The Dave Bowman Show

As the summer begins to warm the streets of Philadelphia, the temperatures inside the State House begin to rise. While most believe that the convention delegates are “united,” the truth is much, much darker. The “small” States are horrified at the Virginia Plans implications. They see it as nothing less than their compete and utter annihilation. In fact, the ONLY unity among the delegates, is a willingness to allow for a delay in approving the Virginia Plan so as to hear and debate other plans. There are two such plans are now on the table. South Carolina’s plan is being openly ignored by pretty much everyone, while Patterson of New Jersey proposes the only realistic counter to the Virginians. While the New Jersey plan would save the Union and keep the smaller States happy, it has a major legal problem. As the debate intensifies, the anger and animosity explodes into pointed and frank exclamations. As Gouverneur Morris slaps Washington on the back in joy over winning an apparent debate point (against Hamilton), Elbridge Gerry will write, “unless a system of government is adopted by Compact, Force, I expect will plant the standard…”

For me, history is highly tactile. I connect when my hands can feel and touch the things about which I have studied and learned. A few weeks ago, I was able to place my hands on a sixty-six million year old rock, in which was embedded a Tyrannosaur who had once walked the banks of Hells Creek in what is now Montana. A few days later, almost on a whim, I walked with my son on the field of Gettysburg, where the tide of war has changed and where freedom and liberty had been saved. S short distance away, Lincoln had delivered his eternal remarks. A day later, I watched my son, reach out himself, and touch history…

Why is there a Page 6? Why is the high speed car chase of Harry and Megan through the streets of Manhattan a news story? Why do “social media influencers” even exist? Why is our society so obsessed with having our the fifteen minutes of fame? We all claim that we want privacy and we are appalled when it is “violated.” But is that really who we are? Why is our society so determined to tell everything that happened to us every minute of every day? Blogs, Social Media, web cams… it’s almost as if we cannot get away from detail after detail of everybody we know.

Over the past few months, in increasing desperate sounding letters, eMails and phone calls, my mortgage company has been begging me to re-fi my house. Or… even if I want to sell my house and maybe even buy a new one? As it turns out, there is a reason for all this unseemly begging. I happen to have a good bit of equity in my house and I also have a locked rate of 2.5%. There is a shortage of houses on the market while mortgage applications are up 10% year over year. In essence, it’s a sellers market. So why is it that I… and millions of other Americans are not selling or at least getting a refinance? It’s the economy, stupid…

One of the things that I have wanted to do for some time is a complete revision of the Convention Episodes of Constitution Thursday. This summer, except for the three weeks I will be gone, Dave Does History gives me the chance to do just that. For the next few months we will take a weekly look at the things that happened in the Philadelphia in the Summer of 1787. This will not be a word for word repeat of the original Convention episodes, but with a new audience it will give us a chance to once again consider the struggle that lead to our Constitution… This week in 1787 is the designated time for delegate appointed by each State – except one – to arrive in Philadelphia to begin the process of revising the Articles of Confederation. In the previous year, at a conference in Annapolis, it was finally recognized that the government of the United States was just not functional in a meaningful way. This Philadelphia Conference was meant to try and fix some of the glaringly obvious issues that were causing more and more problems. Of note, the weather in Philadelphia, and all up and down the mid-Atlantic seaboard, was a mess. The delegates had been scheduled to arrive beginning on May 13th, but few had actually managed to navigate the morass of mud and torrent filled rivers to get there. But those who had arrived, almost entirely Virginians, were determined to make good use of the time while they awaited the rest of the Delegates…

A recent tweet about the ancient deity Moloch by a conservative Talk Show Host has lit up some folks (get it?). In essence he tweeted that the white liberal women (specifically) “will throw their own children (and yours) into the fires of Molech without the slightest bit of hesitation.” Now… that’s the kind of reference that seems arcane. The truth is that most of the people who read it or heard about it probably had no clue what he was talking about. But you need to understand that for those of us who accept the torah (or Old Testament) as scripture, there are some VERY specific things that G-d told us about Moloch. And as we watch what is happening in our world today, those fires that Moloch worshipers used to destroy their children may have become metaphorical, but they are every bit as real as they were three thousand years ago…

At 0530 this morning I was reawakened by my Ben, who wanted to know how soon we could go to GameStop. At 0530. Sometimes things are pretty important, even if they don’t seem so to me. And sometimes the underlying motivations aren’t as clear as they seem in the media.