Thomas Paine born January 29, 1737

Happy Birthday Tom - thanks (at least for the idea that is America). :party:

founder. I'd advise all to try to run down Bertrand Russell's excellent essay on Payne's life. It's incredibly sad what happened to him after the American Revolution. You know he was never permitted the right to vote here in the country he helped found?

Properly, Paine is today a hero in three nations that rejected him in his lifetime. He was part of a revolutionary movement in Britain and escaped with his life; it is believed that he was warned by his friend, the poet William Blake, who was sympathetic to the republican cause in Britain. He fled to France and played a part in the French Revolution. In defense of the Revolution from attacks by the British monarchist Edmund Burke, Paine wrote The Rights of Man, perhaps his most remarkable work. He was a member of the French National Assembly. He voted against executing King Louis, advocating instead that the king be sent into exile. Later, during the Reign of Terror, Robespierre had Paine arrested; again, Paine barely escaped with his life.

From the American Crisis to the Age of Reason - he was a genius for the ages. :toast:

It's too bad how he was ostracized after he criticized the fundies. Hopefully the brilliant words of Thomas Paine will outlast the plague known as fundamentalism.

in New Rochelle, New York.

http://www.thomaspaine.org/


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A bump for the evening crowd

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