Is it ringing now?

Thursday – June 16, 2011

Is it ringing now?

On this date, in 1775, the Liberty Bell rang for the 2nd Continental Congress. It rang loud and clear, then, but could it ring loud and clear today?

This is an important question, because the Liberty Bell is a symbol of the greatness of America. It was forged and it was molded to represent the importance of Liberty and what that Liberty meant to a country. These little symbols that have gone by the wayside and that have been eliminated from our conversation are a continuing symptom of a nation that has forgotten all that is good and all that is important in preserving our freedom.

I wish that one of the many candidates that have entered the race for the GOP nomination would remind us of the importance of these symbols. I would like to have that bell ring when a new session of Congress meets. I would like to have a new president make it a point to reintroduce the spirit that gave the Liberty Bell life.

When I review the pathetic performance of this president and listen to the arguing that occurs on both sides for access and power it makes me wonder how much longer can we survive as a nation? It makes me wonder if all these national symbols will disappear from the landscape and will the Liberty Bell be melted down to an ingot for resale?

When I witness the arrogance of our leaders like former Congressman Anthony Weiner who have tried to stifle the likes of Glen Beck and Andrew Brietbart with the full power of Congress behind him makes me wonder and fear our future. Say what you will about Glen Beck and Andrew Britebart, but they do not lie and they do not have the power of Congress at their disposal for cover ups and lies.

Guys like Weiner are the threat; not Beck and Brietbart. Beck and Brietbart believe in the symbols of liberty and guys like Weiner use the symbols for their personal gain. Weiner has fallen from grace. He has disgraced himself, the institution he was elected to serve and he threatened freedom itself, by not recognizing the importance of the symbols that grace each letterhead, each building and each page of history. Farewell to a sick, pathetic excuse of a man who used the power of government through his lies and through his selfish actions for three weeks. This is not justice. This is cleaning up the garbage that some create and that some pile around our symbols of Liberty.

We have learned that the President has given positions of power and authority to people who have raised large amounts of money in the way of campaign donations. The bundlers, as they are known, have gone on to become Ambassadors and other heads of government offices and some have received lucrative government contracts.
*184 of 556, or about one third, of President Obama’s bundlers or their spouses joined the administration in some role.

*Approximately 805 of those who collected $500,000 or more for Obama took “key administration posts. “ This is not me making this up. The source of these figures was reported by The Center for Public Integrity’s I-watch News.

The President campaigned against business as usual in Washington and the old ways of rewarding big campaign money. The president has not been honest. When the president is not honest and the people who get the rewards for the money they bring in to get him elected now makes me ask; how can the sound of the Liberty Bell ring true for anybody?

There should be a new tradition of ringing the Bell, because it will become a reminder to those that serve why they are there. Some historians say the last time it rang for Congress was at the beginning of the 2nd Continental Congress.

In 1752 Issac Norris, Assembly Speaker and the Chairman of the State House Superintendents asked the Assembly’s agent in London, Robert Charles, to buy a Bell.

He wrote in his instructions: “Let the Bell be cast by the best workmen & examined carefully before it is shipped with the following words well shaped in large letters round its vist. By the order of the assembly of the province of Pennsylvania for the State House in the city of Philadelphia 1752//and underneath// proclaim Liberty thro’ all the Land to all the inhabitants thereof.- Levit. XXV.10” The verse in Leviticus reads, in full, “And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitant’s thereof.

Now you know a little more about the history of the Bell and what the Bell meant to the notion of Liberty. Once in a blue moon, Once in a while, Once every now and then and, the most obvious, Once in a lifetime did the notion of Liberty ring loud and clear!

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: The more our leaders tell the truth, the more they will be respected. The more our leaders lie, the more our liberty is threatened. I still can hear that Bell when I think about what Liberty is and how it should be respected!