Founder�s Day Or Founders� Day (1)

�John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Kay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, George Washington were the key founding fathers of the United States of America� Richard B. Morris: Seven who shaped our Destiny: The Founding Fathers as Revolutionaries 1973. �Found� is a simple past tense and past participle of �find�. �Found� can also be used as a simple present, and when so used, it must go with an object, e.g. to found a school;�to found an institution;�to found a company. Words related to �found� are establish, launch, set up, constitute, institute, originate, inaugurate. In all these words, the basic idea is to set up or establish on a firm basis or for enduring existence OR to lay the lowest part (of a structure) on a firm base or ground. The community decided to found a school. The school they founded was called Christian Academy. The school was founded on solid rock. A �founder� is a person who founds. A �founder� is an innovator. He or she may start a private or public company. He or she may be likened to an entrepreneur � the owner or manager of an enterprise (of whatever kind); he or she may make or lose money through risk or initiative. There has been a long � standing debate on whether to declare 21st September every year a founder�s day or a founders� day. Thus, 21st September is �given�, a �quod erat demonstratum� (QED). There appears to be little debate about the date, even though it is close to 25th September which has been declared African Unity Day. The apostrophe (�) or the apostrophe plus (�s) is useful for showing possession. He is in Mills�s administration. He treated him with kid�s gloves; (gloves belonging to a kid) He treated him with kids� gloves (gloves belonging to kids). This is how the Daily Graphic couched its editorial of Thursday, 22nd September, 2011, headed �Nkrumah�s Vision Lives On�: �Founder�s Day, a day set aside by the government to celebrate the birthday of the First President of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, was observed throughout the country yesterday. �The Mills administration took the bold decision in 2009 to honour the man whose foresight and vision led to independence for the country and the liberation of many African Countries from colonial rule. �Until then, our leaders were honoured especially on Independence Day and Republic Day but no special day was designated in memory of the Founding Father of our country�. The paper concluded: �Founder�s Day should narrow the ideological differences among the major political players in the country, for; after all, politics is about promoting the welfare of the people�. On 21st September, 2011, Daily Guide wrote an editorial on: �Remembering One of Our Founders�: �Today, we mark once more the birth of one of the men whose untiring efforts gave birth to what is known as Ghana�. It went on; �The definition of a founder of this country continues to remain a controversial issue, considering the contributions of others whose efforts in relocating Kwame Nkrumah to Ghana to support the independence struggle already burning cannot be swept under the carpet�. It concluded; �Being human, he was fallible and so while dangling his achievements, it is important that we point at his shortcomings since after all, history exists, to among other things, enable us to learn and be guided against repeating the mistakes committed by others. He was a fantastic personality worth celebrating, the aforementioned shortcomings notwithstanding�. The history and politics of Ghana has been told and re-told; it will continue to be i.e. told and re-told. But, mind you, the talkers and listeners have their sides � their opinions, biases, whims, caprices and idiosyncrasies � sometimes not based on objective analysis of facts but perceptions, propaganda and idealism. It is vital, for the start, to advise, to suggest and even to warn readers to avoid falling prey to the trap of the zealots who will be so sure and so convinced about the truth of their own views and opinions as to feel they can righteously dismiss people with other views and opinions as unlearned, or stupid, or diabolical. My quiet mother would have suggested: �All hail Dr. Kwame Nkrumah �Conditor Civitatis Ghaniensis� (Founder of the state of Ghana) as was on the coins of Ghana during the First Republic with the effigy of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. My mother would not have protested against the naming of all the streets, all schools and colleges, all the Universities in Ghana after Dr. Nkrumah; not even naming the country after him would have evinced her protestations. But in 1963, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy (of the United States of America) told a West German audience when recalling the words of the author of the epic poem: �The Divine Comedy� (1321): �Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a moral crisis maintain their neutrality�. In that same year, Ethiopian emperor, Haille Selassie, while addressing the United Nations, remarked: �Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most that made it possible for evil to triumph�. On September, 17, 2011, Joe Frazier in the Daily Graphic in �Parasitism, Wikileaks and Samia�s CPP� concluded: �The days of Ajax Bukana nationalism of �Today be Today, I am on the winning side, should be buried forever�.