Let's Go Back Through the Listening Tube July 6-10

Let's go back through the listening tube for this week in history. I'm Bob Woodley from the Listening Tube. This week in 1776, George Washington ordered the Declaration of Independence to be read out loud to members of the Continental Army in New York City for the very first time. There was no radio, there was no television. Today, the declaration would simply be sent in an email. But back in 1776, the Town Crier method was still the best way to get news out. Sure, it was also printed, but literacy was inconsistent. The Declaration of Independence was not only read aloud to soldiers in New York, but probably many other places as well. A newly discovered copy of the Declaration was revealed by Britain's National Archives. A story by NBC News says the document, labeled simply as another paper that was confiscated from a ship in 1776, was discovered by a volunteer this past May. The Dalton was a privateer ship commissioned to fight the British by the Continental Congress. It's likely that the Declaration of Independence was also read to the crew of the ship to promote patriotism to the newly formed country. They would know for what they were fighting. We just celebrated the United States' 250th anniversary. A new poll from the Cato Institute says almost two thirds of Gen Z Americans don't know what it is we celebrated. They don't know about the Declaration of Independence. This is perhaps the most obvious example of the failure of our schools today. I have to wonder if it's because of the teachers unions. After all, independence is the worst thing that can happen to a union. We saw what teachers unions did to our students during the COVID nineteen pandemic. It's almost as if the teachers unions are instructing the teachers to make sure our students are stupid. This week in 1785, the dollar is unanimously chosen as the monetary unit for the United States. And while most other countries have their own unique currencies, the American dollar is welcome at places around the world and is often the benchmark for stable currency. This week in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified. The Fourteenth Amendment has five sections establishing citizenship, representation apportionment, requirements to hold office, and government debt. The U.S. Supreme Court recently re-examined Section 1 in relation to birthright citizenship and maintained the opinion that anyone born in the U.S., with very few exceptions, is a citizen of the U.S. It's unlikely, despite the genius of the framers of the Constitution, that they would foresee the way that clause would be abused more than 200 years later. The part of the Fourteenth Amendment that should be not just re-examined, but actually put into practice is Section three, where it says no person shall be a senator or a representative in Congress, or elector of president and vice president, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state who, having previously taken an oath as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each house remove such disability. If that section of the Fourteenth Amendment were as vigorously enforced as Section One, we would have a very different set of representatives. Representatives who support Hamas or Hezbollah, Iran, Cuba, and others would be gone. We have representatives in Congress who have literally given aid and comfort to our enemies and entities that threaten the United States. Politicians in Minnesota have allowed billions of dollars to go to terrorist organizations in Somalia. Illinois Jonathan Jackson and Washington's Pramilap Jayapal went to Cuba, met with their president, and then condemned the United States for causing their energy crisis. JaPal called the U.S. policy on Cuba failed and called for a reversal, thus encouraging aid and comfort to Cuba, a communist country ninety miles from our shores. They both called us cruel without acknowledging the cruelty put upon the Cuban people by the government there. They don't condemn the communism and socialism that got Cuba to where it is today, only the United States' refusal to support a dictator. Well, that can't be right. Let's enforce the Fourteenth Amendment on these types of people. We don't need our elected representatives advocating for other countries. We need them to advocate for the Constitution. That's their job. The 1900s. This week in 1913, Death Valley, California hits 134 degrees Fahrenheit. That's 56.7 Celsius. The highest temperature recorded in the United States. According to weather.com, it's also the world record. My wife and I visited Death Valley a few years ago. It was springtime, so it was only 111 degrees there that day. The heat isn't the strangest part about Death Valley. That would be the depth below sea level. 282 feet below sea level, or almost 86 meters. If it were suddenly to fill with water, yes, you could swim to the surface and survive, assuming you could hold your breath for that long. But you'd be awfully wet when you got to the surface. This week in 1922, Johnny Weissmuller swims the 100 meter freestyle in 58.6 seconds, breaking the world record and the minute barrier. That record stood for a long time, but as we get stronger and faster, records fall. Today, the fastest 100 meter swimmer clocks in at 46.91 seconds. So since 1922, men have shaved 11.69 seconds off the record. So it would take him a little over 40 seconds to swim to the surface from the bottom of that valley. The woman's record for the 100 meter is 51.68 seconds. That's 4.77 seconds different in a race that's measured in hundredths of a second. Yet some politicians support boys and men competing against girls and women in sports like swimming. That's clearly unfair. It would take the fastest woman forty four point forty four seconds to swim to the surface from the bottom of Death Valley at the speed they can swim on the surface. By the way, if you think you may have heard the name Johnny Weissmiller before, and you're sure it's not because of a swimming record, it might be because of this. That's right, Johnny Weissmuller parlayed his swimming prowess into the role of Tarzan. According to his IMDB, MGM promoted him as the only man in Hollywood who's natural in the flesh and can act without clothes. This week in 1928, sliced bread is sold for the first time by the Chillicoth Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri. So if you hear someone say, it's the best thing since sliced bread, then it happened within the last 98 years. And this week in 1980, the institution of Sharia law in Iran. Perhaps soon Iran will have only civil law instead. Follow the listening tube at thelistening tube.com. From the listening tube, I'm Bob Woodley for Thou at Infinite.