Greetings,
We were thinking about the differences in the USA now and some 200 years ago.
Note these changes and go figure!
In 1800, the only source of government revenue the USA enjoyed was derived from tariffs. There were some minor property taxes as well, but the lion’s share of income was from tariffs. Obviously, many villages, towns and cities funded their own schools and the citizenry would chip in to finance those schools or fire departments and law enforcement. But there was no income tax, sales tax, registration fees or payroll deductions. Community was alive and the people made things happen on their own. Bake sales, Turkey shoots, fishing contests all contributed to providing voluntarily to the needs of the community. And then there were the churches whose parishioners supported the needs of their church, “Their Church”, not an association of 200 churches, Their Church!
The people that contributed largely to these places that have become states were tough, hands on, fearless, strong, focused and maybe desperate individuals that followed their dream of land, a home, and enterprise that could sustain their lives that they could build into larger and more secure entities to be transferred to their children. The American Dream!
Including the original settlers of the British colonies, all the land west was settled by traveling pioneers. By the time they were confronted with the Mississippi River and were able to cross it in numbers, there were people stocking up in St. Louis and later leaving in wagon trains from Independence, Missouri.
Hundreds of thousands took to these trails, The Oregon Trail, The California Trail, The Mormon Trail, and the Santa Fe trail heading to various points West. One in ten of these pioneers did not survive the trip. There were some cases where 9 in 10 died on the trek west. Thirst, food, disease, Indian attacks, prairie marauders and thieves, storms, tornadoes, snake bites, animal attacks were among the destroyers of these brave people. As the early 1800s became the mid 1800s and later, trails were established, trading posts were born, towns were formed, cattle drives became regular and rail service was established.
As a fair statement, it is said that there are 65 graves per mile left on these trails during this time of wagon train migration. There were more on some trails and less on others, so this figure is an attempt to satisfy the average deaths for the whole of these migrations. Interestingly, Indian attacks were the least of the reasons for such a death toll.
The states that exist today that were begun and populated by these adventurers are simply, all of them, but the ones that come to mind are Washington State, Oregon, California (in these three mentioned many also arrived by ship). Until later, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, the Dakotas, etc. were rarely first choice destinations. They, the pacific coast territories were the farthest from Missouri and demonstrated the hardest of trails, the worst weather in winter with mountain ranges to be defeated that were death spires but they were the most sought out destinations.
These places were populated and proliferated by the toughest of the tough. Folks that worked for every need: sustenance, shelter, heat, barns, water supply, farming, nurturing animals that could help do the work, and food sourcing.
It is difficult for us to fathom getting stuck in winter in Illinois, or Wyoming or on the great plains with no food stores, in a covered wagon with no medicines, few clothes, few blankets, little meat, no veggies and no matches. But they persisted.
A lot of the places just east of the pacific coast were populated by pioneers that could not or would not go farther. The horses gave out, the wagon broke, a snake bite took a leg, or they just stumbled onto the valley or the lake of their dreams. Fatigue coupled with the loss of a son, the discovery of a good mountain hollow that was abundant with a water source, flat land for crops, timber for fire wood and building, plentiful wild life just might have persuaded some that Oregon was a hill too far and they stopped and started digging in to beat the winter. Slowly, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, or Colorado became populated by circumstance rather than as a destination. Many times these territories were a better choice, if by circumstance or not. Later, the land rushes and the rush to find gold or silver certainly changed the destinations for many.
These folks had no time for nonsense, no energy for the superfluous with few if any luxuries except for a good gun, a good knife, a pair of good horses or mules that were always hungry and thirsty and maybe some knitting needles. Ammo was premium as were tools for building and they were more important than the odd piano, a fancy dress, a shiny pair of boots or a mirror.
It is a quandary for us to understand how these cities and states that were chipped out of wood and stone with rudimentary tools have become what they are today: Washington, Oregon, much of California, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan and some of the original north eastern colonies (which is another story of bravery and tenacity) have become today populated by the most sissified group of people on earth. Who would have ever guessed that the offspring of the hardiest DIY people on the continent would have degenerated to the lethargic, whining, hormonally confused, limp wristed woke?
We think we owe our forefathers, our explorers / pioneers, a reverence in regard that which they gave us at the expense of their life and limb. It is easy to say the we have progressed to a place where our daily bread is not so threatened as it was back then, but then again, maybe it is even more threatened now than ever.
Few know how to wield a hammer, an ax, a rifle or a pistol these days. Very few can skin a rabbit or a squirrel, not to mention a bear or a cow. Most of us could not start a fire with a stick, haul water 3 hundred yards five times a day, spin wool or cotton, make clothing, plant seed, nurture it and grow food, or do without medicines that are not easily found in nature.
And more dangerous than any of the aforementioned, we do not know how to protect ourselves from a real threat these days, be it beast, weather, hunger or human. These days we just rush to call 911 that we have recently voted to be de-funded.
How or why have we forgotten and ignored these lessons in survival when, in truth, we are closer to the vagaries of incompetance today than were these pioneers, way back then. At least then, there were large populations of food roaming the plains, living in mountains and forests. Now they are all almost gone. And there are way too many of us that need breakfast, lunch a dinner or to make do with just lunch.
We are not suggesting that we all buy a gun and sharpen up a good kitchen knife, we are suggesting that we pay attention to the tools that we do own now to insure that OUR supply lines and present day savvy will continue to sustain us. They are the supply lines for goods that we need, a work force to insure the continuation of those supplies, and the money derived from work to be able to purchase these life sustaining services that are critical to the less physical and capable in stature that we are today. Physicality and endurance are not among the needs and requirements that we rely upon these days. We need a keyboard and a Stark Bucks coffee.
Changing the subject to woke concerns, welfare for all, trans and homosexual issues when none of that will sustain us if and when we need to reach back to more uncomfortable methods of existence, in no way will help us get that done and these present day endeavors are eroding our life lines of subsistence, now. It seems that we are rushing to a tribal existence while being totally unprepared for that happening.
If we lose our present day forms of sustenance by concentrating on superfluous and fanciful notions of government supplied foods, medicines, shelter, energy, land and the tools to make all of this happen, we will have to do it the hard way When that happens we will lose not 10 percent of those renegotiating a more rudimentary form of sustenance, we will lose 90 percent of those that are too frail, weak, ignorant or lazy to cut that kind of mustard.
It is just a thought; but if we continue concentrating on naive ideas of living. loving and hating, most of us will not make it thru the first year of having to do it like the pioneers did it, the hard way.
There are many reasons we have become that which we are today and much of that is reserved for later discussions, but we need to realize that whether we thrive on the easy life or on the hardest methods of living, both still require the same axioms for success. We need desire, passion, a plan, tools, smarts, the deployment of work for production and harvest and a table / kitchen to prepare and cook that harvest, all the while saving some of that resource for the coming year.
Either way, those millions that will sit by and accuse either type survivor of selfishness, racism, pronoun use, etc. will perish on that trail eventually.
LIke it or not, in the best selling book in the history of the world, it is stated in Genesis since the disobedience of Adam and Eve that we will flourish or perish depending upon the sweat found on our brow. That is liken to finding wood in the snowy peaks of the Rockies in February, preparing for a fire, lighting it and enjoying the warmth. Any naysayers that would shirk his responsibility to help do that or resist accomplishing that based on skin color, national origin or sexual preference will simply freeze to death with all others that were willing.
We better stop the silliness, calibrate our reality compass and pull together or we will perish on that mountain of naivete’. If not, we will be cutting firewood and producing crops for the communal elite, while we survive the cold in a mud hut, on sawdust, fatback and bugs.
TPP
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