Postamble
…walking in democracy and driving it back and forth
Here is my answer to the question of how we Americans need “a new story” about being American. The crucible of identity created by President Trump and his ilk has given us all a chance to reexamine who we are as Americans. One way to begin with a new story is to look at what has served us in the past in terms of guidance — the 52 words in the Preamble of the United States Constitution:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, 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.”
I would like to propose the creation of a new Preamble — adding 40 more words to it. Here is my suggestion:
“We the People of the 50 United States, Washington, D.C., and its territories: American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, in Order to keep pursuing a more perfect Union, establish more integrity in our system of Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide more loving solutions for the common defense, promote better levels of the general Welfare, and secure the honor and Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, hereby update, appreciate, and live by this Constitution for the United States of America in 2025 and beyond.”
Of course, it would take an act of Congress to make this change, but we don’t really need that. We just need to use it to start a new story of where we are now…and discern where we really want to be, and what kind of legacy we want to leave because of our residence in these United States…and especially in Arizona, the state where my ancestors arrived in the late 1800s, and where four generations have been born (so far).
