(Palm-Print
Photo by Edward F. Palm)

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Forest, Virginia, United States
A long time ago, my sophomore English teacher, Father William Campbell, saw something in my writing and predicted that I would someday become a newspaper columnist. He suggested the perfect title for my column--"Leaves of the Palm." Now that I have a little extra time on my hands I've decided to put Father Campbell's prediction to the test. I'm going to start using this blog site not just to reprint opinion pieces I've published elsewhere but to try to get more of my ideas and opinions out there. Feedback is welcome. To find out more about me, please check out my Web site: www.EdwardFPalm.com (Click on any of the photos below for an enlarged view.)

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The State of the Union--As I See It!

I know not how President Obama may gauge the state of the union tonight, but I got two indications of my own this week.
     First, I tried to send a birthday card to my longtime friend Gary Racz using the Brooklyn address I have always used in the past.  It came back marked "not deliverable as addressed."  My only mistake was to spell out "Seventh Ave." instead of writing "7th Ave."
     Second, Congresswoman and Tea Party activist Michell Bachman has credited our founding fathers with ending slavery.
     I just hope that whatever gods there be--the ones of Mount Olympus, the Judeo-Christian variety, or the Tea Party's imagined Founding Fathers--will see fit to bless America. --EFP

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, let me ask you a question, Major. Do you think that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution enabled slavery or hastened its end? In other words, would the world (including those enslaved at the time) have been freer or more enslaved had the founding not occurred?

J. David Bell said...

This seems a spurious question. The FFs themselves did not end slavery, nor did their Declaration or Constitution directly hasten its end (quite the contrary, both documents made ample provision for its perpetuation). That the founding of the U.S. created the preconditions for the ultimate extension of liberty (at least hypothetically) to all people doesn't change the fact that the Tea Partier Ed referenced has her history all screwed up.