Happy 233rd Birthday, George

I’m not big into bandwagons. If there’s a fad I’m usually a’gin it. A favorite color? I won’t wear it. A political messiah? I doubt it. An obvious answer? I won’t give it. With an alter-ego so often desiring to please, I am, in effect, my own worst nightmare.

And so it is no surprise that when it comes to our Founding Fathers, I have always struggled to sing the praises of the most popular of them all: Thomas Jefferson.

What is it, I ask, that makes him so loved, so revered? This man who adored all-things-French--even when heads would roll; this man who would not free his own children birthed by his wife’s slave-in-waiting; and this man who’s “enlightened” mind chose to bow at the alter of humanism's Self rather than the God who made him? What is it that makes him so worthy of our admiration and praise?

We recite the answer in unison: “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator...”

How could anyone distain a man who could write such words? This summer in Williamsburg, Vir., I got my answer.

Jefferson didn’t write them.

By Jefferson’s own admission, his hastily written document borrowed heavily both its concepts and words from a man who’d already written Virginia’s Constitution and Bill of Rights: George Mason.

Mason, it turns out, was a man after my own heart. Blunt and straight-shooting, willing to stand against the common tide, he was one of three votes against the signing of the Constitution of the United States, holding the 13 colonies hostage until they promised to include a Bill of Rights and to put an end to slavery. The colonial representatives reluctantly agreed to the former but refused the latter. Hoping the Bill of Rights was a stepping stone to a slave-free future, George signed the Constitution and while it took 100 more years and a civil war to bring about an end to slavery, today we have George to thank for the individual freedoms we now enjoy as a result.

I suppose if George became the newfound darling of the masses, I would have to find a reason to dislike him. It’s my way. I have to admit, I was disappointed to learn that he too was a slave owner--one of the largest--even while campaigning for its end. He, like Jefferson in some ways, lived a life that didn’t live up to his belief in a God-given right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for every human being. In the final analysis, I too see contradictions in myself. I abhor abortion but do little to end it except wish, pray and cast my vote. Founding Fathers were not infallible. Neither am I.

This Fourth of July I will celebrate my country’s Declaration of Independence and the long imperfect path we have forged in the pursuit of freedom. I for one, however, will also be raising a cold glass in honor of George Mason who’s words, while not as poetic as those we have etched in our hearts, are yet the reason they are there to begin with.

"All men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights of which...[they cannot divest;] namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety,"

Happy Birthday, George.