Politics today not much different than 400 years ago when the first settlers arrived

I have been reading an interesting book on the beginning of American History, "The Shipwreck that Saved Jamestown," by Lorri Glover and Daniel Blake Smith. This book, one that would only interest historians, recounts how America's first colony was established – along with all the political infighting, fundraisers, lies, deceit, deaths, and stumbling blocks that occurred in making the colony of Jamestown, Virginia actually come to fruition.

While I've been reading this book, we've been going through the GOP versus Democrats, House versus Senate and debates over Obamacare, the government shutting down and everything else wrapped up in the current crisis.

Through all of this has been the pundits ... yes, everyone's a pundit, from the news stations to Twitter to Facebook, to the coffee shops, to anywhere U.S.A. Most of what has gone on in the debates between citizens is Democrat versus Republican, with few siding for what is right or what is wrong, because frankly, no one truly knows which is right or which is wrong. They just support their party and thus think their party is right and the opposing party is wrong.

Nevertheless, this blog isn't about who is right or wrong here, it's more about the comparisons between the early 1600s establishment of the first colony in America and today's political society.

It truly is no different.

Oh yes, today we have cellphones, iPads, video recorders, cameras, and television that can broadcast from end of the world to another in seconds.

In 1607 all they had were these tiny little ships that had to carry news from England to America and back again – taking several months to accomplish the task.

So often the consequences were more dire, such as people dying from lack of food, attacks from Indians, attacks on Indians, people dying from an assortment of diseases from plague to yellow fever to dysentery to consumption, to infighting, shipwrecks, fires and more.

Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in America, located in what is now known as Virginia – a small peninsula that was basically uninhabitable due to marshy areas and land virtually unfriendly to agriculture. It was established by the Virginia Company of London on May 24, 1607, following a few failed attempts and the lost Colony of Roanoke (a sad story for another day).

Despite a rocky start, Jamestown was the nation's capitol for 83 years, after which it was switched to Williamsburg, Va.

The parts of America that had been in possession of other countries prior to this time belonged mostly to Portugal and Spain. The colonization of Jamestown was a rush by England to prevent Spain from making claim on Virginia and was done originally and laughably while Spain's king wasn't looking.

Again, the glorious days of zero media tools had its benefits 400 years ago.

Over the course of a number of years, beginning in 1607, enterprising entrepreneurs attempted to raise money and investments for the Virginia Company in an effort to get everyone to sign up from the aristocracy, genteel class and laborers to those seeking to simply leave England for a better life.

Several voyages brought disastrous results to each group. Voyages were long, hot and presented cramped quarters.  Often, by the time the ships were halfway to America, a good portion of the passengers were sick with disease, starved after eating maggot-filled/spoiled food, on a ship invested with rats, sometimes the plague, and a host of other maladies too disgusting to ponder.

By the time they arrived in Virginia, passengers could barely get off the ship and would prevail on the survivors of the last passage to feed, clothe and provide them shelter. They were exhausted and instead of providing respite to those who were in Jamestown and starving themselves, the newcomers only added to the existing troubles.

Often this was too large of a burden on the residents of Jamestown and the "want/need" spilled over to the Indians as colonists raiding their camps, stole their food and land, consequently causing fighting, capture, torture and executions of colonists.

The amount of subterfuge in England that went toward fundraising for the assorted voyages to America is astounding. In one account, King James is apprised of the dire situation in Jamestown and his answer was for one of the ship's captains to bring him back a flying squirrel. He sure had his priorities straight.

At one point, colonists dug up what they thought was gold and brought it back to England, only to discover that the gold was actually rock and dirt – worth nothing.

Settlers refused to work – they simply weren't used to having to be farmers and working their fingers to the bone. Remember, there weren't any houses, businesses or buildings anywhere in the Americas in 1607. Everything had to be built from scratch. They even had to bring over livestock as best they could. This brings another image to mind of the voyage from England to Virginia on a tiny ship – passengers, horses and other livestock.

Preachers were schmoozed into preaching to their congregations in England that it was God's will to travel to the new land and establish a new order – to bring Christianity to the heathen Indians. Catholics, still persecuted in England at this time, were barred from traveling to the new world.

If touting the beauty, bounty and abundance that was Virginia wasn't enough, the enterprising members of the Virginia Company used God as a way to persuade people to make the journey.

As we watch the events of today's world unfold, even reflecting on the past 100 years in politics, it is easy to realize that things aren't really so different from that time.

People lie to get what they want. They lie to persuade others to "sign up" or "join" or "vote" for a specific cause. They argue until nothing is agreed upon, thus nothing gets accomplished and another year floats by with nothing resolved. Many simply choose to turn their head aside and look the other way. The idea being, "if I don't acknowledge it, it doesn't exist and it will go away."

Images of an ostrich with its head buried in the sand comes to mind.

Sixteen hundred and seven was much the same.

The infamous John Smith (of Pocahontas fame) had his own story to tell. Brash and gregarious, he wasn't well liked by his contemporaries, nor the colonists for that matter. He was captured by the Powhatan Indians and held for sometime. It was when they allegedly placed his head on a rock as they prepared to smash his brains to smithereens, that a young Pocahontas (about 10-13 years of age) placed her head upon Smith's and entreated her father to spare his life.

Pocahontas and John Smith never married. She married another man and died around age 21-22 from consumption in England.

Smith fancied himself the savior of Virginia's colonies. He wasn't well-liked, mostly because he pushed the settlers to work, telling them that if they didn't work, they didn't eat. He recognized the vulnerability of their position in the new world and sought to improve it. He actually was a visionary, he just didn't have enough support and was constantly under fire by men who wanted to be in charge.

However, when the 1609 expedition arrived, sans the lead boat, which had shipwrecked at Bermuda, Smith was pushed out of the colony.

There was always something going on behind the scenes during Smith's time in Jamestown. Despite the poverty, harsh weather conditions, Indians and hunger plaguing the colonists, there was strife and unrest in bountiful measures. Plots against Smith were rampant.

Realizing he was most likely going to have to return to England, Smith was in a canoe with a bag of gunpowder near his person when it exploded, injuring him severely. It was never proven how the gunpowder exploded and some have speculated over these last 400 years that it was done deliberately.

Smith returned to England, recovered, and then sailed back to America in 1614, this time to the north – the coasts of Maine and Massachusetts. He named the area "New England," a moniker that persists to this day.

Returning to England, Smith tried for the New England shores once again, the first time he had ship troubles and the second time, his bad luck continued and he was accosted by pirates in the Azores. He managed to escape and returned to England where he dutifully remained until he died in June of 1631 at the age of 51.

His name is the one most remembered from the earliest days of our country and monuments to him persist. It is he who has the biggest statue at Jamestown, Virginia despite being chased out of there by opportunistic rivals.

After several fires, the capitol of the new world was moved to Williamsburg in 1699 and Jamestown gradually began to disappear.

To this day, it is mostly an archaeological site, but it does have living history exhibits, historical interpreters, and even a replica of the ship the Susan Constant, one of the first ships to make landfall at the new colony in 1607.

Today, historic Jamestown is closed. Just as the fighting, pulls for power, struggles to survive of 400 years ago, October 2013 has brought this national park – a monument to the first days of America – to a close, while politicians bicker and dig in their heels in Washington, just as they did centuries ago.