Re: Walter Cunningham, A Real American Hero! Apollo 7 Pilot. Listen to him!

On Jul 16, 9:54 am, "lunarlosREMOVE2EM...@xxxxxxxx"
<lunar...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
<much bigoted drivel snipped>

As a descendant of Irish Catholic immigrants, I respectfully disagree.

WASPs (White Anglo Saxon Protestants
for your sheeple out there) built this nation.

Obviously you never paid attention in either History or Economics
class, or you would realize that all great capitalist societies
undergo a period of capital formation, in which a great deal of what
we now term infrastructure is created through the use of either slave
labor or low-paid labor. My own family, like most Irish immigrants,
worked either on the railroads or in mines. Our labor built America.
So did millions of Germans, Chinese, Swedes, Blacks, Italians, and
other non-WASP minorities.

Their beliefs in
ethics, God, family, and Nation are why this nation has risen to the
top of the hill.

Again, you ignore historic fact. Many of the founding fathers were
only members of a Christian church (the Church of England) because
membership in that church was a necessary prerequisite to owning
property or holding office. Non-CofE churches such as Baptist,
Quakers, Methodists, or (God help us!) Catholics were prohibited from
owning property or in many cases practicing a skilled trade. Certain
colonies such as Maryland and Pennsylvania were established in part to
provide a safe haven for religious minorities. Fact is, a lot of the
founding fathers (such as Franklin or Adams) were Deists. And some
were Jews.

Let us also put the question of religion in Colonial America into
context. the British Civil War between the forces of the Crown and
the Parliamentarians was essentially a religious war between Puritans
and the more secular Church of England. This conflict followed the
religious pogroms of Henry VIII, Bloody Mary, and Elizabeth I. (Did
you know that the Brits still refer to a secret hiding place as a
priest hole? Did you ever wonder why?) Our founding fathers were
painfully aware that sectarian tension was politically destabilizing.
One need only look to the Middle East or tho the "Troubles" of
Northern Ireland for a contemporary example.

Bottom line. Take your hatred someplace else. I learned something
really important back in Vietnam. We all bleed red. If you can't
stand liberty, go to Iraq.

Bill Sullivan

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