We the People of the United States

What distinguishes A Civic People of the United States? Part 1 of 6. The U.S. preamble’s three propositions.



A Civic People practice and encourage responsible human liberty.



In the 52-word U.S. preamble, the subject is We the People of the United States, which may seem to include all citizens. Leftist liberals say all inhabitants, even illegal aliens, are included. Fiscal conservatives say inclusion requires reasonability.



The U.S. preamble is a proposition with perhaps three parts. First, there’s the opportunity to reject the proposition, perhaps risking woe. A Civic People comprehend and commit-to the U.S. preamble’s propositions. Fellow citizens who, aware or not, oppose the U.S. preamble include dissidents, aliens, and some perhaps traitors. Some face law enforcement. Illegal aliens don’t belong at all.



Each citizen may or may not consider the sentence and, aware or not, may think the U.S. preamble is not important to his or her opportunity for human life. A Civic People develop trust-in and commitment-to the U.S. preamble’s propositions and therefore are unlikely to suffer statutory law enforcement. When a dissident encounters statutory law enforcement, his or her reaction is to challenge the law rather than reform. In this way, failure to consider the U.S. preamble leads some fellow citizens into wasted life they would not choose; but the bad choice is personal history. Personal reform is the favorable method of recovery.



Second, the U.S. preamble states that the people in their states unite to authorize and maintain (by amendment to lessen human misery and loss) the laws for a global nation called the United States of America. We know the USA values unity:  The consequences of the 1861-5 Civil War indicate that the commitment in perpetuity can be broken only by military supremacy of the dissident faction of people. People tend to relate the 1865 consequence to states and states’ rights, when in fact, A Civic People in their state have responsibility for maintaining fidelity to the-objective-truth: Does their state have the moral high ground on which to create war. Or erroneous opinion like the Confederate States of America held: slavery is God’s punishment of a race for past sins.



Third, whereas the 1787 constitution produced a draft preamble claiming institutional, proprietary “self-governance,” the Committee of Style revised the proposition to public collaboration for human self-discipline. With public collaboration for 5 public provisions for mutual, comprehensive safety and security, every citizen would have the freedom-from oppression to exercise the human liberty-to responsibly pursue personal happiness rather than succumb to a life someone else would dictate.



I hope I have made the case that A Civic People of the United States trust-in and commit-to the U.S. preamble’s propositions whereas some fellow citizens dissent for reasons they may or may not understand.



Image: Civil War



What distinguishes A Civic People of the United States? Part 2 of 6. The U.S. preamble’s human proposition: civic self-discipline.



Self-discipline seems personal whereas self-government seems institutional. I don’t know where or when the term “self-government” originated, but it has many implications. Applied to colonial politics it may refer to local control under colonization so as to prevent oppression of the colonists: fairness to loyal, colonial-British subjects. Applied to a religious institution, its local control. For example, Catholic bishops in the USA are now challenged to at last observe statutory law regarding child abuse rather than attempt to protect themselves under canon law. Some individuals develop self-control or self-discipline. Self-discipline implies a standard, while self-government varies with the ruling regime.



Many, perhaps a majority, of the 55 delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention held that religion, in particular Christianity, in particular Protestantism, especially sectarian American Protestantism whether Unitarian or Trinitarian, in other words whatever-God-is, controls the standards for human behavior. Free citizens, mostly factional Protestants, perhaps took whatever-God-is for granted. The Committee of Style seemed to admit there is no standard in such religious diversity and did not cite religion among the 5 public provisions. After 232 years neglect of the committee’s actions, it seems time to re-consider the U.S. preamble.



In 1790, with 3.2 million free inhabitants almost 99% were factional Protestants---Unitarians, Trinitarians and other sects. Today, 14.8 % of the population belong to those traditional sects. With 329 million population, that’s 49 million traditional Protestants living with 280 million fellow citizens. The equity of imposed theism, let alone imposed Christianity, is disputed in 2019 even more directly than it was questioned in 1787. The 329 million need a new standard for public equity. 



A human being has too much physical and psychological power to suffer imposition of a God he or she neither submits-to nor praises. Whatever-God-is cannot be collaborated in civic appreciation. Therefore, the committee wrote a proposition for responsible human liberty predicated on public collaboration for 5 areligious provisions that nevertheless protect the human liberty to practice a responsible religion.



The 5 public provisions are Unity, Justice, Tranquility, defense, and welfare. The purpose is to encourage liberty to the continuum of living citizens. Religion, being omitted from these 6 key words is treated as private rather than civic, civil, or legal. Thus, citizens who are willing to collaborate for equity under the U.S. preamble’s proposition keep religion a private consideration: Separation of state from church is a practice by willing citizens. Those who would impose a religion on fellow citizens are dissidents to justice under the U.S. preamble.



This does not mean that a person’s responsible religious beliefs are wrong. Whatever-God-is must be powerful enough to deliver justice to every responsible person. Perhaps responsible believers are on psychological trajectories that lead to “the same point of light,” to borrow a phrase. Perhaps such people can be readily identified by their collaboration under the U.S. preamble’s proposition. By discovering and articulating the people’s proposition in many civic, civil, and legal applications, we hope to increase its practice in the USA.



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What distinguishes A Civic People of the United States? Part 3 of 6. “Self-discipline” an example of the human language A Civic People works to develop.



The pursuit of individual, human self-discipline rather than proprietary self-governance illustrates what distinguishes A Civic People of the United States from We the People of the United States. The former collaborate for comprehension and understanding while the latter tolerate ignorance, arrogance, and proprietary power. The former encourage acceptance of the unknown or undiscovered as well as the-objective-truth while the latter tolerate speculation using reason and other human constructs. Similarly, A Civic People seeks collaboration for individual happiness with civic integrity rather than compromise, cooperation, submission or other form of accepting arbitrary constraints on each single human lifetime. Moreover, We the People of the United States has, so far, re-instituted many colonial-British injustices, and A Civic People of the United States proposes to reform the U.S. Constitution so that it comports to the U.S. preamble’s proposition.



A prime British injustice is their constitutional church-state legislative partnership: a fixed number of Canterbury seats in Parliament. It is well known that church-state partnerships live high on the hog by picking the people’s pockets. The people neither emigrate nor rebel, because they wait an eternity for their personal God to deliver justice. Since God and government are a partnership, they look to government to deliver God’s justice. In the USA, the legislative church-state partnership is maintained “by tradition” but is codified by US Supreme Court decisions such as Greece v. Galloway (2014). A Civic People of the United States may collaborate to amend the First Amendment so as to approve and encourage individual civic integrity rather than defend the institutional business called “religion.”



A Civic People address these issues in language that most humans can relate to and collaborate to resolve.



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What distinguishes A Civic People of the United States? Part 4 of 6. Freedom-from the oppressions: 1) “don’t talk” and 2) humans tend to choose bad behavior.



I was reared under the oppression that citizens avoid if not prevent two conversations: politics and religion. If you talk, you’ll discover people are bad. However, it seems plain that many citizens guardedly talk religion and politics. I have yet to talk to an individual who prefers bad behavior.



In these 230 years of USA operations, these three subjects---religion, politics, and evil tendancy---have become so polarizing that significant pain and suffering has become a way of life in the USA. A Civic People of the United States holds that open discussion is essential for freedom-from oppression so as to encourage the liberty-to pursue personal happiness with civic integrity. Openness is essential to each citizen’s one lifetime with freedom-from institutional impositions intended to hold power throughout eternity.



Our approach is to articulate perspectives about humans, politics, and religion so as to relieve the tensions and doubts many citizens suffer.



First, religious beliefs are personal, non-competitive, and have no standards against which they may be judged. If an illegal proposal is construed as a religious belief, it is easy to show that the statutory law is being compromised, as in the case of rape by a clergyperson seeking protection under canon law. Civically, the harmless belief that Jesus’s was a virgin birth can be held private so as not to affect non-believers, and the safety of civic believers can be maintained. The believer can admit to self that he or she believes yet does not know, and therefore, would not impose the beliefs on another person.



Second, politics is public power. Each citizen may seek equity under public power---the 5 provisions listed in the U.S. preamble. The power of justice is obtained under the rule of law. Collaborators for equity seek an agreement for justice under law. In the U.S., the proposition for justice under statutory law is the U.S. preamble. A Civic People may collaborate to hold the U. S. Supreme Court accountable under the U.S. preamble’s civic, civil, and legal proposition. The standard under which the U.S. Supreme Court is judged is the-objective-truth rather than Judeo-Christianity. However, because individual citizens do not admit to themselves that their liberty to pursue individual happiness with civic integrity is in their hands, U.S. political power is controlled by competing oligarchies.



Third, humans tend to be good. A Civic People of the United States collaborates to discover and articulate the-objective-truth with clarity that resonates with human experiences and observations so convincingly that most individuals will embrace responsible human liberty with gusto, putting aside the imposition that without higher power the human individual chooses bad behavior. Every human has the authority to be good.



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What distinguishes A Civic People of the United States? Part 5 of 6. Practicing and promoting civic integrity.



What is civic integrity? A Civic People of the United States maintains a glossary. See https://promotethepreamble.blogspot.com/2014/10/glossary-for-december-15-discussion.html.



A Civic People practice and promote civic integrity as the basis for individual happiness.



“Civic integrity” means publicly expressing reasons for personal behavior and adopting any improvements the public discovers. “Integrity” is a practice: confronting a concern; doing the work to confirm the concern is not a false impression; if there's discovery, extending the work to understand how to benefit; behaving according-to or benefitting-from the discovery; publicly expressing the reasons for the behavior and adopting any expressed improvements; and remaining alert to new discovery that requires change. This is the rewarding work of responsible human liberty.



“Individual happiness” means freedom-from both external and internal constraints such that the individual has the psychological liberty-to behave according to personal preference without imposing on another individual.



It takes over three decades for an individual to complete building the wisdom parts of his or her brain and with good coaching to enter the pursuit of adulthood. Developing psychological maturity takes upwards of seven decades. These norms can be lessened with education for responsible human liberty.



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What distinguishes A Civic People of the United States? Part 6 of 6. Liberty to the continuum of living people.



By developing words and phrases that represent the human experience rather than institutional proprieties, A Civic People of the United States journals the U.S. evolution toward statutory justice. Statutory justice is written legal code that assures justice according to the-objective-truth; judicial perfection. The U.S. preamble's ultimate proposition is to improve statutory law so as to achieve statutory justice.



Through the glossary of terms, past discoveries are made available to living people, and their task of personal discovery of what-came-before and its leading edge is lessened. Thereby, A Civic People realizes its dream: lessening the misery and loss that many humans, who want to live without arbitrary burden, suffer from proprietary political power.



With a small fraction of personal time on earth, the individual can keep track of both the past and the leading edge of psychological evolution. A Civic People need not be trusted: its journal of discovery is reliable from the record of civic collaboration.



The journal of psychological progress in citizenships standards distinguishes A Civic People of the United States from We the People of the United States without compromising responsible human liberty.



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Copyright©2019 by Phillip R. Beaver. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted for the publication of all or portions of this paper as long as this complete copyright notice is included.