A few clouds. Low around 65F. Winds light and variable..
A few clouds. Low around 65F. Winds light and variable.
Updated: July 18, 2022 @ 11:23 pm
RUSHVILLE – Given all the consternation, divisiveness and polarization that’s currently going on in this country at the present, its time, I think, to remember one important point that seems to have been lost on many of us. That point is this nation is still a work in progress despite how for we’ve come in the last 246 years.
Let’s take a brief look at what the Constitution of the United States of American actually says on this point. We don’t have to look very far. Here’s how the Constitution begins: “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.” The spelling and punctuation, by the way, reflect the way the original document was written. Notice, however, there is no deadline mentioned in that initial paragraph regarding when all those things were to be accomplished. There’s no mention regarding when the Union was to be perfect. There’s no mention regarding when Justice will be established, or when domestic Tranquility was to become a reality, for example.
I am inclined to suggest that we are still working toward all of those objectives, as well as all the rest of the items mentioned in the Constitution: common defense, general welfare, and securing the blessings of liberty to themselves and their descendants. Doing all of those things didn’t and won’t happen overnight or even after 246 years. They are all grand ideas, but when you stop to think about the sweeping nature of all those goals, like ensuring domestic tranquility, how do you go about doing that? The first question that needs to be asked, in my opinion, is what did the Founders mean by domestic tranquility? You can’t very well ensure it if you don’t have a very clear idea of what domestic tranquility is! So, what’s been going on, at least in my view, for well over the last 200 years is continually working to clarify and define what a goal like domestic tranquility really means. For example, does domestic tranquility mean the same thing today as it meant to the Founders when the Constitution was written in 1787 or when it was ratified by the necessary nine states in 1788?
One of the things the Constitution does is it separates the powers of government into three branches: the legislative branch, which makes the laws; the executive branch, which executes the laws; and the judicial branch, which interprets the laws. Does anybody see any difficulties contained in the previous definition? For whom does the legislative branch make the laws? The states? The people? What powers do the states have to make laws that aren’t in conflict with the laws made by the federal government?
Another purpose of the Constitution was to set up a system of checks and balances that ensures no one branch has too much power. What is “too much power?” What sort of checks? What types of balances? We all know, in a general way, what is intended by the statements of purpose set out in the Constitution. But, as they say, the devil is in the details.
Here’s one more example to illustrate what we’ve been going through, and continue to go through, down to the present day. The Constitution divides power between the states and the federal government. Which powers? How did the Founders intend power to be divided between the states and the federal government?
When you stop to think about the answers to these and a ton of other questions, I think you can begin to see why we are still evolving as a “more perfect union.” That’s why, a least in my view, those people who think we should have answered all of the foregoing questions and hundreds more need to cut the nation a little slack as the process of achieving the goals set out in the Constitution continues.
One other point. We have not always put the right interpretation on what the Founders had in mind. Take the case of Dred Scott v. Sandford, decided in 1857, for example. As awful as it sounds today, the Supreme Court ruled that African Americans were not and could not be citizens. Further, that the Founders’ words in the Declaration of Independence, “all men were created equal,” were never intended to apply to Blacks! In essence, the Court ruled, Black Americans, regardless of where they lived, were believed to be commodities. Historians widely agree the Dred Scott decision was one of the worst racially-based decisions ever handed down by the United States Supreme Court. This terrible decision was overturned by the 13th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution. My point in mentioning this case is to show how we were then, and continue to this day, to evolve as a people and a nation. We have not yet reached the goal of being a perfect union, but we’re working on it, and that’s an essential part of working to ensure liberty is all about.
That’s —30— for this week.
Paul W. Barada: news@greensburgdailynews.com.
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First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
