Where is Harry when we need him?

I was raised in Southeast Missouri and was taught that Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the United States, was a Patron Saint. Well, perhaps he wasn't a saint in the most Catholic sense, but he was a saint to most Missourians. Old, "give 'em hell, Harry" -- as he was called in some quarters -- was known for many "common man" traits.

He liked to pour his hot coffee from his cup into his saucer and blow on it, then pour it back into the cup. That is not what you would call a practice for "polite" company but it is certainly a practical approach to cooling down your coffee. And, old Harry was known to be a practical man.

He had a sign on his desk that said, "The buck stops here." It was his reminder that eventually someone had to make a decision, and he was the final decider. That was certainly true with the lend-lease plan that supported England during the years of World War II, with the atomic bomb that ended the war, and it was certainly true with rebuilding Europe after the Great War was over. For those reasons and others, he is revered today as one of our top 10 presidents.

Who could forget the famous Chicago Tribune headline in 1948 that said, "Dewey Defeats Truman?" In truth, I'm not sure anyone ever defeated Harry Truman. He was his own man from beginning to end and he made an art form out of doing what he thought was right for the American people.

President Truman was not known as a great speech maker, but there is one I would like to call attention to today. It was given on Dec. 15, 1952, at the National Archives to dedicate a shrine that held the original Constitution and several other major documents. He said, "The Constitution expresses an idea that belongs to the people, the idea of the free man. What this idea means may vary from time to time. There was a time when people believed that the Constitution meant that men could not be prevented from exploiting child labor or paying sweatshop wages. We no longer believe those things. We have discovered that the Constitution does not prevent us from correcting social injustice, or advancing the general welfare. The idea of freedom which is embodied in these great documents has overcome all attempts to turn them into a rigid set of rules to suppress freedom."

In short, he told us that the Constitution lives and breathes; it is a Constitution of principles and not of rules and regulations.

From time to time we need someone like old Harry to remind us of the genius of our founding fathers and the brilliance of the words by which we are governed. If only Harry were still around to give 'em hell when they need it.