Sam Waterston's sharp elbows

from Sam Waterston's July 4 remarks at a swearing - in ceremony for new citizens at Monticello:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." Jefferson's words are so familiar, so potent, so important, so grand and fine, it's hard to believe that any single person actually picked up a pen, dipped it in ink, and, on a blank white sheet, made appear for the first time what had never before existed in the whole history of the world. By scratching away at the page, he called a country into being, knowing as he wrote that it was no more than an idea, that might, at any instant, be erased and destroyed, with the United States of America becoming just another sorry footnote in the history of suppressed rebellions against tyranny. You can't help but be impressed by all which that one person, and the small group of individuals around him, not much larger than your group of new citizens, won for so many.

[snip]

Citizenship isn't just a great privilege and opportunity, though it is all that. It's also a job. But don't worry: it's a great job. Everything that happens within this country politically, and everywhere in the world its influence is felt, falls within its province. You'll never be able to complain about being bored at work. As we multiply our individual voices, we multiply the chances for our country's success.

I hope you won't waste all the time I have in figuring out how a citizen should relate to his government. Talk to it. Tell it what you like. Tell it what you don't like. Vote, of course. Think about what you want our future to look like. Let the government know. Roll up your sleeves, stick out your chin, sharpen your elbows, get in the middle of things, make them different. You are bound to get a lot of things wrong. That's what we do. But the possibility of error is no excuse for being quiet, and I say this on good authority. As Theodore Roosevelt put it, "Man was never intended to become an oyster."

Whether you work within the Democratic or Republican parties, or join in supporting a bi-partisan ticket for 2008, as I have, in an effort to drive the parties to work together and to show them how it's done, don't be discouraged by the odds. It isn't all determinism and the tide of history. An individual can upend what seems determined, and speed or reverse the tide. The man on whose estate we stand, by pushing his pen across a blank page, proved that.

Be Above Average
New York Sun
July 12, 2007