It can happen to you

If you’re young at heart.

Sung by Frank Sinatra (1953)

Joey here.

Fairytales can come true.

So can nightmares.

Among Jeffrey’s literary oldies is a complete set of Mathematical Monthly. The third volume was published in 1861.

There was no fourth volume.

The “disturbed state of public affairs” was a nightmare: the Civil War.

Years ago, a European told Jeffrey that America is too new to have a culture.

No.

People are born ignorant. Culture is created anew in each person. Any culture is only as old as its society’s oldest living member.

Our democratic republic is part of a culture reborn in 1789.

We can’t escape interpreting what its Founders wrote back then.

Consider a Talmudic tale.

A sage’s interpretation of God’s Law was overruled by his unanimous colleagues. God said, I agree with the dissenter. The other sages answered, You gave us the Law to interpret and to live by—so butt out. God laughed: “My children win!”

Limiting the Constitution to 1789 ideas makes it brittle.

Brittle things break.

Our foundational values (human equality, “unalienable” rights) come from the Declaration of Independence. Much of their promise has been broken despite (and sometimes because of) the Constitution meant to effect them. The Founders’ language was twisted or ignored to suit the powerful, at the expense of We, the People.

Think of slavery. Jim Crow. Mass murder of First Nations. Subjugation of women. Exploitation of children. Racial and political roundups, imprisonments, deportations. Coddling of plutocrats. Crushing of workers. Arming the irresponsible. Persecuting sexual and religious nonconformists. Violating privacy. Abusing migrants. And so on.

[Sarcasm alert!] Equality and unalienable rights, indeed.

America has become more just and humane only through unceasing effort to keep the Founders’ promise.

When we relax our vigilance, we backslide.

You, who are on the road

Must have a code, that you can live by

And so, become yourself

Because the past, is just a goodbye

Teach, your children well

Your father’s hell, did slowly go by …

Sung by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, 1970

The Founders’ America, 2024 Edition, depends on widespread respect for our laws and values. On civil debate and peaceful disagreement. On tempering justice with mercy, and with common sense.

We cling to these principles on our Rides. We use them to push back against the darkness.

Because as surely as Mathematical Monthly was discontinued in 1861, political and social collapse has happened here.

And can happen again.

Even to the young at heart.