http://www.metafilter.com/tags/robmacdougall Posts tagged with 'robmacdougall' at MetaFilter. Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:09:10 -0800 Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:09:10 -0800 en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 http://www.metafilter.com/76406/American%2Dfor%2Da%2DDay Canadian historian Rob MacDougall, on <a href="http://www.robmacdougall.org/index.php/2008/11/american-for-a-day/">how Americans present movements for social change as the self-evident intentions of the nation's founders</a>: <blockquote>"[Martin Luther] King went on: 'When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note … a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' And here Sancho [Panza] or Sacvan [Bercovitch] whispers to the guy standing next to him, 'Were they? Really? If we went back in time and asked the architects of the republic–Jefferson and Madison and Washington and the rest–did you mean for this to apply to your slaves too, would they agree? … Because it would have saved a lot of trouble if they’d spelled all this out in 1789.'" </blockquote>(<a href="http://crookedtimber.org/2008/11/07/revolution-as-fulfillment/">via</a>) tag:metafilter.com,2008:site.76406 Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:09:10 -0800 americanforaday history revolution robmacdougall socialchange Marisa Stole the Precious Thing