When our founders declared in 1776 the inalienable right to “Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness”, this was a minor rewrite of major proportions.  “Pursuit of Happiness” was a compromise because the Southern states preferred owning some humans, ie slaves and the first rendition (Life, Liberty and Property) did not sit well.  But ownership of property, personal and real, is critical to a stable and fulfilling life.

But all three must work together: one cannot own property unless the other two are protected.  If you are not alive, then all is moot.  Without protected life and the freedom endemic in liberty, one’s personal safety and possessions are always subject to thievery and tyranny.  In fact, I would list them as the inalienable right to God, Life, Liberty & Property…Pursuit of Happiness resultant from the other four.

In American, the land of the free is free because it IS the home of the brave.  We must thank first our Creator God and His Son for what and whom we are.  God alone is worthy of praise and worship and He is the reason for the season of fall, winter, spring and summer.

Thank our military; the “One out of Many” e pluribus unum, for better or worse, does not colonize like other previous and existent world powers.  We did not enslave Germany after the first world war.  Nor colonize Japan.  When natural or manmade disasters strike, we are first in to help, and often last out.  Yes, we will disagree on what is important and needy, as free peoples do, but the world IS safer because of this land of hope-filled people we call US citizens; we welcome more than our share of immigrants as well. And there are no “spike strips” at the borders keeping you or me on terra firma Americana in any of the 50 states of this sovereign land.  Our charity knows no bounds though their are chinks in our armor.

Without secure property, like a home or condo as well as personal things like food, clothing and other “luxuries”, we are adrift.  Our moral compass comes from within, but it can be magnetized today too easily.

Without the ability AND desire to earn our own living, to till, plant, water and harvest (whether farming, ranching, industry, services), we wither and die.  When you own a home, you take “title” because you can’t put your dwelling in your purse or car and normally transport it with you.

But believing you and I are “entitled” to something, like food, health care, money, education, ie the fruits of OTHER PEOPLES’ LABOR,  you become less of an industrious human, looking to take the easiest route without having to work.  To stand on street corner soap boxes, or in tenure protected college classrooms, DEMANDING gimme gimme gimmee.  

Maybe, become like the sloths in Zootopia, excessively obese and lazy.  We become “layabouts” as the Register quotes Governor William Bradford regarding the Mayflower Compact.

A good first lesson in socialism versus free market capitalism was the early 1620s.  Fleeing King James I of England and religious persecution, 41 Pilgrim among many more passengers on board signed, ironically on Nov 11, 1620 a ‘contract’ called the Mayflower Compact to guide them as they arrived in the New World. 140 set out; less than 1/3 remained after the sea journey

Following the excellent but misunderstood parts of the Acts of the Apostles, Bradford explains: “All profits and benefits that are got by trade, working, fishing or any other means were placed in a common stock.”  A storage place, with no quartermaster oversight,  from which “each member of the colony could draw whatever he or she required.” 

“Not surprising, some colonists preferred to be layabouts” to quote the Register quoting Mr Bradford.

  Later in history, these communal words became “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”.  Sounds decent on paper, but they became a slogan popularized by Karl Marx in his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Program. The principle refers to “free access and distribution of goods, capital and services.”  The operand being “free”.  No or too much control and lacking accountability.

Interesting concept, everyone owns everything, seeing a resurgence with Bernie on the stump and Ivy League educated economist NY House member Alex d’ Cortex: socialism.  What Gov. Bradford came to see should give us pause.  

With no incentive, layabouts is a viral disease.  The first winter was hard and the next not much better.  Some men and women would work hard, some families would not carry their load.  If everyone got whatever they wanted, why work at all? Look at the One family: in common, there is little rationality as to how to divide the labor but EVERYONE believes they are entitled to as much as they can carry out of the store harvest house.  Then, EVERYONE blames ANYONE for not doing the work, and NO ONE takes the blame for failure. And, EVERYONE starves. And like Venezuela, the shelves are a big zero.

Following the teeny 1622 harvest, Bradford: “They began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could, to obtain a better crop”.

The solution was each family was given a parcel of land to manage, the freedom to raise and do whatever they wanted, keep what was needed and trade away at will.  And to be charitable as necessary.  The Hoover institution has a good article showing how private property rights saved the depleted pilgrims.  As proven most recently in Venezuela, as well as Cuba, the Eastern Bloc and so many other Marxian enclaves, socialism sucks as soon as you run out of other people’s money.  Words of Margaret Thatcher.

https://www.hoover.org/research/how-private-property-saved-pilgrims

From Hoover:  “Having tried what Bradford called the “common course and condition”—the communal stewardship of the land demanded of them by their investors—Bradford reports that the community was afflicted by an unwillingness to work, by confusion and discontent, by a loss of mutual respect, and by a prevailing sense of slavery and injustice. And this among “godly and sober men.” In short, the experiment was a failure that was endangering the health of the colony.”

BThankful for all you blessings. There is nothing more true than this:  there is NO trailer hitch on the hearse, no UHaul trailer pulled as you head to the cemetery for your internment.  After a lifetime, whether billions or crumbs, your fate on earth is the same: six feet under or an urn of your ashes.

Which brings us to conclude, the first and truest inalienable right offered in the middle of eternity is the gift of: God.  He has offered for our thanksgiving tables His Son Jesus that we might live forever.  And beyond.

“Give thanks to the Lord for He is Good, his mercy endures forever.

Gov. Bradford’s first Thanksgiving proclamation, for Nov 29th, 1623:

“Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience.

Now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the daytime, on Thursday, November 29th, of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty three and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.”

William Bradford
Ye Governor of Ye Colony 

Celebrate with your family, of course.  Help the truly needy.  But it is time for us to look at what has become of our universities and their incessant indoctrination with foolish ideologies.  The trend in society to expect EVERYTHING and EVERYONE to get EVERYTHING for free.  As freedoms in Plymouth proved out, free market capitalism is not evil: but the belief everything belongs to all of us especially to me, the entitled, is a socialistic sickness proven each and every time. The top socialists, whether Lenin, Stalin, Chavez, Castro, Bernie, etc. always practiced the golden rule: he who has the gold rules.

Hugo Chavez’ billions now in his daughter’s Swiss bank hands, and the millions of those he victimized by doing what Bradford didn’t: nationalizing and stealing personal property, squandering the oil-rich country’s resources leaving little food and thus greed needs amid scarce toilet paper, empty shelves proving just how well socialism works.  Just don’t ask most college kids in their 7th year on campus what the word “work” and initiative mean. Too many value the communists and don’t learn or are taught true American and other countries’ histories.  Socialist Alexandria discusses the three branches, house senate and presidency of American governance…point given and hopefully taken to heart.

God has given each of us the innate ability to respond ie responsibility to work hard and smart for a greater life for our families.  And others too.

The Renaissance of Truth, Life and Love is coming.  Let’s work to that end in the most blessed and generous country on earth.  No matter what the ankle biters complain about, and carry on the much needed reform of academia and other parts of the educational realm.  A reform of the ABCNNBCBS and media that battles truth in their own self-interest.  And a return to facts, truth and knowledge, untainted by lies and purposeful, disinformational fallacies.  America is great because it’s people are good.  We will cease to be both if we don’t take care of business.

Happy thanksgiving to all