When the U.S. Constitution was first formed, it didn’t have the Bill of Rights trailing behind. It took some nudging from George Mason and other Anti-Federalists to get James Madison and the Federalists to add the 12 Amendments, which were eventually narrowed to 10.
George Orwell was, as we all are, the product of his experiences. When he wrote his final book, “1984,” it was the final prophecy of what he had already seen.
Over the course of history, and more emphatically, recent history, nations, in particular democracies, swing on the pendulum between idealism and realism.
The pandemic has struck many economic nerves, causing excruciating financial pain. One of those nerves has been small businesses, of which I am attached.
James Otis, one of the original patriots, was a man who was constantly concerned about the threat of tyranny. He was the one who coined the famous phrase: “taxation without representation is tyranny.”