It’s both Pen and Penn in our Constitution

When I was in college one of the courses that interested me the most was classicism, the study of ancient Greece and Rome.

Don Estep is publisher of the News Journal.

It took me over 60 years but last year I went to Italy and visited Rome and several other places.

I also enjoyed courses in history, especially about our forefathers. There is a new book out by A.J. Jacobs titled, “The Year of Living Constitutionally.” The author spent a year with a musket and lived the  life of those who wrote the Constitution, even to the point that he used a quill to do the writing.

His study of the Constitution revealed some interesting facts. For one, there are 600 grammatical errors in it. Pennsylvania is spelled Pen in one place and Penn in another.

He said the framers of the Constitution knew it had flaws and depended on new generations to fix the flaws.

He points out that rather than a Bill of Rights, it was more a Bill of Responsibilities. In the 1700’s it was one for all and all for one. The framers did not see a two-party system developing that we have today. They saw a country that was dependent on each other.

As a matter of fact, many of them did not want one president. They had already had enough with the King. Some wanted as many as 12 in charge, while others wanted three. Not agreeing on either they settled for one.

The mindset was so different in the 1700’s. Partisan politics as we have it today was not envisioned.

Even though it is partisan, those of us in Kentucky do not share in the wealth that will be spent on the presidential election. The millions of dollars will be spent in about 11 states that control the outcome of the election.

It is not a reason to not vote, but for those of us in Kentucky it is a foregone conclusion when it comes to the presidential election. That’s because we have an Electoral College system of voting, the only place in the world that has it.

In other words, we don’t need to get overly anxious because the bigger states control the outcome.

• The Whitley County Fair is this week. It looks as if the blazing hot weather has left just in time.

I talked to our Sales Manager Melissa and she told me she had experienced how much fun it was to go up in the hot air balloon. It does sound like fun.

The Fair gets better every year. The people in charge put in a lot of time so everybody can have a good time. Thanks for everything you do!