The fruit of labor and thought…
Hamilton: The immensely popular American musical based on the life of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, first appeared Off-Broadway in February 2015. Since its debut it has achieved both critical acclaim and box office success.
Hamilton, often referred to as the influential interpreter and promoter of the U.S. Constitution, believed, “Opinion, whether well or ill-founded, is the governing principle of human affairs.”
Mindful of this, Hamilton advocated “Caution and investigation [as] necessary armor against error and imposition.” As the leading cabinet member in the new government, under President Washington, Hamilton validated this conviction in practice.
“Men give me credit for some genius. All the genius I have lies in this; when I have a subject in hand, I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me. My mind becomes pervaded with it. Then the effort that I have made is what people are pleased to call the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought.”
Lee Hamilton (seems to be a name correlation here) Director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University and former member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years, addressed the following question in an article published in 2003:
“Why is it important to be an informed citizen?”
The truth is, for our democracy to work it needs not just an engaged citizenry, but an informed one. We’ve known this since this nation’s earliest days. The creators of the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 thought the notion important enough to enshrine it in the state’s founding document: “Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people,” they wrote, are “necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties.”
Getting the basic facts right is essential to governing well.
One of the most critical jobs facing political leaders in a society as complex as ours is to forge a consensus among many people and interests holding competing views. This is difficult enough to do when everyone agrees on the underlying facts; it is virtually impossible when there is no agreement on them.
Misperceptions develop for many reasons.
It can be wearying to sort through all the sources of information—the media, advocacy groups, the Internet, politicians, commentators—on any given subject. And there are always political leaders, lobbyists and others who are willing to let misperceptions linger.
In the end, the burden lies with each of us as citizens.
A number of influential groups and interests in this county attempt to manipulate public opinion, and they have been very successful. Yet a democratic society depends on its citizens separating the wheat from the chaff, forming good judgments, and putting pressure on their representatives to act accordingly. If ordinary people can’t do this or don’t want to devote the time and energy, the community suffers. No matter how good our leadership, if we don’t have discriminating citizens, this community will not work very well.
An informed citizenry is the sole motivation for writing this column.
Editor’s note: Former Cook County Commissioner Garry Gamble is writing a column about the various ways government works. This is his first submission and it is an introduction. Gamble will delve into deeper matters in upcoming issues.
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