"At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst."- Aristotle
"You can’t handle the truth!"- Col. Nathan R. Jessup (A Few Good Men)
"Your silence gives consent."- Plato
And so here we are good friends, in the year 2009. The great experiment known as The United States of America comes to yet another crossroad in its history. Follow me below the fold.
The first crossroad that we came to as a nation, was in the year 1865. The United States of America had just finished its bloodiest war to determine, if in fact the words of its preamble in its Declaration of Indepence had any real meaning, namely:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Of course the end of that conflict did not infact make all men equal. What it did do however is start the process to achieve that goal. Granted it took an additional 144 years of toil, bloodshed and sacrifice to get to the point that we can at least somewhat honestly say to everyone: "You to may reach the pinacle of power and privilege in this country, regardless of your background." But at least we can say that after such a long delay!
What you may ask is the 2nd crossroad that we have come too? That my friends is where our traveling Greeks and Americas's favorite neo-con come into play.
To paraphrase Aristotle, the veneer between civilization and barbarism is literally a thin black line. That line is also in a preamble of a important historical document. Allow me to quote it:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, 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.
You will notice, that everything in that document follows those first three words. We the people... not We the Republicans, not We the Democrats, not We the Heterosexuals, not We the Homosexuals but WE THE PEOPLE! It is We the people, when we ratified the document, that is commonly refered to as the United States Constitution, that stated that it is with the People that ultimate power actually resides. All others, our politicians, judges, and military leaders owe their position strictly by our leave. The only thing that we demand from them is this:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
or
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God
or
I do solemnly swear (or affirm), that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent on me, according to the best of my abilities and understanding, agreeably to the Constitution, and laws of the United States. So help me God.
Thats it, thats all, the only thing we demand from the people that we entrust our power too is for them to swear to uphold and defend, not We the People, not even the Country that we founded, no the only thing we demand is that our Representatives defend (with their lives if need be) this most sacred of secular documents and the laws that are within it.
Which brings us to the second player of our unlikely triumverate, our favorite (fictional) neo-con Col. Nathan R. Jessup. For those few who may have missed this movie, the jist of it was that Col. Jessup ordered the torture (and unintentional death) of a Marine he felt was weak and therefore a danger to the security of his unit and (ironically) his base in Guantanimo Cuba.
As the trial of the three low level Marines proceeded, Col. Jessup eventually took the stand, and the defense lawyer demanded to know the truth as to what transpired the night that the young Marine was killed. Col. Jessup then yelled out that memorable quote..."You can't handle the truth!"
So, is what our favorite neo-con said true? Are We the People unable to handle the truth? Over the last week it has become clearer and clearer that not only did our Representatives over the last 8 years not uphold the Constitution and follow the Laws therein. No they actively went out of their way to subvert it and break the Law in doing so! If We the People do not insist that our Representatives, who swore to uphold the document we entrusted to them, be brought to justice for violating their Oaths, then my friends it is not they (the ones who violated their oaths) who betrayed us, no I would say it is We the People who betrayed ourselves! For if We the People willnot or cannot defend and uphold Our very own document, then we cannot expect others to do so on our behalf!
After all as the last of our triumverate stated.....
"Your silence gives consent."- Plato
RMD1035
(Thank you for reading this long post...it certainly is much longer than I had originally planned on...thats for sure!)