Your Opinion: Cartoon misquotes Jefferson

Dear Editor:

Did you see the cartoon in this paper recently showing Thomas Jefferson and quoting him? I knew right away it was a misquote. You could take any present day Republican and tell me they thought America was going in the dumper because our poor are robbing us. But Thomas Jefferson? I don't think so.

Jefferson was a southern gentleman who benefited from the comforts of slavery. He wouldn't have given a thought to poor people taking from the well-to-do. Southern overseers used the whip and the club to get the less fortunate (slave or indentured servant) moving. There were no government benefits for the less fortunate. It was a time of agrarian life. Freemen worked or starved. There was no legitimate way for a nonworking person to get anything from a wealthy person.

Now I could see Martin Luther complaining about fellow friars not pulling their weight. Luther was a well-known complainer. His complaints split the 16th century church and caused a reform church of those who protested against the Church of Rome. It's possible that Luther could have laid it on slackers. Still, those were times when European communities merely hinted that an undesirable was possessed and a witch trial ensued leading to a quick burning at the stake.

Is it possible that the quote was really a misreading of William of Normandy's exhortation to his men in 1066 before the Battle of Hastings. I can imagine him saying to his men that failure to act with vigor in the upcoming battle would result in zero booty. And oh yeah, freedom would be extinguished. Would that be freedom to get a pass to go into town on leave?

Honestly, I think the true origin of the Jefferson misquote is an obscure apocryphal work of the first century. That would be the Gospel of Rand of Paulis. I think a close examination of that work will show that Christ actually uttered the alleged words in this alternative gospel. The scene was the familiar story of the fishes and the loaves. Yet in the Gospel of Rand Christ stings the poor with the realization that they will not be getting something for nothing.

In my alternate universe this paper will run another cartoon with Christ delivering the coup de gras to the poor with the wording previously and erroneously attributed to our namesake Thomas Jefferson.

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