"We the People..."

The content of the post on Ron Paul has opened the door for me to discuss my favorite topic.

We rally behind the flag because it is a symbol of our nation, but we forget that our nation would not and could not exist without the Constitution. It is the founding law of our land, the principles that give us freedoms of which other nations can only dream.

When it was written, there had never been anything like it in all of human history. No nation had ever attempted the brave experiment our founding fathers set in motion.

Who knew that a few pieces of paper could change the face of the world? Did the authors realize the profound effect their words would have on generations to come?

I had the chance to visit the National Archives in January of 2007 on my honeymoon. D.C. is a ghost town in mid-January, and my wife and I had many of the landmarks to ourselves. Three specific instances stand out in my mind: having the Lincoln Memorial to ourselves, having the Vietnam Memorial Wall to ourselves, and having the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom to ourselves.

"We the People of the United States, 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."

I stood there and stared at that phrase, unable and unwilling to speak in the cavernous room. Good men and women have given their lives in protection of the values embodied in that single sentence. So strong was the faith of our founding fathers in the ability of those words to serve as protection for all the people of the United States that our leaders swear an oath not to the people, but to the Constitution.

We the People, indeed.