Col#287-6/27/26
A FUNERAL FOR AMERICA
By
Richard Davis
The U.S. is getting ready to celebrate the 250th year of this experiment in democracy. Do we really have anything to celebrate when all of the principles that this country was founded upon have been ignored and desecrated? Do we have anything to celebrate when the people we have elected allow a leader to trample on the rights of citizens and turn this country into a dream come true for a deranged would-be dictator?
What we should be doing on July 4 is having a great national funeral. We should declare a day of mourning and have funeral processions all over this country while we carry coffins containing the Constitution.
On December 15, 1791 the first ten amendments to the Constitution, the bill of rights, were ratified by three fourths of the states. There was a fear that the Constitution did not explicitly protect the rights of individuals. Those who wrote the Constitution anticipated that people in power would have the potential to abuse that power so they put in protections they believed would do that.
This is a good time to re-read the Constitution and remember why this country was created in the first place. The preamble states, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
It was recognized that the document was created for “We the people”. That means all of the people in this country. The amendments were added to the Constitution to either protect rights or give people rights that a just society should give to people, such as voting and abolishing slavery.
I urge all Americans to re-read the Constitution and all of the amendments before they consider “celebrating” the birth of this country. Too many of the individual rights of Americans have been ignored by our current president. I doubt he has even read the document. It would not surprise me if he thinks he should write his own document describing how this country belongs to him and how he should be in control for as long as he wants. That’s the way he behaves.
Don’t forget, this is a man who admires Hitler and Mussolini and who has kept a copy of Mein Kampf at his bedside. Our Constitution has been rendered meaningless by Trump and his allies because they act as if they are above the law. And, in fact, they are above the law because no one is making them accountable for their illegal actions.
When the Supreme Court gave the President a get out of jail free card, taking away the possibility of any legal action while in office, it was the beginning of the end of respect for the Constitution and the rule of law. It meant that the President was given permission to be above the law and the flood gates were opened.
The list of all of the ways that Trump has shredded the Constitution and the rule of law is long. One could make a case that we no longer have a democracy. In light of all of Trump’s illegal activity it makes me realize we have nothing to celebrate on July 4.
The only appropriate action on this July 4th is to have a funeral for America.
