I had a discussion with my husband a while back about the Constitution. And how perfect it is. And how strange that seems, since it was written by mere men. And how I don't think I would willingly sumbit myself to any document written by mere men today, but have no qualms about accepting every sacred word that was written 220 years ago. And how odd that is. And yet how perfect I still think that document is.
My brain runs in circles.
But as I was reading The Second Amendment and the Personal Right to Arms (via Instapundit) this morning, I was struck by one paragraph that reminds me again how beautiful our Constitution is:
There is, to be sure, in the Second Amendment, an express reference to the security of a "free State." It is not a reference to the security of THE STATE. There are doubtless certain national constitutions that put a privileged emphasis on the security of "the state," but such as they are, they are all unlike our Constitution and the provisions they have respecting their security do not appear in a similarly phrased Bill of Rights. Accordingly, such constitutions make no reference to any right of the people to keep and bear arms, apart from state service. And why do they not do so? Because, in contrast with the premises of constitutional government in this country, they reflect the belief that recognition of any such right "in the people" might well pose a threat to the security of "the state." In the view of these different constitutions, it is commonplace to find that no one within the state other than its own authorized personnel has any right to keep and bear arms--a view emphatically rejected, rather than embraced, however, by the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. [emphasis mine]
The perfection of our Constitution lies in the fact that the people of the United States are more important than the government. Obviously this is common knowledge for anyone who knows a darn thing about the founding of our country, but it bears repeating, lest we forget just what a unique and wonderful experiment our country is.
I am just so happy to have been born here. It sure saved me the time and energy of having to get here.
And I really miss Bunker right at this moment. That man knew the value of the Constitution and would've loved that I was having these thoughts. I sure miss his attagirl comments.
Posted by Sarah at November 21, 2007 11:04 AM | TrackBackYeah yeah if the constitution is so perfect why did Ben Franklin suggest we might want to have a constitutional convention to re-examine and possibly update it every 20 years or so??
Posted by: Bubba Bo Bob Brain at November 21, 2007 06:21 PMHow can someone who loves the constitution support the bush administration?
Posted by: Will at November 22, 2007 07:40 PMHmmm - those didn't look like the response Bunker would have given. *tsk*
I am going to follow this case very closely, because of the arguments that may come from both sides. My gut says it's an easy decision, and I certainly hope that the court will decide in favor of personal gun rights, as I believe that is core to the intent of the 2nd amendment. I don't think we're going to get a slam-dunk here though.
I'm glad to have been born here as well, and plan to exercise my 2nd amendment rights at the range one day soon.
Posted by: Barb at November 25, 2007 01:11 AM