We the People
9.05.02
If you live in the United States, you can already hear the echoes of 9.11.01 thrumming across the airwaves and through the pages of magazines and newspapers as we collectively hold our breath and wait to see what 9.11.02 will bring.
God willing, that day will come and go with some degree of dignity. That’s probably too much to hope for given the commercial bonanza that the media and entertainment business intends to reap, what with all the commemorative editions and cavalcade of high-zoot, high-production-value remembrances now appearing on newsstands and televisions near you.
God willing, that day will come and go without some aggrieved soul from some far-off land finding the means and opportunity to strike another blow at the evil Satan of western civilization. That too may be too much to hope for. Time will tell.
I was there that day, something I may or may not choose to write about again. Actually, I was there and not there. I had flown to New York City the day before with the intention of meeting four colleagues at the WTC for a 9:00 a.m. meeting. The day before leaving for NYC, I decided, for reasons that I still don’t fathom, not to go to that meeting. It was like a voice in my head kept saying, “don’t go.”
So I didn’t head downtown that morning. Instead, I stayed in my hotel up by Times Square and got ready for a meeting later in the day. I saw what you saw on television and struggled with what to think about the fact that I wasn’t there and I could have been. (I wrote about that experience in an essay called 9.11.01 if you’re interested.) In the end, I came to believe that I was protected by God for some reason I have yet to see.
Why?
The question on everyone’s lips that day and the days after was, “why?” What is it about us and our way of life that could generate such hatred and loathing? I don’t have a better answer to that than the next person, but I was and am left with a feeling deep in the background that we, whoever we are, have become something to the rest of the world that we don’t imagine about ourselves.
We see ourselves as lovers of liberty and human rights, believers in the sanctity of individual freedoms, and staunch supporters of democratic government and property rights. Others don’t see us that way, or if they do, don’t see the value or point in those ideals. Or some of both.
The truth is, it’s not reasonable to assume that the entire world will cleave to the Anglo/American political/economic sensibility. It’s not reasonable to assume that everyone will play nice now that we’re the one and only remaining 900 pound simian. It’s not reasonable just because it isn’t.
It’s true that we’ve got the longest running show on the stage of modern nation states. It’s also true that people of every ilk line up to come here because of the ideals we represent, and the degree to which we actually allow for those ideals to be practiced in every day life. But that doesn’t mean that some game was played and we’ve been declared the permanent winners.
What leaves me at least as uneasy as the prospect of more attacks from those who loath us and the way we play on the global stage, is the carelessness and ignorance with which most of us who were born here regard the pillars of our political and social identity.
As has been true during every previous instance of national emergency, the popular sentiment has swung away from favoring the core freedoms our nation was built on. Our heightened sense of insecurity causes many of us to countenance both new restrictions on our rights to free speech, assembly, and due process, as well as greater license for governmental bodies to conduct seizures, searches, surveillance, and detentions. All in the name of a greater perception of security and convenience.
Without putting too fine a point on it, those freedoms and rights were ultimately won through blood and steel by people who understood and believed in high and durable principles. They all didn’t, and they didn’t all the time, but enough people did enough of the time that you and I are here today enjoying a relative degree of prosperity and freedom that exceeds the dreams of 95% of the people who’ve ever lived since the advent of Homo Sapiens. Giving up those freedoms just because we’re scared, or worse, ignorant of the gifts that our national progenitors gave us is a sin without forgiveness.
Love of Country
I’m not entirely sure I’m a patriot. As I understand the word, it means “one who loves, supports, and defends one's country.” I certainly have patriotic feelings, and I love my political and social freedoms, but I don’t know that I truly meet the definition of the word. If I said otherwise, I’d be engaging in an intellectual conceit, because the truth of the matter is I’ve never been put to the ultimate test.
When I was in college, I had a very low draft number but didn’t serve due to an educational deferment. Didn’t serve and didn’t want to serve. Slogging through Vietnamese rice paddies seemed like an incredible waste of life for a cause that then and now doesn’t add up to a patriotic duty: there was no real threat to defend against, and there was no political consensus to support. By the time I was out of college, the undeclared war was declared over, so I was never required to serve.
Today, it’s unlikely that I would be called to take up arms for my country which makes the discussion of my patriotism largely academic. Except that I have a son who’s about to turn 16 and the thought of him suiting up to jump into Baghdad or Tehran or Khartoum or wherever sometime in the near future makes my heart ache. It’s easy to breathe the intoxicating air of indignity and feel the hot flush of patriotic fervor when someone else is doing the fighting. It’s another thing altogether when the one heading into harm’s way may be your son or daughter.
In The Course of Human Events
That same son is now a junior in High School and is studying American History. The stuff about the Pilgrims and the merchant princes who settled Virginia is interesting, but for me, the real history begins in 1776 with the Declaration of Independence.
In so many ways, this is an astonishing document. Nothing like it had been written before, and very few political manifestos that have been written since have been so durable, so profoundly influential, and liberating to so many. It is 1333 words that changed the course of the world, and practically none of us living in the U.S. know the first thing about it, with the possible exception that it was signed on July 4, 1776 (and some don’t even know that) and that John Hancock has a really impressive signature.
I actually sat down and read it the other day. I implore you to do the same. The part that stirs the soul and serves as an anthem of freedom for all mankind and all time is the second paragraph, which reads in part:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
These are remarkable words, ones not written or attested to casually in light of the fact that the “Form of Government” that had become “destructive to these ends” was the most powerful economic and military force in the world (Francophiles can start whining now, but the days of Napoleonic glory were yet to come, and the French Navy was no match for the British). The problem with those words, if you can call it a problem, is that in one sentence, Thomas Jefferson and the gang set the bar way up there—as they should have—and we’ve been struggling and striving to live up to the standard ever since.
Read the words again. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Did our political forefathers really believe these words? Do you? After more than 200 years, there are still people of color and the distaff set who would claim that their social, political, and economic experience doesn’t yet match that powerful proclamation. Whether or not you or I agree with those sensibilities is irrelevant. That’s what the canon of Americana says, and that’s what believers expect.
The words of that same declaration ring in the ears of the better read amongst the politically disenfranchised in other places in the world. Again, you and I can be completely dismissive of what we read about and watch on TV, but there are plenty of people in Palestine, Kashmir, Ireland, and a dozen other places who would put a check mark next to every line of our Declaration of Independence. The same would be true for Tibet and any number of peoples who saw their freedoms and political identities washed away in the aftermath of the Second World War. While we deplore the violence and may side with the other guys, we can’t ignore the fact that the same cry of freedom that motivated our political ancestors motivates people even today.
A More Perfect Union
The Declaration of Independence led predictably to war, later victory, and finally the exigencies of creating a nation. That a nation was created, that it endured, and that it expanded, grew, and prospered is nearly a miracle. It is a progression that few peoples have successfully navigated since that time. Our own Civil War less than a hundred years later nearly undid the whole thing.
Nation building required a constitution, and after much pushing and shoving, the Constitution was adopted by a convention of the States on September 17, 1787, and was subsequently ratified by states on the following dates: Delaware, December 7, 1787; Pennsylvania, December 12, 1787; New Jersey, December 18, 1787; Georgia, January 2, 1788; Connecticut, January 9, 1788; Massachusetts, February 6, 1788; Maryland, April 28, 1788; South Carolina, May 23, 1788; New Hampshire, June 21, 1788. Ratification was completed on June 21, 1788. The Constitution was subsequently ratified by Virginia, June 25, 1788; New York, July 26, 1788; North Carolina, November 21, 1789; Rhode Island, May 29, 1790; and Vermont, January 10, 1791.
For different reasons, The United States Constitution is every bit as remarkable as the Declaration of Independence—and even fewer people have read it. Including headings and sub-headings, it is 4609 words. The next issue of Sports Illustrated or Newsweek or People Magazine that you pick up and read will be longer than that, except this document is the bulwark of your political freedom.
Unlike almost any other constitution that’s been written since, the one I’m talking about has been remarkably resilient and resistant to official change. It has been amended just 27 times, though the fabric that the framers wove has been tugged and tattered through the zillions of pages of statutory laws, bureaucratic codes, and judicial rulings that have been disgorged since then.
Forty three presidents have come and forty-two have gone, along with untold Congressmen, Senators, Judges, and Generals, and the document on display down at the Library of Congress—the one that Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Roger Sherman, James Madison Jr., George Washington and 34 others signed—is still the law of the land just the way it was ratified over 200 years ago. It is a legacy of stability that you and I take to bed every night, even while people in other parts of the world seek to undue the government and governing canon they live under and replace it with something that you and I would find politically and socially repugnant.
But of our own political canon, the most profound and important part may just be the 482 words we call The Bill of Rights. These are the first 10 amendments to the Constitution that were ratified December 15, 1791. It is these that stand guard at the portal of our way of life. They read as follows:
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Amendment II
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Amendment III
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.
Amendment VII
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
Amendment VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
When most people toss around the terms “rights,” “freedoms,” or “liberties,” it is of these that they speak. And freedoms they are, freedoms that you and I need to cherish. Freedoms that we should not be so quick to let our legislators legislate away or our President brush aside, regardless of how scary the world feels.
Though the threat feels new and different from what we’ve faced in the past, we need to understand that our national power derives not from nukes or the NSA, but from a mythic, psychic coherence and integrity that springs forth from the very ideals and values that were given voice in the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights.
Our enemies are betting that in the end, we will stop believing in those values. That we can be turned inward against ourselves in a fit of terror, hatred, and uncertainty. That we’ll withdraw from the world and ultimately from each other. This, we cannot let happen.
When we stop believing in our values, when we stop according each other the dignity, individuality, and trust that those values require and support, when we stop believing in the fundamental goodness of each other, we become lost. The bad guys will have won. We’ll descend into an abyss from which there will be no easy return. And if that day comes, it will come not at the point of someone else’s sword, nor by bomb, by biological agent, or by similar dastardly act. It will come quietly and gradually because we stopped believing in and living our ideals.
We’ve been given a legacy. It is not ours to fritter away, particularly out of laziness, ignorance, or neglect. 9.11.01 was this generation’s wakeup call. There is plenty about our national policy, business practices, galactic stupidity and callousness towards mother earth, and social norms we can bemoan and/or disagree about. But our heritage of freedom, liberty, and the dignity of the individual should not be, cannot be, up for grabs.
The words written in The Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights are not “their words,” they’re “your words.” The planes crashed and the buildings fell in large part because there are people out there who don’t like those words or what they stand for. It’s your patriotic duty to know those words and what they mean. Read them. Love them. Live them. Defend them. They’re strong and powerful words, but not without you and me knowing and believing in them.
You can find The Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights at http://www.archives.gov/exhibit_hall/.
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Last modified:
05/03/06