Constitution 101 - Lesson 1

Where to begin?  There is so much to learn!

I'm currently reading the book titled The 5000 Year Leap by W. Cleon Skousen.


I'm only on page 55, but so far it's been an informative read.  Here is some stuff that I learned:

First let's talk about the spectrum of government.  Imagine a line.  At the left side of the line there is big controlling government and at the right side of the line there is complete control by the people.  Let's call these Monarchy and Anarchy.  Neither one of these extremes is desirable, and our Founding Father's had a desire for the United States government to be as dead center as possible where people ruled with a small central government.  In the middle there is balance and order.

Monarchy--------------Balance--------------Anarchy

In order to explain this to my kids I gave the example of our family.  If the dynamics in our family were entirely to the left side it would mean that Mommy and Daddy would be barking out commands such as "Clean your room! Do your homework!  Cook us dinner!" while Mommy and Daddy are not doing much but sitting and watching TV and eating bon bons.  They thought that was very uncool.  On the other hand, if the dynamics were entirely to the right, all family members would do only things that they wanted to do which would mean we would likely never clean, we would eat out every night, and we wouldn't educate ourselves because it's so much easier to watch cartoons all day while jumping on the couch and eating junk food.  They liked the idea of watching TV and eating candy, but even my nine year old recognized that an absence of order would cause us to "get sick and hurt."

So where is the balance?  In the middle.  But what does that mean?  That means that all family members chip in and have the opportunity to voice their opinion for the common good of the family.  Both children and parents clean, parents help children with homework, and mom cooks nutritious meals that the kids help pick, while the rest of the family sets the table.  Of course this is an extremely simplified example, but my point is that too much government is oppressive and annoying and no government is chaotic and unhealthy.

Finding and agreeing on a happy middle can be a tricky thing when people have opinions.  That is why we common folk need to educate ourselves on the Constitution and find out for ourselves why the United States of America's system of government works when practiced properly. We would be wise to learn how our Founding Fathers managed to be successful at drafting this document despite their differences.  We can take that knowledge and apply those same principles to our current 21st century US citizenship.  Our Founding Fathers were men of varying opinions, beliefs, and faiths, and many of them claimed that the document was divinely inspired and their ability to complete it a miracle. I leave you with a quote:

"I beg I may not be understood to infer, that our general convention was divinely inspired when it formed the new federal constitution, merely because that constitution has been unreasonably and vehemently opposed; I have so much faith in the general government of the world by Providence that I can hardly conceive a transaction of such momentous importance [as the framing of the Constitution] ... should be suffered to pass without being in some degree influenced, guided, and governed by that omnipotent, omnipresent, and beneficent Ruler in whom all inferior spirits live and move and have their being." - Benjamin Franklin, 1787.

How can you not love Ben?  There's a bunch more good quotes in the beginning of The 5000 Year Leap from our Founding Fathers.  Join in next week.....