If Only The Founding Fathers Knew How To Write

Posted by Tom Remington on November 21, 2007

According to Mark Knoller, White House correspondent for CBS News, if James Madison and the rest of the gang who put together the U.S. Constitution, had an editor, we wouldn’t be trying to figure out what they meant when they wrote the Second Amendment.

mainehuntingtoday.com/bbb


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"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." - Thomas Jefferson

"We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately." - Ben Franklin

"As individual fingers we can easily be broken, but together we make a mighty fist." - Sitting Bull

If Knoller were to take the time to read the Federalist Papers, a goodly portion written by Madison, or the Collected Works of Thomas Jefferson (he can borrow my copy), he would soon find they knew very much how to write. It's preceicely because they wrote so well that what they wrote has stood the test of time and the assaults of idiots who try unsuccesfully to twist it into something from agenda-driven never-never land.

If Knoller spoke less and read more, he would find the American language has gone through the very sorts of changes any language experiences over two or more centuries. As Tom points out in his column, the best warning against Knoller's "simple, declarative sentences"  can be taken from any page of the Congressional Record. Memos, directives, news releases & "white papers" from the various governmental offices are even greater travesties against the home tongue.

And Knoller overlooks another point: not only did the Founding Fathers know full well how to write, they knew how to think a topic through before putting pen to paper.

It is not due to a writing problem of our founders but a reading and comprehension problem by todays liberals who see what they want to see in the constitution.

Somewhere I have an article discussing how the Second Amendment was written which discusses the things you mention Pogo.  It is clear from reading what the Framers of our Constitution wrote at that time that the Second Amendment is an individual right, not a collective one.


_________________
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." - Thomas Jefferson

"We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately." - Ben Franklin

"As individual fingers we can easily be broken, but together we make a mighty fist." - Sitting Bull