Reader takes issue with Forester column

Let's take a moment to contemplate some of the changes we've seen since our Constitution was written.

We have electricity, combustion engines and an interstate highway system. We regularly travel by air. Thanks to the Internet, we have billions of facts at our fingertips.

We can send instant messages and video across the globe in seconds. We have radio, satellite television and cellular telephones.

We can transplant organs, unclog arteries, clone sheep, and save babies born four months early. We have harnessed the power of the atom. We have eliminated horrific diseases.

But we have also massacred each other, polluted our environment, wiped out entire species and ignored all kinds of human suffering whenever it's been politically expedient to do so.

Although the Constitution was drawn up by brilliant and thoughtful men, they were still men. They had no way of knowing that our world would soon be populated by billions of human beings who would shortly have the ability to travel into space, wipe entire cities off the map, and alter global weather patterns.

It's important to remember that people have always lived in troubling times. We tend to romanticize the past. It's easy for us to forget that "simpler times" came along with things like leprosy, pit toilets, and forty-year life expectancies.

It's also important to remember that historical figures (like Thomas Jefferson) were real people, complete with complex beliefs and behaviors.

Regarding Kennon Forester's article on the piety of Mr. Jefferson last week: Jefferson also believed that people should "question with boldness" the existence of God. He is widely believed to have fathered six illegitimate children with one of his slaves and was often accused of being an atheist.

Do these facts taint Mr. Jefferson's accomplishments? No. But we certainly cannot ignore the fact that he was (like the rest of us) just another flawed human being.

We should be proud that our country's principles have stood up so well to the test of time, but our Constitution was designed to be and should remain a responsive, living document that has changed (and will be changed) to better serve its citizens.

Although studying history is an admirable and important activity, romanticizing our past (and our forefathers) isn't going to do much to help us solve our 21st century problems.

Lisa Leitz

Royal City