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By Michael Bonanno (about the author) Page 6 of 6 page(s)
As I continue to read and study The Constitution, am I really going to learn that it boldly states that those who make the laws of this nation may not make laws which help the nation's citizens obtain and maintain life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? As I continue to read and study The Constitution, will I find that it states that corporations can not be told what the minimum wage is that they must pay their employees, that they can release employees from their employ at any time for any or even no good reason? As I continue to read and study The Constitution, will I find that the federal government must ignore all of those released at random by wealthy corporations, possibly filling our streets with indigent, penniless, even dying Americans who may begin to contract and spread disease, that the federal government may not make laws stating that corporations or any employers, for that matter, may never use race, gender, ethnicity, sexual preference or other irrelevant criteria to keep the unemployed from employment and to keep those living in poverty poor, that the government has no right to ensure healthcare and decent shelter for those who are the products of the whims of wealthy corporations, their ultra wealthy CEOs and top executives? If I continue to read and study The Constitution, will I learn that, in light of the dispassionate, unresponsive, callous and numbed government that the "strict Constitutionalists" insist the foundering fathers, with malice aforethought, envisioned, those founders expected all of this nation's citizens to somehow have the wherewithal to afford to keep themselves and their loved ones healthy, sheltered, fed, clothed, educated, even while the wealthy maintain the right to do anything and go anywhere to protect and increase their wealth?
If the words "my country" truly represent nothing but an intangible, inexplicable idea which isn't supported by anything more than a lump in one's throat and a salute in the direction of a piece of cloth on a stick, then where is the patriotism in protecting that conceptual fantasy?
If, on the other hand, a nation is truly the land and the people who inhabit that land, are we to really to believe that the founding fathers defined patriotism as the capacity of the wealthy to maintain and increase their wealth by stealing the land and resources of this nation from the vast majority of its inhabitants and monopolizing the right to be healthy, free and/or happy?
Michael Bonanno is an associate editor for OpEdNews.
He is also a published poet, essayist and musician who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Bonanno is a political progressive, not a Democratic Party apologist. He believes it's (more...)
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
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