Some thoughts are rolling around in my mind today. I want to share them with you.
First, essential events are calling our attention as common sense citizens this week. I recommend using a source that televises or broadcasts the event without comment.
Monday: Closing arguments of the Impeachment trial
Senators speak about the trial decision before them
Iowa Caucuses
Tuesday: State of the Union address to the nation
Wednesday: The Senators vote on the two Articles of Impeachment to acquit or convict
1.Abuse of Power
2.Obstruction of Congress
Second, several participants have directly or indirectly suggested that another form of government would be better for our nation. In my opinion, people are taking direction, learning civics, and forming their convictions based on what the TV tells them to do. There’s a cartoon circulating on FB that says as much.
There appears to be a phenomenal lack of knowledge about our Founding documents-the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. Citizens, if they have listened to the Court of Impeachment verbatim without media comment, will note how the lawyers have often quoted the Founders and their writings. How can we know if they invoke the Founders truthfully if we don’t know about the actual original intent of the documents? How is it that we can even think to invoke another system of governance without a primary study of our own? Should we take a lesson in the American government on the word of people because we like the way they look, speak, or dress? Should we “buy” their agenda because it sounds nice and doesn’t challenge us to think? Or should we embark on a careful study of the words of the Founders and institutions that teach original intent rather than a slow chipping away at our government?
It is my experience that those who come to this site and deeply oppose the original intent of the U.S. Constitution, and America’s founding are willing to go along with someone else’s agenda because it sounds good. They rail against our government, yet they“buy” opinions from institutions that make a hefty profit on convincing them to throw away the longest lasting Constitution in the world.
There are those who call others derogatory names because they place themselves above people whom they don’t know and have never met. There is an air of intellectual superiority instead of humility and a willingness to listen. They demonstrate by their words that they do not know their founding documents through the lens of the Founders. Perhaps they judge the Founders by today’s culture instead of the culture in the 18th century. For example, if the Declaration says, “All men are created equal,” they are offended because it doesn’t say, “All people were created equal.” It was a self-evident truth then as it should be now, that all men (people everywhere and for all time) are created equal. Then, as now, the nation had people who found this hard to accept. Yet, those words in 1776 stand as they do now- all men (everybody for all time) are created equal. Note: we are not born in equal circumstances but created in the image and likeness of God. Therefore, in our country, we are endowed by our Creator with certain God-given rights that the government can’t take away.
We do well to press on in our quest to be teachable and learn-that is, citizens who are willing to accept their responsibility to get objective training in the founding documents rather than a childish, emotion-based tearing apart of other Americans and our system of government.
May we be inspired to find the good in the American form of government and in its people this week.
This is Common Sense Civics and Citizenship. ??
