Rosy Glow – President’s Day

By

Andrew DeMarco

As most of you know this blog was started in memory of Cousin Bob LaTorre whose original Rosy Glows were published 25 to 30 years ago. When I started this blog I was amazed how after all this time his insights were still relevant. With President’s Day approaching I thought I would take a quick look at two of our Founding Fathers and show how over two hundred years later there insights are still relevant now more than ever.

Let’s take a look at Thomas Jefferson our third president. As we all know Mr. Jefferson was the author of the Declaration of Independence, The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom which is the basis for the First Amendment to the Constitution and founded the University of Virginia. One of his takes on the Constitution almost 200 hundred years ago is as timely today as it was then and below is his quote.

“Some men look at Constitutions with sanctimonious reverence and deem them, like the Ark of the Covenant, too sacred to be touched.”

“I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions…but I know also that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of humankind.” – Thomas Jefferson 1816

Think about this for a moment, Mr. Jefferson did not have disdain for constitutions, but he realized that even then that great strides would be made by the human race and that laws and institutions would have to adapt with changing times. Even before it became popular to refer to the constitution as a “living document” he knew that it would need to be so.  He could not have foreseen such events as the Suffrage Movement and later a woman’s right to choose, Prohibition and its repeal and the ongoing question of the Separation of Church and State, all issues that required amendments to the Constitution or Supreme Court decisions and all occurring in different eras and changing times. So his thoughts are still timely just about 200 years later.

Next up is our fourth president James Madison. Mr. Madison was a protégé of Thomas Jefferson and a fellow Virginian and is considered one of the driving forces behind our U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. His thoughts from well over two hundred years ago are as follows:

“It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is today can guess what is, will be tomorrow.” –  James Madison  1788

For those who are having trouble understanding what Mr. Madison was getting at, it is simple. His thoughts on laws can be summarized in two words, brevity and clarity. Basically what he was saying that if laws are too big no one will read them and if they are too complicated no one will know what they are about. Mr. Madison was indeed a man of his word when you consider that the U.S Constitution and the Bill of Rights, documents which all our laws are based on, consists of about 4,400 words. Now I am sure that there are many laws out there that are full of verbosity but it is easy to come up with an example that proves Mr. Madison’s timelessness. It proves not only volume but also  a law with constant revisions and changes and delays before being implemented.  Simply consider this quote by a former Speaker of the House.

 “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it away from the fog of controversy.”   Nancy Pelosi   2010

 So what is the point of this Rosy Glow, other than no one could ever equate Nancy Pelosi with Madison or Jefferson or any president for that matter. Well it is simple, on this President’s Day besides looking for sales, remember that although originally begun to honor Presidents Washington and Lincoln, we honor all the men who have served in that position. Whether you agree with them or not, whether good or bad it is an elite club and the office of the President of the United States deserves respect. If we as Americans cannot respect the office than how can we expect others to? Also, we should all take some time and look into our history and study the wisdom and timelessness of our predecessors. Here is hoping that Cousin Bob’s message is still timely many years from now and, hopefully so are the lessons we learn from these Rosy Glows. Most of all I hope that learning from our past we can improve our present and future and by improving, give one that feeling which Cousin Bob would call that ….. Rosy Glow.