Recently, I have had conversations with friends about the concept of originalism, or the judicial principle that the Constitution should be interpreted based on what our Founding Fathers intended at the time they drafted the Constitution. I am an originalist. Many of my friends are not.
A common theme among my friends who believe in a “living Constitution” is that the process our Founding Fathers provided for the Constitution to evolve, the amendment process, is simply too difficult to accomplish. So, if our Constitution is to evolve with the times it must be done by judicial decree. I treasure my friendships, but I disagree with my friends on this one.
But, I don’t write this blog post because I want to debate this issue. I write it because this friendly disagreement made me think more generally about America and traits we have as Americans.
President Kennedy once said,
"We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”
America and Americans have accepted and overcome more difficult and seemingly insurmountable challenges than any other people ever. We have cured disease, we have established the Rule of Law, we have gone to the moon, we have won two world wars, and we have done many other things.
As we approach the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021, let’s resolve to do the hard things. Let’s resolve to mitigate the effects of Covid-19; let’s resolve to be the best family members we can be; let’s resolve to treat every person with the dignity and respect he or she deserves; and let’s be the best employees, business owners, workers, etc. we can be.
If you are injured or are charged with a crime, and you want a lawyer who is willing to do the hard things for you, call me.
