"The writ of our founders must endure"

When speaking recently on the proposed Muslim Community Center and Mosque to be built near Ground Zero, The Master and Commander commented that "The writ of our founders must endure", referring, of course to, as he said, "our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable".

First off, know that I don't want to go back in time and change anything - I am not saying that this country was founded incorrectly, that we need to fix it (though it would be nice to go back in time and have an America that was always free of slavery), but I do want us to think about something when we think of the Founding Fathers, and most definitely when we invoke their intentions with our fine nation during its initial creation in the context of furthering our political views today (I'm talking to you, Master and Commander).

Think along the lines of me not wanting to go back and change too many things because we will not end up with the same nation that we have today. Sure, there is room for improvement over history, but who knows what you'll end up with if you got back and start tampering with things.

That being said, however, can we all please remember that this nation was founded by a group of white, Christ-based faith believing, mostly slave-owning, straight (definitely in the closet if not) men, who, while progressive for their time in terms of their thinking on government, established a nation that did not allow women the right to vote or own land and allowed for a person to be enslaved in permanent bondage and servitude.

I personally am sick and tired of hearing how it was the intention of this group of men that all men and women of all races (literally every human being on the planet) should be equal in all regards, and should all have equal rights including a civil right to water, food, shelter and public services. I am not saying that I don't believe in this, and I am not saying that I do not want this nation to have those principles today, but what I am saying is let's not go back and revise history in our minds to think that the Founding Fathers, the guys who were at the Continental Congress, fought in the Revolution, and established the framework for the United States of America, believed in these same principles, because quite clearly, they did not.

If you go back and read what most of the founders of the United States of America were writing at the time, you will most definitely see that it was not their intention for non-Christ-based faiths, women voters, women land owners, and people of color to have an equal place in the country as them. White, Christ-fearing land owner, you're in and here's your ballot - all others, some other, lesser role of servitude, and don't bother coming to the polls on election day.

Again, let's stick to our values and what we know to be right, but can we all please stop portraying the Founding Fathers as saints, because quite frankly, they were far from it.

Ukraine's Samyilo Adamovich

Since being let out from underneath the Iron Fist of the Soviet Union, Ukranian historians have been digging deep into their history, an endeavor that was virtually impossible under communist Soviet rule.

According to the Ukranian press, Ukranian historians have uncovered evidence that a man by the name of Samyilo Adamovich moved to London shortly after the Russian-Swedish war in 1708.

Once in London, Samyilo changed his name to Sam Adams, and eventually moved from London to the American colonies, where is son, Sam Adams, was born and later became the Sam Adams that we know today.

Ukranian historians also claim to have found a 1712 draft of a constitution strikingly similar to ours.

Constitutional Crisis in 1876

If you think the presidential election of 2000 was ugly, you should have been around for the election of 1876.

Waged against the backdrop of Reconstruction, the race pitted Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, a reform-minded New York governor, against Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, a three-term governor of Ohio.

Amid vote-buying, intimidation, and political skullduggery of the most blatant sort, three states, Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina, submitted two sets of electoral votes, one for Hayes and one for Tilden.

A constitutional crisis ensued, and Congress appointed a special election commission to sort out the disputed votes.

Then, in a backroom deal, the Republican-controlled commission asked Southern Democrats to award all 19 disputed votes to Hayes, and in return, once president, Hayes would withdraw all federal troops from the South.

The bribe was accepted by the Democrats and Hayes ended up with 185 electoral votes to Tilden’s 184. For the next four years, bitter Democrats called the new president “Rutherfraud” and Tilden “President Tilden.” Tilden called the debacle “the greatest political crime of our history.”