We like to, or try to, offer a little food for thought with the quotes we post in the banner above our nameplate each and every week.
Space limits the length of the quotes we can use, so pithy is better. One favorite we don’t have room for is this gem from Thomas Jefferson: “My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!”
People make a cottage industry out of interpreting the words of our American forefathers for their own ends, often on these very pages, but we are hesitant to read too much into Jefferson’s words.
Taking the quote on its face, we would like to think Jefferson was talking broadly about the freedoms Americans enjoy and mostly take for granted.
We would like to think he was talking about the right to speak and move about freely; to live without the “yoke of tyranny;” the right to be self-represented, to form and participate in our own government, safeguarded by the rule of law and the freedom of the press.
The truth is throughout our history we have fallen far short of our lofty ideals. The Constitution when written applied only to white, male landowners. Women only got the right to vote in 1920.
We had to fight a war before we agreed to end slavery and even then it took 100 years and a literal Act of Congress to end discrimination legally.
With all that, we would argue we are closer to the ideal of liberty for all now, than we were when America was founded.
Democracy, by its very nature, is based on division. It requires a unity of purpose, a majority rule, not unanimity. Americans are not supposed to fall lock step into agreement. We are supposed to debate and decide our course.
We celebrate our differences of opinion as evidenced on our letters page. We embrace division this year, on the occasion of our country’s 234th birthday.
That which divides us, also unites us.
