Will We Change the Times or Let the Times Change Us?
Jan 24, 2013, 11:47 AM | Updated: 11:49 am
Searching for catchy phrases among arid platitudes in Barack Obama’s uninspired inaugural, his media admirers focused on one brief, pithy formulation.
“Times change … and so must we.”
That statement seemed to reflect the president’s addiction to change as a goal in itself, rather than shaping current circumstances to reflect timeless values. Rabbi Daniel Lapin offers a much better slogan: “The more things change, the more we need those things that never change.”
In fact, eight years ago George W. Bush echoed that view in his own under-appreciated second inaugural. President Bush declared: “Americans move forward in every generation by reaffirming all that is good and true that came before–ideals of justice and conduct that are the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
It’s a far worthier principle than the notion of changing with the times.