[Old School Hound]

I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July. Remember, freedom isn't free and democracy isn't guaranteed to last forever. The country elected a fascist in '16 our democracy almost died as a result. It was a close call. We should never take our democracy for granted. Jan 6, 2021 should be a date that school kids should memorize right along with July 4, 1776 in order to remind them that our democracy, which sustains us as a country, can be lost in the blink of a madman's eye.  

The founders were worried about men like Trump coming along and they were also worried about religion encroaching upon government.


"The United States of America should have a foundation free from the influence of clergy." ~ George Washington


"Erecting the 'wall of separation between church and state'... is absolutely essential in a free society." ~ Thomas Jefferson


"The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries." ~ James Madison


"This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it." ~ John Adams


"I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life, I absenteed myself from Christian assemblies." ~ Benjamin Franklin


"All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit." ~ Thomas Paine


"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.... During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution." ~ James Madison


"Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history."               ~ James Madison


"Nothing is more dreaded than the national government meddling with religion." ~ John Adams


"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty." ~ Thomas Jefferson


"The way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason." ~ Benjamin Franklin


"The study of theology, as it stands in Christian churches, is the study of nothing; it is founded on nothing; it rests on no principles; it proceeds by no authorities; it has no data; it can demonstrate nothing; and it admits of no conclusion."                 ~ Thomas Paine


"Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.  What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth."                                                       ~ Thomas Jefferson (  Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XVII)