Saturday, March 10, 2018

If you want to participate in this nation

... there are rights to be preserved, and rights to be surrendered.  

That's George Washington's perspective as well as that of the other members of the Constitutional Convention.  When they submitted the Constitution to Congress, Washington in his accompanying letter explains  ...

New citizens celebrate after taking the oath of allegiance.

It is obviously impracticable in the Federal Government of these States to secure all rights of independent sovereignty to each, and yet provide for the interest and safety of all. Individuals entering into society must give up a share of liberty to preserve the rest. The magnitude of the sacrifice must depend as well on situation and circumstance, as on the object to be obtained. It is at all times difficult to draw with precision the line between those rights which must be surrendered, and those which may be preserved; and, on the present occasion, this difficulty was increased by a difference among the several States as to their situation, extent, habits, and particular interests. 

In all our deliberations on this subject, we kept steadily in our view that which appears to us the greatest interest of every true American, the consolidation of our Union, in which is involved our prosperity, felicity, safety—perhaps our national existence. This important consideration, seriously and deeply impressed on our minds, led each State in the Convention to be less rigid on points of inferior magnitude than might have been otherwise expected; and thus, the Constitution which we now present is the result of a spirit of amity, and of that mutual deference and concession, which the peculiarity of our political situation rendered indispensable. 
That it will meet the full and entire approbation of every State is not, perhaps, to be expected; but each will, doubtless, consider, that had her interest alone been consulted, the consequences might have been particularly disagreeable or injurious to others; that it is liable to as few exceptions as could reasonably have been expected, we hope and believe; that it may promote the lasting welfare of that Country so dear to us all, and secure her freedom and happiness, is our most ardent wish. 

    GEORGE WASHINGTON, President.
  By the unanimous order of the convention.

___________________________________________________________

All are created equal.  Each has inalienable rights.  Each deserves the full respect and support of the nation and of every citizen.  We must understand, however, that we are each a part of the whole, not the centerpiece.  Were our interests alone to be satisfied, the consequences might be detrimental or injurious to others.  If we are willing to be so informed, we might become less disagreeable and more respectful.  We might make a place in the discussion for the interests of others.  And we might be less willing to accommodate the extremist, the racist, the elitist, the exclusivist corruption in our own thinking ....