Our forefathers

I am of course talking about the founding father's, the gods of American culture, whom we go to constantly in popular culture to seek advice from mostly on who to buy insurance and cars from. I guess Lincoln and other dead Presidents, also Martin Luther King, are in this category of American gods People who statues are made of, who are quoted, and used in dream sequences in sit coms.
Let's go back to the original founders for today though. It is after all Independence day. You know, Jefferson, Washington, Hamilton, Franklin. That's who we mean when people like the CEO of Chic Fil a say, when talking about the Supreme Courts decision to allow gay marriage by saying Doma in unconstitutional, "Our founding father's would have been disappointed."
I have written before that I am all for gay marriage. I am also for people expressing their opinion though, especially if it is not an angry tirade. Plus I'm all for Chic Fil A too. I like their sandwiches, and I like that they help pay for Curious George, and I'm pretty sure that even though the CEO is personally against Gay Marriage and gays, that he hires gays anyway because he is required by law to do so.
But let's talk about our forefathers. Would they be disappointed? This assumes that

 A) They themselves were not gay or even bi. You know that they did not sleep with men or each other. I don't think that is safe to assume at all. Even though there is no historical evidence, you just don't know. Most people cast aside statements that Our forefathers would have been disappointed by saying "they were slave owners." They still knew owning slaves was wrong, and that they shouldn't rape them or at least take advantage of their power of ownership in the workplace. If Jefferson didn't know he was wrong, he wouldn't have set his slaves free in his will. If Slavery was really thought of as beneficial to the slave then freeing them would be abandonment instead of a gift.  But just because something is wrong doesn't mean you don't continue to do it. There is a lot of slavery (though not chatel slavery) in American History after the Civil War. The chain gang can be seen as a form of slavery, even racial slavery as most of the people imprisoned on trumped up charges were black.

It also assumes that

B) The founding father's were highly religious in the way that Chic Fil A Ceo and many other American Christians are religious.
The founding father's had very strong beliefs. But what were they? Dan Brown writes fiction and the novel "The Lost Symbol" is fiction. But like his other books, the artwork and architecture referenced is real. Worth a read. Just saying.

What would the founding fathers be appalled at?
For one, they would probably be appalled at all the Anglo files in America. They would be appalled by all the crap our modern culture gives to the French. The French helped found this country. The French helped found this country. The French helped found this country.
I wrote it three times because I feel like we do stuff like rename French fries so often that we forget that...the French helped found this country.
I remember in grade school someone came into our second grade class and read Disney's Beauty and the Beast and said that it was a French story and then mentioned that at one point our country had considered French as a national language. And that wouldn't that be horrible because we would all be speaking French now and wouldn't be able to understand each other. That is one of the stupidest things I have heard a white person say about a white culture. But all of the students in the class just sensed the answer that the guest speaker wanted and nodded our heads and replied in that group unison mindless whatever you say manner that school hammers into us. Even though most of the class was Chinese, black, Hispanic, and Jewish and most of us spoke at least two languages. We went along and nodded and waited for the story to begin....except the French girl who said, "I speak French." And of course, if French had been the national language for over two hundred years and we all were speaking French, we would all also understand French too.
The French helped found this country.

The founding fathers would probably be appalled at how we clamp down our borders to prevent illegal migrant workers from coming in. Being slave owners, they wouldn't understand such a strong central government expending so much energy to prevented laborers from freely coming to you, instead of you having to go enslave them and then expend so much energy to keep them from escaping. You don't have to pay slaves, but they still cost money. The system of payment we have now is much more humane than slavery, but I bet it might be cheaper too. Which I think is the real reason why non chatel slavery has ended.

Btw another thing we don't hear a lot is that a lot of blacks probably have American ancestry going back to before America became independent from Britain. And of course a lot more blacks probably share genes with the founding fathers than we probably think about. And yet whites who haven't been here for that many generations are often considered more American. There are also a lot of Hispanics whose families were in the United States before it was the United States. And of course there are Native Americans, who are not seen as more American. Our founding fathers probably wouldn't have considered any of these groups as potential citizens... ever.

We always look at our founding fathers as the beginning of our American history. Their not. The cultures that were already here are part of OUR history too. And so are the cultures that came at the same time and after the founding fathers set up shop with laws made in their own interest.

In fact did you ever notice that most shows and movies have modern kids traveling back to King Arthur's court in old England (the country he fought a revolution to separate from) rather the say.. pre Columbian America, even though the time machine in the movie does not also travel to go back to England.
 But I digress...

My final thing to say is...
Our Forefathers would be absolutely appalled and confused that our African American First Family which they never would have imagined, would be such big Downton Abbey fans.

Our founding father's fought against England. The French helped us. We owe the French our country.
Happy Fourth of July! Thank you France.