Who am I?
I am one of the people who follow our compact that we made so very long ago.
This is not a compact between the mortal and the divine, but the compact amongst mere mortals.
In my Nation I am given the Great Peace to uphold as those ancestors who founded the Nation came from that Great Peace and never, once, repudiated it. Thus we are all Children of the Winter Queen and the Great Peace that encompassed her and all that would come from her in her Nation. To do so I must protect the right of my fellow citizens to have faith so that they may keep faith in me for our common protection.
Thus I hold that Church shall not lead State nor shall State lead Church, so that we may all partake of the divine as we will or will not as the case may be. That greatest of all civil rights I do uphold and every day. I do not disparage any religious belief, or none, as held by my fellow citizens.
Do you?
I am a member of society.
That means I must recognize that society is the creator of our common good, the bond that holds us together so that we may share in common of it, enrich it and not do anything to see it disparaged. This sets us apart from animals as we have means to communicate richly, use reason to establish common outlook and then work to ensure that this fragile creation of ours is protected.
And as this society has created a State and a Nation above that, I am a member of both of those, too, and am enjoined by our common compact to do some things in my daily life. I recognize these things, that we have the ability to create this society amongst ourselves and create these gross mechanisms to ensure that society does not overbear on each of us and yet is held in check by society. Thus we create that thing where we can invest our necessary negative liberties for our common protection.
I have clear understanding of that, and what my daily outlook must be to sustain that compact and yet understand that our works can get out of control without our guidance. Even if this organ we create to house our negative liberties is a necessary evil, it is necessary so that our lifeblood of society is protected and that those individuals gone wild and repossessing the Natural Liberties, positive and negative entire, can be identified and taken from our community for our safety. That set of organs we create we call 'government'.
Government does not lead, but follows society.
Government is not of the good but a necessary evil, but not evil in and of itself for all of that, as we must have it for our protection.
Those things that we set for ourselves, in our Nation, within our State and encompassing our society, is not given to government but to ourselves to uphold each and every day of our lives.
And because we come under the Great Peace that existed before our Nation, State and society, but that we are derived from one such society that was under it and with that we all have its burden to hold amongst ourselves.
I understand and acknowledge that responsibility and those burdens, and that I may never hand those off to any government entire or even in large part, as they are what we hold amongst ourselves and giving these good things to a necessary evil is to make them evil.
These are not an easy burden to carry and yet can be held lightly for all of that.
They are difficult.
They are solemn.
They are the common ground we hold as individuals to create our society.
We would not have our Nation, State or society without them, and with them we uphold the Great Peace for ourselves.
Thus this enjoinment makes us reason through what is right and wrong, and we must brook no qualms when we see evident wrong and must call it such. Nor may we put our fellow citizens or our common society at danger for that is great evil. For this, then, we must use our faculties that allow us to build society to then reason with our fellow man in our society.
What is this compact?
What are these duties?
You know of them, assuredly, and when any starts the recitation of them, you instantly identify them and say 'Yes, that is what we are doing'.
And yet they are easily abused, perverted and allowed to have unreason put against them to harm society and ourselves, if we but would stop to think of what we say and do with each other.
To remind here is how it starts:
"We the People..."
I am one of the people. Do not ever forget that. I am under this compact and uphold the Great Peace with you.
You are not alone.
"... of the United States,..."
I am a member of this society that supports that State amongst us so that we may have a Nation together to protect us.
That is my burden and yours.
I share that with you.
You are not alone.
"...in Order to form a more perfect Union,..."
How easy it is to forget that we are to come together, not divide our society against itself. We must acknowledge that we are subject to the Law of Nature and that we are imperfect and denied the perfect in our lives.
But we can come together more perfectly in our Union.
If you seek to divide by class, culture, race, creed, religion, politics, or any other thing, then you break with this compact and declare yourself destructive to our common society. By doing so and sowing the seeds of division, a more perfect Union is not created and our current Union begins to crumble.
I must come to you, and offer reason to make our society stronger, not weaker. And you the same with me.
We share this burden of reason to create the more perfect, and acknowledge that absolute perfection is ever denied mere mortal man.
There is no 'right' in this, there is only 'more perfect'.
That which does not lead to perfection, we must step from and put off until we can see how to make it more perfect with our fellow citizens. Of all the burdens we have, this is the heaviest, as there is always that want to be perfect immediately, to perfect society immediately and yet we are all imperfect, each and every one of us and so cannot create ultimate perfection that will last, but must ever strive to be more perfect each and every day.
I agree to this and we must share it together.
When you point your finger to deride another or castigate another, four point back to you in fuller exposition to show where the blame truly exists. And the thumb points down to the ground, where you and I will go at the end of our days and only be remembered for what we have done. To point at blame with another is to point at your own mortality, and that you blame yourself four-fold for not doing your part and know your legacy will be mere blame, not building and seeking to the better for society. If you castigate another for their beliefs, the finger in pointing says that you have not spent time to reason with them and understand them. They are not the source of division: you are.
We are ever wary of those who blame and seek not to explain themselves and remember that when they point to our imperfections, theirs are four-fold in that pointing. The pointing is an aim to the heart of society, to place blame on others without seeking out the better way first and helping to achieve something that can have less blame but will never be blameless. When one points here and there and all around them in blame, then it is not the world that is to blame but the one doing such pointing. These are the dividers who know not how to build, only to corrode and destroy. They step from our more perfect Union because the world will not suit them in any way and all they can blame is the world to not come into step with them.
I know I must rarely point and must ever seek to know and explain so that I can be seen as building, not dividing and crumbling our common effort.
That is what we are enjoined to do.
I share that with you so that this burden can be held by us together.
I do my part.
You are not alone when you do yours to build, but you are absolutely alone if you seek division and destruction within our society.
"... establish Justice,..."
I must seek the Just.
Justice is the reasoning behind what is Just. To do Justice to a subject I must understand it. Thus when we perform Justice we must know of what is necessary to have it, so we may all be defended by it.
Just ends that we already have are now numerous, and yet we are not even part way into our duties. This Justice is not for the law, not for the courts, it is ours that we hold together, and these latter parts mere organs that demonstrate that we understand the Just and uphold it.
What are these Just ends?
Uphold the Great Peace, that great burden which gives us so much freedom.
Uphold society so that it may thrive, grow, prosper and show us the better way of life.
Uphold our State so that we may have protection vested in our Nation and keep our negative liberties on a tight leash so they do not consume us.
Then we are to seek to be more perfect with each other to form this Union, and that hard task does not end from the moment we understand it to the last breath we take in this mortal life.
To establish this Justice we must hold it inside of us and work it out each and every day.
As we had stated to become Independent, we do understand that all men are created equal, but we also know that no government can ever retain that equality as we do not have gifts in equal measure, and some have many and others few, and no government, no means made by man can ever change that dispersal of gifts of Nature upon us. To seek the more perfect is up to each of us to do and sustain, none may take that from us and we may give it to no mere organ of our society to absolve us of this burden.
To have a Just society, we must be Just in our actions, our words and in coming together with our fellow citizens.
I understand and accept that, and understand that I can fail in that now and again, but I will never stop striving to achieve it because I am a part of this larger whole.
You are not alone in this hard task, and I plead with you not to slap the hand of friendship away when it is proffered, as it is our common duty to do this thing amongst ourselves, and remember that government is but limited means and cannot achieve this greater end. Only we can do that.
Together in more perfect Union.
"...insure domestic Tranquility,..."
This is the great Tranquility of civil society, there can be no other.
We can and indeed must have passions, must have wisdom granted from many sources, and then, no matter how hot our emotions or how intemperate we become, each of us must then step back and use reason to ensure that we do not disturb the greater Tranquility.
This is part and parcel of the more perfect Union, and those who seek to alter society must fully and completely set out what they are about and what their reasoning is. Society can change, but it must be in the spirit of Tranquility, not the passion of vehemence or authoritarianism. If you dislike an aspect of society, the Tranquility demands that you reason with your fellow man, not use the finger of accusation that they are all wrong, for it points to the true source of such wrong and it is not outside of you. Your voice in reason is not to affix blame, but to demonstrate what is wrong and why, and how it can be fixed.
Those that seek to disrupt the Tranquility must first be reasoned with: that is our charge from the compact we hold between us.
When reasoning fails, they must be told that no matter their logic, their reasoning is unsound and that society, to change in the ways they seek, would be made poorer as their emotions drive them unconstrained. Like physicians we must seek to do no harm first, and then reason a course forward if possible or necessary. When base appeal to emotions are made, they must be spurned and reasoning sought instead of such appeal so that we can have basis of understanding amongst ourselves in our society.
Of all things to do that is one of the hardest in life, as we cannot but help sorrow when we see suffering of our fellow man.
And yet the right way may not be the swift or easiest, but the slow and hardest, and no matter how much our heart hurts in being unable to swiftly right problems of our fellow man, the better way for all must be held first and foremost. How awful such pain is, to us, when we should think that there must be a swift, sure and expedient way to succor our fellow man. And yet such ways are often done with unreasoning haste, unreasoning assurance and put us on the path to unreasonable ends that disrupt our Tranquility.
If but all gifts of man were equally granted unstintingly to all who are born, we would be assured that none would face such problems and then have only the merely mortal sorts of problems of differing lives to lead. But we do not have even that, and ensuring our Tranquility requires the ability to reason out the better way to do things and eschew those that would move quickly and yet put the greater Justness of our society at risk and degrade our more perfect Union.
So easy to call for the gifts of kindness.
So hard to reach inside yourself to slow and ensure that the gift is not extracted from your fellow man to cause him sorrow and thus alleviate no suffering at all and often make it worse as that then divides us within society. That is why we seek to Charity to fulfill our wishes, as there is not better place than those driven with the need to alleviate such suffering and they will do it well and create the more perfect Union amongst us. When we mistake government for Charity we mistake bureaucracy for commitment and find the wages of the bureaucrat to be far steeper than that of volunteer or committed individual to do one thing well and in Justice for his fellow man.
Thus we must keep and build our mutual Tranquility together and recognize that the burden is upon us, not upon a mere organ of society to do this for us.
We cannot place this responsibility with that organ, as we divorce ourselves from our liberty to decide the best way forward for these things that cannot be handed to a dispassionate bureaucrat who will have great burdens already upon him from the creation of the necessary evil that he works in. And woe betide us that has a passionate bureaucrat for they will work process only, and not care about outcome, or do the reverse and seek power for themselves. Without process, outcome, liberty and passion combined, there is no Charity and no help for our fellow man, and only the loss of ourselves and our liberty, and the wicked dependence of our fellow man for a handout forevermore. How dreadful that end when we give up Just means that have meaning to ourselves. We are to hold those doing the work to account and assuredly the best way is directly, not through any bureaucracy but through our own giving to create the greater good of society.
In seeking to help through Charity we build society.
We each must seek to where our passion is and recognize the limited means we each have, but that together we can all meet these needs and not depend on the organs that were made to protect us to uplift us for these are two different things entire and no worse punisher is there that can offer sweetness with the swift lash at the ready in case you disagree.
My hand in giving using my liberty is mirrored by yours and we each seek to fulfill those parts we see as having greatest need.
Together the power of our liberty concentrates in these vehicles of passion and we create the good and the Just, both.
And if you are embarrassed at your giving, know that so am I in mine for it feels so good to do right.
That is our reward for doing right by our fellow man.
Without it we would be lesser citizens, and with it we know we must work more and give more to make more to help our fellow man so that they, too, may seek to help those even less fortunate than they.
I must do my share so that, together, our liberty can be a mighty sword forged of passion to create the better way for us all.
That is my bond to you.
That is our gift to create a better world.
You are not alone in this, even if you are the only one doing that work, your passion is never lost.
"...provide for the common defence,..."
Ah, would that this was just a mighty army or a large police force or sublime knights in armor rescuing at need.
That merely points to limited means and ends, and our goal is much, much greater: the defense of all of us in society and of society itself.
That is no easy burden and cannot be done by all the armed forces, police, knights and warriors combined. They have not the power to do this for us. We are required for this, you and I and all others within our society without regard to any other thing. This is our compact: that we will defend this common good with our hearts, our heads, our hands and our lives.
We are not absolved of this by having government organs that do limited things like uphold laws, or field armies and navies to defend our shores and punish those that seek ill upon us.
Quite the opposite as they cannot be everywhere at all times, forever on guard. Nor would we ask that of them as that is not their job.
Easiest to confront are the foes without: those that attack from the outside either by stealth or outright offense. These we understand, these we can cite, these we can call out to cease these things. Mostly they are intent on our destruction and our voices fall on deaf ears, or they seek to sway us with sweet words laced with the venom of inaction for us while they take action against us. So easy to be lulled by the insensible that, really, if we just don't do anything that all will be well... up to the moment the knife is at our throats, that is. So many think that diplomacy is the end of all strife, and yet diplomats have caused more strife than any other tool of man. Nothing is so deadly to Tranquility as the diplomat from a hostile power with sweet words and sonorous implications soon turned to imprecations and deadly action.
If that be the easy side, then the hardest is to see those that hold no good for society seeking sweet words of Justice to cause unjust means to less just ends to be put in place and call it 'fairness'. How quickly 'fairness' turns to unequal means to elevate some over others, to offer a bludgeon against society to those few so that they may take it to us and beat us senseless to how 'fair' it is that they beat us so. We are forever warned at how easily these seducers move with their talk of 'fair share' and how quickly that turns out to unequal burden, unequal lives, unequal law and unequal liberty because those seeking 'fairness' have no equal end in mind.
There are no necessary evils in government, only evils that arise from those wishing to use this place we put our negative liberties against the whole of society to empower the few. If justice would rain down upon us like the rains from above, upon the rich and poor alike, then we would have no worries of government at all. But as we are not perfect in any thing we do, those that have these parts of the organ under their temporary control do seek to gain more to those parts at the cost of our fellow man and all of society. These are the attacks from within, the sweet calls to one type of justice for one person and anther type for another and a third for a third and on and on and on until there is no justice left in anything being done. What is never spoken of is that to do good we must do right, and if we see past misdeeds we must not warp future deeds to an ill path, but ensure that all are treated equally without any reservation. When one wants a benefit and denies it from another and calls it 'fair' there is no fairness at all in it, just the seeking of something at the cost to our fellow man.
This must be defended against, the foes without and the foes within, so that each knows that what they threaten is not so easily rent asunder. And we know these foes as they will not listen to reason, will not work things out with us but will seek to argue and cause divisions within our society. Those from without must understand that the attempt at that will bring reprisal. And those within must be spurned as wishing to twist our society to their mean ends through any expediency, and thus endanger us all with loss of liberty. One seeks to break peace between Nations and the other to disrupt our Tranquility using unjust ideals to ill ends.
If only all were simple criminals, but the greatest crimes are those done with the sweetest words of 'fairness' while the talk of reason is laughed at as being most unfair to them. The simple criminal is easily understood, the heart of tyranny is a darkness deeper than that of space as it is a void where the human soul should be.
Thus to defend our common society, we must use reason to back our hearts, commit our actions and understand that if there are no appointed ones to stop actions, then each of us is to take to that defense be it with words or arms, as this vital creation is ever in need of defense from those that would expunge it to their ill means to awful ends. And if that means one's life, then it is gladly given so that others in society will take warning and spur to the greater defense of all. If we cannot commit to that, then we are cowards fit only for chains of servitude.
I may serve society, but I am no servant to my fears.
For, if I was, then I would betray you and all our fellow citizens.
Called to stand, I stand firm for you and our common work.
Know that I do have fear.
Know that it does not rule me as it is the heart of unreason.
Knowing fear is to be human.
To let it rule you is to be animal.
That is our common call, to not be animals but to be reasoning, thinking humans, set on a path of our mutual protection, and that can be handed to no mere organ of society.
What a horrific burden it is, from dawn of understanding to dying of the light, upon us every waking moment.
It is the only one that sets us free.
I will not betray our compact.
Even if I stand alone.
"...promote the general Welfare,..."
Never has such good wording been put to such ill ends by those that seek to twist others to their will.
Our Welfare, as a society, is in our own hands, and we use the necessary evil, that great punisher we call government, to ensure that individuals do not abuse society and are curbed by that organ which holds our negative liberties. Its job is to restrict the excesses of the few so that the many may work towards more perfect Union in civil Tranquility. We seek to stop those that would use opportunity to prey upon the weak, the helpless or to entrap the individual in schemes to harm them and others. Because government has few positive liberties, those are tied harshly to what they represent: a region, a State, a Nation. To do otherwise is to invite despotism and tyranny and to have the society and its individuals enslaved to government and those that rule it.
When we try to soften the punisher, to hand it 'good things' to do for us, we give it our liberty to do these things on our own so that we may directly guide them with no arbiter between ourselves and the good of society. Our liberty builds our Welfare directly, not through taxation but through our own works, our daily lives and the portion of that we devote to causes above what we can do alone. Government is made to create distinctions, categorize, systematize, then to bin things for addressing at those levels of government that are their concern. Outside of those very few things, we are the ones responsible to ensure that good works are done to succor the poor, the weak, the less well off and give in kindness so that others may lead a better life and join us in these greater works.
Outside of those few negative liberties to protect us, government is the last, least and meanest way to achieve any goal. When it is elevated to the first source, we empower our necessary evils to the hands of the taskmaster and put our liberty at peril. When government fails in those things handed to it, it must be shorn of those things and the people decide the best way forward as we, the people, are far more inventive, creative and wise than our government will ever be. At best government can be a stout, sturdy and somewhat oafish defender, at worst it is the villain of enslavement even when forcing us to do 'good' against our will as there can be no greater evil than that. When government is elevated to the first and foremost part of a society, then we are led around by our nether regions and not our head, and only ill will befall us then as crass and crude impetuous feelings replace reasoning and law.
Thusly we do not entrust government to build the good, only protect it. As individuals in society, building the good, giving aid to the poor, helping our fellow man, ensuring safety for our children is our responsibility with government there to stop those who revert away from law and return to Nature and withdraw them from society. That is a hard thing to do, but without it Nature gains a foothold in society and starts to give the voice and hand of unreason a venue to make others succumb to its siren song of desire unleashed from all bounds of civil society. To build society and to use the power of reason to moderate our lesser selves and come to mere agreement on sustaining our ways, that is left up to us, in society, working together as we will, using liberty and freedom to ensure our Welfare.
Even stricken, I do this work every day and restrain my feelings with reason for your safety and for mine.
If the passion of that beast comes forth, I must seek moderation of myself and that is such a hard thing to do in life.
How else can we build society together if I am not moderate and do not use reason? We are not Angels nor perfect, and even those had tedium overcome them and fell out of perfection ever so quickly. If I have unequal gifts to my wants, then so be it: my gifts must suffice and my wants be moderated to what I can achieve.
Our Welfare is to be built together, amongst us all as the people.
Our ability to moderate our passions, reason with our gifts and bring those to fruitful conclusions are the greatest power known to mankind, greater than any government shall ever be.
I do stand with my fellow citizens for this, so that we may be the greatest force and power for liberty and freedom that mankind has ever seen.
"...and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,..."
As we know we are mortal.
Our works will not continue on forever.
With hard work we can ensure that our children and their children will praise us for good work done to ensure that they have the freedoms we have without burdening them with our costs. Our more perfect Union is not only across society, but backwards to the founding and forwards into the future. Our compact exists to those who are mere children and their children and so on until the compact is broken. Our duty is not to take from our children, not to burden them with our costs and to secure their liberty and freedom based upon our expanding it from those that came before us.
How easily we live for today!
How quickly we sorrow when the hasty decision of today leaves us poorer on the morrow.
How ashamed when we live beyond our means and foist our base costs that we should have accepted as our own upon our children.
If to purchase 'good' we sacrifice the liberty and freedom of our children and erode it, then we are working against our compact. Tomorrow does come, even if you are gone and past and cannot witness it. Your legacy is to be determined by the results you leave behind you. Do you really wish for further generations to use your name as an example of the spendthrift who wished to shackle their children to government? Or do you wish to be known as one who built using their liberty within their means and accepting their limits so that following generations have a good example to follow?
When we decide, today, to make things 'rights' that are mere exercises of liberty and then hand the administration of those rights to government to take from us and lose the greater part to the wiles of inefficiency, it is not government to blame for being the inept, obtuse and ill-abled punisher but the blame rests upon each and every one of us equally. To spend into oblivion and shackle our children with our ill conceived wants and wishes, we do no good and horrific harm to Liberty and its Blessings of freedom to decide one's life on their own. How easy it is to cash in on the Liberty of future generations and doom them to poverty for your base wants and needs and inability to accept that you are merely mortal and imperfect.
If we honor the gift handed to us, we need to hand it unburdened and enhanced to our children and those that come after us to build a better society free of the wants and needs of the dead long gone. That most cherished of gifts, beyond any monetary counting, is to allow us to fulfill our own destinies and create a better society in the future. To do that we must moderate our wants and needs, understand that we cannot have all things 'good' less we destroy the ability of our fellow man to create and live with his liberty and our children to have ANY liberty of their own. How base and vile we are to seek mere mortal things to assuage our fears, our base wants and fantasy wishes, that then causes not only debt of money but of trust and a slow withdrawal of liberty from this common work and ourselves. There are no sweeter words than 'you can have all these things if you just let government do it for you'.
Don't mind the whip that follows if you agree to it, for that is part and parcel of our necessary evil.
Tyrants do not come to power saying they will tyrannize you. Warlords without any law over them, yes. Tyrants, never.
They come with sweet words of upholding 'the spirit of the law' or 'seeking to evolve the law' or 'giving you more rights'.
And yet you already HAVE all rights and liberties when you are born, that is self-evident. No one can create more rights with liberty save individuals: it is beyond the power of any government to do this for you. And when the common law between us is put at jeopardy, words twisted and meanings abused, then it is the common man who is the target to have liberty snatched from him for a 'greater good' or 'for the children', and the position of the taskmaster then makes the abuse direct upon the common man. What was once a protector now becomes the enslaver, because it can only do good in protecting society, not in 'empowering' anyone as we are the source of all power, not government.
To enact that I must ensure that my burden to society is light to nothing: that I have cared for myself first and foremost and taken care of my needs within my limited skills, but using liberty to the utmost. The greatest care is that which does not need to be taken because it is looked after by you. I then extend that to those I love amongst family and friends, and do my best to ensure that they have ready means to ease their burdens, even if it is only emotional succor as the hardships of life are never just in the physical realm. From there, outwards, I seek my fellow man and our common Charity and to build the good so that we have a society reinforced to help the truly needy, not just the merely ill-afflicted who can care for themselves. Those who sacrifice for our Nation I place most highly, yet there is space for those that help others during crisis and times of need and those that help preserve our common heritage so that it may be passed on with greater understanding so that future generations may look upon it for inspiration.
That is the duty handed to each of us: to ensure that our future generations will not use our names for derision, scorn, or envy at how much we had and squandered to place them in poverty.
To hand forward the Blessings of Liberty to them from us, enhanced by our devotion to it and not squandered for mere physical needs is our common goal.
This we must do together, or we will assuredly be forging the chains that enslave our children by our unthinking and unreasoning wants to do 'good' that will do them no good at all.
That is our duty under our compact, and it is required that we moderate our expectations to our means and do not ask for more than we can afford.
I do this as a citizen of the Republic, so that there will be Justice to my name and our society defended and the general Welfare expanded and yet kept within bounds of reason so that we all can prosper using the Blessings of our Liberty.
"...do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
What follows from this simple compact of society for all our citizens is the actual outlay of what our Nation's government is and how it will work.
The Constitution only comes after the common invocation that we are to abide by.
Without the statement of all of us in society, first, there would be no government. And any government we create is never given more than the smallest fraction of our compact, for that is ours to have, hold and cherish.
It is our agreement to act within reason, and not let emotions guide us, nor to let mere physical wants overpower future generations.
When you invoke the Constitution, you agree to the Preamble which defines what you are to do so as to have the government that follows.
You cannot ask government to do all of this, that is not its place, nor can it even do the tiniest fraction of it.
That is your agreement to recognize that you are mortal, imperfect, prone to error, and to seek out a better way forward with your fellow man.
This is our common ground as citizens and members of society, this great burden that we invoke to get any protection from our necessary evil of government.
This is our most solemn word spoken as a society and all of its individuals, and its meaning is not held within the words but how they are put down, ordered, and interlock to form a complete whole of what is required to be a member of the compact.
This is the most difficult thing to do as a person, to chain your base and animal desires to know that our society is worth having, worth being a part of, and that if you seek to change it you must offer good, sufficient and deep reasoning with your fellow man and follow the stricture of doing no harm to create the greater good.
Underlying this all is the Great Peace, placed upon us and not shirked by the founders of the Nation. Our Tranquility must spread to acceptance of the worship of our fellow man as they will, or will not, so that their quest for understanding gives new meaning to us all.
None may take these up for you: they are yours by your assent to be part of our society.
To be a part of We the People.
One of the people.
I do so agree.