‘Rebuilding Uncle Tom蘑菇视频 Cabin’
In the classic novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” Harriet Beecher Stow presented the inspirational and tragic tale of a 19th century Kentucky slave named Uncle Tom. Though the story is fictional, the over-all theme, the setting and many of the details, were in fact based on actual personal observations.
The book portrays Uncle Tom as a middle-aged, devout Christian and a man with great personal character. Though severely tested by hardships; he remained faithful. We admire Uncle Tom for his beliefs, his resolve and for his heroic presence demonstrated as he dove into the Mississippi river to rescue a little white girl named Eva and her father from drowning.
Ultimately, Uncle Tom is the victim of a cruel and tragic death, but his death is not at all in vain! The final words of the story remind us, “Think of your freedom, every time you see Uncle Tom’s Cabin; and let it be a memorial to put you all in mind to follow in his steps, and be honest and faithful and Christian as he was.”
“Uncle Tom’s Cabin” is not entitled “The Life of Uncle Tom,” because the cabin serves as a graphic reminder of our past barbaric treatment of slaves and beckons us to protect human dignity and freedom in the future. It’s hard to imagine that anyone would ever remotely dream of rebuilding anything like Uncle Tom’s cabin again. And yet, off in the distance, I think I hear the eerie sound of hammers driving nails. And it isn’t just me that is hearing the noise. Consider the following:
In September of 2013, the Property Rights Alliance released its annual international property rights index. “The index ranks 131 countries based on how they score in three areas of property rights protection: legal and political environment, physical property rights, and intellectual property rights.” They concluded that, “The strength of property rights in the United States has declined over the past four years,” and that, “the United States was ranked 17th in the world for property rights protections.”
A Gallup poll recently reported that, “49% of Americans believe the federal government has become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens.”
Furthermore, the Pew Research Centre concluded, “For the past seven years, a period covering the final two years of the Bush administration and Obama’s entire presidency, no more than about three-in-ten Americans have said that they trust the government in Washington to do the right thing always or most of the time,” and then added, “This is a breath-taking level of distrust in a form of government that ostensibly relies upon the consent of the governed.”
Breath taking levels of distrust in oppressive authority is what Harriet Beecher Stow had in mind when she wrote, “That no Southern law requires any test of character from the man to whom the absolute power of master is granted.”
History echoes with the tumultuous noise of oppressive governments, kings, dictators, and potentates claiming to have the interest of “the people” at heart. The genuine test of whether our government is faithfully serving the nation is measured by our ability to exercise freedoms guaranteed in our own Constitution. Or are our liberties being manacled as Federal and State powers increase?
As the size of government has continued to expand so has the tax burden on citizens expected to fund the enlargement. In 1900, Americans needed to work the first 22 days of the year to meet their tax burdens. By 1940 taxpayers labored until March 7 to meet that same threshold. This year the average American had to work until April 18 (108 days) to pay their tax obligations. That’s 5 days longer than the year before!
Surveys confirm that frustrations are growing among American taxpayers being forced to submit to increasing governmental controls over such issues as health care, education, gun control, privacy and the growing national debt.
No, I am not remotely suggesting that the quality of living for the average American in 2013 comes even close to the squalid, shameful and reprehensible conditions depicted in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. But I am strongly suggesting that Americans need to aggressively examine Washington’s building plans for our future and I am offering a quote from a classic American novel that implores us to, “Think of your freedom, every time you see Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”
Larry Douglas is a resident of Waynesburg.