I am sober while writing this...

No, really, I am completely serious right now. teehee, did you pick up on my play on words? Okay, for class I had to read this speech given by Martin Diamond entitled "The Revolution of Sober Expectations". It had nothing to do with the sobriety levels of the founding fathers. Rather it pertained an analysis of the American revolution as one of realistic goals. This interests me because it is sort of an oxymoron with the connotation we have for revolution today.

When I think of revolutions, I think of coup d'états, bloodshed, and chaos. Yet the American Revolution contained only one of those. The founding fathers staged no military coup. They did, however, set up their own colonial postal service, colonial army, and more. When I compare to other revolutions I've learned of, the American Revolution is surprisingly docile and PG. It didn't contain as much drama or hystericalness that seems to accompany revolution. I learned from the reading that this was because the founding fathers and the colonists knew what they were getting into.

I tend to relate inspirational with brash sometimes. I know where I get it from too. It's from all the superhero movies that have come out. It seems like the heroes always have to have that one characteristic that sets them apart even beyond their magical or super power. And that is to be able to act quickly. Their actions usually always end up with positive results, however rash or unrealistic their actions were. For some reason, I related this to the founding fathers. It seemed to me like the founding fathers, were, in their own way, superheroes. They held positions that were not necessarily envied, they were good people with minor flaws, and they were able to save the people in the end from evil dominion. Does anyone else see the parallels?

Despite the connections I may come up with my head, the founding fathers were very much human, in fact very, extremely serious about the task in front of them. They hardly ever acted in rashness. While thinking things through might not be a necessary characteristic for a superhero, it is paramount in political leaders. They were concerned with having a protracted political debate--it took 10 years for them to produce a successful document that would bind the colonies together as a nation. They were careful to not bite off more than they could chew and what challenges they did take on, they recognized the possibility that they might fail. The Declaration of Independence was just that, and nothing more. They reconvened after the unanimous ratification of that declaration and started working on a constitution--not something they would add or amend to the declaration, but a separate and distinct document. They did fail with the Articles of Confederation that didn't hold the colonies together. In the end their sobriety in expectations yielded a better reward than they even imagined. Maybe because of their sobriety they could be called superheroes in their own way, and thank goodness for sober superheroes.