By Bob Whitaker (originally posted July 4th 2007 – http://www.whitakeronline.org/blog/2007/07/04/july-4-and-real-traditional-values/):
Here is some history you do not hear about. You have heard that Jefferson and Adams both died on July 4, 1826. In fact, the only ex-president who had died before that date was George Washington over a quarter of a century earlier. July 4, 1926 was the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The critical point is that it was NOT a coincidence that both men died on that day.
In fact, if you THINK about it, a forgotten art to historians, the date of the death of Jefferson and Adams provides an important insight into human nature. Before modern medicine, it was normal for very old people to decide WHEN they would die. My grandfather reached ninety during a recurrence of a scalp tumor, so he lived until his birthday in August of 1966 and promptly died.
My 86-year-old uncle by marriage lived alone in Florida, drove his own car, and had outlived two wives. Then a widow of 75 years he was courting told him she could not marry him because, in those days, her Social Security from her dead husband would be reduced if she remarried.
He promptly died.
He HATED being alone, so no one was surprised at his death. Back then, it was taken for granted when a man that age gave up the will the live, he died. Today the idea that a very old person can decide on the exact date they will die seems like a superstition.
AND, back then, no one would have felt OBLIGATED to talk him OUT of it. It was his right.
“We’ll MISS you,” would have been an argument. “God demands that you live every last second you can, no matter how miserable you are,” would have been considered blasphemy, and no one even THOUGHT of it.
He died, excuse the expression, with dignity. He did NOT die being wheeled into an emergency room with an intern sitting on his chest pounding away.
AND the possibility that he and a 75-year-old woman might live in sin together never even came up. Modern Thought, both EXTREME Pro-Life and modern liberal, would have condemned the two choices we took for granted. His right to die was assumed and no one even suggested they “live together.”
Again, EXTREME pro-life and liberalism are on the same side in opposing REAL traditional values.
So most modern historians consider it to be a myth that Adams’s last words were, “Jefferson still lives.” If you understand the way people REALLY thought then, it would be exactly what he would have said. He and Jefferson both PURPOSELY stayed alive until that date, and both knew the other was doing just that. Jefferson had actually died a few hours earlier.
James Monroe was the next ex-president to die, in 1834. He ALSO died on July 4th! Now THAT you DON’T hear about. It says too much about REAL traditional values.
#1 by Fred R on 07/04/2017 - 7:13 pm
Did Bob pick his day?
#2 by Secret Squirrel on 07/04/2017 - 10:38 pm
I understand that it’s thought that for a hypothetical resurrection treatment to have any chance of working, the cryogenics people have to get to you before decomposition does too much damage. So if he made careful arrangements, they could have collected him in matter of hours. On the other hand, if he had let nature take its course, his passing may have been unnoticed for days.
#3 by Fred R on 07/05/2017 - 11:50 am
From what I understand, everything went fine.
I was just wondering if he picked his day.
Oddly enough, at the exact time he passed, there were articles about testing being done in South America.
Bob may have read about this.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4573914/US-firm-try-reawakening-dead-Latin-America.html
#4 by Secret Squirrel on 07/05/2017 - 8:12 pm
My feeling is he didn’t, because he was working right up until the day he went. I remember responses were posted on his Twitter concerning discussions we were having on a small Southern website. It was like having a conversation with him on the phone, and the line suddenly cuts out mid sentence. But you never know.
Yes I saw that article. But its not just about raising people, you also have to make them young and healthy again. That could be a long way off.
#5 by time for freedom on 07/09/2017 - 8:20 pm
Check out Dr. Bill Andrews and Liz Parrish from Bioviva. They’re all over Youtube so I won’t even bother to give links here. Just do a name search on Youtube and you’ll get a bunch of hits. Very interesting. They’re very close to being able to reverse aging in humans. They’ve done it in mice and human tissues, just not a whole human. It’s coming soon though. Stay tuned.
#6 by Secret Squirrel on 07/10/2017 - 8:09 am
Thanks for that. Its incredible how fast science has been moving the last couple of years. Robots, reusable rockets, 3D printers, self driving cars, and now this.