HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMERICA--PART I

I thought I'd offer, for the next three days, some insight of our Founding Fathers, and their thoughts of how a country should be. I mean really, this is the day, July 2nd, when America should be celebrating, since it is when the Constitution was actually completed and read. It was signed on the Fourth. Any way, just some things to think about, here goes:

"If the freedom of speech is taken away, then the dumb and silent may be led like sheep to the slaughter." George Washington

"It does not take a majority to prevail...but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." Samuel Adams

"This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave." Elmer Davis

"Equal rights for all, special privileges for none." Thomas Jefferson

"Bad men cannot make good citizens. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom." Patrick Henry