What would Tom say?

I've recently seen the Democrat leadership, and by that I mean President Obama, Representative Pelosi, and Senator Reid, speak up about those Americans who are expressing opposition to proposed reforms to our health care system. These leaders are calling their fellow citizens evil, disruptive, and an anti-American mob. I find it curious that all of a sudden, expressing one's opinion in opposition to the government makes one unpatriotic, un-American, and evil. I also wonder what this group of stalwart Americans would think of another group of Americans who stood in opposition to a government that, in their opinion, had become intolerable.

Two-hundred-thirty-three years ago, a group of about 56 Americans sat assembled to debate what the future of this country would be. They had tasked five of their members to draft a declaration of independence from Great Britain. These five men, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston, asked Mr. Jefferson to draft a document that ultimately became known as The Declaration of Independence.

I wonder if Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid share the same opinion of those Americans then as they do of their fellow Americans today. After all, the country was divided over the issue of independence. There was even division within the Continental Congress over whether independence was the proper course for the future of this country.

My question to those who demean their fellow Americans for standing in opposition to what their government wants to do; who call those who oppose them evil, un-American, and unpatriotic; and who would try to silence their opponents by any means necessary is this: Were any of our founding fathers evil for opposing the British crown? Were they unpatriotic? Were they un-American? Or did they establish the ideal that when good men and women believe they see their government heading a wrong direction, they have the right to voice that opinion without fear of reprisal from their government leaders?

In 1776 the members of the Continental Congress -- the de facto leaders of the United States of America -- signed The Declaration of Independence. They knew that by so doing, if they failed, their lives would be forfeit, and they knew that failure was the most likely outcome. Yet in spite of that they boldly went forward to establish this country and to lay a foundation that has made this country the greatest country on earth.

In the 233 years since those men in the Continental Congress adopted The Declaration of Independence, untold numbers of Americans have fought and died in defense of the ideals that those men embraced. When Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid condemn their fellow Americans as evil, unpatriotic, and un-American for simply disagreeing with them, and expressing that disagreement, they not only undermine everything this country stands for, but they also betray their oaths of office to support the Constitution of the United States of America.

For such arrogance, these leaders owe an apology, not only to the people of this country, but to our founding fathers as well.

John