Of the United States

In last Thursday's post we examined "We, the people..." This week we will look at "...of the United States.

There are six functions of the federal government revealed in the preamble to The Constitution of the United States of America. The first of those is "...to form a more perfect union,..."

There are fifty states. At first there were only thirteen.

There have been nations that have accused The United States of America of being an imperialist nation. By any historical definition we are not, of course. To become a state, a political entity must ask to be let in. Then we must decide whether or not to let them in.

I suspect that it is much easier to get thirteen states to move together in one direction than it is fifty. The addition of more states is not something to be taken lightly.

On most other continents, the political entities are grouped into countries. Those countries may or may not be organized into states. Canada, for instance, divides itself into Provinces. So do some European countries.

If you are a country, you are sovereign. That means other countries cannot tell you how to run your affairs. Germany, for example, cannot tell France what to do. With the so-called European Union, things get a little blurred. France has refused to ratify the necessary EU documents, mostly because they want to keep their four day work week (as well as a few less important issues.)

In our country, we divide into states. Each state is, according to The Constitution of the United States of America, sovereign, except for a "few" functions left to the federal government.

Now, there is a strong tendency for those in power to seek more power. Thus the federal government has usurped more and more authority from the states. As they have done so, there has been a sort of "collective resentment" on the part of the states over losing their sovereignty. The result has been a rising DISUNITY.

Our very name tells us that we are to be a UNITED country. The first task of government revealed in the preamble is "...to form a more perfect union.

We should be becoming MORE united with time if, and only if, the federal government is doing its job.

Sadly, the opposite seems to be the case. We have conservatives vs. liberals; abortionist vs. right-to-lifers; for the war in Iraq vs. against the war in Iraq; and on and on it goes.

Why is this the case, and what can be done about it?

The real reason this came to be is that we became a nation of self-servers, the majority of whom had become disillusioned with their Christian heritage, and a nation of "new-comers" whose roots did not include the values of the majority of the people of the country to which they moved.

It is true that we have always been "a nation of immigrants." In the past, however, people who wanted to become citizens of the United states had to assimilate. They had to learn the language, they had to learn our ways (the old "When in Rome do as the Romans do"), and they brought with them a willingness to give to their new country.

Added to this issue is the problem of illegal aliens. As people illegally enter the country, they bring with them the old ways. Because they often fail to assimilate, they do not understand the mores and customs of this nation. In addition, our own attitudes toward them is inconsistent.

To their credit, illegal aliens also often bring with them, in many cases, a remarkable work ethic. Many of them are willing to do any kind of work to earn money to send or take back to their own country.

Two things we need to do about this issue: 1. Stop the influx of illegals entering the country (kudos to the Minute Men helping at the southern borders); 2. Teach the ones who are here how to go back to their countries and fill out the necessary documents to enter the country legally. They will go farther, faster if they do.

As to the issue of having become self-servers, this one is more insidious and dangerous.

As we moved away from the values of our founders, we began to elect presidents, senators and congressmen who had also moved away from those values. More and more the good of the country took a back seat to good of the individual.

Elected leaders "discovered" that they could pander to large groups of people in their areas of representation and thus ensure their re-election, which became the primary concern.

The solution to this problem is more difficult. Someone, somewhere must begin to elect men and women to office who have a servant's attitude, if not heart. Men and women who are committed to doing what is right, instead of what is expedient.

We must elect people who will lead, without being dictatorial, who will speak clearly, without parsing their words, who will understand the yearning for freedom that beats within the heart of every living soul.

We must find leaders who will lead us back to the principles laid out by the founders without taking us backward in achievement.

Most of all, we must find leaders who will dedicate themselves to uniting the country, no easy task!

Unity does not mean thinking alike. It means setting a common course. It means seeing each other as equals and learning how to behave thusly. Unity requires work, occasionally a yielding attitude and a desire to make this great experiment as a democratic republic work.

Lord, give us a government that will make it its goal to verify the words: The UNITED States of America.