The U.S. Constitution turns 226 years old today. Think about that. Our form of government, often wrongly identified as a "democracy", is one of the newest experiments in self-governing on the planet. The Constitution did NOT set up a democracy, one man, one vote. It set the guidelines for a representative republic, based on unalienable rights of individuals who consent to be loosely governed by an elected body restricted by the Constitution. Unfortunately, we have seen more "democracy" in a mob-rule spirit that has slowly but surely eroded our Rights and Liberties.
We have lost touch with the Republic that our Founding Fathers fought, bled and died to secure. A form of government so far beyond anything the world had ever seen before, set forth in a four page document, and later The Bill of Rights (10 amendments). The Constitution, adopted on September 17, 1787 consists of seven articles. The first three embody the doctrine of "separation of powers", checks and balances, a safeguard to ensure against unilateral rule by a dictator (I'm talking to you, Mr. Obama.) The 4th and 6th articles define "federalism", dealing with the relationship between State and State, and the relationship between the States and the federal government. The 5th article sets out the procedure for amending the Constitution, and the 7th article provides the procedure for ratifying the Constitution.
In 226 years, the Constitution has only had 27 amendments, the first ten were proposed on September 25, 1789 and ratified December 15, 1791. These became the Bill of Rights. Unalienable Rights. God-given Rights. The Constitution did not GIVE us these Rights, the Bill of Rights did not GIVE us these rights. All it did was enumerate them, say "Hey, we're just the government, allowed by the citizens to take care of business on a limited scale, and we acknowledge that we have no power to give or take away these certain things. That's God's business." How far our government has strayed from the Founding Fathers' vision and intent. How far have the citizens willingly, mind-numbingly followed like sheep to the slaughter. How heartbreakingly tragic that the simple act of embracing the Constitution and demanding a Constitutional republic marks a Patriot with a bullseye for tyrants.
Today, I challenge every person who reads this to follow the link and read the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It's the least we can do.
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html
6 comments:
Great post!
Have my copy of a pocket Constitution and Declaration of Independence right here at the computer / operating position. Never know when I might have to look something up to respond to an email or blog post.
Terry
Fla.
I still remember most of it from memorizing it in school.Went back to refresh.Thanks for the reminder Angel.I totally would have missed it.
Great post! I keep copies of the constitution and bill of rights in my car to give to those who don't know it.
I too, have a copy of the Constitution handy. We need to find some people to put in office that still believe in it.
I have 2 different pocket copies on my desk, one "modern" and one printed in 1951. The 51 edition has quite a body of notes in it, sadly missing from the modern version. I read it often, usually in disgust as our "government" finds new ways to ignore it's simple words.
One of the greatest documents ever written by one of the greatest groups of free thinkers who ever lived and congregated together in one place.
As I tell my students, it is responsible for the greatest freedom and accumulation of wealth by the greatest number of people in the shortest amount of time in the history of the world.
The only mistake I have ever thought it contained was lifetime tenure for Article III judges. I do not fault the founding fathers however as even they could not have conceived of the usurpation of power by the federal judiciary( from the supremes down to all inferior courts). God Bless James Madison and his cohorts!
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