By Steve Rhodes
The Beachwood will return on Friday.
1. “We enveloped our President in 2001.And those who did not believe he should have been elected – indeed those who did not believe he had been elected – willingly lowered their voices and assented to the sacred oath of non-partisanship.
“And George W. Bush took our assent, and re-configured it, and honed it, and shaped it to a razor-sharp point and stabbed this nation in the back with it.”
2. “Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men too – great enough to give fame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory.
“They loved their country better than their own private interests; and, though this is not the highest form of human excellence, all will concede that it is a rare virtue, and that when it is exhibited, it ought to command respect. He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country, is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. Your fathers staked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, on the cause of their country. In their admiration of liberty, they lost sight of all other interests.
“They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. They showed forbearance; but that they knew its limits. They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny. With them, nothing was ‘settled’ that was not right. With them, justice, liberty and humanity were ‘final;’ not slavery and oppression. You may well cherish the memory of such men. They were great in their day and generation. Their solid manhood stands out the more as we contrast it with these degenerate times.
“How circumspect, exact and proportionate were all their movements! How unlike the politicians of an hour! Their statesmanship looked beyond the passing moment, and stretched away in strength into the distant future. They seized upon eternal principles, and set a glorious example in their defense. Mark them!”
3. “Hi folks! Would-be flag-burner Jeff Redfern here!”
4. “I will set a different tone. I will restore civility and respect to our national politics . . . I will work with Republicans and reach out to Democrats . . . I will treat the other party with respect, and when we make progress, I will share the credit . . . I will unite our nation, not divide it. I will bring Americans together.”
– George Bush, April 2000
5. Bush uniting the country.
6. Believing Scooter Libby is innocent vs. believing O.J. Simpson is innocent. Discuss.
7. Scooter Libby is free. This man is in jail.
8. What makes America great.
9. “The greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.”
10. Free at last, they took your life. They could not take your pride.
11. Outside is America.
12. I’m a cool rockin’ daddy in the U.S.A.
13. What makes America great.
14. Beavis & Butt-head go see fireworks.
15. Where the days are longer, the nights are stronger than moonshine.
16. Red, white, and blue, the future is all but past. So lift up your heart, make a new start. And lead us away from here.
Posted on July 4, 2007