Among the surest guarantors of liberty is to have a readily understood document that lays out the processes, terms, length of tenure in office, and purview of those charged with the governance of a specific entity. The Constitution of the United States of America is a wondrous document that does precisely that.
It came, wisely, with its own first set of amendments. Those Amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, were not so much a statement of the citizens' right, however, as they were admonitions to the government being established. The Bill of Rights limited or forbade not the Citizen who is the sovereign in a Republic, but rather the Government itself from exercising certain powers and prerogatives. Several of the subsequent Amendments were restatements of what were thought to be rights drawn from natural law, having to do with matters such as equal protection under the law and the normalisation of individuals who had been suddenly thrust from bondage into the status of citizen. Two of the later amendments were mirror dances, passed on this day, and then repealed some other day down the road. Those amendments could best be described as the first feeble attempts of the Utopian Progressive movement to force people to be perfect humans according to the definition of.....The Government, and then the repeal of said actions when it became apparent that no good could come of them. Such was the uselessness of the Prohibition Amendment, which was perfectly stupid, and the Repeal of Prohibition Amendment (not including States that desired to otherwise limit, prohibit, or regulate alcohol's sale and/or consumption), also fairly stupid.
El Gringo Viejo is very much opposed to Prohibition of the minor vices, and somewhat opposed to the practice and/or partaking of those same vices. He is typically conflicted, and typically Episcopalian in his world-view.
We would urge all OROGs to inform their children and grandchildren about the Constitution. It can be done in a couple of hours some day when a 10 year old can be locked in to a brief project that doesn't hurt or stink. We would urge that before speaking to your 10 year old torture victim, it would be very advisable to have read the entire document and to understand it. One good way to start the session is by telling the victim that the American Constitution is the shortest of all such documents in the world. It can be read by a moderately involved person in less than 20 minutes.
When dealing with your learned child, it can be readily pointed out that all the mechanical breakdowns in our society at this time stem from the enactment of programmes designed to "help" the downtrodden. And it can also be pointed out that all those programmes cost much more than previously anticipated, and almost all are subject to very considerable financial and moral corruption.
We commend this document to your hands. What is not used either rusts or is lost.
El Gringo Viejo
