To me, this picture best represents the preamble to the constitution, more specifically, the praise "we the people." This picture is actually not so common throughout history. The US military is by far the most powerful and globally dominant force ever to exist. The military has the power to hunt down individual people, occupy entire countries with only a fraction of its forces, or obliterate continents with nuclear weapons. There is not a single government in the world that could survive an all out attack from our military. However, if the US military were to turn on its own citizens, or just attack the opposition political party, there would be no force on earth capable of stopping them.
Yet almost no citizen of the United States wrestles with the fear of this awesome military presence just a hundred miles away. We know that we can wake up tomorrow and say what we want to say, follow our own religious beliefs, express our satisfaction or discontent with the government, and if we break a law we will be given the ability to defend ourselves. We know that we are empowered and free, even if we don't always realize how unique and important that all.
The foundation of our freedom is not in the 1st amendment, the 14th amendment, or even the 2nd. The foundation of our freedom is that every four or eight years every single member of our military wakes up in the morning entirely under the command of one freely elected civilian and goes to sleep entirely under the command of a different freely elected civilian. Even in 2009, when the president was an arguably dangerous right wing white man, the military still peacefully transferred control to an arguably dangerous left winger. By 2009 essentially the entire military had volunteered to serve during an unpopular war under George Bush. The new president was in opposition to the war. There still weren't any shots fired, the commander of Ft. Riley wasn't calling up the commanding general of the 1st infantry division to tell him, "Hey I don't like this new guy, get your troops together and lets go put Bush back in office."
The constitution doesn't begin with, "I Thomas Jefferson." or "I General George Washington." It doesn't even begin with, "We the congress," or "We the elite judges," or, "We the lawyers," or "We the CEO's," or, "We who are more intelligent, progressive, or conservative than the rest." The constitution begins with, "We the people," everything in that document and every law our country passes is subject to our approval or retaliation. Any action by the military is subject to our approval or retaliation. Any action taken by our leader ship, either in his professional or private life, is subject to our approval or retaliation. We even have the ability to completely bypass the federal government and tell them what to do if we ever chose to call a constitutional convention.
What you are seeing in this picture, is, on the left, all of us. Our will, hopes, and dreams are wrapped up in the office of President of the United States. On the right, is the essential tool of oppression and absolute power. The US military would be the crown achievement of any dictator in history. If applied properly a huge fraction of the worlds population could be enslaved by it. Certainly the population of the US could succumb under the full weight of its own military. But no matter who that person on the left is, members of the military continue to be subject under the will of the people of the United States.
I believe that was a miracle, from our earliest history all the way to today. So long as that chain remains unbroken there is no problem within our government that we can't work to fix and reform. As individuals we should continuously learn about our history and remain alert to the actions of our government. Until the day comes when the power to reform and perfect our union is stolen away from us, we are all accountable and responsible for the welfare of the country. When things are not as they should be it is our responsibility to intelligently mobilize and provide change. When the world is as it should be it is also our responsibility to uphold and defend the right path our country is on.During this project I hope to do my part to engage current issues by sharing my opinion of the amendments. I intend to do so without a care of what is politically correct, popular, fair in every ones' opinion, or fashionable.
