Thursday, September 27, 2012
Brother Franklin's Concern
"Mr. President
I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them: For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others. Most men indeed as well as most sects in Religion, think themselves in possession of all truth, and that wherever others differ from them it is so far error. Steele a Protestant in a Dedication tells the Pope, that the only difference between our Churches in their opinions of the certainty of their doctrines is, the Church of Rome is infallible and the Church of England is never in the wrong. But though many private persons think almost as highly of their own infallibility as of that of their sect, few express it so naturally as a certain french lady, who in a dispute with her sister, said "I don't know how it happens, Sister but I meet with no body but myself, that's always in the right — Il n'y a que moi qui a toujours raison."
In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other. I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution. For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded like those of the Builders of Babel; and that our States are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another's throats. Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitutionbecause I expect no better, and because I am not sure, that it is not the best. The opinions I have had of its errors, I sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered a syllable of them abroad. Within these walls they were born, and here they shall die. If every one of us in returning to our Constituents were to report the objections he has had to it, and endeavor to gain partizans in support of them, we might prevent its being generally received, and thereby lose all the salutary effects & great advantages resulting naturally in our favor among foreign Nations as well as among ourselves, from our real or apparent unanimity. Much of the strength & efficiency of any Government in procuring and securing happiness to the people, depends, on opinion, on the general opinion of the goodness of the Government, as well as of the wisdom and integrity of its Governors. I hope therefore that for our own sakes as a part of the people, and for the sake of posterity, we shall act heartily and unanimously in recommending this Constitution (if approved by Congress & confirmed by the Conventions) wherever our influence may extend, and turn our future thoughts & endeavors to the means of having it well administred.
On the whole, Sir, I can not help expressing a wish that every member of the Convention who may still have objections to it, would with me, on this occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility, and to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instrument."
Delegate B. Franklin via
Proxy J. Wilson from the notes of
Secretary J. Madison
Later on the same day, “Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?”
“A Republic, if you can keep it.”
The highlights in the above quotations of Benjamin Franklin illuminate the precipice at which our great republic now finds itself; one that is likely not a sheer drop into the abyss, but rather more like the top of a gravelled slope above it: navigable perhaps, though one slip will lead to an interminable slide. Notice that he says that a Despotic government only transforms from one good and just to meet the needs of a corrupted people. He goes on to note that the efficacy of any government is largely dependent upon the regard in which it and its constituent members are held in the eyes of the public.
We find ourselves now at a time of the crossing of bad and worse; a time of utter distrust of the people towards their government when the degree of moral decay, what's more the pervasive indifference towards the accelerating malignancy of that decay, is at a pitch not seen since the Reign of Terror, if ever, and never in these United States!
If we can keep it indeed!
Monday, March 5, 2012
In Response To An Article Regarding The Disappearance Of Western Civilization In Education
Friday, February 10, 2012
An American Argument Against Socialism in Three Paragraphs
You do realize that "socialism" as you put it necessarily requires that some part of all things be held in reserve from their rightful owners for the purposes of being freely given to others according some rationale determined by those charged with their distribution. I'm fairly certain, actually, that you do realize this. That all "things" are representative of our effort, leveraged to whatever degree we can manage, has been firmly established by greater minds than mine. But to put it another way, our efforts take time which, when stripped of all of life's superfluities, is ultimately all that we have; our lives which have been granted to us and the time in which to live them. So could we fairly say then, since our lives cannot be lived outside of time, that time spent equals life spent? If so could we then go on to conclude that our lives, spent taking the time to fashion things though our efforts, are in fact the currency which is being exchanged?
Thursday, December 1, 2011
My Best Bedlam Memory (So Far)
Everybody surrounding these two programs has a Bedlam memory or two that sticks out in their minds. Mostly for the Cowboys they're of the, "I should get a medal for coming back after what happened last year" variety. Lord knows I've heard my dad tell me about that freakin' onside kick in 1983 a million times. For some guys I work with, it's the dropped game-winner in 1988. I've had a couple of Bedlam memories through the years worth holding onto. Crammed sideways in the back seat of Marc Shook's Trans Am (maybe a Firebird) from Stillwater to Norman our freshman year, stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic all the way from Moore with a full bladder, only to end the day rushing Owen Field after a 30-7 victory would be my second best.
My best memory came in 2001.
I was a senior in architecture school, and college had just about finished beating me down. Oh, and I remember trying to present a design crit at about 1:00pm on 9/11/01. The only good thing I had going for me was my girlfriend at the time, now my wife, helping me to hold onto my sanity. Barely. If you've never heard about OSU Architecture, suffice it to say that we've seen more sunrises after through-the-night charrette sessions than all the other undergrads on campus...combined! I didn't get to see many football games that year. I'd like to say it was because I was working hard on my senior design project, which is mostly true, but it really came down to what I thought was going to be the last live game I would ever stomach the heartache of living through. That year we lost to Missouri 41-38 in triple overtime (we lost to them 51-50 in double overtime my freshman year). At that point a said to heck with it, I'm never subjecting myself to that again. Well, something like that anyway.
The senior design project schedule is always broken into three sections. The second section ends the week of Thanksgiving. That's a miserable story for another time, but with the help of my girlfriend/wife, I managed to be present for a 10:00pm, Sunday plot time after a three-day all-nighter (there's really not a good term to describe staying up for multiple days in a row) so I could pull one more all-nighter before my Monday jury. That behind me I kind of coasted the rest of the week and went to see family for Thanksgiving. But, since we had that third phase to finish, I was back in the studio Friday evening. I slept in Saturday morning because the weather was miserable, and I wasn't really looking forward to hanging out at the studio alone. I made it in about mid-morning. Many hours and one near-catastrophic computer crash later Tristan, a good friend of mine who had also stayed in town over the break, came up and nearly drug me out of my chair to go get some lunch at about 3:00pm. I'm pretty sure he had only stayed in town for fear of being made to do some terrible farm labor at his grandpa's place in Woodward. Anyway, the miserable weather had begun to drizzle as we were driving back to the Architecture building when he suggested, as we were passing Joe's on Elm Street, to turn on the radio to see how badly we were getting killed. You see the Sooners were ranked No. 3 and we were 3-7 with a new coach. Sitting at the stop sign at Elm and Knoblock the radio announcer exclaimed the the Cowboys were only down 10-6 with a couple minutes until half time! Instead of making the right and driving 200 yards back to the Architecture building, Tristan turned left and drove 200 feet passed the buildings which house the Art, English, Music, and Theater departments to our favorite hangout, the Stonewall Tavern. Based upon those five little houses of academia that were all literally within crawling distance of the 'Wall, you can imagine that it was/is not your 'normal' college tavern.
Nobody was there. Well the bartender was there, but nobody else was there. It was after all Thanksgiving holiday...and 3:00 o'clock in the afternoon. Tristan and I remembered that there was a TV, back in the corner of the back room, against the front windows facing the street (the front door of the 'Wall is in the back) that neither of us could recall ever having been on. But $3.00 pitchers enticed us to give it a try. Lo and behold, it worked. The second half started, and we had the freshman backup in at quarterback. Great, our QB is either hurt or he was yet again having a terrible game. Regardless, time passed and we stayed in the game. With three minutes to go, we were down by 4 with the ball! A few moments later, and I had forgotten about this in light of what happened on the next play, our freshman quarterback threw an ill advised prayer to the best defensive back on the field (who is still having an all-pro NFL career). The OSU receiver came out of nowhere to cut in front of the sure interception to drag down a contested catch for a 31-yard first down...14-yards and 120 seconds to a miracle. I remember at that point looking at Tristan, and by some telepathic connection, we both had the same thought, "If we pull this off, Thanksgiving break and all, the ENTIRE student body would be back in less than two hours!"
The very next play, freshman Josh Fields hit sophomore Rashaun Woods on the left boundary of the endzone.
(T.D. Bryant was the miracle receiver on the previous play)
That's the day the OSU finally, let me say that again, finally turned the corner!