The essence of our nation, on this eve of the celebration of our birth, is solid. We were born out of a yearning to be independent of tyrants- huddled masses longing to be free. Our Declaration of Independence says it all; our Constitution defines our essence: an egalitarian self-governing system of social order. Of course, it had to be amended as social ideals and values mollified as our history unfolded. As a people living in this newly formed, and quite unique experimental vision of governance, it was understood that our Constitution was a dynamic, living document that ought to reflect the common interests and the common good of The People.
The People were to be served. The People ought to decide. Not a tyrant, not a clutch of ideologues. For centuries, our European relatives suffered miserably under both. America was born of a new vision for The People.
Yet, as with all good ideas and good intentions, the miscreants in society saw an opportunity to carve their own agendas and their own personal values into this burgeoning virgin government. And they still do. They have their own pimps in government positions all across this land- shysters who work for an agency, a business, a narrow political agenda. Not for The People.
Presently we see them hard at work in Congress to maintain the current system of medical insurance companies rather than a simplified and egalitarian low-cost insurance plan. We watch them support the oil, gas and coal industries, working against both our environment and our economic welfare. They chip away at the foundations of our public school system. They support the mining and logging companies at the ruin of our public lands. They block environmental safeguards for the benefit of big business. Others are hard at work attempting to instill religious beliefs and values onto The People.
For the past six years, we have witnessed perhaps the most egregious and flagrant imposition of personal-agenda-meddling in our government of all time when the small knot of neocons, with their own vision of World Order, were able to convince an American president to invade a foreign nation on specious allegations. The Iraq War will, no doubt, be chronicled in our history books as the moment when our national Common Good was bastardized. The stain of that highly parochial decision by the President and Congress ought to persist in our collective memory for a while so that we might learn from such a corruption of American idealism.
The People were pimped, plain and simple. Not just pimped, but propagandized with petty Patriotic fervor- a most irreverent blasphemy of our national pride. The flag, symbol of all that we stand for, was waved before our eyes, obscuring the dastardly plans of that small clutch of ideologues, the neocons. We have blood on our hands- a stain that is difficult to remove. We ought not rush to wash it clean lest we wipe our memories in the process.
The essence of America, its fight for independence, the visions of the Founding Fathers, the writing and amending of the Constitution, the Flag, and all of the trimmings associated with our American government might be used as a metaphor with a car. I do not wish to trivilize the importance of this message by suggesting that we look at an automobile for comparison, yet that image struck me as to what might happen to our nation, what in fact has happened to our nation, when in the hands of those described above. The attempt to add on layer upon layer of personal belief, parochial thinking, narcissistic ideals and deviant political meddling might transform our nation, that car, into the obtrusive, individualized concoction displayed above.
Of course, everyone has the right to customize and individualize one's own automobile. But not one's own nation. A nation ought to be left unadulterated. Alterations thereof only at the behest of The People, by The People and, most importantly, for The People.
