In a world where billions have been slaves and millions still are, it is no small privilege to live in a land that has continued all these years to be a bastion of freedom and constantly be redefining "What is free?"

We have not reached as high as we ought to go but we have ascended beyond the earlier boundaries that forced us into a Civil War and then another such conflict almost 100 years later -- the civil rights movement.

Prejudice for profit’s sake or to feed false pride or just because it comes too easy to put down another human being -- this monster with muddled thinking huddles always over the horizon waiting to spring back to life with all its blind hatred and life-draining deeds.

It is why we need to read and reread those familiar words in the constitution: "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

They signed this document, our forefathers, and knew that on the day of its signing it left a large part of the population excluded from these mighty promises. But rightness is relentless and now at least the wording has leaned more and more toward being a practiced truth.

Old Ben Franklin knew the dangers of democracy, this new republic...how selfishness can kill the best of dreams and turn them into a nightmare; knew this and having signed it, threw the constitution down upon the table and said "I'll give it 200 years."

And we have met that goal of time and are daily challenged to keep it alive and well; the tenuous reality of a people who can continue to forge a nation that is "One for all and all for one."

So to you the reader and the voter in the national election just over the horizon, I send a thought: "Disagree with each other but try not to be so disagreeable in doing that none of us find any benefits to share in common." Indeed, read the following story and share it with all you come in contact with; for arrogance, political or otherwise is a death wish for a country that shines so brightly in the sun.

The old sage turned to his wife and said, "The man argued his points so well I looked at him and said 'You are absolutely right.'"

And then the second man proved his reason for an opposite view so well I looked at him and said 'You are absolutely right.'"

"But they both can't be right" said his wife.

To which the old sage replied "You are absolutely right."

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