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This is my final column in the Bangor Daily News, and I write to thank readers and the paper for giving me a forum as well as to look back at what I have been writing.
The purpose of the column has been to provide context to the news and to suggest ways of understanding and dealing with change.
The U.S. stands at a particularly historic moment. It has always faced the need to balance the priority given to personal freedom with the responsibility for the community.
Of the two priorities, personal freedom was given greater weight in the years between the country’s founding and the Great Depression, beginning in 1929. In response, President Franklin D. Roosevelt led the federal government to take responsibility for the common good.
Now, the great national debate, causing a divide almost as emotional as the differences that yielded the Civil War, is about whether to restore, so far as possible, the country before Roosevelt or to improve upon the changes he brought about.
Our history can help in dealing with this choice. It can serve to both instruct and warn us. It should be the foundation for our actions, while not limiting our ability to respond to change with innovation.
Americans are particularly fortunate among all nations and at all times to be able to defend our values and influence the world in which we live. We have a rich land and a diverse and creative nation. We live in a country characterized by optimism and hope.
As I frequently note, in the warm 17-week Philadelphia summer of 1787, some 39 men devised the Constitution producing the government that the 1776 Declaration of Independence had promised when it rejected the British king.
The real American Revolution was the Constitution. It ingeniously created a truly federal system with two forms of sovereignty and with a national government designed to prevent the growth of excessive power under a new kind of king.
This was something new in the world, a model for other countries. To the processes of the basic document was added a Bill of Rights, designed to protect individuals from excessive government power. Today, Americans might not fully appreciate that there may be no other country having a set of rights equal to those in the First Amendment.
This brings us to this newspaper. It is an essential expression of the freedom of the press from the power of any government to limit or control public discussion and disagreement. This freedom is integral to us. At one time or another, we have each probably asserted, “This is a free country.”
When the drafters of the Constitution had just about finished their work, they realized they did not know who was to adopt it as the supreme law of the land. Finally, one member proposed it be “We, the People.” Constitutional conventions in each state would decide.
In the end, the government belongs to the people. The media inform and argue, but the people must make the ultimate decisions. A failure to pay attention, a willingness to make easy and ill-informed decisions, and, worst of all, not voting at all means that government is forfeit and the Constitution turns to dust.
This is why I have written this column. To be sure, my words are influenced by my experience and my concept of American values, and others may and should honestly differ. My purpose is to decide nothing but to stimulate thought.
If you are interested in what I write in the future, you can get a free subscription at gordonlweil.substack.com.
Again, my thanks for reading.