Don’t stand by; stand for Constitution

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The Constitution of the United States, and the Declaration of Independence which preceded it, are enduring documents. They were written by our founding fathers and the framers of the Constitution.

Many of us were brought up to respect them. We were taught that the signers of the Declaration of Independence pledged away their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

ConstitutionFacts.com states that, “They were mostly men of means who had a lot to lose if the war was lost. Nearly all of them were poorer at the end of the war than at the beginning.”

“They showed tremendous courage and bravery by willingly putting their names on a document that could bring about their deaths. They were remarkable men,” says The Chicago Tribune.

Now all those signers are being vilified. Some, who are trying to tear down our country and rewrite history, are writing that those statements are only myths.

They do this by debunking the things that we have learned about our founding fathers and framers. They want us to believe that they were not men of high moral intent to form a more perfect union but had baser motives.

I never thought much about George Washington and Thomas Jefferson owning slaves. I suppose that they thought the higher ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness would prevail.

Slavery in American was ended in 1865 after a bloody war that divided the nation, and a million and a half lives were lost. About a hundred years later, the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 was signed into law.

The founding fathers are dead. Slavery is abolished. Discrimination is outlawed, but the Constitution lives on.

What the founding fathers created is greater than they themselves. Even if they were a group of elite white males, primarily for their own economic and political benefit, what they created has far superseded their lives. It has allowed you and me and generations behind us, the freedoms that we have today.

Let us honor the Constitution. Read it. Know it and preserve our freedoms for generations to come.

By it, presidents take an oath of Allegiance to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

By it, all U.S. military take an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

At every meeting, the American Legion and Auxiliary say the Preamble of the Constitution of the American Legion which starts out, “For God and Country, we associate ourselves together for the following purposes: To uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.”

The VFW’s, oath of membership starts out, “I do of my own free accord, solemnly promise and declare that: I will bear true allegiance—to the Constitution of the United States of America — and will always be loyal thereto.”

All patriotic lovers of the ideals of this country should not stand by and see others tear down our founding fathers, the Declaration of Independence, and the U.S. Constitution.

I, for one, will not.

Linda Mider is Americanism Chairman, American Legion Auxiliary, Marion Unit 179, Blanchester.

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Linda Mider

Contributing columnist

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