Every Fourth of July, I hear someone say, “I wish America could return to the days of our founding fathers,” a wish no doubt for a time when everything important in life was known, certain, and not likely to change.
The only problem is that does not describe our founders’ ambitions. The men who put their signatures on the Declaration of Independence had something else in mind: They were uncomfortable with their present status and wanted to change it.
They wanted nothing of religious constriction, governmental tyranny, or suffocating conventional wisdom in the exploration of science, theology, art and politics. They were focused like today’s laser beam on the future, and were enthralled with the potential that exists in the human mind.
The world was ripe for the embracing of radical change in the era of Jefferson, Adams and Franklin. Our founders wanted anything but the status quo. Tomorrow was always likely to be a better day for the improvements it would bring in previously “accepted” thought.
What would they say about the so-called “improvements” of our time?
Well, the Internet has certainly changed our political process by making it possible for a veritable unknown candidate from Illinois to demonstrate to a majority of the electorate that he can be trusted with the government. Indeed, the Internet has changed our entire world through a diffusion of knowledge that has touched and stimulated people on every square foot of this planet.
Surely that diffusion of knowledge is something the founders would applaud, though certainly not every use of the Internet would be approved.
As for tomorrow, what secrets will be revealed through continued DNA research? What products and technologies will be made possible by the exploitation of nanotechnology? What new fuels will be developed that power our cars while cleaning the air we breathe? And what of the atom smashing capabilities of the super collider recently built but untested in Europe. What a marvelous world awaits our children and grandchildren!
You may laugh at my speculation, but I have long ago ceased to laugh at the seemingly impossible. Too many of those “impossible” ideas are in my house today.
When the colonists decided they didn’t want to be told to send their tax money to England, King George III must have longed for the comfort of “the good old days.” And surely there were citizens in colonial America who would have been more comfortable with seeking an accommodation with the Crown – but of course, it was not to be.
To find comfort for their lives was not the goal of our forefathers. They envisioned a never quite satisfied electorate always “looking forward, not backwards, for improvement” in their government.
The founders believed America could be improved if each succeeding generation could find the mettle to be worthy stewards of the government they bequeathed to us.
We celebrate our Independence from England on one specific day of the year, but we renew our founders’ independent spirit each day we devote to improving this republic.
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