Monday, May 30, 2016

A FASCINATING BIT OF HISTORY…

While most of my postings deal with the art and science of dental practice, every once in a while a client will ask me to recommend a book for leisure reading.  And since I am convinced after almost 35 years of working in this profession we all love and respect that life must be about more than just dentistry and its practice, I am pleased to suggest books for down-time reading.  I read and like to recommend books that add significantly to the reader’s knowledge, piquing curiosity about a non-dental topic, often a historical biography or some other non-fiction work.

The book I’m suggesting this time is Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates, The Forgotten War That Changed American History by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger, still on the New York Times Non-fiction Bestseller list as I write this post. I’ve just closed the cover on this fascinating story, knowing I may read it again in a few months in order to better recall details I want to remember.

While our nation was still young and newly independent from Great Britain, pirates from four Barbary states on the north coast of Africa, Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, raided, plundered, and often captured the majority of American merchant ships bound to or from European ports with trade goods.  This fact severely limited our ability to sell to or buy from European countries.  Only through payment of aberrant bribes or ransoms, could safe passage of our ships and their crews be bought.  And, in spite of such payments, the pirates often captured our ships to be converted for their own use and our crew members to become slaves to various viceroys, deys, sultans and bashaws of these countries and city-states.

When years of diplomacy, much of it practiced patiently by Thomas Jefferson from the mid-1780s until he became our third president in 1801, failed to solve the problem; Jefferson sent the newly-created U.S. Navy and a detachment of Marines, a new branch of U.S. Armed Forces, to fight the Muslim’s fire with fire.  And, as Kilmeade and Yaeger put it, “Thus began America’s journey toward future superpower status.”  As the story unfolds we see the U.S. heroes, their battles, their victories, and their defeats through the eyes of the participants.  The birth of the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps comes alive in this memorable historical volume.

As 2016 unrolls, we Americans would do well to study many of the principles, beliefs, bravery, and actions of the early heroes of our nation.  Our next leaders need to replicate many of their qualities, talents, and beliefs.  Our national elections in November will have incredibly far-reaching effects.  Whether you relish the ballyhoo leading to November voting or dread the unceasing chatter of pundits’ predictions, take some time to look back at our founding fathers’ incredible wisdom accompanied by bravery as they forecast what would be needed to maintain our constitutional republic.  Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates is a great place to start a review of our proud heritage.  And while you’re at it, consider creating a list of the characteristics and principles that our leaders, beginning with the President, need to possess.

Jefferson expressed his views on government in his writings, such as
  •  A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have.
  •  I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them
  •  The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government. 
  •  It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. 
  •  My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government. 

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