'Fourth of July Tribute to Thomas Paine'

Thetford, England. 1750.

Tom and his father were always arguing. And it was always about the same thing. Tom would stare his father straight in the eye and demand, "Why?"

And his father would thunder, "You have to make a living, don't you? Besides, it has always been so!"

"Why must I do what my fathers before me have done?" Tom would demand.

"It is the way things are, you ungrateful lad. And the sooner you learn it, the better it will be for you."

Tom went to work as his father's apprentice. He was 13 years old, did not attend school for long and came from a poor family. What choice did he have, but to learn his father's trade? His father's trade was making corsets.

A corset was a stiff garment women wore beneath their clothes to support their bodies. They were made with laces and strong, unbending strips of material called stays. So the craftsman who made corsets was called a stay maker. It was an honest job, but Tom wanted something else. He didn't know what, but there was a fire inside of him. He didn't have the words to explain why.

When Tom grew up, he found the words. He came to believe that a man's life belonged to him and no one else -- it did not belong to tradition, a beggar, a thief or the whim of a cruel king in a distant land. His life was his own to do with as he pleased, so long as he respected that right in his fellow human beings.

He came to the British colonies in America and wrote about his ideas.

In January 1776, Tom published a small booklet called a pamphlet. It was called "Common Sense." He was 39 years old. Many believe the pamphlet helped Thomas Jefferson find the words for the Declaration of Independence. It inspired both the wealthy and the poor to separate from England. The American colonists decided to be independent. We went to war against England -- the most powerful country on Earth.

It wasn't easy. There were dark days ahead. General George Washington was losing his battles. And we lost hope of winning the war. We wanted to give up the dream of liberty. We wanted to surrender. After all, our army was made up of ordinary men, like farmers and weavers -- not soldiers.

On Christmas Eve, 1776, before an important battle, Washington gathered his troops and read Tom's new pamphlet, "The American Crisis," aloud to them. This is how it began:

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country. . . ."

The soldiers' spirit had been crushed. How could it not be? They had no warm clothes and very little food. Some did not even have shoes. Troops deserted, starved, died of disease or were killed in battle. Many froze to death in the bitterness of winter. So they knew very well what the words "These are the times that try men's souls" meant.

And what was meant by the words "summer soldier" and "sunshine patriot"?

Yes, it was fine to believe in freedom when things were going well -- when the sun was shining. But now it was raining trouble. Freedom was difficult, hard to get and harder to keep.

After Washington finished reading, there was silence. The troops asked themselves, "Was freedom worth the struggle?"

Tom's writing made them realize that the answer was "Yes." It was worth it. They still had the will to be free. And maybe the will to be free was the most important thing of all. They came to believe, in Tom's words, "the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph." And so they went into battle with fresh hope.

After that, there were many battles. Several of them were lost. But in the end, we won the war. With the words of Thomas Paine ringing in our ears, we got our chance for freedom.

Saturday, July 4, is Independence Day. kidsreadingroom@latimes.com.

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