July-August
Each night in Washington as dusk settles along
Try Greatness, Not Meanness
the Potomac River, floodlights brighten our national icons:
The Washington Monument stands eloquently gazing over
at the beautiful Jefferson Memorial, where the statue of the
great statesman looks across the Tidal Basin toward the
imposing White House, whose first tenant was John Adams. Next door, the Treasury Department’s southern portico is graced by a statue of Alexander Hamilton. ; In life
vanity, ideology and shortsightedness: a federation of distinct regional and economic interests
ON THE COVER: LEFT: C.J. BURTON; RIGHT: JOAO CANZIANI THIS PAGE: JOHN CUNEO
bound by core principles and liberties upon
which a carefully balanced national government
could function and thrive. ; We’re deep into a
campaign season that amounts to a 21st-century explosion of vanity,
ideology and shortsightedness. Angry divisions with no interest in
compromise have picked sides and launched a seemingly endless bar-
rage of costly and inflammatory advertising. Politicians’ campaigns
reflect our political process, something Allegheny College President
James H. Mullen Jr. calls a “disgraceful stew of invective … a continu-
ing contest in which each side of the partisan divide sees itself as right
and the other as evil, uncaring or, worst of all, unpatriotic.”
That’s hardly an atmosphere for confronting a gigantic challenge
to our federal finances. Consider the context: At a time when the
federal government is spending $3.6 trillion a year, just over $1 tril-
lion is on the table before Jan. 1. Tax cuts and tax breaks expire, a
financial supplement for doctors treating Medicare
patients ends, automatic cuts take effect in domestic
and defense programs. And the national debt limit
must again be addressed, an event that virtually para-
lyzed Washington a year ago. To do nothing all but
guarantees a second recession, according to the non-
partisan Congressional Budget Office.
Together, these decisions have the potential to reshape the federal government and upend the delivery
of services from health care to security to food safety.
And that’s before anyone tackles the challenges of
strengthening Social Security and Medicare.
John Adams could just as easily have been talking
about today when he wrote in 1776 of his fears that the
Continental Congress’ decisions would be dictated “by
noise, not sense; by meanness, not greatness; by ignorance, not learning; by contracted hearts, not large souls.” His conclusion is as appropriate today as it was
then: “There must be decency and respect
and veneration introduced for persons of
authority of every rank or we are undone.
In a popular government, this is our only
way.” Decency, respect and veneration
produced compromise and a foundation that has endured for 236
years. We are surrounded by noise, meanness and ignorance. The
measure for our leaders must be their ability to rediscover that proven formula of sense, greatness and learning. —Jim Toedtman, Editor
these four great men
did not like one another. Journals of that
time are full of stories
of their conniving and
their bitter rivalries.
; Yet look at what they
accomplished when
they set aside their
These men didn’t
like one another,
yet look what they
accomplished when
they set aside their
differences.
AARP Bulletin July-August 2012, Volume 53, No. 6 (USPS Number 002-900; ISSN 1044-1123) is published monthly except February and August by AARP, 601 E St. N.W., Washington, DC 20049 (telephone: 1-888-687-2277). Internet site: aarp.org/bulletin, “The Newspaper of 50-Plus America.”
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