I was not sure this morning if I wanted to write about my beach umbrella, or Thomas Jefferson. As it is July 4th weekend, let's go with Jefferson.

I have never been a huge Jefferson fan.  It started when I went to Benjamin Franklin Junior High. The town's othe junior high school, and our rival, was Thomas Jefferson. So being anti-Jefferson was in my upbringing.

Jefferson was a back stabber, and all bets were off when he turned against George Washington. After that incident, Washington never spoke to Jefferson again.

Yesterday there was an op ed in the Times that discussed Abraham Lincoln's opinion of Jefferson, which was mixed. Lincoln's law partner remarked that Lincoln "hated" Jefferson.

Well, if Washington and Lincoln didn't particularly like him, I am with them.

I wonder how they (and others such as Hamilton and John Adams and John Marshall, all Jefferson haters) would react to the Jefferson Memorial.  A temple to Jefferson. Is he deserving of that shrine? I think they should take it down. Build a memorial to the Founding Fathers.  Include Jefferson, but add Adams and Hamilton and John Jay and Madison, among others who were responsible for creating this great country.

The probably won't even happen. It's Ok, though I like to think about that sitting under my beach umbrella.