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.
I’m pretty sure that our Founders and the people who eventually voted to ratify the Constitution never intended to define themselves by it.
I’m pretty sure that they considered the liberties granted to the states and the people within the Constitution and its amendments to be self-evident, but they also realize that those liberties needed to be periodically refereed on a stage where there would be no ambiguity as to the outcome.
Hence, they established a more perfect union by creating a system of order to promote justice, domestic tranquility, common defense, general welfare and the security of liberty for themselves and those who would follow them. Having done so, they returned to their states, counties, townships, and families and paid the federal government little mind except in times of national crisis or need.
I’m pretty sure they would be surprised by the way people view the federal government and the Constitution now, when people seem to define society and their own morality by what the government does. What are those kind of people going to do when the government fails or ceases to exist? History indicates that governments like the one we have now, so invested with the power that belongs to the people and so demanding of the nation’s time, talent, and treasure, are almost destined to fail.
I’m pretty sure that the people who define themselves by the government will have no idea what to do. They will keep trying to find someone else to establish justice, insure tranquility, provide defense, promote welfare, and secure liberty, and it will never occur to them that they could do all of these things on their own if they chose.
As for me, and I hope mine, I consider these things self-evident. While having a Constitution and a government can help form a more perfect union, I don’t need a government in order to do the things I currently ask the government to do. Even while I ask the government to do them, I also do them on my own, because doing them is what liberty really means.
I am not a citizen of a government or a geography. I am a son of liberty who allows for government and geography as a more effective way for liberty to thrive.
DLH
