Bailiff: The court of public opinion is...

Bailiff: The court of public opinion is back in session. The honorable Justice Sage is still presiding!

Judge: Is the defense prepared to call its witnesses?

(Ms. Hawke steps forward)

Ms. Hawke: Yes, your honor.

Judge: Very well. Please proceed Ms. Hawke.

Ms. Hawke: Your honor, the defense wishes to call Thomas Jefferson.

Judge: Call Thomas Jefferson.

Bailiff: Thomas Jefferson! Born, 1743!

[Thomas Jefferson enters]

Bailiff: Mr. Jefferson, please raise your right hand. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Jefferson: I do. For, “truth is great, and will prevail if left to herself, and is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and can have nothing to fear from the conflict, unless (by human interposition) disarmed of her natural weapons – free argument and debate: errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.”

Bailiff: A simple “I do” will suffice, sir.

Jefferson: I know, but I wrote that, and I’m quite proud of it. You can find it in An Act for the Establishment of Religious Freedom, which passed into Virginia State law in 1786 and is now available on amazon.com

[Bailiff shrugs and shakes his head, as Jefferson takes his seat]

Ms. Hawke: Mr. Jefferson, could you please state your occupation?

Jefferson: (pausing after every one or two occupations in the list as if finished, then continuing) Architect . . . inventor . . . author . . .patriot . . . botanist . . . lawyer . . . farmer . . . educator . . . founding father.

Ms. Hawke: You were also President of the United States at one point, were you not?

Jefferson: Oh yes, there was that.

Ms. Hawke: You mentioned you are an author. In fact, I wonder if you would be so good as to read to the court something you wrote. I have it right here.

Jefferson: (reading, with emotion and somewhat wistful) “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Ms. Hawke: I would venture to say that most of us are well familiar with these famous words of yours, but nevertheless they still stir our souls every time we hear them. Where did you find the inspiration to write something so profound and so moving that it could energize an entire nation towards revolution, and towards a revolutionary experiment in government?

Jefferson: To be completely honest, I borrowed heavily from some great thinkers who came before me, from the Greek philosopher Epicurus to the British philosopher John Locke. It just seems that I have a knack for getting the wording right—at least that’s what Ben Franklin tells me.

Ms. Hawke: Alright, then tell us, how did you become acquainted with these philosophers that you find so worthy of emulation?

Mr. Jefferson: Well, at the College of William and Mary I studied quite a bit of Greek, Metaphysics, and Philosophy.

Ms. Hawke: Ah, philosophy!

Mr. Jefferson: Yes, philosophy. From the Greek roots, meaning “love of wisdom”.

Ms. Hawke: Very good—“love of wisdom”—I like that. Do you love wisdom, Mr. Jefferson?

Mr. Jefferson: Oh yes, in all fields of intellectual pursuit. That is why I joined the American Philosophical Society, which, as it happens, was founded by my old friend Ben Franklin to promote, as he put it, “useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research”.

Ms. Hawke: Excuse me, did you say “useful knowledge”? Are you suggesting that philosophy promotes “useful knowledge” (with exaggerated astonishment, and looking at the prosecution attorneys)?

Mr. Jefferson: Of course, in those times we viewed philosophy as having many branches, including natural philosophy, which formed the the foundation of science and technology.

Ms. Hawke: So you would consider Philosophy (gesturing to the prisoner) to be the mother of the humanities and the sciences.

Mr. Jefferson: Well said, my good man.

Ms. Hawke: No more questions, your honor.

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