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.....

Introduction

I'm not sure what exactly inspired me to study the Constitution.  I think I just realized one day that I was completely ignorant on the subject with only a basic understanding from what I learned in public school social studies classes, a course on political science in college, and a couple of School House Rocks clips.  I never was very interested in political science and figured I would leave it up to the experts to run our country.  I never felt that my one lonely opinion made much of a difference in a vastly populated country.  However, now I realize that it does.  I'm not satisfied with the current conditions of our country and I'm not so sure those in leadership positions are the so called "experts" I believed they were.

As an American I want to take a moment of my time each week and share what I learn about the Constitution and the foundation of our country.  Collectively those of us who care can make a huge difference.  My goal is to educate myself, my children, and  anyone interested in following this blog on what makes The United States of America the great country that it is and was meant to be.  I want to learn about the kind of people our Founding Fathers were and why they spent four arduous months drafting this document that has survived over 200 years.  I want to know what I need to do to protect it and keep this country strong.  I want to be able to watch the news and better understand what they are talking about and be able to intelligently form my own opinion.  I want to feel smart.

Surely my opinion and my faith will be interjected among the facts that I present.  But my goal is to present a factual and accurate description, picture, story (whatever you want to call it) of the Constitution.  I don't claim to have perfect grammar, sophisticated vocabulary, or eloquence of speech.  I pretty much just write what is in my head.  I hope to post a lot of quotes from our Founding Fathers.

So here it goes.  I am now your new Professor (is it blasphemous to call myself a professor when I'm not really one?) for Constitution 101.  The syllabus is a work in progress.  I plan to teach as I learn.  You can reap the benefits of my summarizations and paraphrasing of the text and books that I read.  Hopefully you will read along with me too and make thoughtful and respectful comments that we can all ponder.

I'll end this post with a quote from Thomas Jefferson.  He strongly promoted education, especially that of the common people.

"Above all things I hope the education of the common people will be attended to ; convinced that on their good sense we may rely with the most security for the preservation of a due degree of liberty." - Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, December 20, 1787 (about 3 months after the signing of the Constitution.)

So let us educate ourselves and use our common sense to keep us free.