179.366 - 2016 project and our founding documents

every day in 2016, write a sentence or a paragraph or a poem that appreciates

our founding documents

to be clear:  the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Federalist Papers, and the Declaration of Independence.  (I didn't even know there was a British Reply to the Declaration, but of course there was.)  when I was little, I learned in school or in the books I read from American schools (my granddaddy was determined that I know more than those Brasilians would teach me) that the United States of America was the culmination of thousands of years of history.  first Greece invented everything, then the Romans made it powerful, then England made it almost democratic, then the United States made it wonderful.  yes, we were the reason God created history.  that may never have been said explicitly, but it was there in a lot of lessons.  now I was a little skeptical of American world history:  there was no China, no India, no South America (not even Brasil!), and no Africa.  I failed to notice that there was also no Spain, no Portugal, no France, and no Italy.  later I would learn about the Balkans and Russia, and wonder how they didn't squeeze into world history.  but I digress.  in the history of our country, I was impressed by how we made ourselves.  we had been British colonies; we declared ourselves independent, and fought a Revolution to make it stick.  we argued about government until we created the Constitution, and some brave and noble men insisted on a Bill of Rights before they'd accept the Constitution.  back then, I was awed by what a wonderful job we'd done.  of course, "we" were white folks, but no one explained that to me when I was little.  (my father tried.  he told me I must never tell my playmates that there was something wrong with their skin.  I looked and I looked and concluded he was crazy.)  I really thought "We the people" meant we the people.  I really thought "all men" at least meant all men, except I thought it really meant all women too.  I thought it was part of that same trick in which you say or write "he" and mean "and her too".  anyway, hundreds of lessons later in which I learned how "all men" was slowly dragged out to include most men, then most men and most women too, I'm still impressed with the documents.  I know the Declaration means more nearly what I read than what George Washington read because it inspired Spanish colonies when they broke away from Spain.  I know the Constitution means more nearly what I read than what Alexander Hamilton read because people all over the world have used it as a model without our guns helping them along.  I have learned that, sadly, they don't have any more commitment to those words than we do, but I still think they're good words, inspiringly assembled.  if we leave nothing else to the historical record of mankind but we leave those, then hurray for us.