TV media have been bombarding us for weeks with ads “celebrating the president’s birthday” with the purchase of a foreign imported car. In 1786, just three years after our independence, this country was facing a virtual collapse of its economy and loss of true sovereignty due to a grossly inadequate body of laws (the Article of Confederation) and the growing encroachment of foreign capital. As a response, a few enlightened visionaries called for, and I quote, “an end to this national humiliation and imbecility.” A new constitution was called for, with the primary purpose of regulating commerce and trade and securing our sovereignty.

We have lost our “sense of nation.” If we cease to act as a nation, we shall cease to be a nation.

In the Spirit of ’76, let us once again return relevant laws and agencies of implementation to once again achieve their proclaimed function of serving the public good for ourselves and our posterity.

“It is your patriotic duty to buy American products, every citizen is the economy, and therefore every citizen with government determines the fate of the economy. It is the duty of citizens to support the economy, industries, commerce and trade as integral to our nation’s sovereignty and independence.”

— Thomas Jefferson

Rustan Swenson

Middlebury