Quotes of the day - security, law, and liberty

“One is that certainty is the enemy of decency and humanity in people who are sure they are right, like Osama bin Laden and (then-Attorney General) John Ashcroft.”

“And secondly that for this country at least, given the kind of obstreperous, populous, diverse country we are, law is the absolute essential. And when governments short-cut the law, it’s extremely dangerous.”

Anthony Lewis, former New York Times columnist, Associated Press Obituary, Duluth News Tribune 2013-03-26

Similar thoughts include:

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

"He that would live in peace and at ease, Must not speak all he know, nor judge all he sees."

Attributed to or written by Benjamin Franklin, http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin.

Did you celebrate Constitution Day?

"Are you celebrating Constitution Day?" is the title of a Local View that I wrote and was published in the Duluth News Tribune on what else but Constitution Day, September 17. I can't post it here because of the exclusivity agreement the News Tribune requires for submissions, but you can click on the link above.

Because of the mixture of serious thought and flippancy, I thought it might go viral. Well, it has spread a tiny bit, Press Enterprise and Road Runner have linked back to it.

I did have over a dozen people comment on it at church this morning. One friend "complained" to my wife that my writings made her think. I was surprised that there was only one comment on the online version.

That writer stopped reading because he didn't like my introduction and claimed, "The author is completely ignorant of history." His comment received three likes and two dislikes, one of the latter mine.

I tried responding but I couldn't register with Area Voices, the comment service.  I never received the email to complete registration.  I did send a comment to the DNT web staff.

What I tried to respond was:

I read years ago in a biography of Benjamin Franklin that he wrote a letter from Paris to the Continental Congress asking for more money.  Either his letter or the author of the biographry mentioned he needed it to keep his wine cellar well-stocked.  Franklin did do a lot of entertaining (and womanizing).

I took "career politicians" from many sources.  Many members of the Constitutional Convention had been active in the Continental Congress and/or state government.  Also, many continued in politics, including the future presidents George Washington, John Adams, and James Madison.  The authors of the Federalist Papers besides Madison who were members of the Convention were Alexander Hamilton, future Secretary of the Treasury, and John Jay, first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and then Governor of New York.

I took reasons for the convening of the Constitutional Convention from Gordon S. Wood's "The American Revolution".  I also recommend reading his "The Radicalism of the American Revolution".  I look forward to reading many more of his books on the American Revolution and the early history of the United States.

Is that enough sampling to not be ignorant of history?:)