Liberty goes on the block

This just struck me as appropriately symbolic:

NEW YORK (AP) -- In the year 1215, a group of English barons handed King John a document written on parchment. Put your royal seal on this, they said. John did, and forever changed the relationship between the monarchy and those it governed.

The document was the Magna Carta, a declaration of human rights that would set some of the guiding principles for democracy as it is known today.

More than 800 years later, about 17 copies survive, and one of those, signed by King Edward I in 1297, will go up for sale December 18 at Sotheby's. ((I think the writer meant "nearly 800 years," but hey, math in public is hard! Good thing AP journalists have editors, unlike those rascally, unsupervised bloggers... --Jemison))

While earlier versions of the royal edict were written and then ignored, Redden said, "the 1297 Magna Carta became the operative version, the one that was entered into English common law and became the law of the land," ultimately affecting democracies around the world.

Considering the disregard shown to the Magna Carta's descendant, the Constitution, it seems fitting to see the former on the auction block. We've gone from the idea of no one, even a king--or a President--being above the law, to the idea of the Law of the Land being "just a --- piece of paper." So much for progress. Maybe history does repeat itself: we're back under a George, and some people are planning a Tea Party. Hmm....