Alone in the Car: A salute to Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison, (1847 - 1931) was born in Ohio and our state has claimed him a favorite son ever since. Edison lived most of his life in other states, but our hearts our endeared to his for several reasons:
1. His inventions were incredible. He was always coming up with another idea or improvement. Most know he had a lab with many employees and they contributed their part. His theories and research started it all.

2. Edison had disabilities and was highly intelligent. For those of us who root for those that can't fit into the square culture has defined as "average or normal", Edison is our hero. He had a hard time hearing and had ADD. His mother taught him at home.

3. Edison is famous for this quote, "I never quit until I get what I'm after. Negative results are just what I'm after. They are just as valuable to me as positive results." As a true entrepreneur, he believed a negative result got him one step closer to the invention/discovery.

I write a salute to Thomas Edison today because there appeared a news story about him through the State of Ohio mid-budget review conference committee. Their recommendations go to the General Assembly (passed) and then onto Governor Kasich.

Edison's statue will represent Ohio in Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol. Two statues (people) represent each state. I am glad the General Assembly chose Edison because he truly changed the world. Just think about electricity and the electric light bulb. From darkness into light. That brought on an explosion of inventions that evolved human kind.

Could Edison and his compatriots of his day make the same impact today? Would they be free to experiment like they did in the late 1800's? And perhaps into the early 1900's? What government policies, regulations, laws would slow down their progress comparing to what our small businesses have to go through now to back then? I am talking common sense of course. Some things we know now they didn't know back then with chemicals and so forth, so that has to be taken into consideration.

Again, I am looking at this from a panoramic view. We have to support freedoms to fly, to try, to discover, to ponder. Of course there are common sense boundary lines. They come after the dreams and during the practical application. Our country was founded on wide open spaces and that includes our brain.