It has been brought to my attention recently, by one of my colleagues, that I tend to be somewhat of a pragmatic realist when it comes to big decisions. Take the Constitution, for example. When I originally signed it, over 300 years ago, I didn’t totally agree with everything in it.
Yet, at the same time, I also knew that it was the best possible document we could come up with to start our new government – and, there was the added provision for making revisions to it later, so that anything that we as writers had forgotten could still be dealt with at another time down the road.
Having already lived a fairly long, eventful life at that point, I also realized that whatever points I disagreed with back then were not so set in stone that I could not change my mind on them in the future. Time has taught me one thing, that there are always new ways of looking at matters. If you’d like to see my original thoughts on that subject, I understand you can find them on this thing called the internet, at http://mentalfloss.com/article/12551/ben-franklins-thoughts-about-constitution-day-it-was-signed
Now, here I am in the future. In hindsight, I think that it was a very good document. Of course, I can now see that some of its provisions may have been cause for ferocious debate at various times, especially when this country went down paths that we founding fathers never envisioned.
It also perturbs me that some of the liberties we built into this system of government could later be so misconstrued and refashioned, leading to events that were anything but shining examples of freedom and responsibility.
The Bill of Rights did not say we could arbitrarily kill people
The Bill of Rights, in particular, spelled out some of the citizens’ rights, but as it has come to be misinterpreted in these modern times, the right to bear arms is now considered by some as an open invitation to use weapons to randomly kill and massacre our fellow citizens without even a second thought. That is hardly what the framers of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights had in mind!
Yet, on the whole, I’m still very proud of this Constitution we helped invent. It has apparently stood the test of time, having survived pretty much intact up to this present year of 2013.
Your humble servant,
B.Franklin
Yet, at the same time, I also knew that it was the best possible document we could come up with to start our new government – and, there was the added provision for making revisions to it later, so that anything that we as writers had forgotten could still be dealt with at another time down the road.
Having already lived a fairly long, eventful life at that point, I also realized that whatever points I disagreed with back then were not so set in stone that I could not change my mind on them in the future. Time has taught me one thing, that there are always new ways of looking at matters. If you’d like to see my original thoughts on that subject, I understand you can find them on this thing called the internet, at http://mentalfloss.com/article/12551/ben-franklins-thoughts-about-constitution-day-it-was-signed
Now, here I am in the future. In hindsight, I think that it was a very good document. Of course, I can now see that some of its provisions may have been cause for ferocious debate at various times, especially when this country went down paths that we founding fathers never envisioned.
It also perturbs me that some of the liberties we built into this system of government could later be so misconstrued and refashioned, leading to events that were anything but shining examples of freedom and responsibility.
The Bill of Rights did not say we could arbitrarily kill people
The Bill of Rights, in particular, spelled out some of the citizens’ rights, but as it has come to be misinterpreted in these modern times, the right to bear arms is now considered by some as an open invitation to use weapons to randomly kill and massacre our fellow citizens without even a second thought. That is hardly what the framers of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights had in mind!
Yet, on the whole, I’m still very proud of this Constitution we helped invent. It has apparently stood the test of time, having survived pretty much intact up to this present year of 2013.
Your humble servant,
B.Franklin