Making Your Choice

THOMAS JEFFERSON wrote the Declaration of Independence because he had to, he had no other choice. Not only was Benjamin Franklin taller, bigger, stronger, and angrier, he was insistent; young Thomas was going to do his duty for his country. And he did. My oh my, did Thomas Jefferson ever rise to the occasion, and do his "duty" for "his" "country". Quotation marks because it is highly questionable whether Jefferson had any "duty" or "country" to call "his". But the British gave them no choice. Sometimes, you get backed into a corner, and you have no choice but to fight. We've all been through that, and anyone who hasn't, hasn't lived. Some things are worth fighting for. The Declaration of Independence is one of the most beautiful pieces of writing in history, and every American must read it. In it, Jefferson makes it clear that nobody wants to start a revolution, nobody wants to turn against their own country in rebellion, to fight, and maybe die, but that as he put it, "when a long train of abuses evinces a design to reduce them under tyranny", or something to that effect, people have no choice. Here I am, a retired teacher working in the kitchen of my local senior center, and my boss, a person I greatly esteem, has been terminated, or actually, forced to resign due to a ceaseless barrrage of negative criticism, insults, threats, and humiliations. Her superiors, as they are called, engaged in an organized, systematic conspiracy to get rid of her, whether the conspiracy was intentional, or accidental. All that, so they could force her to resign, so they could avoid the responsibility of firing her outright. Cleaver. And I saw this with my own eyes. The constant minor, petty complaints. The verbal warnings. The written warnings. The sudden new requirements concerning signing in and signing out to go anywhere or do anything. Where were you on your break? Where did you go for lunch? Very clever, very shrewd tactic, to drive her off, and avoid responsibility for firing her. However, I won't stand for it. For me, my time has come, my time to rise up reluctantly, to revolt, to fight for justice. I intend to write and circulate a petition insisting that our administration offer her her job back, with some sort of compensation for their ill treatment of her, even if such compensation is nothing more than a solemn pledge to cease the ill treatment. What's right is right, and, as my hero Davy Crockett might say; "I reckon I'm a mite wrathy, and I aim to fight for justice, come hell or high water, and I'll stand up to my rack, fodder or no fodder, and may the devil take the hindmost." My petition will have many names on it. If that doesn't work, out come the protest signs, and the boycott begins. Jefferson said in the Declaration of Independence that people are much more inclined to put up with unfair treatment than to rise up in protest over it, but that you can only push people so far. That's why they did it, why they wrote, signed and backed up the Declaration of Independence. They had no other choice.