They used to teach children about the Constitution in our schools. During my grade school experience we were told to memorize the preamble to the Constitution. I'm afraid that today the majority of the kids attending any school, public or private don't even know what the preamble to the Constitution is. They used to teach kids that America isn't perfect, but we were always looking for ways to improve. A lot of black people get angry when a white person (me) says slavery was wrong. At the time the Constitution was written a lot of the men who signed it thought slavery was wrong. The guys who wrote the part about all men were created equal knew slavery was wrong so they wrote the document in such a way that future generations could debate the issue of slavery and eventually abolish it. Democrats didn't like that idea so they declared war on the United States and began a four year war during which hundreds of thousands of Americans died to abolish slavery.
The guys who signed the Constitution were not evil men. They weren't even bad men. They were human and they made mistakes just like we do. They were also thoughtful men and for the most part they were honorable men. And they were mortal men subject to all the problems that mortality brings. There were men among them that believed that slavery was necessary to their financial survival and they knew that slavery didn't start in America. The slaves here were also slaves in their native Africa. Tribal leaders sold them to others and eventually they ended up here.
No that doesn't justify slavery. But certain concessions had to be made if we were going to get the Constitution ratified. Thomas Jefferson didn't just write the Constitution one day and then get a bunch of people to sign it, it took thirteen years to get the Constitution ratified. Once it was drafted it had to be shown to delegates from each of the colonies. And the colonies each had their own ideas about what had to be added or subtracted from the document. After years of debate and threats to dissolve the Union before it even began, the Constitution was finally ratified by all of the colonies. That didn't end the debate entirely, but most people were happy with it. And is has withstood the test of time. It endures because it grants each citizen the opportunity to succeed for fail in life. Sometimes life isn't fair. It isn't the Central governments role to steal from one man and give to another.
It is the role of each person in America to create their own road to success. Today many Americans don't even know what the Constitution is. And one of the major parties is trying to set it aside as a relic in a museum and then impose a new form of government. They don't believe in Freedom of speech or of worship. They don't accept the sovereignty of the individual, preferring instead the sovereignty of the state over the rights of the individual. The Constitution was designed to stop the Central government from trampling on the rights of the individual. It puts limits on government power not the individual. We elect our officials, they aren't appointed by kings or other rulers.
If we are to remain a strong nation we need to get back to the Constitution. We need to appoint judges who respect the Constitution above all other laws in the world. And we need to protect the Constitution at all cost. Once liberty has been lost it is almost impossible to get it back. It can only be regained by fighting a brutal war and killing a lot of people. We must vote for individuals who respect the ideas of all Americans. Compromise is not a dirty word. Sometimes it is the only way to preserve the peace.
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