By Christopher A. Etienne
The United States Constitution is the guide that leads to the road to Camelot, and we shall not abandon it. Camelot is the place of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The late U.S. President John F. Kennedy, then a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, argued in September 1960, “The greatness of our Constitution comes not so much from the words that it contains. It is great because of the people who have lived and worked under it to add to its framework of words and ideas the work and sacrifice and passionate devotion of many generations of Americans.”
Two years later, in January 1962, President Kennedy, in his first Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union at the U.S. Capitol, opened his remarks by reminding Congress that, “The Constitution makes us not [idols or] rivals for power but partners for progress. We are all trustees for the American people, [public servants] of the American heritage.”
However, the Founders James Madison and Alexander Hamilton recognized that some elected officials might not act to inspire service in the public interest, and that “Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm,” Madison wrote in Federalist No. 10. A reason behind this matter is that citizens would not always send the most intellectually inclined and virtuous men and women to office.
As a result, to preserve individual liberty, the Founders sought to ensure that a separate and independent branch of the Federal Government would exercise each of the government’s three basic functions: legislative, executive, and judicial.
The American historical figures whom we still honor in this century were able to speak truth to power because they had truth in their hearts. The courageous leaders such as Charles Hamilton Houston, the first African American student to both serve on the editorial board of the Harvard Law Review and earn a Doctor of Judicial Sciences (S.J.D.) from Harvard Law School in 1922 and 1923. Mr. Houston was the leading intellectual architect to dismantle Jim Crow laws in the 1930s and 1940s, and was a law professor and mentor to Thurgood Marshall, who became the first African American U.S. Supreme Court Justice. He argued eight cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and won seven of them. The late U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice William O. Douglas called Charles Hamilton Houston one of the ten best lawyers he ever heard argue before the Supreme Court.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Charles Hamilton Houston did not argue before the U.S. Supreme Court to dismantle Jim Crow laws, so that society could go from de jure segregation to de facto segregation, especially in education. In 1963, James Hood and Vivian Malone did not become the first African American students to successfully desegregate the University of Alabama, so that society could discourage and devalue the pursuit of higher education.
And in 1963, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. did not “Have a Dream” that we shall overcome, so that some elected and selected leaders in the North, South, East, and West can capitulate to the apathetic policies of the cynics, critics, and conspiracy theorists. To paraphrase Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963, allowing the states sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, not to be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
Charles Hamilton Houston, James Hood, Vivian Malone, and Dr. King’s sacrifices are clear; they courageously challenged systems of oppression and fought for freedom, equality, and equity that the U.S. Constitution guarantees to all citizens, especially the most vulnerable. As a result, state-sponsored systems of poverty, illiteracy, and political oppression shall not be tolerated in the most advanced democracy in the world.
Despite our country being the most powerful and innovative nation on Earth, public service is a never-ending human endeavor because after you have reached a solution to one situation, you discover there are new ones arising. As a result, citizens are either directly or indirectly affected by everything leaders do or don’t do.
Indeed, it is political corruption to have a thriving mode of Wall Street, a surviving mode of Main Street, and a struggling mode of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. We are all connected, and the economy must reflect that. We shall not have history written of our country as they wrote of Rome. As the Roman historian Tacitus wrote in his historical biography, Agricola, 30.4, around A.D. 98, “They make a desert and call it peace.” Political and electoral expediency can be a double-edged sword.
The current political climate is stubbornly focused on anti-intellectualism, attacking voting rights, neglecting coal miners’ safety and health, deregulation, privatization, and withdrawal from enlightened internationalism and modern diplomacy. To be clear. Intellectual inclination is a strength, not a weakness, in a free society. If some professional politicians want fiscal responsibility, then they should physically visit their rural, urban, and suburban districts to listen and learn about their constituents’ daily responsibilities.
In this moment, there needs to be leadership with a forward-thinking mentality. What we need is not another political fallacy, 10-point plan, or municipal master plan. We need leadership that is strong and courageous, with a clear vision for solutions in the United States and the global world.
Leadership that will listen to the issues of the citizenry and learn to see the best in people, not the worst. Leadership that will provide equal and equitable education. Job security and stability, with livable wages and durable industries. Make Election Day a National Holiday. Protect coal miners’ safety and health. Affordable housing and a generous First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit, which helps individuals and families stabilize their finances and build equity. A secure retirement. Reducing poverty. Expanding access to healthy foods and eliminating rural and urban food deserts. Reduce dangerous carbon pollution. And strengthens our international diplomatic relationships.
As we know, the North, South, East, and West may from time to time have different interests and needs, but when an individual’s or a family’s livelihood and way of life are at stake, political differences must be set aside. For that reason, we must raise the federal, state, and local standards of living, not the cost of living.
The pursuit of professional excellence is paramount. The intellectual inclination towards studying history to save humanity is a strength, not a weakness, in a free society. The U.S. Constitution is the guide that leads to the road to Camelot, and we shall not abandon it. Camelot is the place of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Despite the challenges and controversies, we may face, in the inspirational words spoken by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in November 1963, “[Let] the word go forth from the United States to all who are concerned about the future of [Democracy]; that we are not weary in well-doing. And we shall, I am confident, if we maintain the pace, in due season reap the kind of world we deserve and deserve the kind of world we will have.” The spirit of the Constitution is not weary in well-doing; therefore, We the People shall not be weary in well-doing.
The Spirit of the Constitution
By Christopher A. Etienne
The United States Constitution is the guide that leads to the road to Camelot, and we shall not abandon it. Camelot is the place of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The late U.S. President John F. Kennedy, then a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, argued in September 1960, “The greatness of our Constitution comes not so much from the words that it contains. It is great because of the people who have lived and worked under it to add to its framework of words and ideas the work and sacrifice and passionate devotion of many generations of Americans.”
Two years later, in January 1962, President Kennedy, in his first Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union at the U.S. Capitol, opened his remarks by reminding Congress that, “The Constitution makes us not [idols or] rivals for power but partners for progress. We are all trustees for the American people, [public servants] of the American heritage.”
However, the Founders James Madison and Alexander Hamilton recognized that some elected officials might not act to inspire service in the public interest, and that “Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm,” Madison wrote in Federalist No. 10. A reason behind this matter is that citizens would not always send the most intellectually inclined and virtuous men and women to office.
As a result, to preserve individual liberty, the Founders sought to ensure that a separate and independent branch of the Federal Government would exercise each of the government’s three basic functions: legislative, executive, and judicial.
The American historical figures whom we still honor in this century were able to speak truth to power because they had truth in their hearts. The courageous leaders such as Charles Hamilton Houston, the first African American student to both serve on the editorial board of the Harvard Law Review and earn a Doctor of Judicial Sciences (S.J.D.) from Harvard Law School in 1922 and 1923. Mr. Houston was the leading intellectual architect to dismantle Jim Crow laws in the 1930s and 1940s, and was a law professor and mentor to Thurgood Marshall, who became the first African American U.S. Supreme Court Justice. He argued eight cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and won seven of them. The late U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice William O. Douglas called Charles Hamilton Houston one of the ten best lawyers he ever heard argue before the Supreme Court.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Charles Hamilton Houston did not argue before the U.S. Supreme Court to dismantle Jim Crow laws, so that society could go from de jure segregation to de facto segregation, especially in education. In 1963, James Hood and Vivian Malone did not become the first African American students to successfully desegregate the University of Alabama, so that society could discourage and devalue the pursuit of higher education.
And in 1963, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. did not “Have a Dream” that we shall overcome, so that some elected and selected leaders in the North, South, East, and West can capitulate to the apathetic policies of the cynics, critics, and conspiracy theorists. To paraphrase Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963, allowing the states sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, not to be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
Charles Hamilton Houston, James Hood, Vivian Malone, and Dr. King’s sacrifices are clear; they courageously challenged systems of oppression and fought for freedom, equality, and equity that the U.S. Constitution guarantees to all citizens, especially the most vulnerable. As a result, state-sponsored systems of poverty, illiteracy, and political oppression shall not be tolerated in the most advanced democracy in the world.
Despite our country being the most powerful and innovative nation on Earth, public service is a never-ending human endeavor because after you have reached a solution to one situation, you discover there are new ones arising. As a result, citizens are either directly or indirectly affected by everything leaders do or don’t do.
Indeed, it is political corruption to have a thriving mode of Wall Street, a surviving mode of Main Street, and a struggling mode of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. We are all connected, and the economy must reflect that. We shall not have history written of our country as they wrote of Rome. As the Roman historian Tacitus wrote in his historical biography, Agricola, 30.4, around A.D. 98, “They make a desert and call it peace.” Political and electoral expediency can be a double-edged sword.
The current political climate is stubbornly focused on anti-intellectualism, attacking voting rights, neglecting coal miners’ safety and health, deregulation, privatization, and withdrawal from enlightened internationalism and modern diplomacy. To be clear. Intellectual inclination is a strength, not a weakness, in a free society. If some professional politicians want fiscal responsibility, then they should physically visit their rural, urban, and suburban districts to listen and learn about their constituents’ daily responsibilities.
In this moment, there needs to be leadership with a forward-thinking mentality. What we need is not another political fallacy, 10-point plan, or municipal master plan. We need leadership that is strong and courageous, with a clear vision for solutions in the United States and the global world.
Leadership that will listen to the issues of the citizenry and learn to see the best in people, not the worst. Leadership that will provide equal and equitable education. Job security and stability, with livable wages and durable industries. Make Election Day a National Holiday. Protect coal miners’ safety and health. Affordable housing and a generous First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit, which helps individuals and families stabilize their finances and build equity. A secure retirement. Reducing poverty. Expanding access to healthy foods and eliminating rural and urban food deserts. Reduce dangerous carbon pollution. And strengthens our international diplomatic relationships.
As we know, the North, South, East, and West may from time to time have different interests and needs, but when an individual’s or a family’s livelihood and way of life are at stake, political differences must be set aside. For that reason, we must raise the federal, state, and local standards of living, not the cost of living.
The pursuit of professional excellence is paramount. The intellectual inclination towards studying history to save humanity is a strength, not a weakness, in a free society. The U.S. Constitution is the guide that leads to the road to Camelot, and we shall not abandon it. Camelot is the place of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Despite the challenges and controversies, we may face, in the inspirational words spoken by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in November 1963, “[Let] the word go forth from the United States to all who are concerned about the future of [Democracy]; that we are not weary in well-doing. And we shall, I am confident, if we maintain the pace, in due season reap the kind of world we deserve and deserve the kind of world we will have.” The spirit of the Constitution is not weary in well-doing; therefore, We the People shall not be weary in well-doing.
Christopher A. Etienne is a public policy professional and former congressional legislative aide who served in the offices of U.S. Rep. Cedric L. Richmond, U.S. Sen. Mary L. Landrieu and U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes. He earned degrees in political science from Howard University and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, both historically Black universities.