U.S. Constitutional preamble (We the People) and U.S. Flag
OP-ED by Brent Willoughby
Clay County, KY - Today is Constitution Day in the United States of America and it is the anniversary of the original document being signed in 1787. Many politicians will make social media posts about it and claim that they are huge supporters of it. Some truly are, while others see it only as a talking point that may strike a chord with potential voters or as the type of rhetoric that is necessary to appear to be a true lover of individual freedoms.
A small percentage of our country's people will also think of it in passing. This will be before they move on to the sports programming that highlights our nation's weekends as we enter into the fall season. Others will seek out various activities to pass the time and entertain themselves. Most will not consider anything outside of their own little "bubble." Ignorance is bliss, but only for a little while. Today, I want to take the opportunity to discuss the true problems with our Constitution, and those problems start at the very beginning.
The first 52 words are known as the preamble and are as follows...
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
These 52 words are some of the most eloquent words ever combined in the history of the English language. Most Americans don't know these 52 words, so they undoubtedly don't know the 7 articles and 27 amendments that follow them. United States service men and women, elected officials, and many others pledge an oath to uphold and defend this document. How many of them don't even know what it says? How can this be you might ask? Well for one the vast majority of our public education system does NOT teach it. How can our future generations continue to uphold and defend a document they know nothing of? It's simple, they can't. The root problem with the Constitution is right there in those first 3 words, "We the People" and I don't mean individually I mean as a collective whole.
In Pat Robertson's Book, Courting Disaster: How the Supreme Court is Usurping the Power of Congress and the People, he discusses how the highest court in our land (1 of the 3 co-equal branches of federal government) began to see the Constitution as a document that needed to be interpreted or translated to identify intent. Put into layman's terms that means the Constitution started to be seen as less of a literal set of guidelines and more as a figurative set of suggestions. I'm positive that the gentlemen who wrote the Constitution had the sufficient knowledge and motivation to keep this country from falling victim to the very things that were happening in Europe and other parts of the world. Many of these 39 men did not believe in political parties, an idea that was short lived and is another topic for another day. One thing they all had in common was the idea that a federal government needed to have parameters put into place to ensure that personal freedoms endured throughout the generations that followed.
John Adams was quoted as saying " Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." This may be the biggest problem of all. Our nation is no longer run by moral and religious people, possibly because there is such a small pool of potential candidates who adhere to these values. Many conservatives are viewed as being ripe with hypocrisy and thus disconnected from the day-to-day realities of their constituents and the problems they face. Many liberals have made politics their own form of religion and they believe that socialism has only failed because their version of it hasn't been tried yet. Both sides are lacking in leadership when it comes to any sort of moral authority. If this nation continues to depart from the path of our founding fathers and the framers of the Constitution, we will seal our own fate. We may have already done so.
Sometime today and everyday please consider the following questions...
- Do we have a more perfect Union?
- How about Justice?
- Domestic Tranquility?
- Common Defense?
- General Welfare?
- Are the Blessings of Liberty secure?
- Are our future generations (Posterity) safeguarded?
Don't answer aloud, people within earshot may ask questions and expect answers you are incapable of providing and defending. Educate yourselves before it's too late. We must return to governing ourselves first and foremost. Our money says "IN GOD WE TRUST" and many people use the name god, but they are not referring to the God of Judeo-Christian beliefs. Their gods are money, power, sex, and other worldly desires of the flesh. These are the very people John Adams was referring to and they can't be governed, and thus should not take part in the governance of others. For reference, please consider reading another OP-ED I wrote that can be found here. Thank you for your time and consideration!
I will leave you with the words of John Basil Barnhill, “When the people fear the government there is tyranny, when the government fears the people there is liberty.”
About Brent:
- Proud Kentucky native
- Husband
- Father
- Grandfather
- Former Sergeant U.S.M.C
- Member of Mount Carmel Christian Church
- Lifelong student of history and humanity
