by Lorena Shannon

Created on: August 10, 2007

For the first time in my life and only a short time ago, I read the entirety of the Declaration of Independence. It is no longer properly focused on in schools, the same as the Constitution and other key points of American identity. We are losing something so important to our everyday lives, and it leaves us more and more ignorant, generation by generation.

The event that spurred me to acquaint myself with a centuries-old dream was a conversation I had with my grandmother a few weeks ago (the film National Treasure, likewise, provided inspiration). She is a staunch Republican. I'm not. I've actually gone from Republican, to Independent, to Socialist, to Democrat, back to Independent, and onward to something else entirely that doesn't really classify in the course of my lifetime. "Democratic Socialist" is what the online game, NationStates, called me for a while, and that was when I lived in the United Kingdom. Now, with my studies into the Greek and Roman forms of government that our own was based upon 231 years ago, a number of fundamental issues have come up in my head.

Firstly, it is a horrible pet peeve of mine to hear someone refer to the United States as a 'Democracy'. It's not. It wasn't actually meant to be. Note Article IV, Section 4 in the United States Constitution:

"Section 4 - Republican government

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence."

There is a reason why the first politicians ran for office as 'Democratic Republicans'. They took the best of what they knew from the Classics-as, during that period, they were particularly infatuated with them (Latin was tossed forth as being our official language due to its universality)-and meshed them together into a system that has worked for over two centuries. The problems arise when humans are thrown into the mix. Socially, morals have changed (perhaps 'degraded' is the better term) over the years, and this becomes impressed upon other things. It cannot be expected that we adhere to the same traditions as they did in the 1700s, but the basic principles should never change.

After two months of watching various news channels with my grandmother, most of which contained debates held between different representatives of the political parties, I reached a simple conclusion: our government,

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>