The Declaration offered the “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God”
for guiding mankind’s law making. The
other codified the laws of rich and powerful men, largely ignoring the laws offered
in the Declaration of Independence.
Codifying the Declaration could maximize humanities freedom
and security. The Constitution can only accelerate
local and global chaos. (Stop blaming
Trump! He is a consequence…not the cause.)
Most people celebrating this profound day seem to believe that
the Constitution is worthy of worship and a natural extension of the Declaration. That is a monstrously unexamined assumption.
The 4th of July should be a global holiday. It’s first three paragraphs contain the most
profound pro human words and concepts ever expressed first in the English
language. And they are needed today more
than ever in our increasingly troubled era of fake news, alternative facts, and
emerging deep fakes.
The first eight words in the second paragraph “WE hold these
Truths to be self-evident…” are only doubted, ridiculed, or rejected by
mechanical intellectuals, ignorant supremacists, or Russian bots.
In
early 1861 Abraham Lincoln spoke in Independence Hall saying “I have
never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments
embodied in the Declaration of Independence…I have often inquired myself, what
great principle or idea it was that kept this confederacy so long
together. It was not the mere matter of
the separation of the colonies from the motherland; but something in that
Declaration giving liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but to the
world, for all future time. It was that
which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the
shoulders of all men.”
It would probably be an embarrassment to most Americans
grilling hot-dogs and burgers on this day to really grasp what the Declaration was
actually about. It was not about
‘independence’ -- a word that has zero practical application in the real world
where everything, literally every system and structure known to the human mind,
is interdependent. It was a declaration
that human freedom was more important than security under the unjust laws of a
powerful government. It was intended to separate us from unjust rulers.
"We the people" and our governments since then have never lived up to this profound ideal.
We may separate ourselves politically in our minds and with
lines on paper (or walls on land) but nature (both human nature and mother
nature) will inevitably shred these mental and physical barriers. The accelerating exponential growth of
technology combined with our failure to abide by the “Laws of Nature and
Nature’s God” will not end well.
Far from forming a more “Perfect Union” our nation and world
is increasingly troubled and divided under the illusion of national sovereignty
(the concept of political independence).
Our failure to keep our pledge of “liberty and Justice for All” will
continue to wither both our freedom and our security…and thus our prosperity
and leadership in a world that claims to worship ‘the Golden Rule”…the ‘law of
Nature’s God”. In one word… justice.
Alexis
de Tocqueville, wrote in Democracy
in America [1835] “The Revolution of the United States was the result of a mature and
reflecting preference of freedom, and not of a vague or ill-defined craving for
independence. It contracted no alliance with the turbulent passions of anarchy;
but its course was marked, on the contrary, by a love of order and law.”
What has
been clear since then for far too many people both here and around the world, is
that ‘justice’ was not on the American menu. Our
nation’s policies have never offered justice.
Ask the indigenous Indians or imported slaves. Or, even the freed
slaves.
Our so called “Justice
Department” enforces laws…not justice. It is a legal system…not a justice
system.
The US Constitution was profoundly flawed from the start. State Sovereignty (the freedom of states to
do as they please) was codified to dominate the “unalienable rights” of
people. A forced error that resulted in
more American deaths in a civil war than all of the wars our nation has fought
in since then…combined.
Abraham Lincoln once wrote that our “Declaration of
Independence” is “our Apple of Gold”.
And, our “Constitution” is it’s “Frame of Silver”. Our nation’s leaders, political servants,
and defending soldiers swear an oath to protect the Constitution. Not us.
Not “We the People”. And
certainly not ‘liberty and justice for all”.
Thus, the U.S. Constitution is a suicide document. It is physically impossible to keep Americans
free and secure with an unjust legal system that codifies institutions, U.S.
states, and foreign nations as ‘independent’ agents of change in an entirely interdependent
world.
If you are paying attention to expert solutions offered in
Congressional testimony or fact based forums there are at least four terms you
will hear repeatedly from experts and leaders within independent government agencies
who are seeking workable solutions to the problems under their watch. “What we need is a” 1) “comprehensive” 2) “holistic”
3) “whole of government” or 4) “whole of society” … “approach to solve” __x, y,
or z___. You name the problem…. Immigration,
terrorism, climate change, debt, health care, education, housing, toxic waste,
opioids deaths, gun deaths, obesity, cyber security, invasive species,
extinction of species…
Next you will hear another word, “Resilience”. ‘We must build resilience’. Apparently,
those who know what is needed to solve a problem also knows that their
solutions can never be effectively implemented using independent agencies or
governments.
The one sentence in the Declaration that should stand out
with immediate and relevant concern to us all… “accordingly all Experience
hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are
sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are
accustomed.”
Do we really need to wait for the pain and suffering to
reach a potentially irreversible crescendo before addressing the root causes of
our most pressing problems - the illusion that we are separate from one
another, from the environment, from the suffering of others beyond our borders,
and even from the soil, air and water that nourishes our bodies and our
brains?
For a truly comprehensive solution that would remedy many of
the global forces that are making our lives more chaotic look no further than the
17 Sustainable Development Goals. Whatever
it costs to achieve them by the year 2030 is far more affordable than paying
the consequences of ignoring them.
Nothing short of this global approach to putting human
rights above the rights of nation states will sustainably maximize both our
freedom and our security for ourselves and future generations.
We can pay now, or we will pay dearly later.
