Reply #35: Free avatars . . . yours for the taking . . .

[TaleWgnDg]

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Free Avatars . . . Yours for the Taking . . .

1.)
John Adams (1735–1826), Founding Father, born in Quincy, Massachusetts (in area then known as Braintree but now known as Quincy), leader in the Revolutionary group opposing the British, member of both First Continental Congress and Second Continental Congress, member of drafting cmte of Declaration of Independence, negotiator of Treaty of Paris ending American Revolutionary War, author of the Massachusetts constitution which was the first constitution in the nation and upon which our federal constitution was modeled, lawyer, legal scholar, our 2d president (1797–1801), schoolteacher, foreign diplomat (France, England, the Netherlands), vice president under Washington (1789–1797), writer/author;


2.)
John Hancock (1737-1793), Founding Father, born in Massachusetts, President of the Continental Congress, informed General George Washington that the Declaration of Independence had been adopted on July 4, 1776. President Hancock enclosed a copy of John Dunlap's broadside of the Declaration of Independence along w/ the July 4 Congressional resolutions in Hancock's own hand. Hancock's ltr requested that "you will have it (the Declaration) proclaimed at the Head of the Army." Hancock was a member of the Massachusetts legislature, and governor of the newly independent state of Massachusetts. His roles in the American Revolution and the adoption of the constitution are central: as President of the Continental Congress, his is initially the only signature on the Declaration of Independence. Hancock coordinates and equips the continental army, including large expenditures out of his own pocket. Hancock turns the tide in Massachusetts in favor of ratification of the U.S. constitution. A merchant, owner of many ships, was a Privateer having received Letters of Marque and Prizes -- a very interesting character from Massachusetts and American colonial history.


3.)
Daniel Webster (1782-1852), born in New Hampshire, schoolteacher, constitutional law lawyer, scholar, New Hampshire U.S. Representative (1813–1817), Massachusetts U.S. Representative (1823–1827), Massachusetts U.S. Senator (1827–1841) and (1845–1850), Secretary of State (1841-1843) and (1850–1852), nationally known debater and orator;


4.)
Charles Sumner (1811-1874) was a four-term Free-Soil, Republican (and Whig) U.S. Senator from Massachusetts (1851-1874), and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (1861-1871); Sumner was a slavery abolitionist in Lincoln's original party. As a stanch unabashed (black) civil rights advocate, I am sure that Sumner would never be a member of today's Republican Party. Massachusetts is damn proud of Sumner! (More may be found here at http://www.worldpolicy.org/globalrights/usa/sumner.html) ;


5.)
This avatar is a symbol of the back-alley illegal abortions performed (with a wire coathanger) prior to Roe v. Wade (1973), when many women became seriously ill, maimed, unable to conceive again, and w/ many deaths -- a symbol of days that may return if Roe is over-turned by new U.S. Supreme Court justice(s) appointed through George W. Bush;


6.)
No discrimination in our constitution, no constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage, "freedom to marry" and the pink triangle symbol; and


7.)
Ribbon for no AIDS discrimination re gays.

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