Truth often arrives in the simplest, most direct terms. Perhaps this is an odd admission coming from one who asks readers to indulge his sometimes wordy meandering through the thickets of property taxes and overbearing government.

For simplicity, our 30th President, Calvin “Silent Cal” Coolidge, set a high bar. He was once, or so the story goes, accosted by a perhaps inebriated guest at a White House reception. With assuredness, the lady informed the President of her bet that she could get more than two words out of him. Coolidge replied: “You lose.”

On a more serious note, President Coolidge was once tasked with delivering a speech marking the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The President pointed out that we often tend to think of those who came 150 years before us as being old fashioned and even backward in their thinking. But, he reasoned, that could not be applied to the Declaration: “If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final ... No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions.”

Can the social scientists or social justice activists much improve upon those truths about the human condition? Or upon the simple urging to “Love your........

© Finger Lakes Times