Thursday, July 14, 2011

Boston and New England Companies Named to Made in the USA Hall of Fame

Res Publica
Boston and New England Companies Named to Made in the USA Hall of Fame
by David Trumbull -- July 15, 2011

The Made in the USA Foundation has announced 22 companies that have earned a place in the Made in the USA Hall of Fame. The Foundation held an awards dinner Saturday, July 2nd in Santa Monica, California. Among the companies honored were two Boston companies:

Boston Beer Company -- Brewmeister Jim Koch comes from a long line of brewers. In the mid-1980s, Jim got his great-great grandfather's recipe from his father's attic. After only six weeks on the market it won the award for "The Best Beer in America" in the Consumer Preference Poll at the Great American Beer Festival.

New Balance –- In 1938, New Balance created its first pair of athletic shoes. Today, New Balance is now the largest shoe manufacturer in the United States, making 7 million pairs of athletic shoes a year in six factories in Maine and Massachusetts.

In addition, four other New England companies made it to the Hall of Fame:

Bevin Brothers of Easthampton, Connecticut -- The Bevin family has been crafting quality bells for 176 years. Bevin Brothers is the only remaining company manufacturing bells in the United States.

Colt -- The Colt 1911, official firearm of the U.S. Army from World War I until the Vietnam era, remains in production, virtually unchanged for 100 years. Colt is based in Connecticut.

Ethan Allen -- In 1936, Ethan Allen manufactured its first Early American style furniture in New England. Today, Ethan Allen is the largest U.S. furniture manufacturer in many styles.

Peterboro Basket -- The Peterboro Basket Company has thrived in the heart of historic Peterborough, New Hampshire making high-quality baskets since 1854.

Other Made in the USA Hall of Fame companies are:

3M makers of Scotch brand tapes, Annin Flagmakers, Bed Head Pajamas, Chateau Montelena winery, Dilettante Chocolate, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, H.F. Coors brewery, Harley-Davidson motorcycles, Hart Schaffner & Marx suit-makers, Jack Daniel's Distillery, K'NEX maker of plastic construction toy sets, Milliken & Company textile manufacturer, Nordic Ware kitchenware products, SpaceX rocket-maker, Vitamix maker of high-quality blenders, and Whirlpool Corporation maker of home appliances.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Grant us so perfectly and without doubt to believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord and our God...

Collect for Saint Thomas (July 3):
Everliving God, who didst strengthen thine apostle Thomas with sure and certain faith in thy Son’s resurrection: Grant us so perfectly and without doubt to believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord and our God, that our faith may never be found wanting in thy sight; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Friday, July 1, 2011

The Long Struggle for Independence

POST-GAZETTE - Res Publica

The Long Struggle for Independence

by David Trumbull -- July 1, 2011


The American Revolutionary War began April 19, 1775, a date celebrated as a public holiday—Patriots’ Day—in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the State of Maine. The war became a fight for independence with the July 1776 adoption, by the Americans’ Continental Congress, of the Declaration of Independence.

As you celebrate American freedom this Independence Day weekend—culminating in the free concert and fireworks spectacular at the Charles River Esplanade—remember that independence did not come easily. The war took seven years, with major battles as late as 1781. When, on July 18, 1776, two weeks after the signing, the Declaration of Independence finally completed the long trek on the roads of the day from Philadelphia for the first public reading in Boston, in was not at all inevitable that we Americans should win independence from Great Britain. No one had heard of such a thing as a colony throwing off its mother country. And the idea that untrained volunteer farmer/soldiers would defeat the best professional army and navy in the world was nearly inconceivable.

Coming to aid of the American cause were the Kingdom of France, the Dutch Republic, and the Kingdom of Spain. Provisional Articles of Peace were signed at Paris on November 30, 1782. The final Treaty was signed September 3, 1783. It was ratified by Congress on January 14, 1784, and by the King of Great Britain on April 9, 1784. Ratification documents were exchanged in Paris on May 12, 1784.

The American negotiators, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay, secured, from one of the largest and most sophisticated world powers, a treaty which contained not only an unconditional acknowledgment of American independence, but also important provisions establishing the territory of the United States as stretching from Canada to Florida and from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. American commercial interests were protected by a provision for Americans to continue to fish the waters of the Atlantic off Canada.

The Revolution began with noble sentiment—We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. It ended with a legal agreement over boundaries and fishing rights. Such is the unchanging course of human events. Noble sentiments are good, even necessary, but they have to be backed up by practical texts. So, having ended the war with the Treaty of Paris in 1783, the next big step for the young nation, in 1787, was to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty—by drafting and adopting our Constitution.

Cor Iesu, flagrans amore nostri, inflamma cor nostrum amore tui.

Collect for Sacred Heart of Jesus:
Father, we rejoice in the gifts of love we have received from the heart of thy Son. Open our hearts to share his life, and continue to bless us with his love. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit ever one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Or this:

O God, who hast suffered the Heart of thy Son to be wounded by our sins, and in that very heart hast bestowed on us the abundant riches of thy love: grant that the devout homage of our hearts, which we render unto Him; may by thy mercy be deemed a recompense, acceptable in thy sight; through the same Jesus Christ thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.