Phil Williams: The seal

By Phil Williams, 1819 News Commentary

It’s funny how some things just sound old or out of date, and for that reason alone become objects of scorn.

Take “Good Housekeeping Magazine.” Have you heard of this old-school periodical of yesteryear, once read by dutiful wives who vacuumed the house wearing pearls, and took time from baking fresh apple pie to sit at the kitchen table to peruse its recipes and recommended ways of doing laundry?

This old-fashioned periodical still exists! Still going strong after 135 years, “Good Housekeeping Magazine” features human interest stories and best hacks for cleaning, cooking and making your house a home. But somewhere along the way it found another niche known as the “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.”

In 1900 the founders of “Good Housekeeping Magazine” formed the Good Housekeeping Institute, testing products for safety, breakability, reliability, and pricing. Everything from lipstick to baby strollers to toasters is run through the Institute’s tests in an 18,000-squarefoot state-of-the-art facility in

Manhattan. Only after passing a barrage of tests can a product be given the “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval,” providing some evidence that a standard exists holding the product manufacturer to a measure of accountability.

It doesn’t sound so old fashioned now, does it? What sounds old, dusty, and from days of yore may still bear usefulness today. Its absence would even cause a diminishment in quality of life.

The same is true of the U.S. Constitution.

There’s a lot of talk from today’s left wing about that archaic document our founding fathers spent so much time on. Even President Biden, in the wake of the recent horrible events at The Covenant School in Nashville, launched another assault on the U.S. Constitution and its Second Amendment, stating, “no amendment to the Constitution is absolute!”

Technically he is right. But historically, legally, and practically, he has no standing for his hollow rhetoric.

Between the original Constitution and its first 10 Amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, that old piece of paper has preserved the ability of people in this coun- try to remain free of the tyranny that the founders knew firsthand.

Taken as a whole, the Constitution established that the ability of individuals to have rights was the most important thing in a free society. Actual rights to keep them free, not just from other people, but from their own government as well. Free to express themselves independently. Free to know that they can worship as they see fit. Free to not just survive, but thrive. That dusty archaic document written in lofty language has