We the People Not You Ruler

The first Continental Congress, a meeting of 56 delegates who affirmed the right of the colonies to life, liberty and property. They sent a letter to the King of England asking him to stop the blockade, and at the same time approved resolutions calling on the people of Massachusetts to arm them selves and stop trading with Britain. As colonists gathered arms and ammunition, the commander in chief of the British forces, General Sir Thomas Gage became concerned. On the night of April 18, 1775, he ordered his troops to seize some of the supplies and arrest two of the militia's leaders, Sam Adams and John Hancock. Thanks to the early warnings of Paul Revere and William Dawes, the militia was waiting and so started the American Revolution.

This was not a revolution mounted by one strong leader with an army to put him self in control of a country or people. It was a revolution away from how countries have been ruled and many still are. It truly was a revolution from the subjugation of the people and the beginning of a totally different way of thinking. It was the beginning of Self Rule; a concept so alien at the time that most people could not comprehend it. Up to this time the people of the world had always pledged allegiance to a specific ruler or deity. This new concept was based on the reliance of many individuals organized with elected representatives rather than the assumption of rule by the most powerful. As stated in our Preamble of our Constitution, it was we the people for ourselves and not for some king or other ruler. To the world this was like saying up is down and down is up but it turned out to be the ideal of the people of the world and many countries adopted this form of government every time they had a chance to do so.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

The wording of the Preamble is a beautiful and well thought out beginning to the new concept of self governing. Because we are so used to individual liberty, it is hard for the modern American to conceive servitude to a king or other ruler and how precious our freedom is. We seem to just take it for granted so much that many of us are forgetting the value of what we have. We have the most precious gift of man, which is freedom, and we find ourselves discontent with what we have and forget the sacrifices by so many so we can live our lives with out fear of persecution from a government. The rights and freedom we have now did not come easily or cheaply.

Our forefathers knew that this new way of life needs to come to fruition step by step. At first only the land owners were allowed to vote. But soon through education of the masses voting rights were earned by all “free men”. It took another very bloody struggle where good men risked their careers, wealth, and their lives to abolish slavery. Not all good came from this war of the states. Most slaves were not ready for this new freedom and were easy pray by people that would cheat them and those that wanted to keep them as less than whole American citizens with all the rights owed them.

Many states passed laws that kept many former salves and their descendents living as second class citizens. This was injustice but determination of men and women fought to finally, around a 150 years after the American Declaration of Independence, afford the same rights to all citizens of the US.

In 1865 the push to give women the vote began and in 1920 women got the right to vote. Looking back at these events we wonder how it could be that women couldn’t vote until 144 years after the birth of our nation. Why did people buy and sell other people as if they were property? Prior to the brave men who concocted this new fangled way of government, that was the way things were done all over the world. All the people of the world (our ancestors included) were beholding to and under the forced rule of a selected few. In many parts of the world (not just backward areas) women are considered property and the unfortunate of both genders are bought and sold every day.

We take our freedoms so much for granted that we are losing the self reliance that made America the envy of the world. From the very beginning of the sovereignty of this country people have forsaken their birth home to come here. Never in our history were American citizens trying to flee to other countries (except for criminals seeking refuge from the law). Many of us are now turning to “entitlements”. We have begun to expect things with out earning them and envying those who have accomplished more than we. But more than that many now expect that the successful ones should give up their rightfully earned prosperity and dole it out to those who have less. In our society even the “poor” have cell phones and iPods. Thomas Jefferson said “I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” Many of us have become estranged from reality.

Self reliance, desire for individual liberty and freedom are being replaced by demands that the government take care of us. Those that ignore the alternative to our way of life are inviting the shadows of socialism to take over America. The people of Russia were promised a distribution of wealth. What they got was what they always have had; despotic totalitarianism. Communism, which ruled almost half the world, is a form of socialism. Every country that was able to shake the yoke of the Soviet Union has opted for a free society and the people are much better off. Those that stayed with it such as China, North Korea, and Cuba are all suffering terrible hardships. The people of these countries know that when you depend on a single source of all you need that source owns you and when the government can give you all you want, it can also take it away.

You probably have not read our Constitution of the United States. It is the most wonderful document ever put together by man. Read it, study it, and be grateful for it. For without it you would not be free, not have the opportunities you have now, and your life would be much less than it is now. Emory Law School: Historical Documents - Constitution of the ... Really, read it. You’ll be better off.