I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE CONSTITUION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

[Mrs. Sharon B. Hodge]

I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE CONSTITUION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA



We the people of the United States in order to for a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure Domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

I was thinking about this after reading a blog yesterday and something struck me. A few months ago I was reading an article about the sins of the Japanese during WWII. Their invasion of China during the '30s was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people, no one will ever know. Except for the Germans, it is difficult for any country to keep proper records of these matters during times of total chaos.

A writer had been traveling to Asia, and he noted that the Japanese do not like to speak of such things.

The same response was had in Germany. Why must we speak of these things, those days are over?

A similar response was heard in Russia, when the writer inquired about the Gulags. Those days are over, he was told There was a documentary on the History Channel that discussed a photograph of Stalin in the early days following the revolution and the death of Lenin. The picture contained eight or ten pictures of Stalin and his crew. Over the years of a regime that may have been responsible for more deaths and inhumanity than the Third Reich, the photograph magically changed. Individual faces mystically disappeared from the picture of the old team. As if the men had never existed.

These disappearing revolutionaries were the men destroyed by a leader filled with paranoia and psychosis.

Our Constitution has changed over the centuries, and now it is the oldest foundation of the longest reigning Democratic Republic in the world.

I noted some weeks ago that it is fruitful to visit your local county recorder and look through the older deeds. They have been redacted. Clauses known as restrictive covenants have been blacked out by the powers that be. Almost like there were never neighborhoods that forbade the transfer of certain real property to people of the 'Negro Race" or the 'Jewish Race'.

But our Constitution is not like that.

ARTICLE I, SECTION 2:

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Person, including those bound to service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.


ARTICLE IV, SECTION 1

No person held to Service or Labour in on State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another , shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered upon on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.


We, the American People have not redacted anything. Our history is there for the reading. Free of any charge. You can read how the Supreme Court of the United States ordered that all slaves were property regardless of their location. That Negroes were not 'human beings' within the definition of that terms let alone citizens of the U.S. or any single State.

You can read how the Dred Scott Decision was overturned, not by another court decision, but by a horrible war that lasted four years and how over 600,000 soldiers died.

It took a war to overturn the single worst Judicial Opinion in our history. But any library has that decision, the full decision, no editing, no redacting, no erasures.

The word 'slavery' does not appear in the Constitution until 1865. The third amendment to the Constitution following its adoption in 1787, is the first time the word "slavery" is mentioned.

The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery. The Fourteenth Amendment provided that Due Process of Law shall not be denied any person and the Fifteenth Amendment provided that the Right to Vote shall not be denied on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.

It took over fifty years for our country to recognize that half of its citizens were denied the right to vote.

The Nineteenth Amendment provided:

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of Sex.

We do not, as a nation, ordinarily sweep our sins and our dirt under rugs. And when it has been perceived that we have, it is with minor difficulty that we are able to lift up that rug and take a look and clean up the mess.

Our victories and our defeats, our sins and our good deeds, our strengths and our weaknesses are there for all to see.

I have no problem pledging my allegiance to our Constitution. To everything written therein.

Is it entirely fair that a small state like Delaware has two senators and a large state like California has two senators?

Does our electoral system provide the best way to elect a President?

Should women specifically be given the rights under the 14th Amendment?

Speaker Pelosi along with her Democratic colleagues just passed to Amendments to the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 & 1965. She went out of her way to PRESIDE over the vote. As soon as her accomplishments have been ratified by the Senate, our new President will sign into law
specific rights and guarantees for the female worker.

Our Constitution provides a way to fix what we do not like. And that amendment process has been used over the last two centuries. It is a difficult process, but history has demonstrated that it is not an insurmountable obstacle. But think what would or could have happened if the amendment process were easier.

But certain rights and protections provided in that Constitution may be expanded by legislation as Speaker Pelosi has demonstrated.

Interpretation is another matter. If the Executive Branch is acting on the basis of misinformation promulgated only in an attempt to evade the rights, protections and procedures established by our Constitution, action is required. Our representatives must be notified of our discontent. Citizens must mobilize and make their elected officials listen. And the voting booth has been shown, from time to time, to provide a veto power to the People.

Many of us love our children just the way they are. Many of us lover our parents just the way they are. Many of us love our friends just the way they are. Warts and all.

I love our country and our Constitution just the way they are.

Change is not possible without acceptance of how things are.

It is for that reason that I Pledge Allegiance to our Constitution. Unconditionally.