BY DAN VALENTI

Just prior to the beginning of the Revolutionary War, the American British Colonies were taxed a net sum of 2 weeks per year of their incomes. In 2024, the U.S. taxpayers are taxed many months of their incomes, and the U.S. national debt is currently over $35 trillion and always increasing in red ink.

The Massachusetts government asked King George III for a bail out. The King of England declined and he told his subjects to raise taxes. Massachusetts was bankrupt in the mid-1770’s. Also, many of the mostly slave owning Founding Fathers were deep in personal debts. MONEY played a BIG part in the Revolutionary War.

Enter religion to argue that that God granted the American subjects that natural rights of self-determination. Enter politics by arguing that taxation without representation in the government is unjust. Enter France, which provided financial and military aid to the Founding Fathers.

Please understand that 18th Century France outlawed Slavery, and that black citizens of historic France were equal under law there. The Declaration of Independence was written to appeal to France to ally with the Founding Fathers versus King George III and Great Britain.

The Founding Fathers lied to France by saying that Slavery in the American Colonies was the fault of the British Empire because when they defeated the King George III’s British Armed Forces, most of the Founding Fathers continued to own Slaves throughout their natural lives in the newly formed United States of America.

The Native American Peoples were the victims of GENOCIDE from the 17th Century through the 19th Century. Their lands were stolen. U.S. President Andrew Jackson’s pogroms against the Natives are compared to Adolf Hitler’s Holocaust against the Jewish People and “the others”. NOTE: The U.S. and U.K.-led Allied Forces defeated Nazi Germany in 1945 and ended Hitler’s EVIL and TRAGIC Holocaust.

While Judeo-Christian Religion(s) are the Foundation(s) of our society and government, I have to ask: “How were the Founding Father’s and the U.S. Government they formed religious given the Institution of SLAVERY and the GENOCIDE(S) of the Native American Peoples?”

Since the end of WW2 in the mid-1940’s, the U.S. Government made the U.S. Military Industrial Complex the cornerstone of the U.S. economy and Wall Street has made trillions of dollars in profits off of endless wars. But at what cost?

Since the end of WW2, many millions of innocent people around the world have been killed at the hands of the U.S. Government’s military and intelligence operations. The U.S. Government’s number one non-farm export to the world are arms sales.

In the 21st Century, more and more countries are turning to authoritarianism instead of democracy. Over the past 50 years, the middle-class U.S. family unit has greatly diminished, while the underclass population is always growing larger in numbers. All of the income gains except for a paltry average net gain of $5 per week has gone to the financial, corporate and ruling elites. Is this what American Democracy is supposed to look like?

In closing, I do NOT understand why U.S. history and today’s inequitable political system is so glorified. To say that we are founded on religion and democracy when it flies in the face of facts is really propaganda.

I love my country and God, but I dissent against my government, as well as organized religion.

Letter: “Question for the Colonial after political event”
The Berkshire Eagle, August 16, 2024

To the editor: I was surprised that the Colonial Theatre hosted a fundraising rally for Vice President Kamala Harris as the Colonial Theatre is a 501(c)(3) organization. (“‘We have a fight ahead of us.’ Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield,” Eagle, July 27.)

Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Perhaps the CEO of the Colonial Theatre might be able to offer an explanation. Did the Colonial give up its 501(c)(3) status?

Dave Bubriski, Pittsfield

The European Union wants to and is threatening to limit FREE SPEECH in the U.S.A.

https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-blog/4831049-eu-threat-free-speech-america/

P.S. Pittsfield politics does this through its use of RETRIBUTION!