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We Hold These Truths (Tribute to the Bill of Rights)
Radio Networks Simultaneous Broadcast/XM164 Replay ^ | December 15, 1941 | Norman Corwin

Posted on 12/07/2006 9:05:05 AM PST by sam_paine

Commissioned by FDR to commemorate 150th anniversary of the Bill of Rights, this hour-long program was aired over the combined national networks (CBS, NBC Red, NBC Blue, and Mutual) eight days after Pearl Harbor. The Crosley Rating Service estimated 63 million people listened, half the US population at the time, and this was the largest audience in recorded history for a dramatic performance.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Extended News
KEYWORDS: billofrights; constitution
I posted a reference to this on the Pearl Harbor thread, but I thought this really needed its own thread.

I hope as many people as possible will get this and perhaps play it for their kids sometime this Christmas break.

1 posted on 12/07/2006 9:05:11 AM PST by sam_paine
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To: sam_paine
To repeat my comments from the other thread....what are your thoughts?

[This is] a show that could go word for word today, or Dec 15, 2001, just replacing Nazism with "radical Islam" and "Hitler" with UBL.

It's an hour-long program that goes through each element of the bill of rights. 2nd amendment says not a word about hunting....says only that the 2nd amendment is to KEEP THE GOVERNMENT FROM CONTROLLING THE PEOPLE.

It was heartbreaking to listen to. To hear so dramatically how much America has fallen. How much Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton were the very type of power-hungry politicians that those quoted in 1941 and 1791 warned of.

They spoke of a free people that could work and speak and worship as they pleased. Not the OSHA, McCain Feingold, and ACLU PC America that we have created.

Shame on us all.

2 posted on 12/07/2006 9:07:26 AM PST by sam_paine (X .................................)
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To: sam_paine

Do we still have a Bill of Rights...? Coulda fooled me.


3 posted on 12/07/2006 9:09:45 AM PST by Jack Hammer
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To: sam_paine
While I'm talking to myself!..........

It has a speech by FDR at the end of it, regarding Hitler vs. free peoples, etc. I also thought about the irony of Mr. New Deal Socialist who gave us many of the systemic economic problems we have today, while at the same time being the guy holding the mantle of free men. That was kind of wierd.

4 posted on 12/07/2006 9:10:25 AM PST by sam_paine (X .................................)
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To: Jack Hammer
Do we still have a Bill of Rights...?

Did you hear some of the quotes of the Breyer "organic document" vs. Scalia "strict constructionist" debate?

So disgusting. If Breyer had said those things in 1791 he woulda been hoisted on a pitchfork.

Today though, I really am at a loss as to what I could possibly do to change things. What? Vote Constitution party and send in higher taxes to Hillary?

5 posted on 12/07/2006 9:13:36 AM PST by sam_paine (X .................................)
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To: sam_paine

Did you hear some of the quotes of the Breyer "organic document" vs. Scalia "strict constructionist" debate?

So disgusting. If Breyer had said those things in 1791 he woulda been hoisted on a pitchfork.



Tragic that the SCOTUS has become a body for political activism, as opposed to being the law-following, Constitution-protecting and upholding judicial body it was intended to be. "Organic document" --- what a crock of anti-American liberal crap!!!


6 posted on 12/07/2006 9:20:14 AM PST by EagleUSA
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To: sam_paine

It's always funny to see how liberals who claim to be in favor of "civil liberties" and the Bill of Rights deal with the Second Amendment. They squirm and whine and make all kinds of idiotic excuses.


7 posted on 12/07/2006 9:22:56 AM PST by JillValentine (Being a feminist is all about being a victim. Being an armed woman is all about not being a victim.)
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To: EagleUSA
I just look at Scalia, and the way "comity" is still prized so much. It just seems like if Breyer was acting like this, a true American would lean over and beat the crap out of him.

So if someone like Scalia is politely cowing, how are "the people" supposed to react?

I'm afraid Russell Kirk was right. It's an inevitable rout.
8 posted on 12/07/2006 9:44:05 AM PST by sam_paine (X .................................)
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To: JillValentine
It's always funny to see how liberals who claim to be in favor of "civil liberties" and the Bill of Rights deal with the Second Amendment.

Have you seen the "Gun Control Witness" video being forwarded around from the Luby's massacre? It's got priceless shots of a smug schumer getting his gun-control butt handed to him.

9 posted on 12/07/2006 9:46:09 AM PST by sam_paine (X .................................)
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To: sam_paine
I had to check the link to see if that was really the title.

I know I'm being anal but the words "We hold these truths..." are from the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution/Bill of rights.
10 posted on 12/07/2006 10:16:55 AM PST by HEY4QDEMS (Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.)
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To: sam_paine
According to one of Judge Napolitano's books, by the time of his (FDR) death, eight of the nine SCOTUS judges were appointed by FDR.

Also, and absolutely amazing is that not a single federal law was found to be unconstitutional between 1937 and 1995. It is a myth that fed courts act as a check on the other branches.

The federal courts have aided and abetted the near tyranny we live under.
11 posted on 12/07/2006 2:16:15 PM PST by Jacquerie (All Muslims are suspect.)
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To: HEY4QDEMS
"We hold these truths..." are from the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution/Bill of rights.

I don't guess anyone has ever suggested that it wasn't.

If you'll go further than reading the title, you'll see that the program is about how the "American Experiment" is referenced by the show as a "rights of man" kind of thing.

It's saying that the ideals of the founders (icluding the statements in the Declaration) were codified into the Bill of Rights.

For example, "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

This is one of the "truths" the program says we "hold" to be self-evident for a free people.

I'd really recommend you listen to the program...you might see a new perspective in 1941 than we have (sadly) in 2006.

12 posted on 12/08/2006 8:31:41 AM PST by sam_paine (X .................................)
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To: sam_paine; EnochPowellWasRight; JillValentine; Jacquerie; EagleUSA; bnelson44
Ping to old-time anti-war agitprop, as a prologue to today's ISG/cut-n-run/Islamofascism scariness.

I'll tag this on here instead of a new thread.

In stark contrast to this patriotic "why we fight" story, XM164 (no, I don't work for them!) played a macabre short audio version (Arch Oboler's plays/NBC) of Johnny Got His Gun, by Dalton Trumbo (1939).

In it, a burned, blind, deaf-mute quadriplegic struggles to keep track of the calendar by counting, and tries to communicate in morse code by thumping his head on a pillow and feeling the vibrations of footsteps.

When you think of these old idealistic "Lone Rangers" and "Jack Benny" shows, you don't really think they could get within 10,000 miles of the anti-war DU America-loathing we know today. But, wow. Here it is.

I'll admit my ignorance about these particular writers, and I'd strongly recommend other people studying the old leftists, as they certainly tell us a lot about today's moonbats.

Trumbo was one of the "Hollywood Ten" that refused to testify at McCarthy's hearings. This radio program aired apparently in 1940, or a couple of years before Norman Corwin's patriotic "We Hold These Truths."

What I find interesting, is this snippet from wiki-

Dalton Trumbo's vivid anti-war novel, Johnny Got His Gun, won a National Book Award...in 1939. The inspiration for the novel came to Trumbo when he read an article about a British officer who was horribly disfigured during World War I.
Shortly after the 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union, Trumbo ordered all copies of Johnny Got His Gun to be recalled and stopped any further publication of the book. After receiving letters from individuals requesting copies of the book, Trumbo contacted the FBI and turned these letters over to them, questioning the correspondents' loyalty to the Allied war effort.

When you read how viciously anti-war this fella writes, and then, suddenly when the Communist Soviet Union is invaded by Germany, (not Poland or the non-communist countries), well then, all bets are off, and "Johnny, grab that gun!"

The problem with McCarthy has always been that he was mostly correct.

Makes you wonder if the terrorists attacked China like 9/11, what would the leftists do?

13 posted on 12/10/2006 9:13:42 AM PST by sam_paine (X .................................)
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To: sam_paine

The problem with McCarthy has always been that he was mostly correct.

Makes you wonder if the terrorists attacked China like 9/11, what would the leftists do?
------
Yes, makes the left out for exactly what they are -- and McCarthy was right. And it is worse today than then, to say the least.


14 posted on 12/10/2006 4:45:28 PM PST by EagleUSA
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