Ending and Beginning

For many people, maybe even most people, this question is meaningless or irrelevant: What is the United States of America?

But it’s a question I’ve been asking myself for years now without ever arriving at a satisfactory answer. What is it that causes that swelling of pride in your chest when you hear the star-spangled banner play or you read a news report of Americans doing something noble and good in the world? There are people out there who don’t feel anything like patriotism, and there are people out there who have never questioned and only accepted.

But for questioners such as myself: What is the United States of America? Is it the citizens? Is it the people running the show in DC? Is it the land?

I don’t think it’s any of those. But now I do think I’ve come up with my answer: it is the ideas laid out in the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution.

And I’m starting to feel that we’ve gotten so far from the ideas contained in those two documents that it’s time for all of us to do something about it. I don’t want a revolution, but I’m beginning to believe that the government of the United States has been captured by the financial sector, and that the citizens of this country are seen as no more than slaves to the elite ruling class.

And for what it’s worth, a long time ago, I took this oath:

I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.

This entry was posted on 10 April 2009 at 12:31 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.