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An Oath -- To defend and protect the Constitution.

897 views 6 replies 6 participants last post by  ccw9mm 
#1 ·
I assume he is including the 2nd Amendment.

We should all take an oath - Roanoke.com

We should all take an oath

Jay Ambrose

Ambrose, formerly Washington director of editorial policy for Scripps Howard newspapers, is a columnist living in Colorado. Scripps Howard News Service

One option for us citizens as this inaugural moment in Washington, D.C., comes and goes is to dodge the news, stay uninvolved in our communities, adopt cynical attitudes and curse those who disagree with us.

A fair amount of that is going around, and what the National Conference on Citizenship advises is that we change our ways by first doing something akin to Barack Obama's taking the oath of office.

The proposal is that we adult Americans take a citizen's oath, similar in some ways to the oath promising that the new president will faithfully execute his office and defend and protect the Constitution.

The citizen's version would involve pledges to embrace the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, to stay informed about current events and work with others to address issues, to help the needy, to vote and to practice civic decency.

Of course, before you can embrace principles, you have to know what they are. As is shown by the results of those taking a 33-question civics test drawn up by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, many don't.

We are told that the average score on this very simple, basic test was 49 percent, and here's the kicker -- elected officials did worse than that.

How do we keep our rights alive, our government limited, our exceptionalism a thing of the future as well as the past, if we are ignorant of our foundations?

The answer is that the best of what we are would then perish, and that the idea of self-governance becomes a joke when ideas are formed overly much from TV gab -- the regulars on "The View" as our chief instructors? -- instead of people engaging with words in print, with ideas clearly stated, with facts and stories in newspapers, magazines and books.

There's a crying need for more civics education in schools, as the conference says, and for more heed to the sweep of American history in our colleges and universities, not just its negative aspects, not just a selection of whatever defames.

But news consumption declines, and so does the inclination of people to get out there and do something, to make a difference themselves, to join with organizations devoted to holding up this cause or defeating another, to be politically active, and here is what we get too much of: whining and bitterness as if we have nothing to say about our own fates and a distrust of government that we ourselves shaped either by commission or omission, such as a failure to try to understand the issues and get to the polls.

The nonprofit, foundation-funded Citizenship Group has data indicating that civic engagement has fallen since the 1970s, though it also points to some favorable factors.

I myself am hugely impressed with the way in which issue discussion permeates so much of cable TV, radio and the Internet, even if some of it is diminished by superficiality and, on the Internet at least, is overly given to vicious name-calling, as if ad hominem attack is equivalent to argument and vileness the way to win the day.

So why not utter to yourself a citizenship oath, coming up with your own language while understanding that our leaders are not the only answer -- that, in fact, they are likely to be the wrong answer if vast numbers of us are not paying attention, doing private communal work ourselves and shouting approval for what we agree with and disapproval of what we disagree with?

"Democracy," said the journalist H.L. Mencken, "is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard," and there's truth in the witticism.

If we don't take our responsibilities as citizens seriously, the country will suffer and we will have ourselves to blame.
 
#3 ·
Ahhh, but did Obama actually take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution? The way Roberts bungled the delivery, he might well have been agreeing to write his memoirs rich and thick.

I'm hopeful we've got someone in office who respects the darned thing. I'm also certain we've got someone who believes what he believes, and that includes that it may be stretched and gnawed on to the point of breaking ... and that'll be perfectly okay by him.

So! Find your own oath to speak. Recite it every day. Learn, learn, learn! And keep those letters and phone calls comin', to each and every elected rep. you can find. Get involved. It matters, just as the author of that op.ed suggests. :yup:

Franklin: "... when the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic."

Let's hope ol' Ben wasn't clairvoyant. Though, he's been darned accurate so far. Let's hope the basic principles of the oath and the Constitution are adhered to in each and everything those folks do on the Hill. And, if not, let's hope each and every one of us sees such defiance of liberty as a call to action, to rise and help educate them on the true meaning of the word.
 
#6 ·
That’s just it, as an example of hypocrisy I sure do get a kick recently with Blago ranting about all happening to him as being “unconstitutional” and “they” are ignoring the rule of law, yet he has always been on the forefront in IL for reinterpreting 2A.:aargh4:
 
#4 · (Edited by Moderator)
He took the oath twice. Once in public and once in private since it did get blundered.

Something I don't understand. You go to court, you lye and get caught. You are hit with perjury charges.

You are campaigning for presented, you admit in public you don't agree 100% with the constitution. As a politician you knowing lie during your campaign. You swear to uphold the constitution (something you already said you don't totally agree with) knowing you may try to change it. Isn't this perjury?
 
#5 ·
Something I don't understand. You go to court, you lye and get caught. You are hit with perjury charges.

You are campaigning for presented, you admit in public you don't agree 100% with the constitution. As a politician you knowing lie during your campaign. You swear to uphold the constitution (something you already said you don't totally agree with) knowing you may try to change it. Isn't this perjury?
Who would bring the perjury charge? Don't the judges also take an oath and then generally ignore (or change, or invent new ideas in) the Constitution? Someone would have to charge them as well.

It's not like presidents and politicians aren't generally well-known for being liars. The wolves are watching the sheep pen.

Mel
 
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