The Emerald Rose

CLARIFICATION:

Upon rereading yesterday’s entry (PART III) I realized I ,“inferred” that Chief Conesega gave us the format of the confederation, that became the United States of America. In further researching today I would clarify it that the Chief made Benjamin Franklin AWARE of the architecture of the Native North Americans agreement’s structure and Franklin valued it enough to utilize it in his further works with the Continental Convention in utilizing it with the concepts of the “56 Founding  Fathers” in developing our Constitution., and signing that document, forever sealing their fates, and YOURS, MINE, and ALL AMERICAN CITIZENS THAT COME AFTER US.

I  also did some “curiosity” research on what became of the original signers of the “Declaration” itself. (See the few below paragraphs for today’s entry on “Journalling” and think about it seriously.) Despite my advancing age, I never knew any of our “Founding Fathers”personally”, but only by “hearsay”, …..as did you really know anything about me, or my grandparents before reading this series on “journalling”,….right? Hopefully the following paragraphs will give you more insight and more “feeling” about the humanity, and minds of those 56 signers, as human beings, and as regular folks who REALLY realized what they were doing, and the CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR ACTIONS TO THEM PERSONALLY!  As  the rest of these results, they portray the outcomes of those decisions, …..and the true facts to back it up. Consider, this the next time you make a descision , and ask yourself COULD YOU HAVE MADE THAT DECISION, KNOWING THE PROBABLE and  ACTUAL   CONSEQUENCES  it HAD on their personal lives and that of their families? That my friends is NOT idealistic,  but  the force of the value of the “RIGHT kind of thinking”. (Something exceedingly lacking in 2017’s citizenry!)

Both,  John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, wrote voluminously after they signed the Declaration, (Check out the “Federalist Papers” some day and realize another little secret, they wrote them under “pseudonyms so as not to bias their readers on the need to ratify the original Contstitution and Declaration of Independance and the Bill of Rights, documents), and as author Joseph J. Ellis pointed out, “Adams, particularly, whom History would not treat nearly as kindly as Jefferson” they were both  pragmatists who were keenly aware of the distinction”,  ” between History , as experienced, and History as remembered”. That is at the core of the IMPORTANCE OF SELECTING AND NOMINATING SUPREME COURT JUDGES!! Their job will be to INTERPRET THE LAW AS IT”S WRITTEN< NOT AS THEY “THINK IT WAS MEANT TO MEAN”!

What about the other folks who were signatory of The Declaration of Independance, ever wonder who they were and whatever happened to them, like I have? Sure we knew some of them for their long term “fame”, subsequent fame and notoriety, like Adams and Jefferson,  but what of the rest of them? Here’s the short version; from an article I found;

”    5 – of the original signers were captured by the British, and judged to be Traitors, and tortured before they subsequently died.”

”   12 – had their homes ransacked and then burned to the ground”

”    2 –  lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army, and another had two sons captured”

”    9 –  of the 56 fought, and died from wounds, or hardships of the Revolutionary War.”

“THEY SIGNED AND PLEDGED THEIR LIVES, THEIR FORTUNES, AND THEIR SACRED HONOR!” That was not for medals, bonuses, promotions etc.

AND, as a final thought, “What kind of men were they?  24- were lawyers, and jurists, nine were farmers and large Plantation owners, men of means and well educated., and those of our “Founding Fathers” whose signatures are NOT on the Declaration of Independance include , GEORGE WASHINGTON, JOHN JAY, ALEXANDER HAMILTON, and  JAMES MADISON (of  whom TWO subsequently became the FIRST the FOURTH PRESIDENTS of the United States, and Hamilton became the FOUNDER of the UNITED STATES COAST GUARD AND FIRST SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, AND FOUNDED THE NEW YORK POST NEWSPAPER. . JOHN JAY WAS THE FIRST CHIEF JUSTICE OF SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, and SECOND GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

They didn’t sign because of disagreement, but other business that precluded them from being there in Philadelphia when the Constituion and Declaration were signed.

So now ask yourself, “If you were around in the 1760- 1780 period, would you answer the call like those folks did?

Enough on that.

But see what “Journalling” can do for all of us, it is the chronicle of OUR individual history, thoughts, and a reality which may otherwise be lost forever. What if Anne Frank never wrote in her diary/Journal? THAT is truly a first person documentation that the “Holocaust” actually happened if there ever was one!

Today we can hire “GHOST” writers, and “hypothecate” a pretty good story ABOUT someone, but it is just “a story”, not their real thoughts and innermost feelings of that moment in time, given by their own hand and eventually found and to be given to the world,.. in other words IT WAS NOT not “THEIR” story to us, flaws and all, for the betterment of the world, and to answer a lot of those who wonder, including their relatives, and the rest of us who have inquisitive minds and want to know better,….but the opportunity has past us by because they weren’t  there!

Don’t let that happen to you, believe it or not, some day, in the future most likely, someone will wonder, who you REALLY were! I don’t care what you think, how smart you are, how well you can write, or spell, or present it in the rules of grammar. IT’S YOUR STORY, TELL IT ANY WAY YOU CAN, BUT DON”T LEAVE THIS WORLD TO LEAVE US WONDERING WHAT YOU REALLY THOUGHT OR WHO YOU REALLY WERE!!!

As most of you, who follow me, or know me, our youngest sone Jay, passed away this past February 2017, and there are hundreds of pictures of him, which are being circulated, they prompt memories for everyone who knew him,….but so far we have nothing OF HIM, DIRECTLY FROM HIM. That is a single large regret of mine, but knowing Jay he would have given us that smile he had, and said something like , “Maybe when I get famous and older, like you Dad” Now it can never happen, (sigh)!

None of us can cheat death, and particularly when it happens,  but you can change your future after you are gone by leaving YOUR thoughts, it’s YOUR last chance to really share YOU  with the world, ….LET PEOPLE KNOW YOU, they can’t judge you, you won’t lose a friend, a job or a thin dime by doing it. BUT YOU WILL ENHANCE A WHO BUNCH OF FOLKS both here and in the future, WHO WILL THEN REALLY KNOW YOU!

Part IV on love, family and, other parts of you in the next couple of days, hope you’re hooked and I’ll let you know if I get a chance to present “JOURNALLING” to the rest of the world so some others will realize “God doesn’t make junk, that’s label we put on ourselves”! Let me know if YOU can help, it’s that important to me, and I will go anywhere to spread the word, not MY word, but the importance of YOUR word as time passes.

Act quickly, at 72.5 years old, who knows how much time I have left, and I need to begin, the rest of my “JOURNAL”!

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SIDE NOTE: When our youngest Grandson, James David Corcoran, Jr is old enough to read and write, I WILL strongly encourage him to begin “Journalling” , as little as he remembers, of his Dad, “JAY”, as he passed when the little guy was less than a month short of ONE year of age, “Jay was our youngest son, just turned forty, BUT between myself, my wife, his wife Maria, and his big sister Ana, we can NEVER, give you HIS actual thoughts desires and feelings from “himself”, but our beliefs and thoughts on our thoughts and on his thoughts! FIRST PERSON ACCOUNTS ARE THE BEST, DON”T FORGET TO WRITE YOURS……PLEASE!!!