The Founding Fathers defined America very clearly, with powerful words that cannot be misunderstood, or changed.
From the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence we read: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among theses are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
And this is the opening of the Constitution: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, 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 words are essential to our society. If these words cease to have meaning, America is doomed.
You must meditate on these words if you would be true to America. You must know and understand these words, and love them, and be loyal to their meaning and purpose, because these words are America. If you don’t love these words, you should go live elsewhere because only those who love these words, and are guided by them, belong in America.
The final words of the Pledge of Allegiance are: “Liberty and justice for all.” If you have placed your hand on your heart, and uttered these words, you have taken a sacred oath, committing yourself to doing your part, to establish a society where all are free, and are treated with equal justice, and given equal opportunity to experience tranquility and happiness. You were not taking an oath of loyalty to your own happiness, but to the general welfare of all Americans. You vowed to work for liberty and justice for all, not just for the lucky who can secure those blessings for themselves. You were not vowing to pursue your own happiness and personal well-being.
These words of the founders of America placed its citizens in a contract with one another to establish unity, tranquility, and justice, and to promote the general welfare of all. We must live up to these words.
David Higgins
San Luis Obispo
This article appears in Sep 3-13, 2020.
Thank you , Sir.
Everyone of us should read carefully all these documents.
Try to memorize the Enumerated Powers of our Congress. The list i short and can be learned. Then when you see Congress reaching beyond it’s enumerated powers, you can speak out to object and refuse to send incumbents who deny any limit to their power back to Washington again and again.
Goldwater famously said:
I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size.
I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom.
My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution, or that have failed their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden.
I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is “needed” before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible.
And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents’ “interests,” I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can.
Barry Goldwater
I think many (I’m mainly thinking of Liberals, but really this applies to anyone) have forgotten that equality means the street must go both ways. It is unjust to expect our desires to be upheld while trampling on the rights of others, then be upset when the tables turn. It is dishonest to call disturbances “peaceful protests” when buildings are burned and people are beaten in a neighboring town, and then call them “violent riots” when the same acts are committed at our doorstep. It is hypocritical to say that it’s too dangerous to gather to worship, or to support an opposing political party, and simultaneously say it’s safe to gather for political purposes that support our own agenda. I ran across the phrase “liberal privilege” the other day, and found it just so apt. In this day of everyone claiming that privileges exist to demean and devalue others, it’s not just those in “the system” that risk behaving badly. Be careful how YOU fight for justice, or you might just be exercising your “liberal privilege” to cause others harm in the name of what you perceive to be righteous.