I heard a question the other day, it was something to this affect- Do you think we need to rewrite the Constitution because it was written 231yrs ago and most of it doesn’t apply to us? The Constitution is dead. When I first heard this I was, well, pissed off. The interviewer asked this to a sitting Congressman. The Congressman didn’t out right reject this question, but he rather said he would rewrite saying everyone is EQUAL!!! He said, we have other pressing issues to contend with and honestly with the “clowns” we have in Congress there is no way it could be rewritten now anyway. So, at this point I am now mad at 2 things, one this sitting Congressman didn’t reject this outright and 2, he admits that all we have in Congress are “clowns”. I now ask you a question, ARE YOU PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN????!!!!! I think we need to address this- not with anger because that is the easy way, this is going to be an exercise of LOVE.
Let’s step back and try to understand our fore-fathers. People get confused I think because they think we changed so much, but facts are we are about the same. We have the same worries, we want the same things and we strive everyday to be better then we were before. Our basic needs, to have food, shelter and protect our family. That has never changed throughout history. If we had one cow we tried hard to get 2 cows and maybe 3. We have always tried to give our kids more then what we had, but the one thing that has never changed, every family, every person in the world- our need to be loved ( I should just do a blog about that, but we aren’t here to discuss that) I think we forget that coming up with the Constitution was no easy task. See when people first started coming to the new world, America, they were the “rich” people from Europe or around the world, they were very average to low class people. Some were crude, violent and not the kind of people you would want to take home to meet the parents. Never-the-less that is what we were working with. Over time they changed and new generations had to adopt to live in their new land. Different people from around the world, with very different views on how to do things, living in a new world having to change. Living in the northern part of the new world was very different then living in the south new world. They all had one common thing in common they wanted to get away from the monarchy. They knew that one ruler wasn’t the way. So, you can start to see that from the very beginning we were different and had different goals, the only thing we knew is the King was bad. 116 days, that’s how long it took to write the Constitution. They didn’t adjourn to go home, they didn’t adjourn because they kept disagreeing- no, they kept going till they came up with something. The Constitution is probably one of the greatest accomplishments 55 people came up with.
Our fore-fathers weren’t perfect men. Besides me, how many perfect men do you know? Ya, we are a very rare breed. Some of these men were slave owners, some of the men had mistresses, some of these men killed someone, but all of these men found a way to work together, staying in a the hall for 116 days. This piece of paper is not just good its genius. Why? It’s genius because our fore-fathers knew times would change. I don’t think they had any idea of how much, but they knew laws they made then wouldn’t apply to us now- that is why they left it open for change. To criticize them for not including women, or minorities is being fair to them. At the time the Constitution was written women were just property. You can be mad all you want, but at that time EVERYONE thought that and accepted it, ok, to be fair to say EVERYONE, probably wasn’t true, so 98% accepted it. We all know their attitudes towards minorities. We just didn’t even exist. Again, be mad, but it was the time back then. At this point I am declaring “If I have seen farther then any other man its because I stood on the shoulders of Great men” my theme– we have learned from our FORE-FATHERS.
Let’s look at what a law is- its an accepted guide we all agree to follow. I say guide because we have some very clever people out there, lawyers, that can bend and twist a law to meet their will. Now, if a law was made in 1890 it was probably made because it fit those times. If its an obscure law it never gets tested. A law is tested when someone breaks that law. That is exactly why murder laws change frequently, that is why speeding laws change frequently and that is why taxes change frequently because they get tested all the time. An obscure law doesn’t get tested as frequently so we don’t know if we need to change it, but again that is the genius of the Constitution, we have the ability to change that law.
Our Constitution gives us our BILL OF RIGHTS.
1- Freedom of Speech
2- Right to bear arms in order to maintain a well regulated militia
3- No quartering of Soldiers
4- Freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures
5- Right to due process of law, freedom from self incrimination, double jeopardy
6- Right of accused persons- right to speedy and public trial
7- Right to trial by jury in civil cases
8- Freedom from excessive bail, cruel and unusual punishments
9- Other right of people
10- Powers reserved to the States
Do you see something above that you don’t agree with or think is antiquated? No quartering of soldiers, I haven’t used that, but I don’t think its enough to change the whole Constitution. The Constitution was signed in 1789 and 99% of these still hold true to this day.
Any questions? I could write more and more to prove my point, but I honestly I would bore myself and I know you would get bored. There is no printed material that has held up for so long other then the bible. I think we can all agree that we would like to see better words used in the Constitution, but again it was the time it was written, but that alone does not mean it needs to be rewritten.
A couple days ago, maybe last week or so I posted a blog about respecting the office of President. Tonight, I’m writing to you talking about a sitting Congressman calling the other people in Congress “CLOWNS”- NO RESPECT. While I can appreciate the frustration one must have when they think they are on the right side and feeling as if nothing can get done. I battle my self-loathing demons every day. I hear that voice telling me not to do anything. Telling me I am nothing, but I fight through it and keep stepping forward. If you can’t fight your demons, Mr. Congressman maybe you should find another job. You calling your fellow Congress people “clowns” publicly shows how much disrespect you have for these people. I am an American and I can feel your displeasure with them. What do you think the rest of the world is thinking? You get on TV and criticize our President and now your fellow Congress people, NO RESPECT. Do you have children sir? If your children were on a team and their team was losing would it be ok for them to call their teammates LOSERS???!!! If your child sees you make a comment calling others “clowns” my child saw it as well. You are supposed to be a “leader” in this country. You are supposed to be setting the tone for us all. Our children will be running the world one day, that is if we leave them something to run and what shoulders will they be standing on because yours sir are not that tall and that’s not being mean or hateful I’m just being real.
This mentality with calling people names needs to stop. I don’t care if you are the President of the United States or the janitor at the Five n dime- RESPECT doesn’t discriminate. I mean if you really want to be honest the richer you are the better example you should be setting, but I don’t believe that should be true either. If this sounds cliché then so be it, we are all FAMILY. The same as all BLACK people feel a certain way because one was shot or 2 were shot by the police, the same as all Italians think they are the same as every other nationality- we are AMERICANS we need to treat each other with respect especially when the world is watching. I’m going to fill you in to something that maybe you aren’t aware of– fear is not RESPECT- if you get people to follow you by scaring them– it is not RESPECT, acting tough to scare people is not RESPECT. What you get is a following, but it is temporary. People change and when they do they aren’t as scared as they once were. If you don’t have RESPECT people will turn on you. They will never be faithful. That fear will turn into hatred and once that comes be certain rebellion is soon to follow.
If you earn someone’s RESPECT and you do it through LOVE, HONOR AND INTEGRITY you will always have a following that will do anything for you. Getting RESPECT this way is incredibly hard. I mean almost impossible. That’s probably why most go for fear, name calling, putting down, making you feel worthless and this my friends is the mentality we have right now from our “leaders” in the Government.
Allowing people to run around disrespecting our communities and trying to pull down statues are the ones that want to do away with our history. They want to rewrite everything that has happened and come up with another Constitution that fits their needs. The “leaders” of this country are to afraid to say no to them because they fear they will lose their vote. How can you hate this country so much and want to be in Government, why? Because this is where they make their money. They say money is the root of all evil, I don’t know you tell me. These people need a true leader, one that will show them what they are asking for and what they are doing is not the way. They have misplaced anger. I bet you the so called leaders of those movements are getting paid handsomely.
We aren’t perfect. We make mistakes. Being an American means we are proud, we are strong and when we do make a mistake we do it the best, but the best part of being American is how we all come together to show the world that we are the leaders that they should be looking towards. When we had RESPECT that didn’t mean we agreed with each other all the time it just meant that we didn’t put people down publicly. It meant that we were proud to be in Congress or to be President. Those in office right now are not proud. We can see that by their actions on a daily basis. I won’t let my son be like them, they set a bad example. One of my biggest demons is fear. Starting this blog was scary to me because I didn’t know how people were going to respond to me. I started this blog as a stepping stone to a higher goal. This is a way of getting to know me. Fighting my demon isn’t easy, but I keep going after him hard and steady. Eventually, he is going to concede and let me win. Even through my fights I keep my honor and integrity with loads of RESPECT. I have to because my biggest fear is my son not being proud of me. He tells me sometimes he wants to be like me when he has a family and I tell him– NO DON’T BE LIKE ME PLEASE!! I tell him, throw out everything you don’t like about me and take the good things and build upon those. See, my goal is to give my son strong shoulders to climb on so he can be better then me. If only our “leaders” would do the same.
Our Constitution is not even close to being dead it is alive and well and I for one will not ever stand of seeing this great work die.
Please please pass this blog to anyone you know that would like to read it.