Our Constitution was written in the 18th century when the population was counted in the millions rather than hundreds of millions. Before then, there were no formal states. There were barely any roads and people owned guns to keep from starving and to protect themselves from foreign occupiers.
Since then we have seen the invention of the light bulb, telephone, transcontinental railroad, moving pictures with sound, automobiles, airplanes, television, rocket ships and computers.
We now have antibiotics to cure disease, we have medications to adjust our psychoses and we have satellites to guide us to distant destinations.
So wouldn’t it seem that over time our interpretation of everything — from science to religion to our system of law — has been subject to modification?
That should be not only obvious but logical as well. So then why is strict adherence to a document written on parchment more than 200 years ago considered so relevant today? And why should anyone be considered an intellectual giant for his or her strident defense of every word and every ambiguity?
— Bob Ory, Elgin
