The Missouri Compromise

 People are complimented with the name tag: Uncompromising.

What we do not tag them, should probably be a sub-title: Rather Ineffective.

There is a place for uncompromising people who stand strong on certain issues - even if the insistence on being uncompromising prevents their goals from being achieved.

But you can see that this cannot be the marching orders for every day business.

On March 6 in 1820 – The Missouri Compromise was signed into law by President James Monroe.

A body of politicians sat around a table and played poker with the lives of thousands of people, raising stakes here and lowering them there until they all came away with something they hated, could all live with, and something that became law.

The compromise allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state, brought Maine into the Union as a free state, and made the rest of the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase territory slavery-free.

The reality is that politics is about compromise and is usually, though despicably necessary to kick the ball of justice a little closer to the goal (or away from it).

Overall, I am more comfortable on the head-strong, stubborn, sometimes self-righteous, and prophetic side of the fence.

How convenient for me!