Thomas Jefferson was born in 1743, and in 2026 he’ll have been dead for 200 years. Sometimes when I read some of his writings, I marvel at how far he saw, how thoughtful… and sometimes how blind. A human with a partially divine view for humanity. Still, what a mind seemingly often ‘borne into the future.’
Given in his time, newspapers were small presses and a greater population could not read, religion was more like small cartels that held land they staked claim to and often tried to convert anyone they could lay hands on, standing armies of his time were invader/occupier armies from the King of Britain, monopolies were in the main in trade and control of flow of goods and imports, men and women of all colors and all classes could be imprisoned by occupying forces and/or by domestic citizens by false witness alone, and passed judgement upon one person’s say so, and the person executed on the spot.
Jefferson is saying that these matters of human rights insofar as he could see many, tho not all, are not to be trivialized, not double-talked, not writ so as to obfuscate, and not allowed to go without committing them in writing, under a legal seal, for just saying oh yes, these are good, by inference, was NOT enough. He wanted clear, short, direct set of ‘rights’ set forward with no hidden clauses, no jillion pages that no one would ever read. Accessible. What a thought.
I’ve often wished Jefferson’s great nuanced but also striving toward freedom mind, was with us today, with his updated and contemporary take, with also a broader view of freedom for all, but also given his concerns below, his take on modern insurance companies; big pharma; multinationals; the hounding of certain religious groups and some religious groups hounding others; the shuttering of so many newspapers and some of the unstable swinging political viewpoints-for-advantage of those surviving; the ‘other world’ at the border filled with criminals, murderers, pirates, soldier wannabes, and steady-decent peace-loving people; imprisoning and tormenting persons before they have been tried, and more.
So here is Thomas Jefferson: US Founding Father, who helped in the drafting of the Declaration of Independence stating they would no longer serve the crown in any way…and was the 3rd US President
December 20th, 1787, Jefferson letter to James Madison about his concerns regarding the Constitution.
“I will now tell you what I do not like. First, the omission of a bill of rights, providing clearly, and without the aid of sophism, for freedom of religion, freedom of the press, protection against standing armies, restriction of monopolies, the eternal and unremitting force of the habeas corpus laws, and trials by jury in all matters of fact triable by the laws of the land, and not by the laws of nations. … Let me add that a bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular; and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.”
— Thomas Jefferson