When one considers the history of the United States you wonder how it managed to stay together and not blow apart into small pieces that scattered into infinity as a good idea gone bad.
Our history is a giant melodrama filled with grandiose ideas of being God’s own, glorious and disgraceful wars, demonizing national politics, policies that practiced greed over patriotism followed by policies choosing patriotism over greed. Sprinkled throughout this mosaic we have moments of incredible generosity and blatant self-serving.
And through all this tumultuous history we manage to remain standing. The inevitable question is why?
Many will choose our spirit and entrepreneurship - others our incredible resilience and economy - still others a military stronger and more durable than any other. And to some extent, all are partially right.
Perhaps our resilience is based on something more abstract and fragile. I believe the resilience of the United States is based on the simple and direct words of our Constitution.
What is amazing about the Constitution of the United States is not only its straightforward declarations, but the fact that the majority of Americans continue to believe in it as the law of the land. (With the notable exception of our civil war) This is a remarkable trust between a government and its people.
As a result, no matter how calamitous the time, though the people may rant and rave and disagree with each other, they allow the law of the land to play itself out and eventually right the situation to the satisfaction of the majority and the begrudging acceptance of the minority.
We should take heed to preserve this fragile relationship with a document and the people it serves. If ever the government erodes the people’s trust in this remarkable relationship, it will be the beginning of the slide into oblivion.
Brother Giovanni, Bureau Chief, Worldonia, Pizzaonian News Service (PNS)
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