Memorial Day for the Constitution

The Constitution has been the heart of the Republic that life and limb are sacrificed to protect for more than two centuries. It represents the attitudes and values that shape the consensus of the United States and make us a nation rather than a loosly organized rabble of different factions.

It has kept us choosing freedom and liberty over the safety of cowardice and tyranny even when that meant the most extreme kinds of sacrifice. We weep for all those sacrifices of its defenders down through the years. We honor their commitment and we rejoice in their success.

When we remember it and stand by it we are strengthened, when our apathy and carelessness leave its memory in peril we cross over to the other side of the mirror to see it become part of the brush Bush is clearing away.

Since its birth our Constitution has been under attack, wounded by the Federalists, Judicial Review and Separation of Powers, stabbed in its heart by Lincoln's suspension of Habaeus Corpus during the Civil War, slapped up against the side of the by the Acts of Tenure and their repeal, and now we see the cumulative effect of the Emergency Powers abuse of the last half century.

The Warrantless Surveilance, Kidnapping, Torture, Murder, political Partaisanship and Holding without Rendition engaged in by the Bush Administration have left it seriously incapacitated. The assults of the last seven years are in the process of exhausting its last resources. What do we do once its gone; give it a medal?

Those who should be most concerned seem not to care. Our elected representatives, our congress critters, seem not to be aware of the effects of their inaction.

All of this while we are urgently faced with threats like Peak Oil and Global Warming that are likely to cause the disintigration of any remaining alleigence to government. The Constitution is there to protect us against government as a solution taking precedence over the written law.

While we may not have done right in the past by this memorable old monumement to Freedom and Liberty this weekend would be a good time to recognize its time to start and to let Congress know.