"We exist in moments of gentle apocalypse"                       Roland Barthes      

 

24 April 06: Teaching myself Civics

 

I started here, with the constitution.  A good follow-on piece on the same sight can be found here, the excerpt below appealed to me particularly, but I strongly recommend the entire passage.

 

"If there is a lesson in all of this it is that our Constitution is neither a self-actuating nor a self-correcting document. It requires the constant attention and devotion of all citizens. There is a story, often told, that upon exiting the Constitutional Convention Benjamin Franklin was approached by a group of citizens asking what sort of government the delegates had created. His answer was: "A republic, if you can keep it." The brevity of that response should not cause us to under-value its essential meaning: democratic republics are not merely founded upon the consent of the people, they are also absolutely dependent upon the active and informed involvement of the people for their continued good health."

 

More Iraqis voted in their last national election than did Americans. 

 

Their government, however, has shown an unhealthy lack of progress in establishing itself, and this place largely remains a mess.  Unlike our own government, which is too well established to make any progress that I can tell.  

 

Part of what I am trying to learn from all of this is how we came to be where we are today as both a nation as well as an individual in a foreign war of choice.

 

I tend to agree with some early hopes for the direction of our nation.  George Washington's counsel to all succeeding generations of Americans from his Farewell Address:

 

“The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible.... Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns.... Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice?”

 

Some time later...

 

Celebrating American freedom on July 4, 1821, U.S. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams delivered a speech to the U.S. House of Representatives setting forth the vision of the American republic:

She has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when conflict has been for principles to which she clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart.... She goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.... She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence ... the fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force.... She might become the dictatress of the world.

 

Quotes pulled from The Future of Freedom Foundation.  I don't know enough of their views to make a complete endorsement.  They appear sever Libertarian, which I do not wholly subscribe to, but I appreciate their info.