Page 208 - Beers With Our Founding Fathers

Beers with our Founding Fathers

the rise of literacy, being able to afford books was uncommon and

therefore the masses were left uninformed. Posters, leaflets and
soon newspapers to communities would be made available. Posts

were found in town squares that had such media for the populace to
read, or be read to the illiterate. Through our early history, we saw

that the press – both formerly in newspapers and informally by
individuals distributing their own materials – was a power to be

used and restrained. An informed populace is a threat to the church
and state. The printing press literally (no pun) changed the world

and the intellect of humanity. Without the printing press, freedom
would only be a hope and people would remain secluded in the

serfdoms.
Historically, at all periods, governments have empowered

themselves through propaganda and restrained press. A restrained
press, or a press controlled by the government, is as tyrannical as it

is oppressive. Free thought is expressed in speech, assembly and
press. England restrained free press – the revolutionaries and our

Founding Fathers were slowly unable to communicate freely among
themselves or the colonies and colonists. Secret meetings were

held, with posters and pamphlets were distributed in secret. One of
the first documents publically distributed and displayed without

restraint among the populace was our Declaration of Independence.
This continued with newspapers. The Articles of Confederation,

Constitution and Bill of Rights were all debated publically via

investigative journalism and opinion editorials of the day.
What the Freedom of Press does do, in its most important form,
is check the government. In a sense, they work for us – and for free.

-- 208 --