CAROLINE'S CORNER: FOLLOWING THE FOOTPRINTS OF TIME

Age is purported to bring wisdom. I am neither old nor wise.

One might describe me as being middle-aged and fair to middling wise. I like to pretend I am a little younger than middle aged and a little wiser than fair to middling, but truth always prevails.

In my quest for wisdom I have discovered my three personal universal truths of life. There are no free lunches, someone has already been there and done it, and there are no new concepts (excluding science and technology).

Music: Some in our country are concerned about the role of certain kinds of music in our society. Not a new idea or problem. Greek philosopher Plato, who lived around 400 B.C., wrote, "The introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole state; since styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions."

Tyranny: Greek philosopher Socrates, who also lived around 400 B.C., said, "The people always have some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness... This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears as a protector." Many protectors since that time have sprung into tyrants. It could even be happening in 1995. Pick your poison.

Anger: Socrates also wrote, "We praise a man who feels angry on the right grounds and against the right persons and also in the right manner at the right moment and for the right length of time." Remind you of anyone you know?

Revolution: "Inferiors revolt in order that they may be equal, and equals that they may be superior. Such is the state of mind which creates revolutions," Socrates said. Some see the development of a revolution in our country today. Who desires to be superior?

Slander: Moving forward two centuries, Roman playwright Callipho, who lived around 200 B.C., said, "Slander-mongers and those who listen to slander, if I had my way, would all be strung up, the talkers by the tongue, the listeners by the ears." Hasn't changed one iota. Our country is overrun with slander-mongers and those who love to listen, from capitol chatter to community chatter.

Taxation: Moving forward to the 1800s, French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville said, "A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it." And we thought our people in Washington were the first to exempt themselves?

Congress: "Moving to our founding fathers, President John Adams said, "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide." Do we think we are the first to try and stop the suicide of our democracy? Do we want a democracy or a republic?

More democracy: "No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent," Abraham Lincoln said in the first of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Seems to me there are several men and/or women attempting to govern this woman without her consent.

Power: President Thomas Jefferson wrote, "I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be." Pertains not only to politics.

Constitutions: Benjamin Franklin wrote, "Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency, but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." We have our share of death and taxes. Some question the health of our Constitution today.

There is nothing new in our hot national debate of conservatism versus liberalism. We do not have a monopoly on name-calling and finger-pointing.

Liberals: English statesman Benjamin Disraeli, in a speech in 1848 to the House of Commons, said, "My objection to Liberalism is this -- that it is the introduction into the practical business of life of the highest kind -- namely, politics -- of philosophical ideas instead of political principals." Sound a little like the world's most listened to talk show host?

Liberals again: Russian philosopher Leo Tolstoy wrote in 1886, referring to liberals, "I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lob by all possible means -- except by getting off his back." Sound a little like John Q. Republican?

Conservatives: "When a nation's young men are conservative, its funeral bell is already rung," Henry Ward Beecher wrote in 1887. Sound a little like the Boston clan?

Conservatives again: "All conservatives are such from personal defects. They have been effeminated by position or nature, born halt and blind, through luxury of their parents, and can only, like invalids, act on the defensive," Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in 1860. Sound a little like John Q. Democrat?

Putting aside democracies, constitutions, politics and other profound subjects, I'll just go with Abraham Lincoln. The long, tall, bearded president wrote, "Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them." I may not be the oldest or wisest person in the world, but I certainly am one of the best.