July 18, 2017

Phil Beaver works to establish opinion when the-objective-truth has not been discovered. He seeks to refine his opinion by listening when people share experiences and observations. The comment box below invites readers to write.

Note 1:  I often dash words in phrases in order to express and preserve an idea. For example, frank-objectivity represents the idea of candidly expressing the-objective-truth despite possible error. In other words, a person expresses his “belief,” knowing he or she could be in error. People may collaboratively approach the-objective-truth.
 Note 2: It is important to note "civic" refers to citizens who collaborate for the people more than for the city.

A personal paraphrase of the preamble by & for Phil Beaver:  Willing people in our state routinely, voluntarily collaborate for comprehensive safety and security: continuity (for self, children, grandchildren & beyond), integrity (both fidelity and wholeness),  justice (freedom-from oppression), defense (prevent or constrain harm), prosperity (acquire the liberty-to pursue choices), privacy (responsibly discover & pursue personal goals), lawfulness (obey the law and reform injustices); and to preserve and cultivate the rule of law for the USA’s service to the people in their states.
Composing their own paraphrase, citizens may consider the actual preamble and perceive whether they are willing or dissident toward the preamble.  

Our Views (theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/our_views/article_457f11b0-6738-11e7-ad36-bbd89f278c0c.html)

Good for US Senator Kennedy and good for Louisiana.

Our Views, July 17 (theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/letters/article_7991894c-674c-11e7-9897-3f4db42c4905.html)

To Greg Thibeaux, Greg you report the problem as I see it: The acceptance of vigilantism by black men in the black community is ruining black lives. There's political pressure to impose that culture on police policy: The police are supposed to accommodate black vigilantism. Black politicians perceive leverage and try to make money on it. If that sounds mercenary, I'd say it's because it is mercenary. But Greg, you and I and other willing people in Baton Rouge may change the status quo.

The black community is the victim, and as usual, only We the People of the United States can deliver justice. Most black people understand the situation but feel powerless to resist the vigilantism. Most non-blacks---whites, Asians, and others---are not sympathetic toward vigilantism. Black vigilantism is a historical development, grounded in injustice by white neglect. 

That is, We the People of the United States has neglected its own opportunity for comprehensive safety and security. Most people can understand the situation, and when they do may start using the preamble after 229 years’ neglect. The preamble is operative only through memes (family and community transfer of packets of information): It has never been given formal practice, promotion, and celebration.

We propose June 21 a future national holiday to celebrate Personal Independence Day, commemorating the 1788 establishment of the USA by nine states. On that day, with 1/3 of representatives as dissidents, the preamble effected a profound change from Union of the states to governance of, by, and for a willing people, using words from Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 vision. Lincoln did not make the distinction that there may always be dissidents to comprehensive safety and security. It seems there will always be need for statutory law, first responders, and the rest of law enforcement.

In 1787, when the signers of the preamble and draft articles of the constitution for the USA, confronted the hypocrisy of overcoming enslavement of loyal British colonists but not emancipating the African slaves, they proposed to end the African slave trade twenty years after ratification, provide Congress to represent slaves as 3/5 a person, and to wait for a more feasible time for emancipation. Neither returning the slaves to Africa, nor suddenly turning them out to find their own way nor temporal survival without slavery seemed feasible. The agreement to establish a nation even though the slave-states numbered eight with five non-slave states was essential.

As states joined the USA, they tended to exclude slavery, because of the obvious evil---chains, whips, guns, brutality and rape to slaves and physical and psychological burdens to masters and owners. By 1861, the slave-states ratio had declined from 8:5 to 15:19 or from 1.6 to 0.79. From political power, the time for emancipation had arrived. But what explains the increase in slave states from eight to fifteen, despite the evil?

What could drive people to defend slavery? Their religion! When Constantine demanded a canonized Bible with which to convert the Pagans to Christianity, the Catholic Priests erroneously included passages that condoned slavery. Perhaps Priests acted intentionally, because some opined that slavery, especially African slavery, was punishment for sin. As a consequence, in 1454, the Church “granted” to Portugal a monopoly in African slave trade for the eastern Americas. In 1493 the Church “assigned” the same evil to Spain for the western Americas. After Luther, in 1517, some Protestant kings competed in the Doctrine of Discovery for God with African slave trade to assist in agricultural development of the colonies. This religious evil came to rest in the South in the 1850’s, when Protestant ministers preached that slavery was an institution of God. The people who listened to their God wrote a declaration of secession that accuses the North of “a more erroneous religious belief,” and on that folly seven states against twenty-seven fired on the USA.

President Obama rhetorically imposed the Church’s error from 325 AD and doctrine of discovery on the USA, calling slavery “America’s original sin,” as though America was not a victim of Africa’s sin and the Church’s sin. I don’t harp on Obama. Obama created his own record.

History is plain to a willing people, and Americans in 2017 have every reason to comprehend history, forget the perpetrators of past error, and collaborate for comprehensive safety and security. The purpose and aims stated in the preamble are adequate for that task, are applicable to people of all ethnic backgrounds, and may be embraced anytime a person is willing. The preamble is for everyone.

Using a cliché, let’s make the time now and the place Baton Rouge and the persons us.

  

Today’s thought, G.E. Dean (Nahum 1:7-10, CJB). A prophecy:

“Adonai is good, a stronghold in time of trouble;
he takes care of those who take refuge in him.
But with an overwhelming flood he will make an end of [Ninveh’s] place,
and darkness will pursue his enemies.

What are you planning against Adonai? He is making an end [of it];
trouble will not arise a second time.
For like men drunk with liquor, they will be burned up like tangled thorns,
like straw completely dry.” 

Dean says “Lean on the Lord. He will take care of you.”

This passage I included reminds me of James Baldwin’s book, “The Fire Next Time,” 1963. And it does not contradict Genesis 9:11, “I will establish my covenant with you that never again will all living beings be destroyed by the waters of a flood, and there will never again be a flood to destroy the earth.”

  

Letters.

Environmentalists overreach again?  (Ellis). (theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/letters/article_e20aa646-6b09-11e7-a6f9-8b0c917ead7c.html)

A hold on private property in case a rare frog might go there? Crazy.

Evil taxes (Hale). (theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/letters/article_5f2f30c2-67e7-11e7-bb3d-eb723ec69253.html)

I think taxation to support philanthropy is taxation without representation and is civically immoral. The public should not pay for even one person to express compassion. In other words, one person’s heartfelt concern cannot morally be imposed on another person.

Most egregiously, compassion for one child cannot morally be supported by taking or withholding from another child.

Google: “About 15 million children in the United States – 21% of all children – live in families with incomes below the federal poverty threshold, a measurement that has been shown to underestimate the needs of families. Research shows that, on average, families need an income of about twice that level to cover basic expenses.”

  

Katrina flood caused by the USA (Hightower). (theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/letters/article_ac9c8bbc-6b0b-11e7-a4b8-fb1e0859f2b2.html)

To Chuck McMichael: I agree. The disappearance of the Louisiana coastline was caused by the USA.

If your life or property is threatened, it is best to take charge of relief rather than trust either government or your God.

Health care is a similar case: Personal care is at least four times more effective than routine medical care: Try for suppliers that allow you to pay for medical care and catastrophic medical insurance, meanwhile always taking care of your health.

Phil Beaver does not “know” the-indisputable-facts. He trusts and is committed to the-objective-truth of which most is undiscovered and some is understood. He is agent for A Civic People of the United States, a Louisiana, education non-profit corporation. See online at promotethepreamble.blogspot.com.