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It was NOT written by a committee. Others signed it, at peril of their lives--for their signature made them "terrorists" in the Crown's view--and the committee that the Continental Congress delegated to write it, reviewed it, as did the Congress itself, and made mostly small changes--but Jefferson wrote it. it was NOT "written by a group of slave owners." It was written by ONE slave owner. And those who approved it, and signed it, were absolutely NOT "all slave owners." Most of the northern members of the Revolution were NOT slave owners, and abhorred slavery. Interestingly, so did Jefferson. Jefferson included an anti-slavery provision in the first drafts of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson's anti-slavery provision was removed from the Declaration of Independence, to his great unhappiness, when the Congress considered it, in order to achieve the unity of non-slave and slave states in the revolt against the powerful British Empire--a war whose outcome was dubious, at best, and that was already well under way, as the Declaration was being written and signed. Jefferson's anti-slavery provision was nixed by his own Virginia brethren and other representatives of slave states. He later wrote against slavery, found it obnoxious, worried about a coming civil war over it, and couldn't free his own slaves because it would have meant their extradition from Virginia. He also, in his writings, exhibited some repugnance at the physical characteristics of African Americans--ironical since he most certainly had a slave wife and slave children. He was also, meanwhile, fighting immensely important battles for free speech, the separation of church and state and other vital principles.
In not understanding this matter, you miss all of the complexities of history and of human beings that make life worth living. Human beings are not perfect. They are sometimes heroic, and sometimes not. They are sometimes brilliant, and sometimes stupid, blind and selfish. And they are only rarely able to rise above the the social/economic constraints of their era to envision a future without those constraints, let alone create that future.
Despite its lack of an anti-slavery provision, the Declaration of Independence laid the foundation for the liberation of slaves, of women, of landless men, of indentured servants, and of oppressed peoples in numerous other lands around the world. It was the prototype of revolutionary action for the liberation of all people. Ho Chi Minh quoted it to President Dwight Eisenhower in seeking American support for Vietnam's revolution (against French colonialists)! It inspired the French Revolution. It inspired Simon Bolivar. It is inspiring people to this day, despite that the U.S. has become an oppressive empire.
Written by a slave owner!
So, even though I abhor slavery, Thomas Jefferson is a hero of mine. And even though I abhor violence, Simon Bolivar, and other brave revolutionaries of the Americas, are heroes of mine. And even though I abhor the anti-Japanese bigotry of the 1940s and the mass detention of Japanese people on the west coast during the war, FDR is a hero of mine--FDR, who came from great wealth and identified with the poor! He is one of those who was able to rise above the social/economic constraints of his era, and took strong and brave action to defend the multitude of victims of the Great Depression, and to create a whole new era--a different future--on labor rights, women's rights, the rights of the elderly, the rights of black citizens and the rights of the poor.
To just negate such advances in human progress, to say that brave and far thinking people were all creeps and oppressors because they had blind spots, because they had tragic flaws, because they made mistakes, because they failed in some respects, is a poverty-stricken view. And you make the same error in your evaluation of Hugo Chavez. Because he is not perfect, he is shit. You dis the Chavez government relentlessly, and seem utterly blind to what that government has accomplished. The Chavez government and the people of Venezuela, in my opinion, are going to hold a place in history comparable to the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution. They were the first people to turn back a U.S.-supported rightwing military coup in Latin America in the modern era! That action and the subsequent efforts of the Chavez government to "declare independence" from the U.S. empire have inspired many other peaceful, democratic, leftist successes in Latin America. Whatever the flaws or failures of the Chavez government or the Venezuelan people, they have done this--they have bravely risen above the social/economic constraints of their era and tried to create a better future. That is very brave, and that is rather amazing. I have witnessed it from afar, while my own government descended into brutality and lawlessness. I have seen the democracy that Thomas Jefferson and the other early Revolutionaries laid the foundation for, dismembered here. I have seen the second Revolution--FDR's "New Deal" for workers and the poor--undone. Meanwhile, another people--to the south--was picking up the torch of liberation and fairness and social justice, and carrying on. Whatever their mistakes, that is heroic, in my view.
You can't have everything. You can't have perfection. And if you judge living people or historical figures in that way, you will become a cynic and of no use to anyone as a thinker. Cynicism is the most profound drag on human progress, bar none.
How come the great liberationists of the American Revolution couldn't see that women are equal, too, and landless men, and slaves, and all should have a vote? Well, some of them DID see these things, but couldn't convince others, and chose not to cynically walk away and abandon and subvert the Revolution, because they couldn't get others to agree. And they were in the midst of a war against the British Empire.
And, lo and behold, guess who ended slavery first? That same oppressive British Empire, 32 years before the U.S. ended slavery (with Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, in 1965, in the midst of the Civil War). The British!
History is wonderfully complex, ironical and riveting--just as the human creators of it are. The British Royal Navy--so oppressive to its own sailors, and reviled by the American colonists for "pressing" people into service--then went round the world bashing the heads of slave traders, on orders of the King and Parliament! I love history--and its many flawed heroes! And I don't expect perfection in anyone. To be a hero, in my book, is to act on what you are able to see as the right thing to do, despite your imperfections, blindness, inconvenience and danger. Heroism is not perfection. In fact, heroism requires imperfection--fear, doubts, blind spots, hesitations, mistakes, even big mistakes--to be truly heroic.
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