Editorials

Whatever the case, we could have sworn we saw Thomas Jefferson skulking around The Star’s newsroom one night last week. He appeared to be muttering about liberty and security, and also Ben Franklin’s famous quote about "a republic, madam, if you can keep it." Curious, we approached the tall Virginian, who died 170 years ago this coming Fourth of July. (*)

We asked, Can we have a word, Mr. President?

Inviting us to sit down near his ghostly self, we started with some questions.

Star: What brings you to the offices of a newspaper? Does it have something to do with our time of evaporating liberties?

TJ: Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.

Star: Hey, weren’t you quite the newspaper critic in your day?

TJ: I deplore ... the putrid state into which our newspapers have passed and the malignity, the vulgarity and mendacious spirit of those who write for them.

Star: So it’s sort of a love-hate relationship?

TJ: Our liberty cannot be guarded but by the freedom of the press, nor that be limited without danger of losing it.

Star: OK, liberty. Speaking recently about newspaper accounts that exposed the president’s secret and constitutionally shaky premise of spying on Americans, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales wouldn’t dismiss the idea of jailing reporters. "There are some statutes on the book which, if you read the language carefully, would seem to indicate that that is a possibility," he said. "We have an obligation to enforce those laws." Could it be these recent comments from that are disturbing your eternal rest?

TJ: The only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to keep the waters pure.

Star: So you’re not buying the notion that the White House is taking liberties with our liberties only in an effort to defeat an enemy?

TJ: The functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty and property of their constituents. There is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves, nor can they be safe with them without information. Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe.

Star: But you are surely not surprised by this. You saw the potential when you were helping found the nation. You argued the press is the best way to discover the truth that leaders would hide from us.

TJ: The most effectual hitherto found is the freedom of the press. It is, therefore, the first shut up by those who fear the investigation of their actions.

Star: Under the guise of fighting "terror," our leaders have shrunk many of the liberties Americans once took for granted. Yet, except for recent months when a low rumble has turned into a chorus, most Americans have appeared untroubled by the things done in their name, such as secret imprisonments, eavesdropping on citizens and official deceptions.

TJ: All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.

Star: And what to your mind is leading us out of this post-9/11 lethargy?

TJ: Our citizens may be deceived for awhile, and have been deceived; but as long as the presses can be protected, we may trust to them for light.

Star: And you’re not troubled by this push and pull between the urge to defeat jihadists and ensure Americans don’t lose their rights in the process?

TJ: The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.

Star: But the Bush administration would likely argue that the constitutional corners it is cutting are done in the name of security and not some more sinister impulse.

TJ: I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

* OK, sure it was just our imagination. But the answers from Thomas Jefferson are, to the best of our knowledge and research, real quotes from the nation’s third president and author of the Declaration of Independence.