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Show sjt community C comments... Although like a lot of others across the nation, we at the Times have gotten just a little tired of all the hoopla surrounding the nation's 200th birthday, one can't help but be a little reflective as we head Into the biggest Fourth of July most of our current generations have ever experienced. Compared to many communities, there Isn't a whole lot going on in Moab to celebrate the biggest Fourth, but that doesn't take a whole lot away from the feel of the occasion. A few moments of quiet thought about the nation In which we live might be a whole lot more productive than listening to traditional speechmaking, eating watermelon and icecream and sweating in the summer sun. For the carping critics of America, for those who want to make our Bicentennial a truly meaningful celebration, and ' perhaps for those who have lost some of their enthusiasm for the great American dream, Editor John Sllnkman of Washington, D.C. has some words of wisdom. Mr. Sllnkman, Incidentally is editor of the monthly magazine of the Reserve Officers Association of the United States. And in a recent message to his readers, Editor Slinkman wrote this: I "It is important to remember that the Constitutional Convention was made up of hard-headed men, fully aware that human beings are not perfect. Indeed, the whole document was designed to provide balances of power to insure against the perversion by power-seeking individuals of the governmental system it created. "Accordingly, they realistically wrote in the enacting clause (which over the years has come to be called 'the preamble') tha their objective was to form, not a 'perfect' union, tut a 'more perfect' one." ... This distinction, Mr. Slinkman shrewdly observes, Is vitally important as we, this year, celebrate out 200th anniversary; for the very simple reason that there is not, nor will there ever be, the "Perfect" Union because man is not perfect. Our founding fathers, being wise men, were not under the illusion that anything less than perfection Is intolerable. No I nation in history has set for itself higher goals than the United States. And because our goals were great, our achievements have also been great. Thus we have enjoyed more blessings than any other people on earth.' Perhaps we will never achieve all that our founding fathers hoped for this nation. But so long as we maintain and cherish that great American dream, and keep seeking to achieve greater things, we will continue to prosper accordingly. |