Sacred Honor

By TAD BARTIMUS

Presidents' Day is synonymous with February white sales, 50 percent off winter coats and sleeping late on Monday morning. These are all good things, but they don't honor those for whom this federal holiday was created.

Searching for a genuine font of patriotism, I decided to observe Presidents' Day this year by reading "John Adams" (Simon and Schuster, 2001), the new biography by historian David McCullough. We grow up learning the story of George Washington chopping down the cherry tree, Benjamin Franklin discovering electricity with his kite and Thomas Jefferson writing the Declaration of Independence. But what else do we know about these men who defined, from the beginning, what it means to be American?

"John Adams" offers a direct connection back to our first official history. With 651 pages of text and another 198 pages of footnotes, indexes and other documentation, "John Adams" is a weighty tome, but after 38 weeks on The New York Times' bestseller list, it's clear that thousands are actually reading the book as well as buying it.

McCullough refreshes our memory of what our country is supposed to be by resurrecting from musty archives the humanity and human frailties of the American Revolution's household names. None started out as a statesman. They were a quarrelsome, cantankerous, disparate bunch of rebels -- many of them slave owners -- who ultimately submerged self-interest for the good of the whole. That their sacrifice, genius and civility birthed the United States of America is a tribute to the human spirit.

"Objects of the most stupendous magnitude, measures in which the lives and liberties of millions, born and unborn are most essentially interested, are now before us," Adams wrote to a friend. "We are in the very midst of revolution, the most complete, unexpected, and remarkable of any in the history of the world."

Page after page, McCullough reveals our first politicians' potential for good. In their wrangling and agonizing, the words of Adams, Jefferson, Washington and the others consistently lead us back to the heart of the matter -- the Declaration of Independence.

Mutually pledging "to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor" to secure "certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," they set the bar for hard patriotism. Singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl and attaching a flag to the car antennae is not what they had in mind to show love of country.

In the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, America's politicians were united. There were no revelations of shaved points, blurred rules, or a lack of accountability. Finger-pointing, back-stabbing and gimme gimme gimme got set aside for the good of the nation as Washington lost its aura of entitlement and became a beacon for millions who lost their footing when the twin towers fell.

Our founding fathers, like their political descendants, were never in lockstep, but when an overwhelming British force arrived to attack our shores 226 years ago, they set aside their differences to further the common good. Then, as now, the key to America's survival in a crisis is unity in order to preserve, protect and defend democracy.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

Adams and his ilk invented the first fair system of government in history when they put power not in their own hands, but in the People's. We, the Governed, We, the People, tend to forget that. We get lazy; we don't vote; we don't show up for public hearings; we don't keep track of what our lawmakers are doing for us -- or to us. We trust too much, and don't verify enough.

Adams, Jefferson and the other delegates to the first Congress paid their own expenses. They didn't get per diem or turn in an expense account. They didn't travel at government expense. They bore their own burden of creating liberty out of their own pockets, leaving their families back home to do the best they could with what they had. They sacrificed. So did the people.

History repeats itself. This year, as in all years, freedom comes at a price. We, the People, must work harder to elect lawmakers willing to pledge their sacred honor for the greater good. We must remain vigilant and, if necessary, sacrifice ourselves to keep it that way. This is a more fitting tribute to Washington, Adams and Jefferson than a new set of sheets.


© 2002 The Women Syndicate

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