Forgotten Search of the “Perfect Union”

This editorial was graciously submitted to the Political Spectrum by Coleman Moreing, a reader from Southern California.  Reader submissions and questions are always welcome.  To submit anything for consideration by the Political Spectrum, email Zach Foster at politicalzachfoster@gmail.com.

Forgotten Search of the "Perfect Union"

By Coleman Moreing

As one of those who have grown up in the United States, I was taught the words of the Preamble of the Constitution. I learned the words but did not fully understand what those words meant.

Written words can have a lot of power especially these words: “In order to form a more perfect union.”

With all of the recent turmoil going on: the economic downturn, electing inept politicians whose only concern is to make sure to keep up the divisions of economic, political and social strife, we tend to forget what the Founders left us. A dream, a goal that through all of the problems this country faces we continue to strive. We strive to constantly improve our union. Much like the goal Kennedy gave of putting a man on the moon in less than a decade. Think about it. We strove to send a man into one of the harshest environments known to us and we BROUGHT IT BACK! Why? Why would we risk such a thing? Simple answer… because it was a goal!

What was left to us all those years ago was a goal. Why did they do this? They looked back through the past, to all the great societies, Babylon, Greece, Rome, Great Britain, all of them had lofty expectations to make the best societies but they lacked one thing simple thing. “The Rights of the Individual.”  The right of Self- Governance. All the others had kings and emperors. Someone who, at their whim, could remove any law and any right granted whenever they wished.

This is what makes a perfect union. It is more than just the land we have; it is more than the lines of the states drawn on a map. It is the Individual that makes up that goal.

That dream is of a more perfect union for it is a goal that makes us go on, to continue to work and improve but not through some edict written up by some lawyer and adjudicated by a judge or legislated by a governing body.

I have heard some people say “We are a Democracy”. NO! We are a Union of Republics. If we were a Democracy then all would vote on every issue that came up, and I would imagine that chaos would ensue. Our Founders understood this but they also understood that a Union of Republics could not stand if they did not give the Rights of the Individual FIRST in all things.

It was an individual who wrote the preamble and gave us the words “A more Perfect Union”. We have people now that have been attempting to dissolve it, saying things like “this is not the ‘50’s”, “oh that is so 20th century” but is it? We can “live together, because it’s only a piece of paper”!

No, it’s not. It’s a COMMITMENT.

So to form a more perfect union is a commitment, a goal and a promise; that if we strive for that perfect union it can see us through anything!

Will we ever make that “perfect union”? I don’t know but I hope not totally, because without a goal, a purpose or a dream, eventually our Union, our Republic will cease.

The constitution was outlined in the way it is for that very reason so that no one person is above one another. Not a President, nor Senator, nor representative or Governor . There have been lots of experts we see in the evening news who say that the constitution is a living document. NO it is not! It is a foundation, the bedrock of our nation of laws. So if we have perfection then where can we go from there? There will be nothing left to build on and nothing left to learn. And all that is built will crumble beneath our feet.

Have we as a nation forgotten what our duty as citizens are? That is a question you will have to put to yourself! As for me, I have remembered that forgotten dream. Although I am not perfect, I seek to form that dream of “A more Perfect Union!”.