The Grand Experiment

In 1788 our Founding Fathers established the Constitution of the United States of America. When ask what type of government they had given the people, Benjamin Franklin responded and I paraphrase: A Republic, if you can keep it. A Constitutional Republic was something that had never been tried before. This Grand Experiment, as it has been called, appears to being torn asunder at its very fabric.

Consider voting rights. This right is under attack after being so hard fought for over the years. Many contend that voting is not a right because it isn’t mentioned as such anywhere in the body of the Constitution. This belief totally ignores the amendments.

The Ninth Amendment, being part of the "Bill of Rights" reads: "The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." Since the Constitution establishes a Republic where the representatives are elected by those represented, one would suppose that voting is a right though no enumeration exist.

The framers of the Fourteenth Amendment (1868) certainly believed such a right existed. The second sentence of Section 2 begins: "But when the right to vote at any election ..." Again in the Nineteenth Amendment (1920) its framers acknowledged a right to vote: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."

So why is the right to vote under attack in so many states that are controlled by a single ideology? Is it, perhaps, an attempt to nullify the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which brought into the process many voters whom support a different ideology? Yes, these states defend their actions as working to curb voter fraud. However, in the 226 years since the Constitution was ratified, there has never been an election where voter fraud existed to the point that it altered an election. This defense is nothing more than a "red herring."

These states have gerrymandered their state to the point where a single ideology can win state election. Yet, when it comes to federal elections, which is controlled by the Constitution, they fail. So they are left with only one solution, remove from the voting pool those who support a different ideology. Sone of these states have even purposed gerrymandering the outcome of their state’s Electoral College votes.

Why has the election and re-election of our first racial minority President torn so hard at the very fabric of this experiment, the right to vote? Is the racial majority feeling so guilty about their treatment of minorities in the past, they are now paranoid about retribution? Since there is no evidence indicating that the Obama administration has done anything that discriminates against the racial majority, how else to explain the paranoia?

The experiment, while flawed in the beginning, did provide a means to correct those flaws. Three of those flaws have been corrected by constitutional amendments and legislation. The first was the elimination of slavery. The second was extending full citizenship to former slaves. The third was giving the vote to women, the Nineteenth Amendment.

Ninety-seven after the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified, Congress finally did, through legislation (the Voting Rights Act of 1965) extend to all descendants of former slave the right to vote thus enhancing the freedom the amendment promised them. And Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment does extent to Congress the "power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article."

Freedom, being very much a part of the Grand Experiment, does not exist without the right to vote. Now we have an ideology working to once again curb the freedom promised in the Grand Experiment, a promise that took 177 years to fully achieve, by restricting the right to vote.

Such action does tear at the very fabric of the Grand Experiment. If we allow it to be torn asunder, the aspirations and dreams of the Founding Fathers put forth in 1788 with the Constitution, no longer exist. We prove Benjamin Franklin correct when he questioned whether we would be able to keep and maintain a constitutional republic.

Kids Need to be Kids

I know I should be working on "Justice Tempered?" instead of venting over something I just read. However, I just can’t pass this up.

A school principal offered his suggestion to the youth of today when they complain "what can we do, where can we go?" Our school principal’s suggested they "Go home, mow the lawn, wash the windows, learn to cook, build a raft, get a job, visit the sick, study your lessons and after you’ve finished, read a book."

While there is nothing wrong with these suggestions, one thing is left out: Kids need to be kids." How many time have you read something about countries using child labor and responding that kids need to be kids?

The problem today is: Where can a kid be a kid? When I grew up we had place to play. All we needed was an open field and enough kids for a game of baseball or football. Then there was the woods where we played cowboys and indians. Robin Hood or a number of games where we used our imaginations. Today kids have none of these places where their imagination is needed to entertain them.

Without imagination, reading a book is hard. Without imagination, predicating what may happen is next is to impossible. As adults we complain, self included, about imagination not being present in the young. We complain how TV has killed imagination because it supplies all the answers. In my youth TV was an infant. We had radio programs such as "The Shadow" which required imagination. For kids today, radio is nothing more than music.

I have a great-grandson that shows he has an imagination to go along with the abundance of energy he possess. Yet, there are many times when he is using that imagination, we adults criticize him, expecting him to be a four year old adult. This is not what we should be doing to our children, expecting them to be young adults.

There are many of you that will say that times have changed. Things are just not like they were when I grew up. While that is true there is one thing that hasn’t changed: Kids are still the same as they were in 1940s when I was a kid. They still need the same opportunity to sharpen and hone their minds by using their imaginations.

The principal goes on to say the world, nor their parents owe them anything. That is far, far from the truth. We owe these kids the opportunity to be kids. We owe, as a community, not just as individuals, these kids something more than TV, video games and only sixty minutes a day "Play Time." We owe them the opportunity to sharpen and hone their minds with imagination.

Another Apology

Sorry folks.  I do, however, have an excuse for missing another Friday posting.  With the birth of my great-grandson on Monday, it has been a hectic week.  Since I am the only one in the family that does not have to report for a job, naturally I'm the one that is called upon to do the running. 

Know something though, I just love it.  I realize now how much having a job keeps one from enjoying the arrival of new members of the family. 

Not making any promises, but maybe after getting all the doctor visits for both mother and son done, I can get back to rewriting "Justice Tempered?" on a daily bases.

Terry