When traveling or living abroad, I have taken with me a
sense of pride of the US. Not that I expect people I encounter to love the US
as much as I do because that would be silly, but I believe I was fortunate to
be born where I was.
While reading the news lately, I actually consider jumping
ship and just watching as a country that I have been taught to love implodes in
a cloud of bigotry and hate. I don’t mean this as a threat like I did with my
2008 election plans to make a run for Canada if Obama lost. With more and more
reflection of where I am in my life and what I want my life to be, I seem to be
facing serious ideological differences with a country that I once loved.
It scares me that in North Carolina teachers are allowed to
carry guns. I find it to be offensive that primarily upper class white men are
deciding what I can and cannot do with my own body. More than anything, I don’t
think I can live in the same country as people who believe rape is part of
human nature and so men just can’t help it.
Gun control, abortion, same sex marriage, education. What do
these things have in common? They are all predominantly states rights under the
Constitution. Anything that could have possibly arisen in the past two hundred
years automatically falls under the jurisdiction of individual states. Basically, because the Founding Fathers couldn't predict the future, individual states can do bonkers with a "heartbeat bill."
Which brings me to
another point. The spirit in which the Constitution was written is not the
spirit or conditions in which it is now read. Cool, we have the oldest constitution
in the world. You know what is a lot cooler? A federal law banning automatic assault
weapons or nationwide legalization of same sex marriage. Why can’t we accept
that the Constitution was written in a different time and its practical
application is hindering rather than promoting the quality of life of all American citizens? Law makers could still create laws in the spirit of the Constitution
and founding principles of the country without being bound and constricted by
an irrelevant document written by what were basically a group of privileged
white men to begin with.
With no disrespect for the founding fathers, of course.
"Why can’t we accept that the Constitution was written in a different time and its practical application is hindering rather than promoting the quality of life of all American citizens?"
ReplyDeleteYes, this. I don't think I've seen it put a better way.