Sunday, December 03, 2006
Dear Reader,
We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourelves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America.
This is the preamble to the Constitution of the United States. It lays the framwork for the entire Constitution and also lays the premise, or stable data for what follows. Anything that follows issues from the ideals above. Therefore it makes sense to determine what the above means in terms of the time that it was written. Not in terms of today. Once we know what the intention was for that time period, we should be able to see how that tanslates to the present.
On October 1 I went over some of the preamble, and basicaly left out the first line. So I am here putting in my 2 cents worth on this.
We, the people of the United States... At that time was the 13(?) colonial states, inhabited by immigrants from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. There were some other nationalities too such as Germans, and Africans. The Constitution was written for the political leaders by one man and was approved b them after a few rounds of disagreements etc. So it was not the original idea, but the agreed on one based on the politial climate. That is not my area of expertise, but I would venture that the idea was that people would be translated to mean responsible citizens. Not the slaves, nor the indentured servants.
In order to form a more perfect Union..... The states were somewhat insular and non-cooperative. It required quite some work to get the representatives assembled and then to agree on the Constitution. But it was done as it was evident that the might of Britain could only be thwarted by the combined efforts of the colonies. Together they could survive. Separately they were at the mercy of the British Army and Navy. A perfect union would be one with no disunity, no self interested separateness.
The rest of the preamble is covered in the 10 October 2006 blog.
The question of what freedom really means, I will have to handle in the next blog. At this time, I find it rather daunting. But address it I must, and see what response it evokes!
Stephan
We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourelves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America.
This is the preamble to the Constitution of the United States. It lays the framwork for the entire Constitution and also lays the premise, or stable data for what follows. Anything that follows issues from the ideals above. Therefore it makes sense to determine what the above means in terms of the time that it was written. Not in terms of today. Once we know what the intention was for that time period, we should be able to see how that tanslates to the present.
On October 1 I went over some of the preamble, and basicaly left out the first line. So I am here putting in my 2 cents worth on this.
We, the people of the United States... At that time was the 13(?) colonial states, inhabited by immigrants from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. There were some other nationalities too such as Germans, and Africans. The Constitution was written for the political leaders by one man and was approved b them after a few rounds of disagreements etc. So it was not the original idea, but the agreed on one based on the politial climate. That is not my area of expertise, but I would venture that the idea was that people would be translated to mean responsible citizens. Not the slaves, nor the indentured servants.
In order to form a more perfect Union..... The states were somewhat insular and non-cooperative. It required quite some work to get the representatives assembled and then to agree on the Constitution. But it was done as it was evident that the might of Britain could only be thwarted by the combined efforts of the colonies. Together they could survive. Separately they were at the mercy of the British Army and Navy. A perfect union would be one with no disunity, no self interested separateness.
The rest of the preamble is covered in the 10 October 2006 blog.
The question of what freedom really means, I will have to handle in the next blog. At this time, I find it rather daunting. But address it I must, and see what response it evokes!
Stephan
Labels: Constitution, preamble
