‘Polarized” and “gridlocked” are frequent descriptions of our state and federal governments, with only bad implications for our future.

Some lawmakers and executives adamantly and sanctimoniously declare they will never compromise. They are complacently and dangerously ignorant of the nature of our Constitution and the history of our country.

Scholar D.K. Adams (“America in the Twentieth Century”) wrote: A “vital principle contained in the Constitution was that of compromise. This was also to be a source of strength, for recognition of different views and interests was thereafter to guide the development of national political life and the evolution of constitutional doctrines. The occasions when the stability of the union was to be seriously threatened were few, and they came at times when the fundamental principle of the necessity and virtue of compromise was abandoned.”

The principle of compromise applies equally to our state government. The stories in the June 12 Press Herald about the status of the state budget, bonds for Land for Maine’s Future and the Efficiency Maine bill reinforce the need to understand the necessity of compromise as a principle incorporated in our Constitution.

It has been said that those who are ignorant of history are condemned to repeat it.