You Make Me Want to Be a Better Man*

As the football season reaches its climax, the political season is in full form. Jud forwarded this information about Thomas Jefferson and it once again proves the point about humans. We have forgotten more than we have learned.  

Thomas Jefferson was a very remarkable man. At 9, he studied Latin, Greek and French. At 16, he entered the College of William and Mary. At 19, he began his Law studies. At 23, he started his own law practice. At 25, he was elected to the Virginia House. At 32, he was a Delegate to the Second Continental Congress.  At 33, he wrote the Declaration of Independence. At 33, he began revising Virginia's legal code and wrote a Public Education bill and a statute for Religious Freedom. At 36, he was elected the second Governor of Virginia At 40, he was elected to Congress. At 41, as the American minister to France, he negotiated commercial treaties with European nations along with Ben Franklin and John Adams. At 46, he served as the first Secretary of State under George Washington. At 53, he served as Vice President. At 55, he became the active head of Republican Party.  At 57, he was elected the 3rd President of the United States.  At 60, he orchestrated the Louisiana Purchase doubling the nation's size. At 61, he was elected to a second term as President. At 65, he retired to Monticello. At 80, he helped President Monroe shape the Monroe Doctrine. At 81, he created the University of Virginia and served as its first president. At 83, he died on the 50th anniversary of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence.  Thomas Jefferson understood history and the nature of man. He is a voice from the past with a wake up call. Read through these quotes from Thomas Jefferson and marvel and shiver at the truth: "When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe." "It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world." "My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government." "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." "To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." "I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property - until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." In the early 1960's, John F. Kennedy held a dinner in the White House for a group of the brightest minds in the nation at. JFK made this statement:  "This is perhaps the assembly of the most intelligence ever to gather at one time in the White House with the exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone." *"You make me want to be a better man."  As Good as it Gets, 1997, James Brooks