RichardHarlos.com

Where does the Constitution of the United States live? I read an answer the other day that resonated within me:

As I tell law students when I speak with them about John’s case, the Constitution of the United States does not live in a vault at the National Archives, the Constitution lives in our hearts, and it’s up to us as people to maintain the values embedded in the Constitution. We cannot trust the politicians and the media to do the job for us.

What wonderful, delicious words! It’s up to who? To us! Who shall we trust to do the job for us? Politicians? No! Media? No! It’s up to us, as people to maintain the values embedded in the Constitution.

There’s a very big idea behind those little words. The ‘values’ are already embedded in the Constituion. That means we don’t need to argue or fight to get them—they’re already ours! If our rights are being encroached upon, what must we, the people, do to maintain these already existing rights?

We must act like citizens. We are citizens, whether we act like it or not. How we act determines how we will be treated. And if we act like we’re too busy to care about maintaining Constitutional rights, the government will be quite happy to introduce, and pass, legislation that benefits them, even if at your expense.

To protect what is ours, our voice needs to be heard. For our voice to have any significant influence on government, it must be a united voice, and the numbers of us who unite must be large. That’s a big challenge in today’s society, where we’re fragmented over so many issues that we appear more as a bunch of little warring tribes than we do a nation of citizens united.

The ‘United’ States? Heh… only in geography are we united. Have you ever considered the notion that ‘united we stand, divided we fall?’ It’s a powerful principle, and one that I suspect many in government already realize:

Keep the people at war with each other and they’ll be too distracted to notice that their government is gradually taking for itself the power it needs to completely rule over them. [Richard Harlos]

Yes, you can quote me on that! :)

Today in America we are greatly disempowered by a widespread apathy. Because of that, one concern that I have is that we are slowly but surely heading down a path described in the poem First They Came…, controversially attributed to one Pastor Martin Niemoller:

First They Came…

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

I think too many of us take for granted that our daily routine will just continue, forever, undiminished and unaffected by current events. As long as we can get up in the morning and do what we did the day before, or the week before, we seem to feel as if nothing needs our attention:

“If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” [Samuel Adams]

The only concern I have with Adam’s statement, above, is that whatever affects the majority of apathetic citizens also affects the minority of concerned citizens. I don’t want my Constitutional rights to be affected by the mistakes of a large group of ignorant and apathetic people, but this is precisely what is happening in America.

Broken things don’t fix themselves, America. Broken things only get fixed when they get the attention and time required to fix them. Before either of these are given, one must first care enough about the broken thing to make the time and effort to fix it.

And if it cannot be fixed, then it must—if it is necessary—be replaced. The question is, are you a do-it-yourselfer, or would you prefer to call in a professional?

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The quote at the beginning of this article comes from a very thoughtful and deeply touching article I read yesterday. I was intrigued by another’s comment of introduction, which read:

Frank Lindh believes with all his heart that his son is guilty of no misconduct and is the victim of a government intent on producing at least one villain from the tragic events of 9/11. Frank is my friend and this is the story he has waited years to tell.
-from EmilioX.

If you care at all about truth and justice, please read The Real Story of John Walker Lindh, AlterNet.org, 24 January 2006. It is both a warning and a wake-up call to all who will care.