Which Founding Father coined the term “United States of America”?
Which Founding Father inspired the Declaration of Independence with a pamphlet that used the same sentiment and the same language of the Declaration, proposing the colonies form an egalitarian government? Who first publicly proposed the idea that the colonies separate from England?
Which Founding Father insisted The Constitution include the abolition of slavery, despite being overruled by states like NC and GA? Who never owned a slave, and continued the fight against slavery until he was ousted from history? Which Founding Father insisted all throughout his life that all of humankind was equal?
Which Founding Father was our first feminist? An old friend of Mary Wollstonecraft, who wrote the pamphlet, “An Occasional Letter on the Female Sex” which he advocates equal rights of women? Which Founding Father refers to men “subjecting to his despotism those whom reason had made his equal, but whose imbecility betrayed them to his strength.”?
Which Founding Father proposed unity with the Native Americans and was staunchly opposed to oppression and genocide?
Which Founding Father first advocated for trade unions?
Which Founding Father first advocated for welfare for the elderly, widows and orphans?
Which Founding Father staunchly opposed capitol punishment (and ironically spent time on Death Row and was nearly executed in France for his opposition to capitol punishment)?
Which Founding Father first introduced to the world the concept of a minimum wage?
Which Founding Father coined the term “Human Rights”?
Which Founding Father’s book “Rights of Man” did Napoleon Bonaparte keep under his pillow? About whom was Napoleon quoted as saying, “A statue of gold should be erected to you in every city in the universe”? (despite Napoleon eventually betraying his values…)
Which Founding Father never betrayed his values?
Which Founding Father flipped the word “Democrat” from an insult into a word of pride?
Which Founding Father was the true founder of The Enlightenment era?
Which Founding Father proposed Uniting of Nations to minimize future warfare over a century before Wilson proposed League of Nations and a century and a half before United Nations?
Which Founding Father urged President Jefferson to buy the Louisiana Territory (the other half of these great United States) when most of Jefferson’s advisers swore against it?
Which Founding Father was Abraham Lincoln’s hero?
Which Founding Father inspired John Adams to say, “Without the pen of the author of ‘Common Sense,’ the sword of Washington would have been raised in vain”?
Which Founding Father was so ahead of his time, we have yet to catch up with him?
Which Founding Father wrote “The Age of Reason” arguing for morality without religion and a true separation between church and state? Why did only 6 people show up to his funeral? Why are his bones still scattered across the world? Why are there no monuments to him across the country? Why isn’t he taught in schools? Why is he still blacklisted from history?
Which Founding Father “would appear to the future as the Adam of a new world,” yet his obituary read, “He had lived long, did some good, and much harm”? What harm, you ask? Well, he criticized two of the callow U.S.A.’s greatest heroes, Jesus and George Washington. History hasn’t been kind to my hero.
A lifelong hero, whose quote did I sing at the end of Awaken Light, the end of the song, “Earth”?
“My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.”
-Thomas Paine
