An interesting contradiction you present. On the one hand, you refer to the founding documents of the world's most durable *free* country as "dusty old documents". on the other hand, you say that "they would be stunned and saddened to see what America has become." I do very much agree with this last statement.
Yet you want to move even further away from the ideals of our founding fathers, by potentially overturning their principles as embodied in our founding documents. The very strength of our nation rests on the *sameness* yesterday, today, and tomorrow of the ideals and principles outlined by our dearly departed founding fathers.
The very idea that our founding documents should become "living" i.e. flexible, interpreted loosely or even rewritten by the political whims and winds of the current political powers is, in my opinion, the most repulsive and degrading thing any caring United States citizen could imagine. Sorry, but we quite disagree on that. Yes, some of the founding fathers were slave owners, but they were wrong to be doing that accordance to the words of the very documents upon which many of them penned their signature. In that "dusty old document" sent out to the world declaring their intention (The Declaration of Independence) we see these words by the founding fathers in the second paragraph. Considering most people probably don't read these "dusty old documents" very often if ever, I have laboriously typed out word for word the whole long second paragraph. Read these words for your edification:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, LIberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Governments. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this let Facts be submitted to a candid world........"
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Which words of this "dusty old document would you like to submit for "living" interpretation or rewrite?? No, I'm not interested in another big fight.
>>In order for societies to evolve and improve, the spirit of the country, not just the dusty old documents of hundreds of years ago, should be considered. The people who revolted against the English and created a new country were the avant garde thinkers and intellectuals and inventors of their time, and to me it is morally wrong to freeze political thought and law, and with it the health of our nation. I think they would be stunned and saddened to see what America has become.<< |
