While the site went through 9 months of preparation, the official birth of Soapblox came on a warm summer day in 2005, it was July 4th. Since that day, not much has changed here at Soapblox. We have learned a lot in the past 2 years on how to make this site work. It hasn’t been easy, yet we’re still cranking out the material trying to stand up for the things we believe in the most. There are many more readers as well. The numbers continue to increase month to month and it certainly helps. Having people read this stuff is the sole reason we do it. Profit is not our intention, and believe me we haven’t seen it. What keeps us above water? Our passion. While we have grown, the spirit has remained the same. We are still very small, the bulk of the content comes from my own pen and the operation is still for the most part an underground broadside operation.
Broadsides and small pamphlets are what spread the fires of revolution across the Thirteen Colonies, making names for men like Thomas Paine and giving voices to those who sought to right the wrongs of English rule. Men on the streets would pass out there broadsides to anyone who would take one. Printed on any press they could get there hands on, broadsides addressed a multitude of issues, with a large number that capitalized on the increasing anger against England.
Thomas Paine was one of many such broadsiders, who pointed out the glaring defects of monarchical rule. He told Americans to embrace a new form of government that was so revolutionary, it had not been attempted since the Ancient Greeks, Democracy.
Thanks to Paine and many just like him, the fires of revolution burned brightly, bringing thousands of minutemen to the fight and inspiring thousands of mothers and wives to keep the home-front moving along. It was men like Paine that kept the masses yearning for not just a new government, but a new kind of government. While in the U.S. it was mostly the people in power before the Revolution that came to power after, they could not simply install themselves on a new thrown thanks to the broadsiders who kept the new government on its toes.
A government afraid of its people is far more useful than one which frightens its people to not ask questions. This is the spirit of the American Revolution, and it is what we try to do here at Soapblox.com every day.
Our writings try to go beyond what is popular and point out what many bloggers and news sources glance over. We take the good fight where ever we feel it needs to be taken, and love us or hate us, you cannot say we don’t believe in what we do. We fight, and we’re gonna keep on fighting till the day when fighting isn’t necessary. In other words we’re not going anywhere.
I had chosen to launch Soapblox on the day of U.S. Independence for two main reasons: 1.) Because I’m forgetful and 2.) because I feel this site is more than just uniquely American, it celebrates all the public discourse which makes America so great. It is the tradition of dissent that is older than apple pie and the star-spangled banner. Don’t forget that, for the powers that be would love to make this nation into an empire, one subservient to one voice… theres. The day we give our voice away is the day a new revolution will begin. Americans have that built into their souls, and it takes more than a mental midget like George W. to break our spirit.
There is little to celebrate these days when it comes to our American greatness. The big 3 no longer make cars in the U.S. and Toyota is king. We are locked in a brutal war that is looking less and less likely to end positively by the hour. Our leaders are as hated at home as they are abroad, and speaking of which, the U.S. has the worst reputation it’s probably ever had in the rest of the world. Yes, 6 years of Bush has really battered the U.S. image and our own confidence, but perhaps we had it coming. We’ve enjoyed the victories of the Cold War too much and now we are coming to find out that the reality of unchecked capitalism has not only lowered our quality of life, it is setting the U.S. up for failure. Capitalism on a small scale, the small businessman, is the spirit of the U.S. Multi-National Capitalism is not (it’s all in the name). Capitalism will destroy itself if it is allowed to and the U.S. will sink right with it if we do not wake up. It is not our corporations that make us great, it is us. Our sense of community, our compassion and our fighting spirit. The corporations, and what Republicans call Rugged Individualism destroy these by making us individuals and breaking apart our ability to stand together.
The enemy of advertising is community, for it makes the loudest voice what our neighbors say, not what the corporations spend billions trying to convince us.
Let’s stand together this 4th of July and every day hereafter against the rule of big business and the new aristocracy that is eating away at our democracy. Let’s live in the spirit of our founding fathers and fight for a new era. An era where we take care of our own, spread democracy by example and educate our children so they can continue to bring wealth and glory to our nation.
Let’s stop talking about how we’re the greatest nation on the face of the Earth and start acting like it instead.
Happy Birthday to our great nation, and happy birthday to our tiny little broadside operation.