The founding fathers wanted to create a nation based on Christian -Judeo ethics, but a nation which had no allegiance to any formalized governmental religion. And the bearers of our Constitution wanted freedom for those who were religious and freedom for those who were not followers of any religion at all. They wanted to create a nation which embraced God, but which also knew that some saw the Divine in nature, as natural and as nothing at all.
At the time of the creation of the United States of America, the founding fathers had no fondness for the rights of women. In fact women were chattel, property of men, and were necessary for bearing children, maintaining the home, while the man was fighting a war, fending off wild beasts, or farming the fields.
Slavery was a necessary cog in the economy of this new country and the Constitution had no favor for the Black man nor any fervor to abolish the owning of another human who just happened not to be white. It seemed natural to the founding fathers that slavery was not inhuman because after all it was only beast like people from a continent far away who were enslaved and indentured.
The need for a militia, the right to bare arms was, a matter of common sense to the early pioneers of this nation. There was always an enemy lurking in the brush, like the British, a wild beast, the Indian, and anyone brazen enough to try and take the homestead from the home owner. Skirmishes were abundant throughout the infancy of the building of America, and next to a Bible, the cedar chest, the logs for the cabin was a rifle. God created life and God created the rifle so any man could take a life not thought of as legit as one's own.
And marriage, well it was not identified as one between one man and one woman, nope it was a condition that morphed into the necessity of the day. For some it was the union of a 14 year old female and a 30 year old man. Move west and it was between one man and as many females as he needed to sooth his ego and strike his fancy. It was to attain dowry, material goods to build a dynasty.
Since the creation of the Bill of Rights and its 10 amendments, this nation has seen an addition of 17 more bringing the total of amendments to the US Constitution to 27. Since the creation of the Bill of Rights this nation has struggled with and realized that women were not the property of men; that the dignity of females was inherent in the democracy of this nation. Since the creation of the Bill of Rights, this nation finally came to its human senses and understood no matter the color of one's skin or the origin of ones birth place all men and women are and should be created equal. It took too much time but even minded, smart people realized that slavery was not a human right nor a civil right. Since the creation of the Bill of Rights, many people have realized that militias in a democracy are not necessary. Gun ownership comes with responsibility and respect and many of those Americans owning guns have little respect for the rights of others. Since the creation of the Bill of Rights, marriage has changed its definition and dowries and ownership of the wife are not relevant nor reasonable. And marriage is not a holy matrimony that lasts a life time and that one man and one woman do not remain one man and one woman wed for a life time.
But as this 4th of July approaches in the year 2010, there is a new revival of those who disguise their hate, their bigotry, their lack of education as patriotism and they insist that we have abandoned the 'real Constitution'. They insist on a revisionist view of history based not on facts, but on foibles and fables encouraged and enforced by a group of leaders who only love when the lemming follows and asks little question.
The Tea Baggers, the Federalists, the John Birchers, the Arayan Nationalists, the Neo-Cons all lavish and linger in an America that never existed in history but one that hysterically denies rights to those deemed unAmerican. These groups who seem to parade in red white and blue, who demand English only, white only, nothing for the poor, no big government, no taxes, no regulations or rules, no difference between church and state remember an America that never was but that should exist because they are fearful of truth and fairness, fearful of equality for all. For these groups America has strict definitions, and to create the America they want they will redefine the Constitution any way they can.
We will be celebrating the 4th of July in two days. For the time being we are still a democracy. Given the amnesia, the animosity, the egregious arrogance of those who call themselves Republican politicians who demand little truth and a whole lot of lies, will this be the last 4th we celebrate as "We The People..."? I wonder.
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