Let’s keep in the middle of the road

“Without Freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty, without freedom of speech” – Benjamin Franklin

I have read many quotes from our Founding Fathers, and Old Ben is among the best of them. Many profess to be a constitutionalist, or originalist, but I feel often they tend to cherry pick stuff that aligns only with their current thinking. Well, in my mind, you get all of it, or none of it.

Another, by Thomas Jefferson in referring to his days of great political division that we must ... “Unite with one heart and one mind (and) restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty, and even life itself, are but dreary things.”

The cool thing about technology and the internet is you can open your heart and mind to information that is not contained daily on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram posts, but instead go out and google thoughts and quotes from any major person, including Founding Fathers such as Franklin and Jefferson, George Washington, James Madison, John Adams, James Monroe, John Jay, and so many others.

Read what they said, and see if it applies to today’s world. Many will shock you with their clarity.

Jefferson, writing about freedom of the press, said “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.”

You can see an example of that in real time, today, in modern Russia, which has tamped down any dissension of its aggressive and unwarranted invasion of Ukraine.

In Russia, you have only state television, which is controlled completely by the Kremlin. There are no alternatives like Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, or even C-Span. No Associated Press, no Washington Post or New York Times.

As a journalist in Russia, any article contrary to the state’s line is an invitation to be offed, and not with a pink slip.

We have so much going for us in the United States, and have since our beginning. Many, many lines of thought on any subject are available to the public. These days, the stuff we are seeing on cable news shows offer a heavy-handed dose of extremes, both right and left.

While many of us prefer to stay comfortably in the middle, getting arguments from both sides on an issue – rational, valid arguments – and then making conclusions on our own time and mind.

We should all seek much, much more of the middle. It is easier to digest, and live with.