Agreeing to Disagree

What happened to that?

I am fortunate to be able to watch HBO’s latest miniseries ‘John Adams’.

What a treat it has been, HBO has brought a human side to our Founding Fathers that history books have failed to do.

When I was home schooling my two oldest children, and we were studying American History and the Revolution, we had the opportunity to read many fantastic books on the subject. I was a little bit of an un-schooler in my teaching methods, but it worked quite well for our family. Whenever we would decide on a new subject to study we would go to the library, there we would check out every single book on the subject from the children’s, through juvenile to adult sections. We inevitably lugged home armfuls of books and began our study.
During this time we picked up a book that contained the correspondence between John Adams and his wife Abigail it was entitled ‘My Dearest Friend’.

John and Abigail Adams letters provide more historical documentation of the personalities of the cast of characters we call our Founding Fathers. They wrote each other constantly (over 1000 letters) and were very detailed in the happenings and emotions of what it was like to live in their day in the epicenter of the very founding of our nation. HBO has used these letters to create this mini-series.

Apparent from the very beginning of the series is the constant disagreement among the men who are now our national icons.

They disagreed about whether they should indeed declare independence. They disagreed on the structure of the new government they would form if they did declare Independence. They disagreed on the strength and size of a central federal government vs. the independence of each state to determine it’s own path according to it’s citizens. And from the very beginning they argued about southern farmers paying for the mistakes made on Wall Street.

Benjamin Franklin was a very skilled statesman and was very good at gauging a man’s personality and how to best convince individuals to his way of thinking. George Washington was an honored war hero who every one could agree would be an excellent leader, but once nominated and elected was a reluctant leader who was quickly dismayed at the division of ideas amongst his cabinet. Thomas Jefferson believed in absolute freedom no matter what, so long as it did not cost anyone other than oneself anything including harm. He believed so much in the inherent goodness of all people that if they were given absolute freedom without oppression they would prosper and do good. John Adams and Jefferson were dear friends, but disagreed on much. John was very pessimistic about human nature and believed the worst in people and while believed in freedom of country did not see eye to eye with Jefferson and believed that a federalized central government was imperative to a successful future.

Alexander Hamilton and Jefferson agreed on nothing, and Hamilton’s beliefs about establishing a central bank with a large debt merely months after our governments formation was so disheartening to Jefferson he resigned from President Washington's cabinet and went home. In a conversation with Adams about the wondrous beauty of our Constitution Jefferson said he didn’t know if it really was so wondrous, that while there were many good things about it, there were also very bad things about it and only time would tell what those would be. Thomas feared for our future because of the ability of a central government in a republic to become so corrupt. One of his most memorable quotes to Adams was “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

The common thread woven in the fiber of all of these men was their quest for liberty. They rarely agreed on the details, but each one of them dedicated so much of their lives doing what they felt was the right thing to do for our country.

Disagreement is not bad.

Disagreement is inevitable, and if we uphold each others rights to say what is on our minds and to do what is right, disagreement should not be something that we as Americans should shy away from.

So often in today’s society, people are belittled for saying what they believe, and discouraged in stating their beliefs. This I believe will be the downfall of our society.

Our founding fathers had no TV, they had books and they had ink, and they had each other to discuss the things that mattered to them and they educated each other in those things. If they did not agree they did what they could to educate the other further until they felt there was clear understanding of an issue and if they still did not agree, they agreed to disagree, because ‘free thought’ and individual liberty in all things was their common goal.

If you have the opportunity to see this series I highly recommend it. As with most HBO series they eventually come out on DVD and I encourage each one of you to watch it. The production and scenery is not only excellent but the humanity of each of these men is so present that you will never think of your Founding Fathers the same way again.

In closing, I would like to add; that in this day of mass media, it is very hard to find the whole truth of situation as every source puts their own self serving spin on issues at hand. So if you really want to be educated on a topic take the time to gather the information from a multitude of sources including those whom you may disagree with. If you only see the world through the eyes of CNN or Fox news you will doing yourself and your country a grave disservice. Even between the two of them you will hear differing stories so dig down check lots of different sources including those coming from the enemy’s camp and some where when you throw out all of the agenda’s you will be closer to the real truth of the matter.

In the meantime, time is marching on and we know not how many more breaths we get to take, so make the most of it and don’t be afraid to speak what you believe.