Constitution Day

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, 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.

Not bad.  A bunch of guys got together to amend their government, decided to throw the whole thing out and try again, and the work they did has held up for 224 years.  They were human, with all of the failings that all humans have, but their work has only had to be amended a few times in over two centuries.  We're still a republic, even with all of our troubles.  It hasn't been easy, and it has rarely been fun, but we're still here.  Millions of people left their ancestral lands to come to the country those men created, and we have spent the last 100 years helping others to know freedom.

I, Daddy J. Bear, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.So help me God."

I took that oath the day after my 18th birthday, and I still read it occasionally to remind myself that our country isn't built around loyalty to a particular leader, party, or ideology.  It's built around loyalty to the concepts that a group of planters and merchants put together during a hot summer in 1787.  When we forget that, we are doomed.