The View From 1776

For a different assessment of Teddy Roosevelt, see Teddy Roosevelt: Progressive President.

WE THE PEOPLE OR ME THE PEOPLE:  PICK ONE!
By Melanie K. Wooten, Iowa

Part I

To understand what is happening now, you have to go back at least 100 years.

Theodore Roosevelt symbolized all that was good in America at the beginning of the 20th Century.  He was brash, youthful, energetic, and passionately committed to his vision of America.  Sickly as a youth, he had become an American hero in the Spanish-American War (1898) after serving the people of New York in varying positions.  Because of his growing reputation as a reformer, he became a thorn in the side of those men who run our government from behind the scenes, so in order to stop Roosevelt from going higher than he had, and even becoming president by his stated goal of 1912, these Shadow Men nominated him as vice-president to William McKinley, figuring he would languish in this job later characterized by John Nance “Cactus Jack” Garner as “not worth a bucket of warm spit”.  (The press cleaned that one up, folks.). 

Unfortunately for the Shadow Men, McKinley was assassinated in 1901 and Theodore Roosevelt became, at age 43, the then-youngest president to be sworn into office.  Serving only one term in addition to the unfinished McKinley term, Theodore Roosevelt used his vision, brashness and skills as a politician to break the trusts holding Americans in economic subjugation and isolation.  America then took over the failed lease of the French to build the Panama Canal, moving America onto the world stage as an economic power.  Katharine Lee Bates wrote the second version of “America the Beautiful” in 1904, the same year Panama gave us permission to complete the Panama Canal.  What better example of who we were than that marvelous anthem many wanted to be our National Anthem?

During Roosevelt’s presidency, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1906) and, as promised, he retired from public life in 1909.  Roosevelt was induced to run in 1912 on a third-party ticket, thus ensuring the election of Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921), that Princeton academician who gave us the Income Tax, the Federal Reserve, World War I, the League of Nations --- and every other failed policy in which we are drowning, bringing us to the alphabet soup of today: WTO, GATT, NAFTA, CAFTA, UN, UNESCO, OAS --- you name it!

So, here we are, folks.  We the People are up in arms over the possibility that a member of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Dubai, through state-controlled Dubai Ports, is going to control of the ports of New York, Newark, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Miami and New Orleans.  Congress is being bombarded with protestations not to do this, despite the adamant insistence of President Bush that it will happen, period! 

(N.B.  Since writing this, the DP World issue has been resolved, with the forced divestiture of the assets in the US acquired through the acquisition of P&O stock.)

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Part II

The funny thing is that those of us who remember our history remember a little deal called the Monroe Doctrine, which if our congress critters and president remembered would render this whole mess, moot!  It provided as follows:

-- The Western Hemisphere was no longer open for colonization
-- The political system of the Americas was different from Europe
-- The United States would regard any interference in Western hemispheric affairs as a threat to its security
-- The United States would refrain from participation in European wars and would not disturb existing colonies in the Western Hemisphere

Moving on, President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) signed the Panama Canal Treaty in 1977 and won his battle with the Senate in 1978 by ONE VOTE over the two-thirds majority required, relinquishing control of this shortcut through our neighbor’s back yard by the year 2000.  The Chinese now control both ends of the Panama Canal since they control the ports at each end, and have widened the canal to accommodate the larger vessels now crossing both oceans --- which was the reason our congress critters and President Carter gave away the canal in the first place!  In fewer than one hundred years, we have handed over to China what cost Americans around $375,000,000, including the $10,000,000 paid to Panama and the $40,000,000 paid to the French company.  Fortifications cost extra, about $12,000,000.  And don’t forget the share of annual revenues now being paid to China instead of to the United States, which recovered the money we spent building the darn thing!  Now, we are revisiting building a ‘dry canal’ in Nicaragua (we spent an additional $3,000,000 for rights in perpetuity) to replace the Panama Canal our gubmint gave away.  See for the scenario and the money that is costing us!  (We must be crazy!)

The largest port on our West Coast, Long Beach, was handed over to a Chinese company, COSCO, by President Clinton in 1997, AFTER the BATF proved that Chinese Army personnel and weapons were coming through the port in uninspected containers!  Take a look at the website of Long Beach history.  Do you see any major American industries there, as in shipping terminals for US manufacturers shipping goods OUT of the US?  No, you don’t!  The only companies in the expansion of the Port of Long Beach are Pacific Rim companies in Pacific Rim Countries looking to profit from the goods coming INTO the US --- because we have to have more stuff!  (Is the back of your neck getting red and that vein in your forehead starting to throb?)

Let’s see if I have this right:  we have our southern land borders under the control of Mexico; we have our western borders in the control of Pacific Rim nations (read China); our eastern and southern water borders are scheduled to be handed over to the UAE, and our northern borders are a sieve to for all who can’t get into the United States any other way!  (AARRGGHH!)

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Part III

Before you get your knickers in a knot, remember We The People?  We are our government, or we were until we started swapping Round Tuits.  We The People have turned into thousands of Round Tuits (you know, those little round things you get for procrastinating).  If you need clarification, please see for the complete history of same.  We The People have turned into Americans who will write an occasional letter; send that telegram or fax or email; make that phone call --- in exchange for the Round Tuit --- but do nothing when our congress critters dropped the requirement for country of origin on all goods sold in our Country!  Should anyone question our willingness to do what must be done to save our Country, we wave a trusty Round Tuit to show We The People we have done our bit.  It is up to those with no Round Tuits to do their bit!  (Harrumph, harrumph!)

We The People are living in a Country that can no longer clothe or shoe its people because We The People have abrogated that awesome responsibility shared with and handed to us by our Founding Fathers.  We The People talk about the Constitution but didn’t raise a squawk when the U.S. Army went to an Italian gun requiring “international” ammunition, tolling the death knell for our own gun manufacturers.  We The People say we love our Country but didn’t raise a stink when our military went to a Chinese manufacturer for our uniforms because our gubmint drove out of business any textile manufacturers who could handle that large an order.  So, now, We The People wear shoes from China, blue jeans from China, talk on Chinese telephones, and so on, praying fervently that the Chinese do not lose their enchantment with all things American because our continuing economic solvency is tied to the approval of China.  But we have those Round Tuits!  Teddy Roosevelt must be spinning in his grave!

We The People is dead; long live Me The People.  Until Me The People --- you, me, each one of us --- accepts responsibility for what We The People have done by our apathy and silence, and steps up to restore our Nation, her industries, her borders, her integrity, America will continue her slide to obscurity and finally become a footnote in History of Governments, right beside Rome, Greece, and all those civilizations that faded into nothingness because of apathy and decay from inside, not enemies from the outside.

This Me the People doesn’t want that for my America!  This Me the People wants us to be the America of Katharine Lee Bates, and it breaks my heart that we can’t say “Thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears” anymore after 9/11 because of the bullsh*t that has been done by our gubmint in the name of We the People!  This Me the People wants us to be the America of Teddy Roosevelt that meets with world with a big smile and quiet voice, leaning on that “big stick”, but this Me the People can’t do it alone; you can’t either.  Me the People needs to link up with every other Me the People we can muster to restore America to Americans for Americans.  It won’t happen until we get up off our dead rear ends and say to one and all, especially our gubmint, that wonderful sentence attributed to Robin Williams:

“The Statue of Liberty is no longer saying ‘Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses.’ She’s got a baseball bat and she’s yelling, ‘You want a piece of me?’ “

Based on the foregoing, there aren’t that many pieces of us left so I am asking:  are you with this Me the People or do you just want to go back to sleep this election year, clutching your Round Tuit?  If the little bit of history I have laid out here does not make you good and mad, I don’t know what will!  I repeat my opening statement: 

We the People or Me the People?  Pick One!