To Secure our Liberty

It seems interesting to this young student of history that we have so quickly forgotten our founding, so quickly lost hold of our footing and disembarked from what our founding fathers established this government as. Is it not inextricably clear that this government was founded on the premise that it's sole duty was to ensure the liberty and freedom of it's citizens?

Many times we hear of people fighting to know the right way to interpret the Constitution and our founding documents, people speak of these documents as living and growing, adaptable to the changing environment and climate of our world and culture. However, the truth is that our government, even by it's more liberal founders, was never intended to be the socialist machine that it has become. Was our government established to provide food for the hungry, homes for the homeless, clothes for the naked? No, while these things are important to do for others, they are not - and never were - a part of what our government was founded to do. You see, the founders of this nation knew that this was the job, not of the government, but the Church.

If we listened to those around us it would be easy to believe that our government was created so that we can the 'right' to live however we want to or however makes us feel good. We fail to realize that our government was founded to secure those rights which are inalienable and self-evident, endowed by our Creator.

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...

The Declaration of Independence

As we can plainly see, from the very pens of those who founded and drafted this nation from inception, the sole reason that this goverment was "instituted among Men" was "to secure [the] rights" of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." It takes no scholar, it takes no divine revelation to interperet the simple words of these men - men who pledged life, fortune, and sacred honor to back up these sentiments. It is simple and straightforward that the goal and focus of the establishment of this seperate and unique nation was to simply secure those rights which were most basic.

It is very important that the word pursuit is inserted here in the text. You see, the founders of this nation saw fit to guarantee some things - like life and liberty - but they saw it wholly unfit to provide for the happiness of it's people. They realized that this would be an impossibility; however, they did guarantee something which is very important. They guaranteed the possibility of happiness, they guaranteed that we have the right - the inalienable right - to pursue happiness. Our nation was never formed to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give money to the poor, roofs over heads, healthcare, daycare, medicine... it was never meant to provide our needs, it was made to secure that we would have that ability. It was birthed to secure our rights to live, to have liberty, and to pursue happiness - nothing more, nothing less.

We can see in our Constitution, as clearly as in the Declaration, these same principles established through words so carefully penned that we can have no question as to their intent.

...in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, 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.

Constitution of the United States of America

To begin with we need to understand the beginnings of the statement "to form a more perfect Union." This idea of a union was developing through hardship, and the first attempt at this union utterly failed in the form of the Article of Confederation . So...in order to form a union which was "more perfect" a union which would ensure those rights which were established by the Declaration as inalienable and endowed by the Creator a framework had to be established. Here, in the Constitution, this framework is developed. And if one looks closely at this document and evaluates the implications behind it one can easily establish that the reason this is a framework and not something much more involved and intricate is simply that it was formed to secure the rights of its citizens.

We see the establishment of the basic structure to ensure those inalienable rights over and over in this document. Look at the next thing listed here, the establishment of Justice. Is it not easily seen that the sole reason for justice and law is not to impliment restraints on freedoms, but to ensure that we have the aforementioned rights? We have to realize that our rights are just that...ours, and that each in this nation has their own. The reason that Justice had to be implimented at all is because our founding fathers understood that there would always be those who sought to usurp the rights of others and abuse the rights which were their own. In order to secure that these rights were upheld for all, a set of laws began to develop and the oversight of these laws and establishment thereof fell under the blanket of what we call Justice. Now, notice that the founding fathers leave this open and do not establish these laws specifically - at least to great extent. This is simply verification of what I have already stated. This testifies to the fact that this was simply a framework and an undergirding of the basic tenants and principles on which the founders believed this nation needed to survive. And this may be an interesting study for another time, but notice how we have changed since we have digressed from these basic principles and ideas.

It is logical progression through the next few topics and easily seen how they pertain to the ensuring of the rights established in the Declaration. Domestic Tranquility and Common Defense are inextricably linked and for the sake of time I will simply state that without a good control on these that a nation could not exist for any memorable period. Through history we have seen culture after culture fall because these two things waned in importance. Realizing that a threat from within or a threat from without could just as easily destroy a nation, our founding fathers set this before the government as a duty toward its people. Where we see unchecked civil unrest there is revolution and bloodshed... the very people who are supposed to be protected by the nation have to witness the death and slaughter of their own. And from without... we all remember seeing pictures of WWI and WWII, Korea and Vietnam, and more close to our memories of wars in the Middle East. If these things are not on the mind of the established government, if they are not being addressed we can see the outcome. We all remember the holocaust, despite the few disillusioned and blind individuals who close their eyes to the blatantly obvious. You see, the establishement of domestic tranquility and common defense is vital to the protection of those rights which are so precious to us - life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Now, I come to probably the most misinterpreted concept in the whole of the Constitution, at least by our generation. The founding fathers saw fit to "promote the General Welfare" of its people. First we have to establish what the current view is. It was no mistake that government aide programs wear names like Welfare, do not be decieved to think that this is some coincidence. We have been conned into believing that 'individual welfare' is the same as 'General Welfare.' See, Individual Welfare was never the plan for this government. Individual Welfare is what we see in governments which we more commonly see bearing titles such as Communism and Socialism. It means, at least from a governmental perspective, that we are resposible for every single individuals health, wellbeing, education, and lifestyle. We can see this today, people from every state regardless of political leaning or ethinic origin falling before the government with hands out and mouths open. Please do not hear apathy or contempt, but realize that this is as much a frustration with the Church in America as it is the government. We have lost our understanding of our roles and duties, we have forgotten what these things in fact even mean. We have decided that it is easier for the church to put this burden on the establishment of government and told them to do with dollars and programs what we as the Church should be doing with loving hearts, hands, and yes... finances. But, we have lost sight in so many areas. I am simply attempting to open our eyes a little wider to see the folly of our ways.

Now that we know what Individual Welfare is we need to establish what General Welfare is, and I think at this point you might be starting to have a good idea of what our founding father's meant when they deliberately penned these words. I say deliberately because that is the truth. These men deliberated at great length and with great passion about the exact words which would be allowed as the text of both the Declaration and the Constitution, but specifically the Constitution. When they say "the pursuit of Happiness" or "the General Welfare" you can take that concept literally to mean what it says. If we could not take it literally, who in their right mind would have adopted this as the exact text? Could it not have been rewritten? But, this is the text that was adopted, was voted upon, which we now fall under as citizens of this United States of America... I digress.

So, the General Welfare of a nation has to do more with a healthy culture and a well-thought structure which will support the sustinence thereof than it does the specific needs of the people. Do you not think that if our founding father's intended on Individual Welfare as the direction that they wanted this nation to go that they would have increased taxes and started implimenting programs from the very beginning? But, what did they do? They inumerated EVERYTHING other than the specific text of the Consitution and the powers it delegated to the three branches to the individual states. And these things that they left to the states, can we really believe that they meant that the states would specifically get down into the lives of the individual citizen and put food on his table, or give him a health plan? Absolutely not! These people came to this nation and made it what they did through sweat and toil. They bled for this ground, not so that people could 'freeload' on the government, but so that they could have the ability to pursue something better, something more, HAPPINESS. They simply provided the means to achieve this through ensuring that the people of this nation would have the right to live free and to pursue happiness to the extent that they were willing to sacrifice themselves.

I realize that many will disagree and dispise me because of this writing. I will be heralded as some kind of right-wing, religious, constructionalist fanatic; however, I do not care what labels may be placed upon me. If a man writes truth, and can substantiate this with actual documents - and I feel that I have done both - then a man must write despite the consequences that his writings may bring. And this was the sentiment of our founding fathers, who took pens and signed their names to documents which could easily be seen as death warrants in the eyes of those they were coming against. But, they did not falter, they did not waiver in their resolve. They were steadfast and very specific in the terms that they laid their lives upon. This is the understanding that we all must come to before we quibble over interpretation of our founding documents, before we allow our political or religious bent to lay biased and inaccurate opinion in the way of truth. I hope that in some way this has been enlightening and challenging to take a different look at the current national landscape. More than this... I hope it challenges you to do something about the way you act within the republic you reside.