by Richard A. Cheatham, Press Media Group, LLC
Im on the deck of a stern wheel steamboat docked on the Mississippi River at Natchez as I write this. Im speaking onboard this week as Captain Meriwether Lewis.
Ive also recently spoken in Montana, Oregon, Texas, Illinois, Georgia, Maryland, Missouri and Virginia. I continue to be amazed at the diversity of people, places, cultures and climates that make up this amazing country. In most parts of the world places this different would actually be different countries.
What holds these diverse places together as a nation? What common interests drew them together in the first place? What level of conformity must these places agree to achieve in order to remain a country? Is their agreement to conform even relevant anymore after the War to Prevent Southern Independence in the 1860s? Whats the current status of the concept of consent of the governed?
The original idea was to form a loose confederation of states joining for mutual benefit (or not joining, as with British Colonies Bermuda and Canada). Weve gone far beyond that original idea today, perhaps too far. I frequently hear complaints from people throughout this land about how their regions uniqueness and independence is disappearing into the growing generic-ness of contemporary America.
Perhaps Americans dont really need to be squeezed into such a restrictive straight jacket. Perhaps New Yorkers, North Carolinians, Californians and all the others simply need to insist upon their right to be unique. Perhaps the nosey, pushy central government, more and more unpopular as it becomes ever more demanding, should be told to mind its own (very Constitutionally limited) business.
Thomas Jefferson (primary author of the Declaration of Independence) and James Madison (father of the Constitution) both had some rather strong things to say about these issues in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 and 1799. Just how does it come to be that an element (the Supreme Court) of the central government (created through a voluntary confederation of the states) can trump the opinion of one or more of those creator states? Is it really just an issue of who has more guns?
Citizens of all the states want life, liberty and pursuit of happiness protected. They dont always want the same things in other categories. Its just too darned bad that the central government has been allowed to negate so many of the uniqueness of the once sovereign constituent states.
Next time you or someone you know moans and groans about some loss of regional uniqueness and identity, consider how and why it might be taking place. Consider too that there may be traditional American remedies you just might have overlooked.
We dont all have to be alike in every way, even if it might be convenient for the often simpleminded and pushy functionaries of the central government. Who are they supposed to be working for anyway?
2005 by Richard A. Cheatham. All rights reserved. Mr.Cheatham is a professional speaker/writer and is syndicated through Press Media Group, LLC. Contact him through, Living History Assoc., Ltd., at www.LHALtd.com or DrawBackVeil@aol.com.