To: Bill Whittle, [email protected]
Re: “Common Sense” and our need for a new Thomas Paine
Some time back after one of my exceedingly long essays, one of my commenters stated that what this country needs now is a modern Thomas Paine and a new, updated version of Common Sense. I fully concur with that assessment. That commenter also thought that I should be the author. I abjured. I’m a good technical writer, but I know my limitations.
Bill, I’ve read your work ever since you first appeared at Rachel Lucas’ blog as a commenter. I read that first post she assembled out of your string of comments on the meaning and importance of the Second Amendment, and I believe I’ve read every word you’ve written since. (I was honored to be one of those quoted on the cover pages of the first edition of Silent America when it was published.) I am awed by your absolute mastery of topic, provoking use of imagery, and the bone-deep conviction that comes off the pages that you write, often with aching eloquence. In a word, sir, you inspire while you inform.
And inspiration is what we need now.
My only disagreement with you over the nearly seven years you’ve been writing on the internet has been your eternal optimism that everything’s going to turn out OK because, gosh darn it, we’re AMERICANS and that’s what Americans do!
And then eleven days ago you put up Mountains of Money: Do you know how much a $1 trillion is? on PJTV. You concluded that piece thus:
It’s past time to vote these criminals out of office. It’s time we peasants got a wild-eyed mob together. We gather our pitchforks and our torches, we go to Washington, and we track these people down with hunting dogs.
Your optimism has now, it seems, been tempered by the realization of just what our government is attempting, and our apparently absolute inability to stop it or even slow it down through traditional means.
I submit that it is past time for a new, updated version of Common Sense, one that can still reach the “Silent Majority” who remember, as you and I do, what this country has been, is supposed to be, and might one day be again.
I submit that if anyone can do it, it is you, and if it isn’t done then we as a nation surely are. I realize that this is a tremendous burden. It is one that I would shoulder if I truly felt I was capable, but I know my limitations in this regard and I recognize your immense talents, and more than that, your intense desire that we become once again what we should be. You are the right man at the right time, and I implore you to please take up this challenge. We need leaders. We need inspiration. We need to gather again around a core set of beliefs that make sense, or the great experiment that is America will be inevitably dragged down into the mud and mire to the great glee of the self-destructive children who have been taught that nothing’s their fault, nothing’s their responsibility, and nothing should be denied to them – ever.
I’m not saying that you and you alone can save this nation – far from it – but your voice is the one needed to fill the role Thomas Paine filled over two hundred years ago, the one that first inspired the country with the very powerful ideas of his time. We’ve yet to find our Jefferson, our Adams’ (both John and Sam – though I have some ideas on Sam), our Franklin, our Madison, our Washington; but you sir are our Thomas Paine in our time of need. Please, come to the aid of our country.
I realize the timeline is short, but on July 4th there will be another wave of “Tea Parties” in this country, attended by the people who see what you and I see, who know what you and I know, and who need someone to put into unforgettable words the things they know in their hearts. A new edition of Common Sense is needed to give them that. I hope this missive has reached you in time, and that you can see your way to accomplish this task. (I think the blogosphere can handle the distribution end of the pamphleteering.)
Thank you for your attention, and I look forward to further communication with you.
Sincerely,
Kevin Baker
http://smallestminority.blogspot.com