The colonists rebelled not only to free themselves from the yoke of British rule but also in order to reject the stratification of British society. They fought to bring to life one of the Enlightenment’s highest ideals: a new and nobler definition of what a human being is.

According to progressive thinkers of the eighteenth century, people did not need to bow to someone whose sole claim to superiority over them was birth… In the New World, in other words, merit alone would count. A man should advance not because of which family he was born into I but by virtue of his intellect, character, exertion, and luck.

Kiernan writes about what transpired in the spring of 1776 in New York Habor:

There George Washington and the fledgling colonial army had gathered after an unexpected victory in Boston. At the time the colonies did not possess a navy, not even a single ship. To demonstrate his power, the king sent warships to New York that May and June, foremost among them the sixty-four gun HMS Asia. Soon the British added two fifty-gun ships, the Centurion and Chatham, then the Phoenix with its forty guns, next the thirty-gun Greyhound with an army general aboard. These ships also bore tens of thousands of troops. The king then added the Rose, as well as the Eagle-another sixty-four-gun ship, this one commanded by the fearsome Admiral Lord Richard Howe. Colonists spied five lore ships arriving one day, eight another, twenty another. By late June the harbor and its outer reaches were crammed with some four hundred ships, including seventy-three warships and eight ships of the line with fifty or more guns each. It was the largest military force ever dispatched by any nation on earth.

And what did the colonists do that July? How did they reply to his terrifying display of power and glory?

They declared their independence. They cataloged their grievances, explained their reasons, and announced their permanent separation from Great Britain. The bonds were dissolved, the ropes that tied the colonists to the monarchy permanently cut.

It was not mere impudence that this act of rebellion displayed. It was character. It was determination. The king had failed to realize that every step he took to suppress the colonists, to intimidate them, to reinforce their inferiority, only invigorated their growing conception of what a human being is.

Senator Tom Coburn (R- OK) made comments in a town hall last week with a little bit of something for everyone. For The Village Square, Republican Coburn stuck up for rival Democrat Nancy Pelosi, calling her “a nice lady” to a crowd that didn’t want to hear that.

But what was most interesting was to watch the coverage of different aspects of Coburn’s town hall depending on which network covered it.

At The Village Square we have observed an attendance pattern at events: People tend to come to the forum that interests them, therefore we get more conservatives when we talk taxes and and more liberals when we talk environment. We’d like to reverse the trend, for the sake of improving the civic dialogue. So… in that spirit, please note the reading instructions for this blog post:

For Republicans, please read this:

“What we have to have is make sure we have a debate in this country so that you can see what’s going on and make a determination yourself,” the Oklahoma senator said in remarks to a home-state town hall meeting… “So don’t catch yourself being biased by FOX News that somebody is no good. The people in Washington are good. They just don’t know what they don’t know.”

“I want to tell you, I do a lot of reading every day and I’m disturbed that we get things… that are so disconnected from what I know to be the facts. And that comes from somebody that has an agenda that’s other than the best interest of our country. And so please balance and be careful.”

And here is the reading assignment for Democrats:

“The motivation is not to fix health care,” Coburn told about 40 people at the Miami Civic Center. “The motivation is to put the federal government in charge of health care.

“This sounds somewhat paranoid, but I think they know this is going to fail,” he said. “Then they can say, ‘See, the government needs to be in charge of all prices doctors (charge) at all levels.’?”

Rigging the system to fail will pave the way for “single-payer, government-run, rationed health care,” he said.

(Photo credit.)

Two Senators have finally caught on to what The Village Square knew all along: They’d better start eating together if they want to get along. Retiring Senator Evan Bayh (D-Indiana) and Senator Lindsay Graham (R-South Carolina) wrote a joint letter requesting that the Senate convene a once a month bipartisan lunch. On today’s Face the Nation:

SENATOR EVAN BAYH (D-Indiana): Well, first, Lindsey Graham is my friend and we need more friendships across the aisle because that’s ultimately how you get principled compromise enacted. And part of this, Bob, was informed by my father’s experience where back in the day he might have philosophical or political differences but you still reach out and try to do the people’s business. So little of that takes place because there’s so little action– interactionamong senators. We have the caucus systems. So the Democrats are over here. The Republicans are over here. They hardly ever meet to listen to one another…

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: …But he’s dead right. You know we share a locker by the– by the gym. I get to– I’ve got to know Evan when– when he announced he was going to leave the Senate. A lot of Republicans said, oh, boy, we can pick up Indiana. The first thing I thought of was, oh, no. Because at the end of the day Evan has shown a willingness to reflect Indiana values which is to find middle ground because it’s in the middle of the country. I hope people respond to the lunch and I hope it will over time mean something. I know it’s silly for most Americans to think this is newsworthy but it is.

BOB SCHIEFFER: But it does sort of emphasize how bad the situation has gotten that you would propose this.

SENATOR EVAN BAYH: It’s almost tribal, Bob. And I think Lindsey is right most. Americans probably listen to this and go, well, that’s so basic it’s silly. But the caucus system really is used as an instrument of control, party control. The information that’s provided very often is designed to lead to a particular result. You spend a lot of time talking about. Well, my first day in the Senate, literally, my first day, first caucus meeting, we were already talking about the next election.

As details of the expose on John Edwards’ train wreck (and oh my this is an epic train wreck) come out from Andrew Young’s book The Politician, it’s worth noting that I haven’t heard one peep from the GOP trying to tie Edwards to President Obama and the Democratic party in general. Apparently they’ve suspended “politics as usual” on this one, for which we should all be eternally grateful.

Too often we notice the transgressions, but I believe it’s worth noting the moments of real decency. We found one.

Go figure.

(Editorial comment: Citizens should be on guard for the corrupting nature of fame and power in their leaders on both sides of the aisle. To pretend that this is the exclusive territory of one or the other party – which one entirely related to which one you’re in – is just silly.)

(Photo credit.)

“In the current climate of today’s United States Senate it is rare to find opportunities where both sides can come together and work in the middle to craft a solution for our country’s problems. Ted Kennedy, with all of his ideological verbosity and idealism was a rare person who at times could put aside differences and look for common solutions. Not many ever got to see that side of him, but as peers and colleagues we were able to share some of those moments.”

This morning I made my first visit to the places of worship of our summer panel for “A Rabbi, A Priest, A Pastor and An Imam.”

Today I visited “The Pastor,” The Reverend Dr. Julius McAllister and his Bethel AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Church.

To the swaying sounds of “Jesus is the light, that ever shines, in my soul” sung out strong by what seemed like way too few people for the sweet booming music they made, Reverend McAllister’s service was a celebration in every sense of the word. His sermon, more poetry than speech, complete with musical rests and crescendos, staccato and fortissimo, wisdom and humor, holding on and releasing.

I was conscious of the roots of their faith, the worship bequeathed from a mother and father to their children, and to their children, and to theirs. I was also conscious of the places in their tradition of worship that briefly kissed my Episcopal tradition. Obviously, we are neighbors. There’s beauty in these roots, both in where they touch and where they diverge. Something that grows so long from roots is strong.

During the portion of the service where Episcopalians say “the Peace” by reaching to the neighbors around us – sometimes with a handshake, a hug or a smile, Rev. McAllister’s congregation walked… they walked halfway down the long row of pews, they walked down the other aisle, they walked up to the alter, they walked just about everywhere. Men and women bouncing around; touching, laughing and hugging… all while seeming to save especially sincere words of welcome for me.

I couldn’t just sit in place – on the opposite side of town – and find the new neighbors I met on this Sunday. I wonder what would change – if like the congregation at Bethel AME – we all walked just a bit.

“…well, there is a national leader, his name is President Obama. And, and the people elected him. And, and I’m willing to give him a good shot and, and try to help make this work. We’re in a tough time, as we talked about before. I think we do need to be bipartisan. We need to be, in fact, nonpartisan. We’re all Americans. Our country is at a dire point, and we need to do everything we can to work together to get America through this, and I know that she will.”

On tonight’s Hardball, Chris Matthews, when discussing Judd Gregg bowing out of consideration for Commerce Secretary, referred to former New York Mayor John Lindsay (R), who according to Matthews said “there’s no Republican way to collect garbage.”

A wise man clearly ahead of his time.

(To my dear friend Anne: 1. Fact check, just like old times 2. More wise John Lindsay quotes 3. I remembered I always got the Ann vs. Anne wrong so I worked hard to get it right)

Democratic President Obama, pushing the stimulus plan, was introduced by Florida’s Republican Governor Charlie Crist. Granted, they teamed up because Crist supports the stimulus, so the marriage is certainly a political animal.

But there are signs in it of a call to a higher level of citizenship, one that transcends the concern for who will win the next election and replaces it with a concern for the work ahead. We think we win if there are similar acts of transcendent citizenship on the “con” side of the stimulus argument too.

Doesn’t solve everything, but at least the “feet of clay” are moving in the right direction. To borrow from President Obama’s praise of Crist today, “when the town is burning, you don’t check party labels, you need to grab a hose.”