A More Perfect Union Ep. I

June 2020
Reading Time
1,807 words
eight minutes and forty-six seconds
We have sunk the Africans and their Decedents below the standard of humanity, and almost render'd them incapable of that blessing which equal heaven bestow'd upon us all. — John Laurens, American Soldier and Statesman

I don't think a younger version of myself would have expected to become a committed constitutionalist.

Most Americans are taught about the US Constitution from within the country, a position in which it is both unquestionable and its value perceived. Aside from pledging allegiance to the country each brisk morning at Regnart Elementary school, most of my education about the United States happened abroad in Singapore, where despite studying at the Singapore American School, my point of view was shaped by a lens of living outside of the country.

It does not take a historian to understand these are troubled times for America.

I can point to the many specific and horrific atrocities committed by outright and systemic racism manifested by the consistent belligerent and murderous behaviour towards Black people in the country, continuing a pattern of subjugation and death that spans 400+ years.

I'm humbled by the friends who ask my opinion on various matters in life, business, and society. Most of the time I try to send them to others — usually dead writers — to learn from better and more eloquent sources of information and stance. On the subject of what we are seeing in our society today, I feel strongly in my understanding:

I have no idea what the hell it is like to have every aspect of my life exploited, challenged, and jeopardized on a daily basis — on a timescale of my earliest known ancestors to the entirety of my Posterity.

What I do know is that we, collectively, have failed to uphold the intent of our Constitution. An idea so great it set both a framework and direction (preamble) to create a society unlike any other: that we the People would form a more perfect Union.

If the current state of affairs is such a Union, then I must admit Donald Trump was absolutely correct: We need to make America great again, and renew our efforts in pursuit of this more perfect Union, departing quickly from the ignorant approaches of "not seeing colour" or suggesting "all lives matter" which ostracizes Black people from their important place in the American experiment at their substantial, undeniable peril.

⚖️
Establish Justice
Many Slaves …share in the dangers and glory of the efforts made by US, the freeborn members of the United States, to enjoy, undisturbed, the common rights of human nature; and THEY remain SLAVES!… The enlightened equity of a free people, cannot suffer them to be ungrateful. — John Laurens

If American society was a patient rushed into an emergency operating room, I believe the doctor would first treat the deeply embedded racism and indifference against its Black population.

For a country in which all minorities receive, and impart (thanks Hasan) racist views, how can we reasonably expect widespread equitable justice if the original groups of people responsible for foundation of this society, hundred of years later, are still treated as marginalized Americans, and lesser, disposable humans?

🕊️
Domestic Tranquility
No man possessed more of the amor patria [love of country]. In a word, he had not a fault, that I ever could discover, unless intrepidity bordering upon rashness could come under that denomination; and to this he was excited by the purest motives — George Washington, Founding Father of the United States, on the death of John Laurens

No Justice No Peace.

I've been thinking about the message widely canvassed in the peaceful protests across the country. It addresses our challenge at each abstraction:

How can we expect domestic tranquility when 14% of our founding people are under assault?

The closest tranquility I've been able to see is White people acting as shields between protestors and police in an effort to (successfully and troublingly) mitigate excessive use of force. Or the cleaning of streets and damaged property to keep our focus on the aggressions against people who's lives and sense of peace will never return (in stark contrast to protecting easily reproducible buildings and simple, needless, trinkets).

🤝
Common Defense
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) 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. — Army Oath of Enlistment

Who exactly is it that our government is defending — and from what?

During my conversations with people, I've learned about and vigorously debated many points of view. I've also fallen short in calling out bad-faith arguments in an attempt to preserve long lasting relationships, complicating the complicit feeling I have in these matters.

I think about the vigor by which I wanted to defend our democracy when I was a student in 2008, setting up ground efforts in Obama's election campaign in five swing states. I nearly dropped out of school because I felt an overwhelming responsibility to myself, my friends, and the broader world that America represents the purest intents of Liberty and Freedom.

Mizono and I would personally travel to Las Vegas to help promote voting — the quintessential act of democracy — in Clark county. Those long days of asking people if they planned on voting in the election were a small part of the election of a Black man to the highest position in our country and also became the lullaby by which I fell asleep between 2012 and 2016. Our Black citizens were being murdered under a Black president with an impunity that should have resurrected a variant of the Nuremberg trials.

We have, of course, other incredible challenges ahead of us such as environmental destruction, disparate socio-economic inequality, and even racism amongst the many creeds that form our nation. Italians and Irish, were hated when they first immigrated to North America, long after other Americans, to be part of the American experiment, after all. These challenges disproportionately and cruelly damage the Black population by having distinctly disproportionate impact, furthering the total effect of their struggle.

Again, how can we expect equitability of people when indigenous Americans were slaughtered and the Black population responsible for Southern wealth was enslaved — only to gain basic voting rights nearly 100 years later with the 15th amendment.

A governing body that reacts so slowly to its advancement in society, regardless of intention, must be held accountable and complicit in the atrocities it condones.

The last amendment (27th) to our constitution occurred 28 years ago in 1992 and focused on the ability for Congress to manage its own wages.

If you're a person of colour or white, rich or poor, you might curiously question — why is it the common defense serves us so well in comparison to our brothers and sisters in the Black community.

⚕️
General Welfare
The real damage is done by those millions who want to 'survive.' The honest men who just want to be left in peace. Those who don't want their little lives disturbed by anything bigger than themselves. Those with no sides and no causes. Those who won't take measure of their own strength, for fear of antagonizing their own weakness. Those who don't like to make waves—or enemies. Those for whom freedom, honour, truth, and principles are only literature. Those who live small, mate small, die small. It's the reductionist approach to life: if you keep it small, you'll keep it under control. If you don't make any noise, the bogeyman won't find you. But it's all an illusion, because they die too, those people who roll up their spirits into tiny little balls so as to be safe. Safe?! From what? Life is always on the edge of death; narrow streets lead to the same place as wide avenues, and a little candle burns itself out just like a flaming torch does. I choose my own way to burn. — Sophie Scholl, White Rose

618,000.

That's the estimated number of deaths in the American Civil War, a key event in our history in which a treasonous faction of Americans attempted to ensure their way of life by enforcing the legality of slavery into upcoming states joining the Union.

117,000.

As of this writing, that is the current minimum U.S. confirmed death toll from the COVID-19 after a botched handling of a known enemy to the General Welfare of American citizens. Are these deaths in vain comparatively?

I am deeply concerned about the welfare of our country. We have developed a society in which time is stripped from us everywhere. Time we will never be returned. In the case of this virus, many people will needlessly die. And in the many cases of Black suppression, entire lives are stripped from people without due process nor humanity.

Part of the reason I believe we are in a movement rather than moment in time is this destructive pandemic, stealing unrecoverable life from our society. Notice how the stock market goes up and down each day.

A calamitous 25% drop in March. A recovery of 10% in April. A 7% drop yesterday. Down, up, down and so forth.

Now imagine the pulse of many Americans hospitalized with an otherwise highly preventable virus. The number drops, only to never rise again.

As we collectively paused a large portion of our lives in a united effort to protect the lives of our fellow Americans, we also were able to see. To breathe. Perhaps smell the roses even. But what we saw was a society we serve, instead of a society that serves us.

A society that steals our energy, sanity, money, agency and time so we do not have enough of any to turn around and reform. A government that demands thanks for its damage and apathy wrought upon its Black and collective citizens.

🗽
Liberty to Ourselves and Our Posterity
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. — The United States Declaration of Independence

I increasingly believe that our society, one in which we have amassed information, food, and sophistication, is systematically being drained of a common resource.

Time has become the key to sustainable Liberty.

These increments of time are casually stolen in underfunded government services, in representation from antiquated voting constructs, and maliciously in the people we kill.

To the many people who have supported the outrage and action to change our society, you have garnered my deepest respects and support. We have waited, patiently, to the detriment of our limited time, to see our leaders lead. The burden has squarely shifted to our shoulders, independent of our readiness.

I am optimistic in our generation, and the next, to find the courage and see what our Founding Fathers saw: that in our lifetime there will be an opportunity to rewrite our future and society to benefit more completely those in it.

This essay is now 1,807 words, and would have taken you between eight and nine minutes, or exactly eight minutes and forty-six seconds, to read.

We must work together, now more than ever, on behalf of those who have run out of time.

Non-compliantly yours,
Niket
Memorial Roll
2001
2010
2012
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020

I wrote this over a span of two days and still had to add another name to this list.

Thanks to Natasha Desai, Ryan Alshak, and Chris Ramos for reading early copies of this essay and their invaluable inputs.