">1986: Ten years after Gore was elected to Congress, another newcomer and ardent dissenter - one year into his first Senate term - began making noise regarding a matter of extreme discomfort to the closed-government, corporatist types on both sides of the aisle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_kerry#Iran-Contra_hearings">Iran-Contra (and subsequently, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_kerry#Kerry_and_the_George_H.W._Bush_administration">BCCI). As a fellow open-government type reminded me, http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=273&topic_id=142689&mesg_id=142694">Kerry found the heavy lifting on those topics a very lonely burden.

[blm]

6. Thankyou. Imagine if, in 1992, we elected Gore-Kerry instead of Clinton-Gore.

What a difference for this world.