January, 2004

Please, not again. We've been inundated with Jefferson and books about John Adams and they're really, you know, so passe' and last year's news.

Well maybe, maybe not. It's hard to believe that in this summer-rerun society of ours, a remembrance of some of the men who fashioned this unique country would be amiss. Besides that, I want to approach Tom from a slightly different angle; not from his legacy, but his concern we would piss it away. Foreknowledge is always spooky, but an accurate prediction 228 years into the future is downright scary.

"...it can never be too often repeated, that the time for fixing every essential right on a legal basis is while our rulers are honest, and ourselves united." He was talking about that sliver of time during the arguments over the Constitution.

“From the conclusion of this war we shall be going downhill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded." Jefferson knew that ongoing government is a messy operation, that seldom goes back or even looks back to sweep up after itself.

“They will forget themselves, but in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights. The shackles, therefore, which shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of this war, will remain on us long, will be made heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive or expire in convulsion." That comment may well have referred to slavery and the founders unwillingness to deal with it. But this particular unknocked shackle did indeed convulse the country into civil war before half a century was gone.

But it's the “forgetting ourselves, but in the sole faculty of making money" that's most worrisome to me, the “never think to unite to effect a due respect for our rights" that sends a chill up my spine. Are we there? Have we arrived at Jefferson's worst fear? Is it really passe' and last year's news to consider that?

James Madison had a word for us as well; “The fetters imposed on liberty at home have ever been forged out of the weapons provided for defence against real, pretended, or imaginary dangers from abroad." Fetters is a little old fashioned, but it means restrictions. Restrictions on liberty at home is something to think about.

And, lest this sound too partisan, just another rant at a conservative president by a wild-eyed liberal, let me quote yet another president on presidents. “To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." That came from the lips of Teddy Roosevelt.

I blush to admit that I have lived in eight decades, under twelve presidents. We complained about them all. It's not necessary that they leave us quotable quotes, nor is it expected they'll please us all. We're a diverse society and hard to please in the best of circumstances.

But it is necessary that they not tear down the foundations of our heritage, not play a shell game with the ideals of men in whose shadows they dare not stand. It is necessary that they not so denigrate our principles as a nation that the world comes to see us in a lesser light, as a lesser hope. This nation, our nation, has never fought a war of aggression until this presidency. This nation, our nation has never so broadly set aside constitutional rights until this presidency. This nation, our nation has never so completely squandered the welfare of present and future generations, using the weapon of fear, the subversion of truth and the expediency of ignorance.

I leave you with a final quote, this one from a New York Times columnist named Thomas L. Friedman, yet another Thomas; “We have to find a way of defending ourselves from others' weapons of mass destruction without losing our own weapon of mass attraction."

Get out of the Archives and read what Jim's writing today